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Comment by root_axis | Hacker News Reader

> Tesla has massively benefited from subsidies to EVs, but is alienating the political party that has enabled all of that.

Well, he's expecting some reciprocity from the next administration for all his help, and Trump has said openly that he will support EVs as a consequence of Elon's strong support.

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The political party that ignored Tesla’s accomplishments because of union politics?

The further subsidies were not "ignoring achievement" they were subsidies that were shifting to include union labor.

The idea that it has anything to do with Tesla, as opposed to anything else, is a bit weird.

If one or two Republicans like the idea of EV subsidies without union labor, their votes could have shifted everything. But of course, there was universal condemnation of these polices by all Republicans.

>The idea that it has anything to do with Tesla, as opposed to anything else, is a bit weird.

At the time of Biden's electic car summit in 2021 to which Tesla was not invited, Telsa had 75% of the EV market in the US.

The idea that US's EV policy didn't have anything to do with its largest EV company is perhaps surprising.

Doubt either next administration will do better for Tesla than Biden's up to $7500 EV tax credit and 100% import duty on Chinese EVs

Biden really should have made the import duty contingent on the US manufacturers not abandoning / slow-walking their EV lineups:

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a61935592/ford-cancels-thr...

At this point, it feels more like a ban on affordable mainstream EVs than an anti-price-dumping measure.

> Trump has said

His word is worth nothing.

> Trump has said openly that he will support EVs

Source?

Recent news says otherwise.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-says-he-would-conside...

Trump says he's for electric cars because "I have to be, you know, because Elon endorsed me very strongly, Elon. So I have no choice":

https://www.thestreet.com/electric-vehicles/elon-musks-endor...

What Trump is really saying is that he's for sale.

Trump also told the oil industry he's for sale. He said they should give him $1 billion and that would be a "deal" because he would help them avoid taxation and regulation:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/05/09/trump-oil...

Everything is transactional with Trump. He's only interested if it benefits him personally. He only cares about himself.

> Joe Biden Rewards Donors With Admin Positions in Broken Promise to Voters

https://www.newsweek.com/joe-biden-rewards-donors-admin-posi...

https://www.barrons.com/articles/trump-harris-election-campa...

I feel that what Trump says out loud publicly others say behind the cameras away from mics with a wink and a nudge.

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/07/26/two-billionaire-harris-donor...

You asked for a source and were given one, then went on to talk about joe Biden for some reason, may I ask why?

> a consequence of Elon's strong support.

What strong support? I recall that Elon publicly announced he was going to do a massive contribution to Trump's campaign fund, and then he announced like two days later that he wasn't going to do it.

The fun part is, as far as I understand it, the EV tax credit as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, did eventually include Teslas - even though Elon wasn't invited to the initial photo-op announcement party thrown by the White House due to the lack of unionization at Tesla factories.

On the flip side, support for the EV tax credit will probably be phased out if Trump wins according to recent articles I've read.

So then it seems it's not necessarily business logic but more about personal ego, etc.

> Elon publicly announced he was going to do a massive contribution to Trump's campaign fund

I don't think he has publicly announced anything like that. Actually, he denied it.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/jul/24/e...

With the two parties involved in the will he/won't he, I wouldn't doubt either version of the story. It's beautiful

Musk never announced that.

Must didn’t announce any kind of contribution to Trump. Various left leaning social media figures ran this misinformation, however, I assume in an attempt to galvanize their side into donating and to continue their unhinged attacks on Musk.

The Wall Street Journal is hardly left-leaning, and they were the source of the story:

https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/elon-musk-has-said-he...

… and you might want to check with the source before saying he didn’t announce anything:

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1815911188024225967

WSJ is owned by Murdoch, who also owns FoxNews.

You know, I didn’t think that needed to be said but I might have been overly-charitable.

Yes, he did say he was contributing to a Trump PAC on his own Twitter: https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1815911188024225967

I guess you just ran your own misinformation.

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