Trump Can Deliver What Musk Needs for Tesla
The company’s focus on autonomous driving means it makes more sense to support a candidate suspicious of regulation than one backing EV adoption.
Trump and Musk with Steve Bannon (l.) at the White House in 2017.
Photographer: Brendan Smialowski/AFP
Elon Musk and former President Donald Trump have a complicated relationship.
Two years ago, Musk tweeted that Trump would be too old for a full second term; Musk favored Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida back then. Two weeks ago, Musk “fully” endorsed Trump — whose birth date hasn’t changed, I believe — for the Republican nomination. Only last year, the chief executive of one of the world’s most prominent cleantech companies laid out a “master plan” to decarbonize global energy. Trump, meanwhile, calls the whole green thing a scam; although, strangely, has also said electric vehicles are “incredible” to drive. This week, Musk denied an earlier report that he would donate $45 million per month to a Trump-supporting super political action committee but tweeted that he would be donating at a “much lower level.”