Elon Musk pulls back on plans for new political party, keeps ties with Vance: Report

Tech billionaire Elon Musk is quietly retreating from his public pledge to launch a third political party, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The Tesla and SpaceX chief executive, who has had a large political presence since last year, largely donating money to and working with US President Donald Trump, announced in July that he would form the America Party to challenge US Democrats and Republicans, the country’s major political parties, but sources now say Musk wants to avoid "alienating powerful Republicans" and is prioritizing his companies over political organizing.

Musk's companies suffered while he concentrated on politics, and he was urged to leave Washington and tend to his businesses.

At the same time, Musk has sought to maintain ties with Vice President JD Vance, a rising figure in Trump’s MAGA, or Make American Great Again, movement.

Musk has privately acknowledged that pushing ahead with a new party could harm that relationship.

According to the Journal, the billionaire has even considered directing financial support to Vance if he runs for president in 2028, after spending nearly $300 million backing Trump and Republicans in 2024.

Under the US Constitution, Trump is barred from serving a third term, but he has openly mused about finding some way to make a third term possible.

-'Eerie silence'

Vance, for his part, recently told the conservative site Gateway Pundit that breaking from Trump would be a mistake, adding about Musk: "So my hope is that by the time of the (2026) midterms, he’s kind of come back into the fold.”

Dozens of seats in the US Senate and House of Representatives will be up for grabs in the fall 2026 midterms, seen as a test of the president’s popularity.

Musk’s flirtation with the America Party has so far stalled.

His team canceled outreach to third-party organizers in July, and allies say he has not engaged with prominent figures who backed the idea.

Libertarian Party leaders, who had urged Musk to join forces with them, have likewise heard nothing.

"It’s almost an eerie silence," Libertarian National Committee chair Steven Nekhaila told the Journal.

While Musk has not ruled out reviving the effort ahead of the 2026 midterms, for now his recalibration marks a win for Republicans, who feared a third party could siphon away voters in key battleground states.

For decades, US political history has been littered with the hopes of nascent third parties and independent candidates who wanted to shake up the two-party system but failed.