Musk should stay out of politics, US Treasury Secretary Bessent says [View all]

Source: Reuters

July 6, 2025 12:49 PM EDT Updated 54 mins ago


WASHINGTON, July 6 (Reuters) - A day after Elon Musk escalated his feud with Donald Trump and announced the formation of a new U.S. political party, the Republican president's Treasury secretary said Musk should stick to running his companies. In addition, investment firm Azoria Partners, which had planned to launch a fund tied to Musk's electric automaker Tesla (TSLA.O) said it was delaying the venture because the party's creation posed "a conflict with his full-time responsibilities as CEO."

Musk announced on Saturday that he is establishing the "America Party" in response to Trump's tax-cut and spending bill, which Musk said would bankrupt the country. Speaking on the CNN program "State of the Union" on Sunday, Treasury chief Scott Bessent said the boards of directors at Musk's companies - Tesla and rocket firm SpaceX - probably would prefer him to stay out of politics.

"I imagine that those boards of directors did not like this announcement yesterday (Saturday) and will be encouraging him to focus on his business activities, not his political activities," Bessent said.

Musk, who served as a top adviser to Trump on downsizing and reshaping the federal government during the first few months of his presidency, said his new party would in next year's midterm elections look to unseat Republican lawmakers in Congress who backed the sweeping measure known as the "big, beautiful bill."

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/investment-firm-azoria-postpones-tesla-etf-after-musk-plans-political-party-2025-07-06/