Americans say they want a third party — but making it happen is tricky.

Earlier this month, Elon Musk said he wanted to form a new political party. He’d been teasing the idea ever since clashing with President Donald Trump over his “big, beautiful bill,” which Musk accused of exploding the deficit. In June, Musk ran a poll on X asking users whether it was “time to create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle?” More than 5 million people responded, and 80 percent voted yes. Then, on July 5, Musk announced he was forming the American Party in hopes of giving voters their “back [their] freedom.”

Those who follow Musk closely, like Bloomberg Businessweek national correspondent Joshua Green, have said Musk’s latest project is in line with his pursuit of political power and attention.

“I think he thought he’d essentially bought that by backing Donald Trump to the tune of $300 million in the last election,” Green said previously on Today, Explained. “And Trump turned on him, ousted him, took away his EV tax credits, didn’t cut the deficit, trashed him on social media. And now I think Elon is humiliated and looking for a way to respond and hit back.”

Trump has called Musk’s third-party proposal “ridiculous.” And the billionaire appeared to have moved from his third obsession by mid-July — at least on X — posting instead about Europe’s fertility rate and running damage control for the antisemitic rants of his AI platform Grok.

But regardless of whether he follows through on the “America Party,” Musk appears to have hit a chord with an American electorate disillusioned by the two-party system.

On Today, Explained, co-host Noel King dove into voters’ desires, the history of third parties, and possible solutions to the two-party stranglehold with Lee Drutman, senior fellow at the New America think tank and author of Breaking the Two Party Doom Loop: The Case for Multiparty Democracy in America.

Below is an excerpt of their conversation, edited for length and clarity. There’s much more in the full episode, so listen to Today, Explained wherever you get podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Pandora, and Spotify.

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