One day after Elon Musk escalated his feud with Donald Trump and announced the formation of a new political party in the U.S., the Treasury Secretary under the Republican president said that the businessman should stick to running his companies.

Furthermore, the investment firm Azoria Partners, which had planned to launch a fund linked to Musk's electric car company, Tesla, said it was postponing the venture because the creation of the party represented "a conflict with his full-time responsibilities as CEO."

Musk announced on Saturday that he is creating the "Party of America" in response to Trump's tax cut and spending bill, which Musk said would lead the country to bankruptcy.

Speaking on CNN's "State of the Union" program on Sunday, Treasury chief Scott Bessent said that Musk's company boards — Tesla and the rocket company SpaceX — would likely prefer that he stay out of politics.

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

Musk, who served as one of Trump's top advisors to reduce the size and reshape the federal government during the early months of his presidency, said that his new party would try to unseat Republican lawmakers in Congress who supported the comprehensive measure known as the "big and beautiful bill."

The White House did not directly address the threat made by Musk, but said that the approval of the bill showed that the Republican Party is in good shape.

"As the leader of the Republican Party, President Trump unified and grew the party in a way we have never seen," said White House spokesman Harrison Fields.

Musk spent millions of dollars to fund Trump's reelection effort in 2024 and, for a time, regularly appeared alongside the president in the Oval Office and elsewhere. The disagreement between them over the spending bill led to a misunderstanding that Musk tried to briefly fix, unsuccessfully.

The bill, which cuts taxes and increases spending on defense and border security, was passed last week by party-line votes in both chambers of Congress. Critics stated that it would harm the U.S. economy by significantly increasing the federal budget deficit.

Trump said that Musk is dissatisfied because the measure, which Trump signed into law on Friday, removes green energy credits for Tesla's electric vehicles. The president threatened to withdraw billions of dollars that Tesla and SpaceX receive in government contracts and subsidies in response to Musk's criticisms.

Bessent suggested that Musk has little influence over voters who, according to the Treasury chief, preferred the Government Efficiency Department led by Musk over the world's richest person himself.

"The principles of DOGE were very popular," Bessent said. "I think if you look at the polls, Elon was not."