Trump is buying a Tesla. But he has trashed electric vehicles before

President Donald Trump, who said on Tuesday he was buying a Tesla to show loyalty to company CEO Elon Musk, has had plenty to say about electric vehicles over the years. Most of it is not good.

Of course, Trump was once a sharp critic of Musk, too, which is especially notable given how tight the pair are now.

A look at some of Trump’s comments on EVs – and Musk:

All Electric Car Lunacy

Trump marked Christmas 2023 with a social media post lumping “All Electric Car Lunacy” in with a number of political enemies that he said “are looking to destroy our once great USA. MAY THEY ROT IN HELL.”

A few weeks earlier, during a rally in Ankeny, Iowa, Trump said of EVs: “They don’t go far. They cost a fortune.” He also suggested that the US military was looking at making “Army tanks all electric” and scoffing, “you’re in the middle of the desert and you say, ‘You know what, we’re running low on electric. Do they have a charger around anywhere?’”

In November 2023, at a Claremont, New Hampshire, rally, Trump similarly picked up on distance being an electric vehicle issue: “You can’t get out of New Hampshire in an electric car.”

“Where are you going? ‘I’m going to Massachusetts.’ Well, you better get yourself a gas turbine because this car is not going to get you there,” he said. “Well, you could, if you stop about four times.”

Trump addresses the media beside a Tesla car as Musk looks on, at the White House on Tuesday. Reuters

That followed his joke during an event in Clive, Iowa, the previous month: “Electric cars are good if you have a towing company.”

Electric vehicles were an especially attractive Trump target during the six-week United Auto Workers strike in September 2023. That’s when he told a rally in Clinton Township, Michigan, “You go all electric so you can drive for 15 minutes before you have to get a charge.”

Biden’s All Electric Car Hoax

Trump, a Republican, also posted on his social media site that then-President Joe Biden, a Democrat, sold autoworkers “down the river with his ridiculous all Electric Car Hoax.” He suggested that promoting electric vehicles “was the idea of the Radical Left Fascists, Marxists, & Communists” and that “Within 3 years, all of these cars will be made in China.”

As on many top issues, Trump has been inconsistent on electric vehicles. During his first term, in September 2020, Trump cheered an all-electric Lordstown Motors Endurance truck at an event outside the White House, calling it an “incredible vehicle.”

After Musk endorsed the former president’s bid to return to the White House, Trump began suggesting that electric vehicles could work for some buyers.

“I’m for electric cars. I have to be because Elon endorsed me very strongly,” Trump said during an August rally in Atlanta.

In a subsequent conversation on X, the social media platform Musk also owns, Trump called Tesla a “great product” while noting, “That doesn’t mean everybody should have an electric car.”

During his inaugural address, Trump promised, “We will revoke the electric vehicle mandate, saving our auto industry,” but he also said that Americans will “be able to buy the car of your choice.” While there was no Biden mandate to force the purchase of EVs, his policies were aimed at encouraging Americans to buy them and car companies to shift from gas-powered vehicles to electric cars.

Tesla vehicles on show

On Tuesday afternoon, officials lined up a Tesla Cybertruck and four of the company’s cars in front of the White House. Trump emerged with Musk, who is now in charge of a sweeping administration effort to cut federal jobs and shrink the size of government. Trump said he’d buy a Tesla.

Trump and Musk stand next to a Tesla Cybertruck on the South Portico of the White House. Agence France-Presse

“I’m president, so I want to pay full price,” Trump said.

Trump sat in and eventually chose a red Tesla Model S. Though he was not permitted to drive it, Trump said he planned to keep it at the White House and let his staff use it.

“I love Tesla,” Trump proclaimed, saying he hoped that his buying one would boost the company’s stock.

U-turn on Musk

Just like he had a change of heart about EVs, Trump has changed his tune about Musk, who’s now one of his advisers. When the pair got into an online feud in 2022, Trump ridiculed Musk for seeking support during his first term.

“When Elon Musk came to the White House asking me for help on all of his many subsidised projects, whether it’s electric cars that don’t drive long enough, driverless cars that crash, or rocketships to nowhere, without which subsidies he’d be worthless, and telling me how he was a big Trump fan and Republican, I could have said, ‘drop to your knees and beg,’ and he would have done it,” Trump wrote then.

It was a far different story on Tuesday, when Trump had nothing but praise for Musk.

He noted that his administration got rid of the Biden era “electric vehicle mandate” and expected complaints from Musk about Tesla being damaged by that decision – but didn’t hear anything.

“In the time I’ve known him, he has never asked me for a favour,” Trump said of Musk.

Trump is buying a Tesla to aid the company and Musk, who has faced criticism for his role in the administration, the president said.

“I think he’s been treated very unfairly by a very small group of people,” Trump said of Musk. “And I just want people to know that he can’t be penalised for being a patriot.”

Associated Press