On July 4, Tesla CEO Elon Musk asked his followers on X — the social media platform he owns — whether he should “create” something called the America Party to give them “independence” from the country’s “two-party (some would say uniparty) system.”
More than 1.2 million users responded to Musk’s snap poll: 65% said yes; 35% said no.
“By a factor of 2 to 1, you want a new political party and you shall have it!” Musk vowed the following day.
Since then, however, Musk hasn’t taken any visible steps to deliver on his promise. A new Yahoo/YouGov survey — which captures a representative sample of the U.S. population, in contrast to informal social media polls — suggests possible challenges ahead: Just 14% of Americans say they would be open to “supporting a third party created by Musk.”
In contrast, 55% say they would not consider supporting Musk’s party.
Why Musk wants a new party
The survey of 1,729 U.S. adults, which was conducted from July 24 to July 28, comes a little more than a month after Musk and President Trump had a public falling-out over Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”
Trump claimed that Musk was “upset” about “losing his EV mandate” (the $7,500 federal tax credit that has made buying or leasing electric vehicles such as Teslas more attractive and affordable for consumers). Musk insisted he was concerned only with the legislation’s effect on federal spending — namely, initial estimates that showed it would “massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit … and burden America citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt,” as he wrote on X.
“I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore,” Musk continued. “This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”
When a revised version of Trump’s bill passed the Senate in early July with a $3.3 trillion deficit projection, Musk unveiled his America Party idea. “When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste & graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy,” Musk wrote on X. “Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom.”
People don’t love the 2-party system
Americans aren’t opposed to having alternatives at the ballot box — in theory. The new Yahoo/YouGov poll finds that more of them approve (39%) than disapprove (28%) of the concept of creating a “third major U.S. political party to compete with the Democratic Party and the Republican Party”; 33% say they are not sure.
Naturally, the idea of creating a third party is more popular with Americans who already identify as independents (56%) than with those who identify as Democrats (34%) or Republicans (32%). But the two parties themselves aren’t especially well liked either. Majorities see both unfavorably (55% for the GOP, 56% for the Dems) rather than favorably (38% for the GOP, 36% for the Dems). And when respondents are asked how well each major party represents their views, more than half say “not very well” or “not at all” for both the Democrats (51%) and the Republicans (52%).
Yet the overlap between these two categories — individuals who say they don’t like either party — is relatively small, which may pose difficulties for Musk. About a quarter (22%) have an unfavorable view of both the Republicans and the Democrats, and fewer (18%) say neither side represents their views “very well” or “at all.”
Musk keeps getting less popular
In the Yahoo/YouGov poll conducted immediately after Trump won reelection last November, Musk earned a net positive rating (49% favorable, 39% unfavorable). That made him the most popular of the eight incoming Trump Cabinet members and senior advisers respondents were asked to appraise.
Yet by April 2025 — following several months as the leader of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — Musk’s ratings had flipped to 39% favorable, 55% unfavorable.
Today, he is further underwater (32% favorable, 59% unfavorable).
Musk is currently seen in a negative light by a clear majority of Democrats (9% favorable, 88% unfavorable) and nearly two-thirds of independents (30% favorable, 64% unfavorable). He still gets a net positive rating from a majority of Republicans (59% favorable, 30% unfavorable), but their enthusiasm has cooled; while 52% of Republicans saw Musk “very favorably” last November, only 17% now feel that way about him.
Since March, the number of Americans who think Musk is “mostly trying to help the country” has fallen from 36% to 23%, whereas the number who think he is “mostly trying to help himself” has risen from 52% to 56%. The share of Republicans who think Musk is mostly trying to help the country, meanwhile, has declined by 30 points — from 73% to 43%.
The proposed policy focus of Musk’s America Party — stopping the federal government from “bankrupting our country with waste & graft,” as he put it — isn’t people’s top priority either. Asked what they would want a “third major political party” to “focus mostly on,” 26% of Americans said “cutting government spending.” Significantly more (46%) said “other issues.”
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The Yahoo survey was conducted by YouGov using a nationally representative sample of 1,729 U.S. adults interviewed online from July 24 to July 28, 2025. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2024 election turnout and presidential vote, party identification and current voter registration status. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Party identification is weighted to the estimated distribution at the time of the election (31% Democratic, 32% Republican). Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of all U.S. adults. The margin of error is approximately 3.1%.
