Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is now in a bitter back-and-forth with former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, after the world's richest man announced his intent to follow through on his plan to launch a new third party to compete with Republicans.
According to a Friday report in the Daily Beast, Bannon tore into Musk over his proposed "America Party," which is Musk's chosen name for his new far-right political party. The MAGA podcaster also openly questioned his immigration status (Musk is a naturalized U.S. citizen).
"No, brother, you’re not an American. You’re a South African," Bannon said. "You should be deported because it’s a crime of what you did — among many."
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In response to Bannon's remarks, Musk tweeted to his 221 million followers: "The fat, drunken slob called Bannon will go back to prison and this time for a long time. He has a lifetime of crime to pay for."
The centibillionaire has promised for weeks that if President Donald Trump signed his massive new budget legislation into law, he would launch his own political party and fund its efforts to oust lawmakers who voted for it. He later said on his X account that the America Party would have a "laser focus" on a 2-3 U.S. Senate and 8-10 U.S. House races in next year's midterm elections.
"Given the razor-thin legislative margins, that would be enough to serve as the deciding vote on contentious laws, ensuring that they serve the true will of the people," Musk wrote.
Musk hasn't yet named the House or Senate seats he's targeting or how much money he is committing, but he did spend more than $290 million helping Republicans in federal elections last year. That's about the same amount of total money spent in Pennsylvania's 2024 U.S. Senate race, in which Democratic incumbent Bob Casey and eventual Republican winner Dave McCormick faced off amidst $289 million in spending.
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