Elon Musk Could Spend $180 Million on Electric Car Hater Trump — and It Could Backfire
Former President Donald Trump has not been shy about expressing his disdain for electric cars.
The Republican candidate’s rhetoric about the industry has often been hyperbolic: He has said that electric vehicles would “kill” the U.S. auto industry and lead to “job assassination.” Proponents of electric vehicles are “thugs,” Trump declared in a Truth Social post last Christmas. (“May they rot in hell,” he said. Written. “Again, Merry Christmas!”)
President Joe Biden’s push for electric vehicles would lead to a “bloodbath” of the auto industry, Trump said at a campaign rally in March. In the same speech, he vowed to impose a “100% tariff” on electric vehicles made in Mexico but imported into the United States.
“You won’t be able to sell those cars,” He speak.
Two months later, Trump made a deal to oil executives: raise $1 billion for his re-election campaign, and he will cancel any of Biden’s “absurd” electric vehicle policies.
Oil executives have objected to the transactional nature of the deal. But, the chief executive of Teslathe world’s largest electric car company, has reported patted Trump on the shoulder and offered an olive branch worth $180 million.
What will Elon Musk get for his biggest financial commitment this election cycle?
So far, the talk about electric cars has been a bit quieter.
“Elon is out there funding SuperPACs and telling donors to give money to Trump, and so Trump, in his calculation, is saying, ‘I better stop investing in EVs,’” said Michael Murphy, a Republican strategist and CEO of EV Political Project, speak Luck. “Trump is probably shifting a little bit toward the anti-EV tone. And I’ll give Elon credit for that.”
Musk’s shift to the right
The The Wall Street Journal Musk’s $45 million-a-month pledge reportedly comes after many years of political change X’s controlling shareholder, who is also a co-founder SpaceX and Neuralink, and is the head of a new venture, xAI. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
While Musk was once a largely centrist Democrat, he has become increasingly critical of Biden on a number of topics, including immigration, DEI and what he calls his call for “Christianity.” On his platform, X, he previously TwitterHe frequently mocks the left, reposting memes about President Biden’s pronouns, age and other issues that are offensive to Democrats.
Those feelings have been reciprocated: Musk is less trusted and liked by Democrats, according to Shahar Silbershatz, CEO of reputation management firm Caliber.
“Based on our data from Technology CEO Research We’re running in December 2023 and on Tesla’s ongoing reputation tracker in the US,” Silbershatz said. Luck“[Musk] Trust & Like Score… is 63 out of [Republicans]and 36 of them [Democrats]on a scale of 0-100.”
Mike Klimkosky, an electric vehicle expert who has long followed Musk, said Democrats are to blame for “turning their backs” on Musk.
“They turned against him because they didn’t like the fact that he was one of the richest men in the world,” Klimkosky said. He added that Biden has not supported Musk’s clean energy efforts, even though they are politically aligned with Democrats.
While Musk’s political ideology has clearly begun to lean to the right, he has remained vague about his stance on the 2024 presidential election until an assassination attempt about the GOP nominee at a campaign rally on Saturday. Minutes after the effort, Musk endorsed Trump as one of the “toughest” presidents and has been almost nonstop in his support for the candidate since.
But as the CEO of an electric vehicle maker—the Tesla Model Y was the best-selling car in California last year—Musk’s stance may collide with the political leanings of electric car buyers, impacting sales.
“I can see Tesla’s CMO spending a lot of time at the Mulligan’s bar having a drink, because it makes their job a lot harder,” Murphy said.
Electric car buyers may start rejecting Musk
In Tesla’s case, Silbershatz writes, liking a company and considering buying its products are two very different things.
“While Republicans trust and like Tesla more than Democrats in December 2023, consideration scores — a measure of willingness to buy a Tesla — are higher among Democrats (38% vs. 31% among Republicans),” Silbershatz said. “This may be related to the fact that Democrats are more favorable toward electric vehicles than Republicans overall.”
Because Tesla’s reputation is already quite polarizing, the company’s reputation may not change much if Musk goes all-in on Trump, Silbershatz says. However, its overall sentiment (and therefore sales) will likely suffer, since Democrats make up a larger share of electric vehicle buyers in the U.S.
“Considering that competition in the EV segment in the US is intensifying and that 33% of Americans say their next EV will be foreign-made (according to Caliber research as of June 2024) – this endorsement does not bode well for Tesla’s commercial prospects,” Silbershatz writes.
Tesla may already be feeling the pain. According to data from CivicScience, a consumer analytics platform, Democratic/Liberal approval of Tesla fell to a low of 16% this month, down from 39% in January. Among Republicans, Tesla’s approval remained unchanged, at a low of 22%.
In the short term, given the “unfortunate reality” of EV politicization, this seems inevitable, Murphy said. But in the long term, Musk could become “China’s Nixon.”
“He could be very helpful in opening the minds of right-wing Republicans who have absorbed the tribal messaging from Trump and other politicians that electric vehicles are two-wheeled vehicles,” Murphy added.
