During an interview with Politico this week, Yang revealed that he has been “in touch” with Musk about coordinating to break the political “duopoly,” marking his latest efforts to fuel an alternative to the United States’s two-party system. 

“I’m excited for anyone who wants to move on from the duopoly,” Yang said. “And I’m happy to help give someone a sense of what the path looks like.”

Musk had floated the idea of creating an alternative party for voters “in the middle” since June, when he asked his followers on X whether they believed in creating a new political party. According to the poll, 80.4% of respondents voted in favor of a new centrist party, while 19.6% voted against it, with over 5.6 million responses tallied on X.

On Saturday, Musk revealed that he had formed the America Party to give voters “back your freedom” after conducting another X poll that showed most respondents favored it. According to that poll, 65.4% of respondents voted in favor of the America Party proposal, while 34.6% voted against it, with just over 1.2 million responses tallied on X.

“By a factor of 2 to 1, you want a new political party, and you shall have it! When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste & graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy. Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom,” Musk posted on X.

“One way to execute on this would be to laser-focus on just 2 or 3 Senate seats and 8 to 10 House districts. Given the razor-thin legislative margins, that would be enough to serve as the deciding vote on contentious laws, ensuring that they serve the true will of the people,” he added in another post. 

Yang’s possible confederation with Musk’s new political party comes after the former presidential candidate announced in July 2022 that his Forward Party would merge with a gang of allies, making it the largest third party in the United States by resources. The New York businessman argued that by aligning itself with like-minded groups, Forward presented a viable alternative to a two-party system that increasingly fails to represent most of the public.

“What is the main objection you hear to third parties? ‘They can’t compete.’ Well, we are demonstrating that we can generate the resources necessary to elevate and elect candidates around the country with the support of tens of thousands of Americans and millions of dollars of grassroots funding,” he said.

Yang’s anti-establishment positioning has previously brought him praise from Musk, who endorsed his presidential campaign against Biden in 2020. And Yang, in turn, praised the X owner after announcing the America Party’s formation over the weekend.

“In a feud between the guy who enabled space rockets and electric cars and the guy [Trump] who branded steaks and a fake university, I’d bet on the former,” Yang said on Sunday. 

Trump has trashed Musk’s third-party proposal as “ridiculous,” casting doubt on any real threat it poses to the U.S.’s “two-party system” and going on to tout “tremendous success” with the Republican Party.

“Third parties have never worked, so he can have fun with it, but I think it’s ridiculous,” the president said on Sunday.

“The Democrats have lost their way, but it’s always been a two-party system, and I think starting a third party just adds to confusion. It really seems to have been developed for two parties. Third parties have never worked, so he can have fun with it, but I think it’s ridiculous,” Trump added.

Musk first floated the idea of a third party after a public falling out with Trump over the president’s “big, beautiful” tax cuts bill, which the president signed on Friday.

ELON MUSK’S ‘AMERICA PARTY’ PROPOSAL — COULD IT WORK?

In further comments responding to his former ally’s hopes of spearheading additional competition in the political marketplace, Trump said he was “saddened to watch Elon Musk go completely ‘off the rails,’ essentially becoming a TRAIN WRECK over the past five weeks.” 

“He even wants to start a Third Political Party, despite the fact that they have never succeeded in the United States — The System seems not designed for them. The one thing Third Parties are good for is the creation of Complete and Total DISRUPTION & CHAOS, and we have enough of that with the Radical Left Democrats, who have lost their confidence and their minds!” Trump posted to Truth Social.