Neither Party Has Faced an X Factor Like Elon Musk
BY PHILIP ELLIOTT Senior Correspondent, TIME
As a rule, third party candidates don't win in the United States. Then again, a third-party bid has never had the backing of the world's richest man.
Which is why multi-billionaire Elon Musk's announcement this weekend that he is launching his own political party has pretty much every political pro in Washington gaming out how a ticket-splitting effort rooted in retribution might play out. The United States remains a winner-take-all duopoly, but it is still subject to the effects of an aggrieved spoiler.
Musk unsuccessfully tried to prevent Congress from passing President Donald Trump's legacy-defining domestic tax-and-spend legislation. Trump signed the bill into law on July 4, and military jets buzzed the White House to punctuate his win despite the bill's broad unpopularity. The President was, not long ago, Musk's biggest supporter and not coincidentally the recipient of some $288 million in campaign backing from him. Now Trump says the Tesla chief is "off the rails,"and has threatened to deport himback to his native South Africa despite his U.S. citizenship.
Whether a result of his combative personality, almost bottomless wealth, or fury at being tossed aside, Musk has chosen not to roll over, as so many spurned Trump allies have, and has instead hit back. Now, as the world's richest man goes up against its most powerful, the question is how much damage Musk's "America Party" will inflict on Trump's GOP. Anxious pols are watching for the fallout.
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