WSJ What’s News - Elon Musk’s ‘America Party’ Takes a Back Seat

Episode Date: August 20, 2025

A.M. Edition for Aug 20. Billionaire Elon Musk is quietly pausing his highly publicized ambitions to launch a political party. WSJ’s Brian Schwartz says Musk plans to focus on Tesla and SpaceX, while telling allies he is reluctant to create a rift with powerful Republicans. Plus, the Trump administration says immigrants applying for U.S. visas and green-cards will now have their social media scrutinized for so-called “anti-American ideologies.” And, in our Price of Parenting series, WSJ’s Sandra Kilhof and Dalvin Brown are joined by Passion Capital founder Eileen Burbidge to discuss the costs associated with infertility. Azhar Sukri hosts. Sign up for the WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Elon Musk quietly winds down his plans to start a third political party. Musk has really not started jumping on doing this for a number of reasons. The number one thing we heard, of course, is that he wants to focus on running his two companies, Tesla and SpaceX. Plus McDonald's looks to rein in the cost of its combo meals. And in the latest installment in our Price of Parenting Series, why expensive in vitro fertilisation is becoming more popular. It's Wednesday, August the 20th. I'm Azhar Sukri for the Wall Street Journal.

Here is the AM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving your world today. We are exclusively reporting that Elon Musk is quietly pumping the brakes on his plans to start a political party. That's according to people with knowledge of his plans. We report that Musk's associate, it's cancelled a late July call with an outside group that specialises in organising third-party campaigns

and that Musk has told allies that he wants to focus his attention on his company's Tesla and SpaceX. This marks a shift from early last month when the billionaire said he would form what he called the America Party to represent US voters who are unhappy with the two major political parties. Journal White House Economic Policy Reporter Brian Schwartz says Musk has signalled a release. reluctant to alienate powerful Republicans.

Musk, he wants to remain allied with Vice President J.D. Vance. We've heard that Musk has been telling people that he is prepared to support Vance if he runs for president in 2028. And of course, if he did move ahead with launching a third party, which could hurt Republicans, it could set up a scenario where that alliance may break apart between Musk, Vance and anybody else in the Trump orbit who still values Elon. Musk, despite the past feud between President Trump and the Tesla CEO. Brian adds that another hurdle for Musk in forming a new party is being able to hire anybody from the GOP who worked for him in the 2024 election. When you look at what Elon did in the 2024 presidential election, he basically created

his own Republican-type political operation called the America PAC. And that PAC was responsible for spending around 30. $300 million to support Trump and Republicans running for congressional races. What that means is that the people he hired for those jobs, a lot of them were Republican-aligned firms. So he can't just turn to these very same people to help him run a third party because some are concerned, from what we heard, that if they jump and support Elon Musk's third party effort, then they would not be able to do as much business in the GOP. And so in the end, I think that's part of the story here where it's really unclear who's going to work with Elon from

his past political efforts. Musk's allies said he hasn't formally ruled out creating a new party and could change his mind as the midterm elections near. Musk and his spokeswoman didn't respond to requests for comment. The Trump administration says immigrants supplying for U.S. visas and green cards will now have their social media scrutinized for so-called anti-American ideologies. US Citizenship and Immigration Services has said its officers should now give significant weight to evidence that an immigrant, quote, has any involvement in anti-American or terrorist organizations when reviewing residency, work and visa applications.

The latest directive builds on an April announcement that immigrant social media would be screened for anti-Semitism and comes at a time when tensions are building between the federal government and cities that it's characterized as not providing sufficient immigration enforcement assistance. Last week, Attorney General Pam Bondi portrayed Boston as obstructing federal law in a letter to the city's Democratic mayor, Michelle Wu, something Wu addressed in a speech yesterday. Unlike the Trump administration, Boston follows the law. And Boston will not back down from who we are and what we stand for. Bondi has said the federal government could pull funding from cities deemed uncooperative

and dispatch law enforcement to them, similar to what happened in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. Technology stocks could be looking at another day of losses at stock futures point down before the opening bell. Here's journal markets reporter, Caitlin McCabe. So yesterday, the U.S. stock market's main technology index, the NASDAQ composite, fell 1.5%, which was its biggest loss in about two and a half weeks. This was driven largely by some pretty big drops in single-name stocks. Palantir, for example, fell more than 9%. We also saw chipmakers like Nvidia and AMD see some pretty big losses. And this all comes on the back of what has been a pretty small.

sleepy summer for financial markets in the last few weeks. August tends to be a quieter month for stocks. Traders tend to step away from their desks and go on vacation during this time. And you can see trading volumes thin out quite a bit. And that could really exacerbate these moves that we see in stocks and weigh on broader indexes pretty heavily. And we are exclusively reporting that McDonald's is cutting the price of its combo meals as part of a push to restore its reputation for affordability. That's after consumers were left sticker-shocked by some prices, including Big Mac meals that climbed to $18 in some places. People involved in the discussions say the burger giants move follows weeks of talks between McDonald's and restaurant

operators, adding that the company offered financial support if franchisees agreed to drop prices. Coming up, as birth rates fall around the world, more people are turning to IVF, despite the high prices involved. The latest installment in our series on the costs of parenting is after the break. TD Bank knows that running a small business is a journey, from startup to growing and managing your business. That's why they have a dedicated small business advice hub on their website to provide tips and insights on business banking to entrepreneurs.

