United States President Donald Trump has called Elon Musk's plans to form a new political party "ridiculous", saying the US functions best under a two-party system.
A day after Musk escalated his feud with Trump and announced the formation of a new US political party, the Republican president was asked about it before boarding Air Force One in Morristown, New Jersey, as he returned to Washington upon visiting his nearby golf club.
"I think it's ridiculous to start a third party. We have a tremendous success with the Republican Party. 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," Trump told reporters.
"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."
Musk announced on the weekend he was establishing the "America Party" in response to Trump's tax cut and spending bill, which Musk said would bankrupt the country.
Musk, who served as a top adviser to Trump on downsizing and reshaping the federal government during the first few months of his presidency, said his new party would, in next year's midterm elections, look to unseat Republican politicians in Congress who backed the sweeping measure known as the "Big, Beautiful Bill".
Speaking on the CNN program State of the Union, US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said the boards of directors at Musk's companies — Tesla and rocket firm SpaceX — would probably prefer him to stay out of politics.
"I imagine that those boards of directors did not like this announcement ... and will be encouraging him to focus on his business activities, not his political activities," Bessent said.
Trump-Musk relationship soured over 'Big, Beautiful Bill'
Musk spent millions of dollars underwriting Trump's 2024 re-election effort and, for a time, regularly showed up at the president's side in the White House Oval Office and elsewhere.
Their disagreement over the spending bill led to a falling out which Musk briefly tried unsuccessfully to repair.
The bill, which cuts taxes and ramps up spending on defence and border security, passed last week on party-line votes in both chambers of Congress.
Critics have said it will damage the US economy by significantly adding to the federal budget deficit.
Trump has said Musk is unhappy because the measure, which Trump signed into law last week, takes away green-energy credits for Tesla's electric vehicles.
He has threatened to pull billions of dollars Tesla and SpaceX receive in government contracts and subsidies in response to Musk's criticism.
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