Tuesday, July 1: Elon Musk is Ross Perot returning as farce

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The news, in brief …

• Musk threatens breakaway party over BBB

  The former adviser to Donald Trump promised to fund a new party and primary all Republicans who voted in favor of the deficit-exploding act. Read more.

• Fetterman mopes over having to do his job

  As negotiations around the bill dragged on, the Senate’s 6’8 Eeyore could only think of his missed family vacation. Read more.

• Trump admin sues Los Angeles, calls sanctuary laws discriminatory

  The Department of Justice sued the city over its resistance to ICE raids. Read more.

• Nobody’s leaving New York over Zohran Mamdani

  Despite public threats, the wealthy are sticking around in NYC. Read more.

• DOJ threatens investigations of naturalized citizens

  A Justice Department memo lays out ground rules for "aggressively" investigating and prosecuting new citizens. Read more.

Make me smarter …

Not Trump’s baby: The “big, beautiful” bill’s father is really Grover Norquist

The anti-tax activist has been working for decades to craft a bill that looks a lot like Trump’s signature piece of legislation. Read more.

Reform, reborn

Say what you will about the early pioneers of Silicon Valley, at least they were good with computers.

Nearly a half-century past the advent of Wozniak and Jobs, America’s tech titans aren’t so much code-cracking hippies as traveling salesmen. Elon Musk became the richest man on Earth by riding an inflated IPO at a company that found him too annoying to be in a position of power.

He bought his way into an electric car company and successfully sold it to America’s guilt-ridden, rich liberals. He’s grown fat off of government contracts, while selling conservatives on the idea that he’s going to end government waste. Apple became the wealthiest company in the world by putting the internet in everyone’s pocket. Tesla surpassed them by making trucks that fall apart.

Everything that Musk has ever done has been a comically inept copy of work that preceded him. And the pseudo-scifi fan has set his “then as farce” replicator to the person of H. Ross Perot.

Musk threatened to rebuild the Reform Party in his own image on Monday, as he raged against President Donald Trump’s preferred tax cuts and spending bill.

“If this insane spending bill passes, the America Party will be formed the next day,” he wrote on X. “Our country needs an alternative to the Democrat-Republican uniparty so that the people actually have a VOICE.”

Perot ran the most successful independent bid for the presidency this side of the Bull Moose party. The Texas billionaire made his money by being an egghead for hire, handling information technology for companies that found themselves increasingly dependent on large amounts of data. Like Musk, he made his fortune came in no small part from the United States government. Like Musk, he pushed for a balanced budget. Unlike Musk, he wasn’t constantly coated in flop sweat and be counted on for an amusing quote from time to time.

Like all tech giants of this increasingly petty era, Musk’s vision is narrow when held up to his forebears. It’s unlikely that he has any real plan for his third party beyond the settling of scores. It’s incredibly improbable that the man who bought a social media platform in lieu of having friends will resonate with the American people. Still, if Musk is down to waste a few billion dollars on a busy box that nets fewer voters than Jill Stein, we should let him. It will keep him away from pulling any of the levers that matter.

What do you think? Will Musk make good on his promise? Will we be forced to care about the whims of billionaires until the oceans hit hot tub temps? Sound off in the comments.

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Before you go …

Why AOC should run for president in 2028

After Zohran Mamdani's win, Trump reveals how scared he is to face Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Read more.