Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Elon Musk
Podcast. This is a show where we discuss
the critical crossroads that shape SpaceX, Tesla X, The
Boring Company, and Neurolink. I'm your host, Will Walden.
Elon Musk has confirmed that he is launching a new political
party called the America Party, reigniting speculation about his
next move in both politics and also cryptocurrency.
Now the decision comes as the United States stares down a
staggering $37 trillion debt pile that was triggered when
some are calling a fiscal emergency.
Musk has used his ex account to sharply criticize the current
trajectory of U.S. government spending, citing it as his
reason for splitting from Donald Trump in the Republican
establishment. Now the question now being asked
is direct and immediate. Will Elon Musk attempt to
reshape American politics and the financial system at the same
time by tying the American party to Bitcoin, not Doge?
Now Musk's public follow with Donald Trump stems from Trump's
support of a bill that raised the debt ceiling and expanded
federal spending. Musk has originally championed
Trump's return to the White House based on a shared platform
of fiscal restraint, but broke ranks after Trump endorsed a
2024 budget that widened the deficit by another $500 billion.
Musk called the move insane, arguing on X that it would
bankrupt the country. His tone has turned sharper in
recent months to especially as federal deficit projections
continue to climb with no political consensus on cuts or
restructuring. How the American party appears
to be Musk's response to what he sees as bipartisan failure.
He hasn't officially registered the party, but he has already
started building a public presence around it.
An unaffiliated account on X, labeled America Party X, has
circulated pro Bitcoin posts and frequently interacts with
cryptocurrency influencers, which has amplified theories
that Musk intends to tie the party's financial ideology to
Bitcoin and crypto. Now, while the account itself
disclaims any direct link to Musk, has fueled a stream of
online discourse tying Musk's monetary beliefs to digital
currency ideals. Now Musk responded to an ex user
who asked if the America Party would embrace Bitcoin by writing
Fiat is hopeless. So yes, a single comment caused
a sharp spike in the price of Bitcoin, echoing previous price
swings tied to Musk's past statements about crypto.
Musk was referring to Fiat currencies, government backed
currencies that are not tied to any commodity like gold, as
fundamentally flawed systems. That position aligns with long
standing criticisms from Bitcoin supporters who argue that the
dollar's value is manipulated by central banks in unsustainable
levels of debt. Now let's see, Bitcoin is
connected to the US deficit increase, and the surge of
Bitcoin is going to be long term, according to some
analysts. So nearly $2 trillion added to
the federal debt in 2024 alone as a sign of monetary
instability. Of course, there's some
skepticism that we pointed out that the X account allegedly
belonging to Musk lacked some verification.
They've been fabricating images in the past, casting doubt on
whether the interaction occurred between Elon Musk and his ex
account. Even without hard proof, though,
Musk's growing criticisms of government overspending have
created an unmistakable alignment with the core values
of the Bitcoin movement. The statements about the US
dollar and his support for decentralized finance continue
to energize crypto traders who believe he may fully embrace
Bitcoin as part of his political message as opposed to Dogecoin.
And I can understand why. Bitcoin has a much bigger market
than Dogecoin, and it's more acceptable to use Bitcoin, that
is, to use doge. So of course he's going to use
Bitcoin. Now.
The broader debate about U.S. debt has reached a fever pitch
across Wall Street, Silicon Valley to the All In podcast,
host David Friedberg warned the country of a fiscal emergency.
He's hosted Elon Musk before and also Donald Trump on the
podcast. And he said that current
political leaders are ignoring the structural deficit crisis.
You said that the post COVID stimulus packages and high
interest rates are accelerating the cost of servicing our debt.
Interest rates have risen sharply since 2022 as the
Federal Reserve tried to fight inflation, causing the cost of
servicing the national debt to increase dramatically.
In the past fiscal year, though, the US government paid over a
trillion dollars in interest payments but no political
consensus on austerity or tax reform.
The debt ceiling has turned into a recurring crisis point.
Each increase in the ceiling now introduces trillions more in
borrowing, compelling investor anxiety about long term currency
stability. The Musk's statement that Fiat
is hopeless adds more dimensions to this debate, he suggests, may
not be just reacting to US fiscal policy, but actively
proposing an alternative economic framework.
So Bitcoin could be used in this and in this context, it becomes
more than just an asset. Like people have it now, they
hold on to our huddle onto it for a while and make some money.
