President Trump’s presidencies strongly ressemble trashy American reality-TV shows. But unlike The Apprentice, his actions and decisions as president have real life consequences for hundreds of millions of Americans and people around the globe.
On Independence Day, July 4th, President Trump signed the budget bill into law. According to the Congressional Budget Office, CBO, over the next decade, the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act could add an additional $3.3 trillion to the public debt of the United States.
The bill signed into law by Trump includes additional costs of roughly $4.5 trillion, for tax breaks, mostly for wealthy taxpayers and corporations, increased spending for defense and border security. It also includes painful Medicaid cuts of almost $1 trillion as well as reductions to food assistance for the poor, phases out tax credits for solar and wind as well as electric vehicle tax credits. In addition, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act also raises the debt ceiling by $5 trillion.
The Republican party is dominated by Trump’s MAGA fantasy and has totally abandoned fiscal discipline. On June 5, Elon Musk wrote on X that, in the 2026 midterm elections, he might support candidates ready to challenge members of Congress who supported the One Big Beautiful Bill Act: “In November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people.” He added: “Call your Senator, Call your Congressman, Bankrupting America is NOT ok!”. And he coined the Tarantino-style formula: “KILL the BILL.” Elon Musk went as far as to call for President Trump to be impeached and replaced by Vice President Vance. Ironically, subsequently, it was Vice President JD Vance who cast the tiebreaking vote in the Senate, divided 50:50, which made the upper chamber adopt the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
In June, Elon Musk had called the One Big Beautiful Bill Act a “disgusting abomination”, which would “massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit”. He rightly added: “Congress is making America bankrupt.” Already in June, Elon Musk threatened that he would create a new party if the budget bill passed.
It passed and, on Independence Day, was signed into law by President Trump. Subsequently, still on July 4, Elon Musk asked his followers on X whether they wanted “independence from the two-party (some would say uniparty) system. Should we create the America Party?” The final results among the 1,248,856 voters on X was clear: Yes 65.4%; No 34.6%.
On July 5, Elon Musk posted: “By a factor of 2 to 1, you want a new political party and you shall have it! When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste & graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy. Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom.”
On July 6, Elon Musk reposted a reply by a certain Tyler Palmer:
“Is this the America Party platform?
-reduce debt, responsible spending only
-modernize military with ai/robotics
-pro tech, accelerate to win in ai
-less regulation across board but especially in energy
-free speech
-pro natalist
-centrist policies everywhere else
If so where do we send our donations?”
Also on July 6, Elon Musk responded to a post: “The Republican Party has a clean sweep of the executive, legislative and judicial branches and STILL had the nerve to massively increase the size of government, expanding the national debt by a record FIVE TRILLION DOLLARS.”
Still on Sunday, July 7, President Trump reacted on his social network Truth Social, which is neither social nor spreads the truth, but that’s another story: “I am saddened to watch Elon Musk go completely ‘off the rails,’ essentially becoming a TRAIN WRECK over the past five weeks.”
In addition, President Trump claimed on July 6 that Musk had opposed the budget reconciliation law aka One Big Beautiful Bill Act because it eliminated the electric vehicle mandate, which meant no more subsidies for Tesla: “I have campaigned on this for two years and, quite honestly, when Elon gave me his total and unquestioned Endorsement, I asked him whether or not he knew that I was going to terminate the EV Mandate — It was in every speech I made, and in every conversation I had.”
President Trump added: “He [Musk] said he had no problems with that — I was very surprised!” Indeed, Elon Musk had previously supported ending the electric vehicle tax credits, but changed his position when Tesla’s sales declined sharply in 2025. This was partly due to Musk’s support for Trump and a boycott, notably by European buyers, partly because Chinese and European electric car makers had become serious rivals for Tesla.
