The vice president says Musk should work to fix the GOP from the inside

Vice President JD Vance: It would be a ‘huge mistake’ for Elon Musk to go forward with a third party

Vice President JD Vance discusses stopping crime, bringing peace to Ukraine, building the economy and third-party politics on ‘The Ingraham Angle.’

Vice President JD Vance cautioned Elon Musk against forming a third political party in an exclusive interview on “The Ingraham Angle,” saying the billionaire could wield more influence by staying “loyal” to the Republican Party and 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 Wednesday.

“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.”

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Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Inc., during a news conference with President Donald Trump, not pictured, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., May 30, 2025. (Francis Chung/Politico/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The former Ohio senator’s comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported Musk is pausing plans to start the America Party to focus on his companies.

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Musk announced in a post on his social media platform X, formerly Twitter, in July that the America Party would be formed to give people their “freedom” back in response to criticism about the two-party system.

“When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste & graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy,” he wrote.

The former special government employee who served in an advisory role at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) publicly split with Trump earlier in 2025 over his position on Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”

Musk argued the bill would add trillions to an already ballooning U.S. national debt and could undermine DOGE’s work of cutting government spending.

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference at the Gaylord National Resort Hotel and Convention Center Feb. 20, 2025, in Oxon Hill, Md.  (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Musk’s allies, according to the WSJ, said the SpaceX CEO hasn’t officially ruled out creating the new party and could change his mind.

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“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 host Laura Ingraham.

“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.”

Vice President JD Vance warned Elon Musk against forming a third party during an exclusive interview on ‘The Ingraham Angle.’ (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

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The vice president also denied talking to Musk or other donors about a potential 2028 presidential run amid reports that the world’s richest man could financially back Vance.

Reuters reported that Musk’s America PAC spent nearly $300 million during the 2024 election in favor of Trump and other Republican candidates.