Hello, I'm Dana Taylor, and this is a special episode of USA Today's The Excerpt.

Billionaire Elon Musk, a man who has famously sent rockets into outer space, has a new moonshot, a viable third political party.

Fueled by his distaste for President Donald Trump's debt-exploding, big, beautiful bill,

Musk announced earlier this month that he was launching the American Party, a movement he said that will,

quote, fight the Republican Democrat Uniparty Party, end quote. Third party ambitions in America are nothing new.

There's a long history of people starting them going all the way back to the anti-Masonic party in 1828.

The problem is making them last. Can Musk succeed where former president

Teddy Roosevelt, South Carolina Governor Strom Thurman, and billionaire Ross Perot all failed?

USA Today, White House correspondent Joy Garrison joins us to share his reporting on why third

parties have often become the third rails of American politics.

Joey, thanks for joining me.

Hey, thanks so much for having me.

In the 2024 presidential election, Elon Musk spent over $290 million to help elect Donald Trump, a former ally.

Influence and money are clearly two critical elements that

could help him succeed here. What else does Musk need to do to be taken seriously here?

He's the richest man of the world, and if he really wants to go at this in a full-throated way,

he could pump as much money into it as he would like. So put that aside. I think you have

some logistical hurdles for him to do this, as well as some political challenges. And first going

into those logistical problems, the first thing he needs to do is file with the Federal Election

Commission and begin raising money and to make that

American Party that he's talked about official. Right now, he can't do that because the FEC

is lacking a quorum with some vacancies on that board. But assuming he gets validation,

...