Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who said he would stay on the sidelines during this election, will spend $45 million per month to elect Donald Trump, a presidential candidate who has repeatedly targeted EVs during his campaign and who has promised to end EV incentives in exchange for a billion dollars in bribes from the oil industry.
The move comes as Musk has shown little interest in electric cars lately, spending much more attention on various culture war causes that he has picked up on while scrolling through Twitter – the company he bought for $44 billion which has since lost 72% of its value.
Trump campaign makes harming EVs/environment a major priority
Trump has repeatedly signaled his intent to harm the electric vehicle market during the campaign and prior.
Not only has he made EVs a target several times in his campaign, primarily through ridiculous rants that show little understanding about how anything works, but he has also signaled his intent to reverse the Inflation Reduction Act, a bill signed by President Biden which has been phenomenally effective at bringing manufacturing jobs to the US and has helped to lower the price of EVs for consumers.
In addition, Project 2025, a conservative playbook for the election, includes several action items which would harm EV policy and result in dirtier air and water and more climate change. The Heritage Foundation, the organization that has worked to advance Project 2025, boasts that Trump attempted to institute most of their policy recommendations in his last tour of the White House, so it can be expected that many of the Project’s ideas would make their way onto the president’s desk should America make the mistake of electing him.
And it stands to reason that a potential Trump administration might try to implement these action items, because many of them were already attempted in the past.
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