The détente between Elon Musk and President Donald Trump appears to be over. Amid the narrow passage of the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” in the U.S. Senate, the Tesla founder resumed his attacks on the megabill.
Musk, who oversaw the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) as a special government employee, railed against how the bill would add to the national debt and threatened to start a third party that could primary those who vote in favor of it. Trump, meanwhile, suggested DOGE could be unleashed on Musk.
On Tuesday’s show, Megyn was joined by National Review’s Charles C.W. Cooke and Rich Lowry to discuss the feud and whether Musk could move the political needle.
Big, Beautiful Breakup 2.0?
A month after Musk and Trump seemed to settle their so-called “big, beautiful breakup” over the contents of the “Big Beautiful Bill,” the pair are engaged in another war of words over the massive policy package.
“It is obvious with the insane spending of this bill, which increases the debt ceiling by a record FIVE TRILLION DOLLARS that we live in a one-party country – the PORKY PIG PARTY!!,” Musk posted on X Monday afternoon in reference to where the money would be going.
He went on to float the idea of creating a new political party in the U.S. “If this insane spending bill passes, the America Party will be formed the next day,” he wrote. “Our country needs an alternative to the Democrat-Republican uniparty so that the people actually have a VOICE.”
In a follow-up post, Musk suggested he would target lawmakers who vote in favor of the bill. “Every member of Congress who campaigned on reducing government spending and then immediately voted for the biggest debt increase in history should hang their head in shame,” he wrote. “And they will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth.”
While departing the White House Tuesday, Trump pushed back on Musk’s spending claims and said he is actually “very upset” because “he’s losing his EV mandate.” The president then suggested DOGE could be turned on its former leader. “But you know, he could lose a lot more than that, I can tell you, right?” Trump said. “We might have to put DOGE on Elon… DOGE is the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon. Wouldn’t that be terrible?”
When asked later by reporters about the possibility of deporting the South Africa-born Musk, Trump said, “We’ll have to take a look.” Musk seemed to take a beat when responding to the president’s remarks on X. “So tempting to escalate this. So, so tempting,” he wrote. “But I will refrain for now.”
Musk’s Frustrations
Lowry called Musk’s general grumblings about the debt ceiling and government spending “right” because the bill does not “seriously grapple with the deficit problem or the debt problem” in the way it might if Republicans enjoyed larger majorities in the House and Senate.
And Megyn said she can understand his frustration. “I think, eventually, Elon will come to terms with the fact that this is going to pass. It has to pass. Trump’s entire presidency depends on this passing,” she said. “But I understand his frustration because he got sent in there to go DOGE… and he tried, but there were so many roadblocks given the way our administrative law works… I think his determination to actually make real cuts to government spending is real and it is next to impossible.”
Cooke and Lowry agreed that Musk is “a genius,” but his brand of genius does not necessarily extend to politics or the way it works. “There are a lot of reasons for him having a ‘man crush’ on Donald Trump… but one of them was not the conviction that Donald Trump would deal with the debt or seriously reform entitlements, which is a necessary step to dealing with the debt,” Lowry noted. “He has been very explicit that he is not going to touch entitlements, which makes it impossible… to deal with the debt. So, Elon shouldn’t be surprised by what happened here.”
Third Party Threat
So, does Musk’s interest in starting a third party and primarying Republicans carry any weight? While the billionaire might have the money to spend on funding candidates who are serious about cutting spending, Lowry doesn’t see it moving the needle. “Maybe he is going to form a party, but the idea that they are just a bunch of people on the sidelines who are really into entitlement reform and deficit reduction and are going to go out and primary all these guys and put the fear of God in them is never going to happen,” he said. “He does not have anything like the political clout that Donald Trump does.”
Cooke agreed. “I wish desperately that it were, but it is simply not the case that there is this great mass of people in the American middle who are desperate to reform entitlements or fix the budget,” he explained. “So, Musk can’t solve this in the way that he can solve, say, a rocket trajectory where he sits with the most brilliant people he knows and they do all the math and physics on a piece of paper. It is just not how politics work.”
Musk could, however, try a more slow and steady approach. “What he should do if he wants to change politics is – and this will take 20 years – invest a lot of money [and] a lot of time… in persuading people within the Republican Party that they should side with him,” Cooke noted. “And success would look like another 10 to 15 percent of Republicans being open to Elon Musk’s ideas over 20 years. That is how slow this sort of thing occurs. But a third party is not going to do it because you can’t circumvent our political realities.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Cooke and Lowry by tuning in to episode 1,099 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.