Elon Musk publicly mused about creating a new political party last week. In between jabs at Mr. Trump, the billionaire posted a poll to X asking his 220 million followers if they think it's "time to create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle." A day later, Musk noted that 80% of respondents to the poll backed the idea. "This is fate," he wrote Friday evening.

上周，埃隆·马斯克公开表达了创建一个新政党的想法。在调侃特朗普的间隙，这位亿万富翁在X平台上发布了一项投票，询问其2.2亿粉丝是否认为“是时候在美国创建一个真正代表中间80%人群的新政党了”。一天后，马斯克指出，80%的投票者支持这一想法。“这就是命运，”他在周五晚上写道。

On Friday, Musk shared a potential name: "The America Party." The moniker echoes that of his super political action committee (PAC), America PAC, which was founded in 2024 to support Trump’s efforts to return to the White House. The super PAC reportedly spent around $200 million to help elect Trump. Musk’s donations made him Trump’s largest, and most prominent, donor in the 2024 election.

周五，马斯克分享了一个可能的政党名称：“美国党”。这一名称与他于2024年创立的超级政治行动委员会（PAC）——美国政治行动委员会（America PAC）——的名称相呼应，该委员会旨在支持特朗普重返白宫。据报道，这个超级政治行动委员会花费了约2亿美元来助力特朗普当选。马斯克的捐款使他成为2024年大选中特朗普最大且最显眼的捐助者。

Meanwhile, when talking to NBC News on Saturday, Trump said that Musk will "have to pay the consequences" if he opts to fund Democratic candidates in light of their feud. "I'm not going to say, but he'll have to pay very serious consequences if he does that," Trump said.

与此同时，特朗普周六在接受美国全国广播公司（NBC News）采访时表示，鉴于他与马斯克之间的不和，如果马斯克选择资助民主党候选人，他将“不得不承担后果”。“我不会说具体是什么，但如果他那么做，他将不得不承担非常严重的后果，”特朗普说。



Starting a new political party is easier said than done. The Democratic and Republican parties, and some of the larger third parties, already have ballot access in virtually every state, so an upstart party that hopes to be competitive would need to navigate a web of state-by-state rules to get its candidates on the ballot. And while Musk — the world's richest person — is legally allowed to pour unlimited money into his America PAC because it is organized as an independent super PAC, donations to formal political parties are capped at well under $1 million, per the Federal Election Commission's contribution limits for 2025-2026 federal elections.

然而，创建一个新政党说起来容易做起来难。民主党和共和党以及一些较大的第三方政党几乎在每个州都拥有选票准入资格，因此，一个希望具有竞争力的新兴政党需要应对各州纷繁复杂的规则，才能让其候选人出现在选票上。此外，尽管身为世界首富的马斯克在法律上被允许向其“美国政治行动委员会”投入无限资金，因为该委员会被组织为一个独立的超级政治行动委员会，但根据联邦选举委员会针对2025-2026年联邦选举的捐款限额规定，对正式政党的捐款上限远低于100万美元。

It's not clear how serious Musk is about the idea of breaking with the Republican Party. Later Friday, the billionaire replied "Ok" to a person who argued "the best bang for your buck" is to get involved in GOP primaries. He also seemed to entertain a post that suggested reforming one of the main parties "from the inside out" instead of starting a third party, replying "Hmm." Still, Musk's musings about starting a new political party could signal he plans to stay engaged in politics, and may try to challenge Mr. Trump's influence.

目前尚不清楚马斯克对脱离共和党这一想法的认真程度。周五晚些时候，这位亿万富翁对一位认为“最划算的做法”是参与共和党初选的人回复了“好的”。他似乎还对一篇建议“从内部”改革主要政党之一而非创建第三党的帖子表示了兴趣，回复了“嗯”。尽管如此，马斯克关于创建一个新政党的想法可能预示着他计划继续参与政治，并可能试图挑战特朗普的影响力。