The end of Musk and Trump’s honeymoon; is a third party on the way for the 2028 elections?
Hassan Shokohi-Nasab: With a history of independent and opportunistic behavior, Elon Musk has spent years fishing the murky waters between the two sides of American politics, from tactical financial support for Democrats like Obama and Clinton on environmental policies to a clear shift to the right in the run-up to the 2024 election.
In the recent election, Musk not only poured billions of dollars into the Trump campaign but also became an effective media arm for Republicans with the X platform (formerly Twitter). The result of this alliance was Musk’s historic appointment to head the Trump administration’s Department of Economic Efficiency (DOGE), a newly created agency that, modeled after Tesla’s management, eliminated tens of thousands of federal workers and downsized the US executive branch.
But the honeymoon was short-lived, and after leaving office at the end of May, he quickly took a stand against Trump’s anti-electric vehicle bill, only to be met with insults and threats from the president in response. Now, the alliance that was once a pillar of power on the right has reached a point of collapse that could fundamentally alter the political landscape of 2028.