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As Elon Musk moves forward with forming a third party in hopes of rocking the nation’s longstanding two-party system, the world’s richest person is reaching out to a one-time presidential candidate who has started his own independent party.
Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX who spent the first four months of President Donald Trump’s second administration as a special White House advisor steering the recently created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), spoke with Andrew Yang, Fox News has confirmed.
A source familiar with the conversation said that the two discussed Musk’s push to create the “America Party,” which Musk aims to field some candidates in next year’s midterm elections.
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“I’m excited for anyone who wants to move on from the duopoly,” Yang said in a statement to Fox News. “And I’m happy to help give someone a sense of what the path looks like.” News of the conversation was first reported by Politico.
Yang grabbed national attention in the 2020 election cycle, as the entrepreneur went from an extreme longshot to briefly being a contender for the Democratic presidential nomination.
But Yang soured on the two-party system after an unsuccessful 2021 run for New York City mayor. He then formed the independent Forward Party, which has been recognized in a handful of states and aims to eventually gain ballot access from coast to coast.
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Yang and Musk are far from strangers. Musk in 2019 supported Yang’s unsuccessful presidential bid.
Musk became the top donor of the 2024 election cycle, dishing out nearly $300 million in support of Trump’s bid through America PAC, a mostly Musk-funded super PAC aligned with Trump.
Trump named Musk to steer DOGE soon after the November election, and the president repeatedly praised Musk during his headline-making and controversial tenure at the cost-cutting effort.
But a feud between Musk and Trump broke out days after Musk left the White House in late May, as Musk dubbed the administration’s massive landmark spending bill – which Trump called his “big, beautiful bill” – a “disgusting abomination,” which he said would sink the nation into unsustainable debt.
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Musk also argued that Trump would not have won last year’s presidential election without all of his support.
Musk announced the launch of the “America Party” on his social media platform X on Saturday, a day after Trump signed the sweeping domestic policy package into law. The measure narrowly passed the Senate and House last week along near party-line votes in the Republican-controlled chambers.
Trump on Sunday ridiculed Musk’s move.
“I think it’s ridiculous to start a third party,” Trump told reporters. “It’s always been a two-party system, and I think starting a third party just adds to confusion.
The president added that “third parties have never worked. So, he can have fun with it, but I think it’s ridiculous.”
Starting an independent or third party, and gaining ballot access in states across the country, is extremely difficult.
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