US vice president JD Vance (AP)
US vice president JD Vance on Wednesday cautioned Elon Musk against pursuing a third political party after reports that the Tesla CEO is shelving plans to launch the “America Party” to focus on his companies. Vance argued Musk would have greater influence by working within the Republican Party alongside president Donald Trump’s MAGA movement.”My advice to Elon would be to try to fix the Republican Party. Try to push it in your own way. Disagree with me all you want, disagree with the president of the United States, but don’t pretend that you can make a big difference with a third party,” Vance said in an exclusive interview on The Ingraham Angle of Fox News.”I think Elon would make a much bigger difference if he stayed loyal to President Trump’s Republican Party, and if he had disagreements, express those disagreements from the inside as opposed from the outside,” he added.Musk had announced in July on his social media platform X that the new party would be formed to give people their “freedom” back in response to the two-party system.The billionaire entrepreneur split with Trump earlier in 2025 over the president’s “Big, Beautiful Bill,” which Musk argued would add trillions to the US national debt and undermine the department of government efficiency, where he had served in an advisory role. According to The Wall Street Journal, Musk has not ruled out reviving the idea of a new party.“I do think that it would be a huge mistake for Elon to go forward with a third party, and my argument to him is whether you like it or not, you are now perceived by the far left as on the side of the American right,” Vance told Fox News.“You believe in law and order, you believe in closed borders, you believe in economic growth and prosperity, you believe in making things in the United States of America. The idea that Elon is ever going to go back to being sort of in the middle, where Democrats and Republicans both like him, that’s just not going to happen. He is perceived as being on the American right.”Amid speculation that Musk could financially back him, Vance also denied speaking to the billionaire or other donors about a possible 2028 presidential run.
