President Donald J. Trump delivered a sharp rebuke to Elon Musk on Sunday, calling the billionaire’s recent political moves a “train wreck” and warning that his proposal to start a third party — dubbed the America Party — is misguided, dangerous, and destined to fail.

“I am saddened to watch Elon Musk go completely ‘off the rails,’ essentially becoming a TRAIN WRECK over the past five weeks,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, according to The New York Times. “He even wants to start a Third Political Party, despite the fact that they have never succeeded in the United States.”

Speaking to reporters on his return to Washington D.C., President Trump didn’t mince words:

“He can have fun with it, but I think it’s ridiculous,” he said. “Starting a third party just adds to the confusion. It’s always been a two-party system, and we’ve had tremendous success with the Republican Party.”

Musk and Trump were once political allies. Musk had poured hundreds of millions into President Trump’s campaign efforts and was given an informal but influential role heading up the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — a major arm in the President’s push to slash waste, eliminate bureaucracy, and restore fiscal sanity to Washington.

But the alliance soured following the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill — Trump’s landmark domestic policy package that restructured everything from immigration enforcement to energy policy and rolled back massive taxpayer-funded green energy handouts.

Musk, whose companies have relied heavily on federal subsidies, turned on the bill, calling it a “disgusting abomination” and threatening to fund primary challengers to any Republican who supported it — even though it passed with overwhelming GOP backing.

That betrayal appears to have been the final straw for President Trump.

“When Elon gave me his total and unquestioned Endorsement, I asked him whether or not he knew that I was going to terminate the EV Mandate — it was in every speech I made,” Trump said. “He said he had no problems with that — I was very surprised!”

Musk had long opposed EV subsidies, but reversed course in 2025 as Tesla’s sales plummeted, becoming reliant once again on taxpayer bailouts to prop up his empire.

Another sore spot in the feud? President Trump’s decision to withdraw the nomination of Jared Isaacman, a SpaceX astronaut and close friend of Musk’s, as the next head of NASA. The reversal came after the White House reviewed donations Isaacman had made to top Democrats — a move Trump said made the nomination “inappropriate.”

“NASA is such a big part of Elon’s corporate life. I thought it inappropriate that a very close friend of Elon, who was in the space business, run NASA,” Trump said Sunday.

Even within the Trump administration, there is growing consensus that Musk has lost his focus.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that while Musk’s efforts to cut waste in government had been popular, his political ambitions were not.

“I believe the boards of directors at his various companies want him to come back and run those companies, which he is better at than anyone,” Bessent said on CNN. “They didn’t like the America Party announcement, and I imagine they’ll be encouraging him to focus on business, not politics.”

Musk, for his part, remains vague about his political plans. He hasn’t ruled out backing a presidential candidate, but says his current focus is on House and Senate races.

“Backing a candidate for president is not out of the question,” Musk wrote on X, “but the focus for the next 12 months is on the House and the Senate.”

Elon Musk may have built rockets, electric cars, and social media platforms — but politics is a different beast. And when it comes to building movements that last, President Trump’s America First agenda has already proven its power with voters.

Musk may be rich. He may be loud. But in this fight, he’s picking a battle he can’t win.