US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Sunday threw shade at tech mogul Elon Musk’s bid to launch a new political party — sniping that the billionaire simply isn’t popular enough to pull it off, EDnews reports, citing NYT.
Musk announced formal plans Saturday to start the America Party after clashing with President Trump and Republicans over the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The deep-pocketed Tesla and SpaceX mogul teased that his new party will home in on a select few ultra-competitive races.
“Look, the principles of DOGE were very popular. I think if you looked at the polling, Elon was not,” Bessent told CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Musk had been the driving force behind the Trump administration’s cost-cutting new Department of Government Efficiency before wrapping up his time as a special government employee in May — and famously falling out with the president.
In April, Musk and Bessent also got into a heated shouting match after meeting with Trump. MAGA podcaster Steve Bannon alleges Musk then body-checked Bessent — something which the Treasury secretary hasn’t publicly confirmed.
Despite their acrimonious relationship, Bessent had previously downplayed friction with Musk, telling The Post’s “Pod Force One” podcast that he’s more “ninja”-like while Musk “fancies himself more of a Viking.”
“I believe that the boards of directors at his various companies wanted him to come back and run those companies, which he is better at than anyone,” Bessent said on CNN.
“So I imagine that those board of directors did not like this [new political party] announcement yesterday and will be encouraging him to focus on his business activities, not his political activities,” the Trump official said.