In addition, President Trump claimed that Elon Musk was furious because he had pulled the nomination of Jared Isaacman to run NASA. In 2021, Isaacman had commanded Inspiration4 – the first all-civilian spaceflight – using Elon Musk’s SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Resilience. The billionaire, entrepreneur and astronaut Jared Isaacman has been described as a close friend and confident of Elon Musk. Trump’s reversal on Isaacman’s nomination as NASA boss came after the president learned that Isaacman had donated important sums of money to leading politicians of the Democratic Party during the last election cycle. Reportedly, the top White House aide Sergio Gor briefed Trump on Isaacman’s past help for Democrats, which made the president change his mind.
Largely because of its winner-take-all electoral system, the United States have ended up with a two-party system. Therefore, it is extremly difficult for a third party to break through. However, as Elon Musk wrote on July 4, it is possible to “crack the uniparty system” through “extremely concentrated force at a precise location on the battlefield.”
In other words, Elon Musk wants to target key seats in both the Senate and the House. He could target weak MAGA candidates in favor of the megabill. He could also attack protectionists in favor of tariffs.
Elon Musk would be more credible if he had not backed Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election. Since the 1980s, the current president has consistently been in favor of tariffs. During his first presidential mandate, he had massively increased the public debt; incidentally, President Biden was not more successful regarding the deficit and the public debt.
In addition, a Musk-backed third (major) party would like Trump’s Republican party be one with a leader who has repeatedly embraced and endorsed dubious far-right, conspiracy statements, policies and politicians in the United States as well as such parties and political leaders around the globe, including Germany’s Alice Weidel and AfD.
Furthermore, Elon Musk’s stint as a special government employee, a role limited to a 130-day duration, leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), was not making a substantial contribution to reducing the deficit. When he started, there were 2.3 million civilian employees of the federal government. Even if DOGE were to lay off a quarter of them, i.e. some 600,000 workers, without replacing them, the United States would only manage to save 1% of federal spending. In other words, with DOGE, Elon Musk fired people and cut funds who were necessary for the functioning of the federal government, without making any substantial contribution to the deficit reduction.
DOGE looks less like an effort for more efficiency, against corruption, over-regulation and waste, and more like a fight against the federal government, against bureaucracy and against the state than anything else.
The fight Trump vs. Musk is far from over. Early today, July 7, on X, Elon Musk has relayed a post about the Trump Administration’s treatment of the Epstein files, hinting again at Trump’s connection to the late, notorious sex offender and child abuser Jeffrey Epstein. The world’s most powerful political leader and the world’s richest man fight each other. Xi Jingping and Putin are laughing up their sleeves.
Trump’s tariffs and trade war is undermining the soft power of the United States. The American commitment to NATO is being questioned. Trump’s attacks on Fed Chairman Powell and his budget and trade policy are undermining the dollar. His erratic policies are leading to uncertainty and instability in the United States and around the globe. The USA is no longer a credible trading, financial, economic, military, political and diplomatic partner.
Time and again, President Trump has shown his autocratic tendencies. Most famous was his call for the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack. In his current feud with Elon Musk, Trump floated the idea that Musk could be an illegal immigrant and, therefore, be deported. Trump made a similiar claim regarding Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City.
Let’s not forget that Trump claimed that the Ukrainian President Zelensky was a dictator and responsible for the war with Russia, a classic perpetrator-victim reversal aka victim blaming. While Trump imposes tariffs on the European Union members, Canada, Japan and others, Putin’s Russia gets away with zero tariffs. With a friend such as Trump, you don’t need enemies.
Would Musk and his America Party be better? Musk is right on tariffs and the deficit, but DOGE was never a serious deficit reduction project. Like Trump, the world’s richest man has a preference for politicians on the extreme right and has shown a soft spot for dictators such as Putin and Xi Jinping.
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Added on July 7, 2025 at 15:27 German time: Trump’s remarks regarding Elon Musk made on his social network Truth Social on Sunday, July 6, 2025
Donald Trump vs. Lady Liberty. Photograph from the 2017 German carnival of a carnival float made by Jacques Tilly. Photograph © Jacques Tilly.
Article added on July 7, 2025 at 12:20 German time. Last update at 15:33.
