America Party
Plus: What the socialists don't understand about childcare, the current state of Iran's nuclear capabilities, and more...
Elon Musk promises new political party: Like Larry David opening up a spite store, so too will Elon Musk start a spite party if President Donald Trump's domestic policy bill passes.
"If this insane spending bill passes, the America Party will be formed the next day," wrote Musk on X. "Our country needs an alternative to the Democrat-Republican uniparty so that the people actually have a VOICE." (Technically speaking, that alternative already exists, and it's politically rather aligned with where Musk appears to be on most issues.)
"Every member of Congress who campaigned on reducing government spending and then immediately voted for the biggest debt increase in history should hang their head in shame!" he had written just hours prior. "And they will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth."
"Please support @RepThomasMassie," replied former Rep. Justin Amash (L–Mich.). "The establishment is working to primary him because he's a genuine fiscal conservative and opposes the Big, Bloated Scam." To which Musk vowed: "I will."
Get your morning news roundup from Liz Wolfe and Reason.
Of course, our ketamine space prince makes big gambles. He had formerly been thick as thieves with the president, but now that his tenure as head honcho of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has ended—and he started criticizing the president's domestic policy spending plans—the relationship has soured, with Musk implying Trump spent lots of time on Jeffrey Epstein's island and Trump saying Musk has a drug problem. (One of us, one of us!) It's disappointing that Musk and other deficit hawks haven't made a big dent in the White House, or shaped Trump's thinking very much, but I like Musk's pivot from voice to exit: A new political party (or perhaps PAC?), generously funded by Musk, to support a movement of legitimate fiscal conservatives feels like just what we need during a time of ascendant socialism and populist right-wingers intent on spending us silly.
Of course, it was just, what, six weeks ago, that Musk claimed in an interview at the Qatar Economic Forum that "in terms of political spending, I'm going to do a lot less in the future." He changes his mind a lot when it comes to strategy but has at least been a committed free market guy for pretty much his entire life.
His companies have also benefited from government subsidies, which Trump is threatening to pull. "Elon Musk knew, long before he so strongly Endorsed me for President, that I was strongly against the EV Mandate," wrote the president on Truth Social early this morning. "It is ridiculous, and was always a major part of my campaign. Electric cars are fine, but not everyone should be forced to own one. Elon may get more subsidy than any human being in history, by far, and without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa. No more Rocket launches, Satellites, or Electric Car Production, and our Country would save a FORTUNE. Perhaps we should have DOGE take a good, hard, look at this? BIG MONEY TO BE SAVED!!!" ("I think we should get rid of all credits," Musk has said in the past. "Take away the subsidies. It will only help Tesla," he's written. "Remove subsidies from all industries!")
Reporter: Are you going to deport Elon Musk?
Trump: We'll have to take a look. We might have to put DOGE on Elon. You know what DOGE is? The monster that might have to go back and eat Elon. Wouldn't that be terrible? He gets a lot of subsidies. pic.twitter.com/6I0OAIv7Js
— Acyn (@Acyn) July 1, 2025
Scenes from New York: "Mamdani, and all others who advocate universal publicly-funded child care, mistake the needs that mothers actually have—the things they say they want, the types of child care arrangements they favor—assuming all parents want the state to sublimate their roles. Socialists pretend they want to support mothers and motherhood. But they don't understand what type of help mothers need at all.
In 2022, the think tank Institute for Family Studies asked mothers of children under 18 what their "ideal situation" would be, in terms of time spent with kids vs. working. They found that 42 percent of mothers wanted to work full-time; 32 percent had an ideal of part-time work; and 22 percent would ideally choose no paid work at all."
This is from a feature I published this morning on why democratic socialist—and probably my next mayor—Zohran Mamdani doesn't actually understand what mothers in New York City want and need.
"Note Mamdani's sneakiness: He talks about child care as a 'burden' which 'falls heaviest on mothers' and seems to imply that giving up 'paying jobs' to perform 'unpaid childcare' is some great travesty. 'This campaign/worldview does not grant mothers an active role in these decisions about how to make their family economies work, just assumes they are crushed by circumstance,' remarks Meredith Thornburgh, getting her doctorate in household economics at Princeton, with toddler in tow."
Look, no disrespect to the many #girlbosses who live among us: Many women want to work full-time and have lots of child care coverage; for the state to make that cheaper is a good thing for them, if they're fine with the care options provided. But socialists seem to think that all mothers want to hand over their 6-week-old infants to government-run day cares to go log long hours in the button factories, or whatever, and I just don't know a single woman who craves that.
New York City makes it hard to raise children in ways big and small: Our decades-long rent-stabilization regime, and lack of sufficient supply, makes it hard to find affordable real estate. Our subway elevators are populated by drug-addled loonies, so moms with strollers can't get up and down to the platform. Foisting a one-size-fits-all child care program on the taxpayers probably won't solve the needs of approximately half of families and certainly won't fix the other things that drive family flight out of New York.
QUICK HITS
- "After formally cutting off International Atomic Energy Agency inspections last week, Iranian nuclear-safety regulators have stopped taking calls from the United Nations watchdog, according to two officials who asked not to be identified discussing sensitive information," reports Bloomberg. "The communication blackout underscores the degree to which Iran is using silence as a way to obscure international understanding over the status of its nuclear program. Tehran had previously allowed an average of more than one IAEA inspection a day and took part in five rounds of talks with the US about a deal to curb its atomic activities, but the Israeli assault has changed the equation."
- Elon Musk is once again Miltoning so hard:
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 1, 2025
- Big, Beautiful Bill update: "Senators voted overwhelmingly overnight to strip a provision that would effectively block states from passing and enforcing laws on artificial intelligence for the next decade. The vote was 99-1, with Mr. Tillis casting the sole vote against it," reports The New York Times.
