Elon Musk Could’ve Saved EVs From Donald Trump. That’s Not What Happened

It didn’t take long for Donald Trump to fall back on old habits.

As soon as his disagreements with his former cost-cutter-in-chief, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, spilled into public view, Trump pulled out some of his most time-tested anti-electric vehicle takes.

“I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!,” the president posted on his social media platform Truth Social yesterday.

And speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump added: “All of a sudden [Musk] had a problem, and he only developed the problem when he found out that we’re going to have to cut the EV mandate, because that’s billions and billions of dollars.” 

It is true that since leaving his post as the head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, Musk has railed against Trump’s signature budget legislation, dubbed the “Big, Beautiful Bill.” It is also true that—at least according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis—that bill could add $2.4 trillion to the federal deficit over the next decade, which Musk says is his problem with the legislation. And it is also true that the Big, Beautiful Bill will end the federal EV tax credit program and likely hurt the growth of the electric market in America.

Everything after that gets a bit murky. But since this feud likely won’t end well for EVs or for Tesla, it’s worth asking where Musk stood on the electric tax credit question in all the months he spent funding Trump’s presidential campaign and then operating out of his White House. 

Aside from the Tesla-only car show he put on in March as the automaker’s stores became known more for protests than as places to actually buy cars, Trump’s stance on EVs has been largely consistent over the years. In a 2023 Christmas message, he told those supporting “All Electric Car Lunacy” to “ROT IN HELL.” He routinely criticized President Joe Biden’s pro-EV policies as promoting a “hoax” that would destroy the auto industry. He frequently repeats the claim that EVs “can’t go far,” even as range and performance increase dramatically with each passing year. And his administration has been adamantly pro-fossil-fuel, as well as staffed extensively with veterans of that industry. 

But politics makes strange bedfellows, as they say. Given Trump’s pro-gas proclivities, the partnership between him and Musk—CEO of the world’s largest- or second-largest EV maker and godfather of the modern EV industry—always felt unusual. At most, Trump offered a concession that he “[has to be]… for electric cars, because Elon endorsed me very strongly,” which is not exactly a ringing endorsement. 

Their relationship was always more rooted in Musk’s far-right political turn in recent years, and his apparent hatred for excessive government spending, than anything else. That was how things looked on the surface, anyway. Anyone looking a little closer could quickly realize that Musk’s support of Trump was heavily transactional and stemming from his desire to clear out regulations in the way of his businesses—namely, autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence and space travel.

Musk was quite direct about this last October: “There should be a federal approval process for autonomous vehicles,” Musk said on a third-quarter earnings call, instead of a state-by-state patchwork of rules. Then Trump won the election and Tesla’s stock price surged on the idea that the “First Buddy” would ensure that future autonomous vehicle rules would specifically benefit the technology he’s betting the company’s future on. 

EVs themselves didn’t seem to come up much in the Trump-Musk bromance. Certainly, there was never a moment where Trump appeared to be visited by three ghosts one evening and then decided it was essential to keep the Biden-era EV buying and manufacturing credits even as a way to stay ahead of China in the space, or even help Musk keep the cash flowing. “I’ll tell you, he’s never called me and said, could you lay off the electric car?” Trump told Fox News last year.

And given the choice between following the president’s will and keeping EV manufacturing jobs alive in their districts, members of Congress firmly went with Option One. 

If anyone could have prevented this outcome, it was Musk. And yet, that’s not where the United States seems to be headed. 

Musk never seemed to address this disconnect, either. In a late January Tesla earnings call, he was asked by an analyst about his views on what EV policy should be in the Trump era. Musk demurred and essentially said: the EV transition is going to happen anyway, so I’m not worried about it. “At this point, I think that sustainable transport is inevitable,” Musk said. “I’m highly confident that all transport will be autonomous, electric, including aircraft, and that simply, it can’t be stopped.”

During that time, as sales to Tesla’s typically liberal, coastal buyers declined, it’s not like heartland conservatives rushed in to pick up the slack. There was a fundamental misalignment between Musk’s politics and the audience for the cars he sells, a circle he could never quite square.

It also wasn’t always his first priority. Musk moved mountains in recent months to shift American policy and government spending to better align with his worldview. The country, and perhaps everyone on Earth, may feel the lasting effects of DOGE for a very long time. If Musk wanted to secure a future for zero-emission transportation in America, he likely could’ve done it more, better and harder than anyone else. But now he and Trump are on the outs, and Trump is back to business as usual when it comes to EVs. 

One other thing is objectively true: when Trump feels he’s been slighted, he does not just let it slide. Unless the two find a way to make nice, this feud doesn’t feel like it will bode well for Musk, or Tesla, or EVs in America, or even Tesla’s role in the autonomy race. When we’ll see any fallout from the end to this bromance remains to be seen. 

For now, Trump is apparently already looking to unload that Tesla he bought from Musk.

Contact the author: patrick.george@insideevs.com