No matter the stage of business you're in, visit TD.com. com slash small business advice to find out more or to match with a TD small business banking account manager. This week, the journal is taking a deep dive into the costs of parenthood. Today, we're looking at the costs associated with infertility, amid a decline in global birth rates, below that all-important replacement rate, which ensures a population's survival, Solutions like IVF and surrogacy are getting more popular, but they're pricey. Our supervising producer and mother of two, Sandra Kilhoff,

spoke to journal reporter Dalvin Brown and Passion Capital founder Eileen Burbage about the fertility options available and how to make them more affordable. Eileen, I'd like to start with you because some people may know you as a prominent venture capitalist, but you're also the executive director of Fertifa, a UK-based startup that helps companies offer reproductive benefits to their workers, including covering IVF treatment, a subject matter that's particularly close to your heart, right, Eileen? It is. You're right. I count myself lucky that I am a parent and I have lovely children and a blended family at home now, but it's not just about for Tith. I actually did have terminations in my 20s. I suffered miscarriages in my 30s,

and then I did go through multiple rounds of IVF. I do think IVF is incredibly important and just this most magical evidence of science and technology and medicine that is making a huge impact and really bringing joy to people, but also maybe on a broader scale, affecting or helping to contradict or address this fertility challenge that we have. In terms of how it's accessed today, I mean, that is the big crux of the problem. It's largely not accessible to the greatest proportion of people. It's incredibly expensive. You know, in the U.S., it can get to over $15,000. maybe even $20,000 per cycle. Most people across Europe in the UK are probably having to pay out of pocket some couple

of thousand dollars in the UK. In the NHS, for example, there's some degree of support for some people, but it depends on where they live. And so if somebody does want to go to a private clinic, you're talking about an average cycle costs about 5,000 to 10,000 pounds. Okay, so really quite expensive. Delvin, I want to bring you in now because there are obviously more ways to approach infertility. You've been looking into surrogacy as one alternate option. This is not something that

is used broadly outside of the U.S., but surrogacy is really growing as a phenomenon in America, yes. Yes, surrogacy is definitely growing, though we still lack comprehensive federal data on the exact numbers. What I found in my reporting is that rising costs are actually pushing people who need surrogacy to get somewhat creative and find alternative ways to have their baby. So traditional agency surrogacy can now cost $200,000 or more in the U.S. and surrogate compensation alone has jumped over 50% since 2020. So we're seeing couples turn to friends and family members to carry their children and trim some of those costs. One of the couples I profiled, saved about $145,000 by having a sister-in-law carry their baby.

And though they saved a lot, they also spent over $57,000 when you add up all the hidden costs associated with that. Wow, Delvin, those are some absolutely enormous numbers. Definitely not everyone that has that amount of money. Surrogacy generally does not enjoy public funding or insurance coverage, more so for IVF, perhaps, particularly in some European countries, of course, where the state will pay. for IVF treatment. In the U.S., President Trump has promised to make IVF accessible for all Americans. He is yet to act on that, though. So I wonder, how do you go about making these

fertility routes more accessible? So I think the starting point is to consider how much the state or federal government can support, can subsidize, or at least signpost. And then, frankly, it's a lucrative commercial undertaking. I think it's fair to say that IVF clinics They're not charities. They're not not for profits. And they're doing extremely well. And at the moment, the largest ones are backed by private equity insurers. So does that mean that there could be some form of, I hate to say, regulation in terms of what are we providing or what do we feel we have a responsibility to citizens and to individuals for? And then what are they going to be forced to pay for? And Dalvin, I wonder, in your reporting around surrogacy, what have you seen there? Yeah. So right now in the U.S., it's really a tale of two realities when it comes to surrogacy. If you work for some of the big tech companies like Amazon or Navidia, you might get $200,000 in fertility benefits. But most Americans are on their own, at least for a large portion of the bill. And so until we can sort of address some of these coverage gaps, surrogacy will remain out of reach for many people. something that Dolvin said, which I think is really important, is that right now, the richest companies in the world are the ones that are able to underwrite or support this before the

others. And I'd like to think we're moving towards a world where I can maybe even offer two-tier pricing so that not-for-profits, charities, school districts, the public sector, for example, has a different pay scale in order to provide these benefits or these opportunities to their employees, which is underwritten by the world's largest and richest companies. Eileen Burbage is the founder of Passion Capital as well as the executive director of Fertifa. Dalvin is a reporter on the Wall Street Journal's personal finance team. Eileen, Dalvin, thank you so much. Thank you for having me.

Thank you. And that's it for What's News for this Wednesday morning. Today's shows produced by Kate Bullivant and Caitlin McCabe. Our supervising producer was Daniel Bark. I'm Azar Sukri for the Wall Street Journal. We'll be back tonight with a new show. Until then, thanks for listening. Thank you.

You know, Thank you.