Now, truth be told, I do have some Bitcoin holdings and I'm
happy that Elon Musk and Bitcoin are working together in some
fashion, or at least there's speculation about it, but it's
not much, to be honest with you. Anything I make from this show,
I put a tiny bit of it into Bitcoin for, you know, for later
on in life, just as a speculative investment or a
speculative asset. So Bitcoin becomes a policy tool
for Elon. And if Elon Musk follows through
on incorporating Bitcoin into his political platform would
make the American Party the first credible national
political initiative in the United States to formally reject
Fiat currency as its foundation. Now, this begs another point.
If Elon Musk and the America Party are taking Bitcoin
donations in some way, if that's even possible, how do you track
those donations? I don't know if you can.
There's ways to track Bitcoin, but it's very difficult. the US
government can do it, I know that.
But will they spend their time and their money and their
manpower on tracking all of the political donations to Elon
Musk's American Party? Probably, yes.
They're afraid of him. The Republicans and the
Democrats alike, They don't want a third party because they're in
power right now and they will continue to be in power for the
foreseeable future until somebody with power, money and
the right plan comes along and shakes things up.
And that could be Elon Musk. So we'll see what happens as far
as Bitcoin and the funding of his party because to be honest
with you, I'm not Privy to the knowledge of how a political
party is formed. And then we'll get into that in
another episode about this whole thing and how the parties are
formed and what it takes for Elon to actually do this.
Like where is he going to get the funding?
Does he fund it himself? Are there outside funders?
I, I'm not 100% sure, but he is in talks with other people that
have funded other parties in the past.
So he will, he'll know that all the information pretty soon and
we'll bring that to you as well. So far, Musk hasn't confirmed
any specific policy platforms for the American party beyond
his condemnation the federal overspending, though the timing
of the bro pro Bitcoin comments in the emerging network of pro
crypto messaging around the new party have established a clear
signal the monetary reform may be central to its identity.
But also think of it like this. People that hold crypto want to
make money, so of course they'll make an account that's pro Elon
and pro the America Party so they can bump up the price of
Bitcoin and get that massive return because people think that
Elon Musk is backing Bitcoin, the most powerful, richest
person in the world outside of the US president.
Of course the price of Bitcoin is going to go up and of course
people are going to make money. So that would make sense as well
if this X account is not from the America party.
Now I Speaking of Bitcoin and financial things, I asked the
other day for some help for the channel for the show.
And if you're a if you're a supporter of this show, and I
know there are a lot of you out there that are supporters of the
show and fans of the show and you've already subscribed to the
show or followed the show and whatever podcast platform you're
listening on right now. I really want to say that I
appreciate every single one of you listening every single time.
It helps out a lot. It helps out a ton.
If you haven't followed yet, make a a brief second out of
your life and hit the follower subscribe button right now.
That really does help the show continue to build momentum
because we're climbing an uphill battle and it's really tough
right now financially. If you want to help the show,
you can donate to the show by using Venmo.
The Venmo account is at Will Dash Walden.
Any amount helps, whether it's $1.10 dollars, $100, a $1000,
anything helps, $5. We had some donations yesterday
and let me help you remember. Let me help me remember actually
what they said because I'd like to take a second and see what
everybody said here. So we had a donation from Jacob,
didn't say anything other than just donated $10.
Is it they are very thankful for the show.
We had another one from JB and they said thanks for the show
and that was $20. And another one from BRBRH
saying, listen to you every morning, thanks for doing what
you do, $50 donation. So that's all from yesterday.
And we're still climbing that mountain.
It's very difficult. I don't even know if I'll be
able to keep the show going. So if you really like the show,
please take a second and donate at will Dash Walden on Venmo
right now. Let's get back to the America
Party for a minute. It's unofficial.
It's presence is already influencing discourse around the
US and talking about the US debt, people, more people are
talking about it and also alternative economic models. the
US isn't going to move away from what it is now.
They're not going to move to Bitcoin.
There's no way they're going to do that.
There's it's too much, it's too complicated.
But, you know, Elon Musk has shifted from being a corporate
executive with just strong opinions to someone who appears
to be building an ideological movement.
And Peter Thiel had an interview recently.
I was watching. And in that interview, he was
talking about how Elon Musk realized, and it took him years
to realize this, that even if you do go to Mars, the
ideologies from Earth will follow you there.
That woke woke AI will follow you to Mars.
So is this the beginning of Elon Musk creating a Society of
people that he would want to bring to Mars with him?
An ideology that Elon Musk could bring to Mars with him to create
a new society With those ideologies, the America party
could become the Mars party. Elon Musk still wants to send
broadcast to Mars and working on it at Star Base Texas.
