Trump's US Commerce Secretary publicly recommends to buy TSLA | Hacker News Reader

Trump's US Commerce Secretary publicly recommends to buy TSLA

electrek.co

73 pointsTheAlchemist29 comments

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"Top comment by R.B.:

What is the definition of corruption again?"

Yeah, that's exactly what this looks like.

I'm not even sure I would call that corruption - there is not even an attempt at concealing anything.

It's as if they put in power the guys who are not even aware they are not supposed to do this in public.

But is Pelosi buying it?

I'm not sure which of the Razors you're implying, but none apply here.

Russia and the US are actually not that different. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/russia-and-the-us-have...

Using government to enrich themselves / picking winners.

Party's over folks, it was fun while it lasted.

Meanwhile, MSCI Germany rises while S&P 500 falls.

I'd already forgotten the President of the United States stood on the white house lawn and read off prices for different Tesla models.

What’s good for Tesla is good for America. Charles E. Wilson.

https://blogs.loc.gov/inside_adams/2016/04/when-a-quote-is-n...

The sad part is, that's actually true. Tesla, the non-Elon/pre-Elon part is really innovative and it's such a shame that it's getting associated with that person and his actions.

And by that I mean all 3 of those actions:

1) buying innovation then putting yourself forward as it's inventor (isn't this plagiarism?). Aside from being morally wrong, this caused the ACTUAL inventors and innovators Tesla had to leave. The real people behind Tesla's innovation is Martin Eberhard, with a lot of help from Marc Tarpenning and a company called AC Propulsion. Same with SpaceX. None of the design is from mr. Musk.

2) actually believing your own bullshit, then designing an all-terrain vehicle that ... can't stand water. Drive through water? Car fails. Drive through a carwash? Car fails. Drive through sand? Car fails. Bulletproof glass that can't deal with a small tap with a hammer (and breaks plenty by itself in the wild). Sometimes when you press the accelerator ... it will not stop accelerating even when you let go again. He had to have the vehicle recalled TWICE (once for panels, once for accelerator). And can we forget the autopilot debacle? It goes on ... and on ... and on.

3) his repulsive government views and actions, making half the population start to torch everything of your company they can touch. AND THEN DENYING HIS OWN PROBLEMS, like (2). He made the government buy cybertrucks as armored vehicles for official use, which is going to lead to a very predictable disaster. He even made Trump do a commercial for "Tesler" on the white house lawn.

Never invest in car companies. they’re like Airlines. Cyclical industry with very high cost that can’t be adjusted. over the long term you’ll get burned every time.

It could get worse. People investigating their balance sheet are finding oddities:

Original Story:

https://www.ft.com/content/62df8d8d-31f2-445e-bfa2-c171ac43d...

Paywall free link:

https://archive.ph/2025.03.19-162647/https://www.ft.com/cont...

You seem to be confusing this post with: Tesla (TSLA) accounting raises red flags as report shows $1.4B missing https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43419567

He's certainly the best commerce secretary that money can buy.

Lmfao ..how the times have changed. Just a few years ago, conservatives would have been cheering on the collapse of Tesla, maybe even suggesting that key fobs be replaced with coal lumps for authenticity. Back then, EVs were the enemy—symbolic of government overreach, environmental alarmism, and everything wrong with Silicon Valley’s utopian fantasies.

But now? Now, some of the loudest right-wing voices are suddenly defenders of Tesla, hailing it as a beacon of free-market innovation. Why? Because Elon Musk started tweeting the right things. Suddenly, the same crowd that once mocked electric cars as glorified golf carts is singing hymns about "free speech" while plugging their Teslas into the wall at night.

It's a fascinating shift. The same people who would have laughed at someone keying a Prius now see a scratched Tesla as an attack on Western civilization. Who knew loyalty was just one billionaire’s political alignment away?

I’m in disbelief every damn day. The double think is mind-boggling.

"One has changed their shoes in mid-jump" is the closest I can think of. "Changed on a dime"++, so to say.

Teslas run on electricity which means we need more power plants which means we need more energy produced by "Beautiful, Clean Coal" https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2025-03-18/trump-r...

And the same people who would previously chain themselves to an oil well are now setting Teslas on fire. Up is down and down is up.

At least this still has complete moral logic so not really the same.

It really doesn't, though. A Tesla that is already bought is good for the environment regardless of what Musk says, does, or believes.

Well since the guy in charge does Nazi salutes and is destroying our government, I'm pretty sure that's consistent with their morals? Or are we conveniently leaving that off?

https://www.ernst.senate.gov/news/press-releases/ernst-to-bi...

> The levers of government should never be used to pick winners and losers based on political priorities.

From six months ago. Six.

It was a longer process actually. Left was against the Vietnam war, right was full of war mongerers.

While feminism and sexual freedom stayed on the left, military industry changed sides.

I don't think the industry loved a new space startup show how bad they are. Neither did the unions like that Elon was so strongly anti-union.

Not inviting him on the EV summit and Tweeting that Ford is the biggest american EV manufacturer was just so strange.

So… beyond the naked corruption, who is this _for_? Half the US dislikes Trump, so this is probably a turnoff. A decent fraction of the remainder are, well, not keen on the idea of the government telling them what to do, so again, turnoff. Some of the remainder are financially literate and are thus likely to be turned off by “I own this thing, you should buy it too”, because that is how pump and dumps work. And it’s hard to see this being compelling _outside_ the US. So, what’s the point?

Telling people that if you want to be in the in group how to do it…. and if not you’re on the out group.

Also most people should be doing their investments in equities through mutual funds or ETFs. Only sophisticated investors with a lot of time to devote to managing their investments should be operating at the level of trading in stocks of individual companies.

Obama and Biden implied the same thing when it came to their favorite electric car companies, with many public visits to their plants, championing American-made electric cars and blatantly ignoring Tesla because they refused to unionize. So, the Trump team is just setting the record straight that Tesla is America's best electric car company (by far), and we should all be proud of it rather than trying to tear it down.

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