If you're not familiar with the show, I spent about 10 months at
Starbase Texas reporting on Starship.
At Starbase, I was on the side of the road.
It was 110°. Every day it's getting blasted
by the sun, getting sandblasted and also torrential downpours.
Got caught in a couple hurricanes down there.
It was wild. But I spent my time down there.
I did my time and I reported from the side of the road
because I'm a supporter of what Elon is doing as far as Starship
goes and sending humans to Mars. I think it's going to be a
humanity changing mission if it all goes well.
So I wanted to be there in the beginning when he started
building this thing. So I was there before any
launches and the rocket 4/20 was stacked.
And then after that IA few months after that I took off and
had to go back up north to the northeast.
But I think what Elon is doing down there is important.
I think making those rockets is important because not only for
SpaceX and for Elon, but for all of humanity to know that super
heavy rockets can exist and they can actually work.
That's important because then we can send gigantic payloads to
other planets. We can send them to Mars.
We can send a Saturn to Jupiter, to Uranus, but we can send
people to those places too, as long as, you know, radiation
doesn't get us and they have enough supplies to get to those
places and back. But the important thing is what
Elon realized before, that AI can follow you to any planet in
the solar system. And if AI can follow you to any
planet in the solar system, also robotics can go to any planet in
the solar system. So maybe the play isn't sending
people to Mars. Maybe initially it will be, but
sending AI robots around the solar system with this ideology,
the America Party ideology, and the AI in those robots could
have this ideology. Maybe that's the play now.
Maybe it's bigger than just America.
Maybe it's bigger than just getting a hold of the fiscal
economic model that's alternative to what we have now.
And he might see the downfall of Western civilization as we know
it if the US goes into bigger debt and he wants to make an
alternative to what we have now. So there's an escape plan.
If you're on a podcast platform that has comments, please leave
a comment. What you think about that?
Do you think Elon's building this America party for an escape
plan? It's going to be very difficult
to live on Mars, by the way. They're still working on it.
Nobody actually knows how to live on Mars yet.
One, because there's no field tests on Mars that have been
done. The radiation on Mars will kill
you. You have to have a habitat and
it's not going to be one of those like fancy habitats that
you see in all the sci-fi shows where it's glass and metal and
it's going to be ugly. It's not going to be the best
looking thing. It's going to have thick walls
and you pretty much can't go outside unless you're going to
go from your habitat to like a rocket or something to get away
from the radiation. You can't stand out there for
very long, and we can talk about that another episode too, about
the habitat on Mars and how it seems almost unattainable,
almost impossible for people to live on Mars, basically because
there's no there's no atmosphere that protects you.
Same with the moon. There's no atmosphere.
So people can stay on the moon for a little while, of course,
but living on the moon, working on the moon, that's going to be
very dangerous. Same with Mars now.
Is this America party? This is just the precursor.
Could this just be a precursor to Elon's off world Mars
adventure? The Peter Teal interview was
striking. I didn't expect him to say that
when he said that. And he also could.
He talked about Elon's rockets as little science experiments
didn't really like he kind of talked down about him and eel on
her friends. But the way he talked about it
was condescending a little bit little condescending little
science experiment. Oh, Elon with his little science
experiment down there in Texas. You know, whatever you think
about Peter Thiel, that's a whole different thing with
Palantir and his, you know, his his plays with that.
That's something else we'll get into in another episode.
So if you're into those kind of things, please hit the subscribe
or follow button. And if you're really into the
show, like I said before, please take a second and donate Will
Dash Walden on Venmo one time donation is great and I've had
people donate numerous times. So I just, you know, it could
be, like I said, could be $5.10 dollars, 1520 hundred 200,
whatever you want to do. I really do appreciate you
though, because it's pretty much the only way I can do this.
I can continue to do this. The ads on the show don't pay
the rent and they they don't really pay for everything.
It's just hard to keep going. So I want to say thank you to
everybody who's been supporting the show through the Venmo
donations. Hey, thank you so much for
listening today. I really do appreciate your
support. If you could take a second and
hit the subscribe or the follow button on whatever podcast
platform that you're listening on right now, I greatly
appreciate it. It helps out the show
tremendously and you'll never miss an episode.
And each episode is about 10 minutes or less to get you
caught up quickly. And please, if you want to
support the show even more, go to patreon.com/stagezero and
please take care of yourselves and each other and I'll see you
tomorrow.