Trump says he has 'no choice' but to support electric vehicles because Elon Musk 'endorsed me very strongly'

Translation: "give me enough money and I'll promote whatever you want."

Most presidents at least pretended they couldn't be bought.

I thought you were supposed to not admit to the bribe.

The argument has always been, “No, we just give to candidates who support our cause.” Of course everyone knows that’s BS, because the support always follows the cash. But then here comes this dumbass and just- up and admits to corruption.

Incredible way to openly admit that your policy agenda is for sale to the highest bidder.

How the US does not read this as: "I was bribed by the CEO of < company > to enact policies that benefit them" is beyond me.

Be better America.

The same Elon Musk that permanently deleted this image off the internet forever?

"He bought me fair and square."

"I'm no puppet! You're the puppet!"

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malandragem

Our society is crumbling into disrepair. Politicians openly solicit quid pro quo. This flagrantly corrupt culture needs a shock.

Imagine being so blatant on bribery.

Translation: Elon musk is giving me money and is calling me a cool guy. I have to help him.

Trump says the quiet part ("I am totally bribe-able") out loud, all the time because he's a complete freaking idiot. There is no filter between his mouth and what's left of his brain.

This is the real Trump. The moron. This isn't "off the cuff","exaggeration" or "locker room talk" Believe people when they show you what they really are.

And funnily enough, if Trump were to be elected, then suddenly Trump would forget about how much Elon helped him. Trump has a terrible record for keeping contracts, so I don't think he's good with returning favors.

God damnit, yesterday I explained to someone in another thread what Trump meant when he said he could get Elon to kneel and beg, that Trump as President could revoke EV subsidies and/or heavily influence or defund NASA such that they stop funding SpaceX.

I did not expect this goddamned moron to just actually say as much, directly, out loud, 12 hours later.

300m+ citizens, and policy is based on the employer of one man.

USA: Best politics money can buy.

Just waiting for MAGA idiots to start buying EVs to "own the libs". I mean, I'd rather people shift to EVs because it's less damaging to the environment; but, a win is a win, I guess.

*Bribed

OK, LGBTQ organizations, Librarians, Pro-Choice organizations, and Satanic Temple - you know what to do now. He'll have no choice but to support you and then what will his base do? Checkmate magas!! ;)

Goya beans v2.

Maybe Elon can add an auxiliary engine solely for rolling coal

Lol so he just said that he can't argue with being bought. Hmm, noticed the "drain the swamp" tagline coincidentally has faded out since 2015.

MAGA nut jobs: wtf, I love EVs!

Someome should ask him how many times he's been paid to change his mind

It's funny to see the aesthetic transformation of Tesla's vehicles overlaid with the timeline of Musk's weirdification. I mean he was always a shitheel fuck, but in the past he was a lot more confused about who to game and how to game them.

Lol, what a fucking moron.

Yeah, but what if there is a shark 10 feet away? What do I do then?

"I am bought and paid for."

Sooo… he’s admitting to being bought and paid for, right out in the open because he knows no one will touch him.

There are no EV mandates. The article presents Trump's statements about repealing an EV mandate that doesn't exist without ever noting that no such mandate exists.

Without seeing video of the statements it's hard to say how much that was Trump selling policy for donations and saying the quiet part out loud vs just making a joke. But either way, I'm pretty sure it's based on a flawed premise because at this point I don't think Elon gives a shit about electric cars either.

And finally, the talk about the cost of charging infrastructure is framing the issue in the stupidest way possible. How much did it cost to build infrastructure for ICE vehicles, to have gas stations all over the place and a supply chain to keep them running? A hell of lot more than it will take to add charging infrastructure, that's for sure. But we don't talk about that cost because no single entity paid for it all, and those that did mostly did so as an investment, which generally paid off. People will pay for public chargers. We don't need public funds to cover everything, they just help get the investments rolling in faster.

What we do need is a rule forcing apartments to add charging of some kind to all residential parking. Even a standard wall outlet for each space would be enough to solve the majority of the charging problem.

Lobbying in action...

So he was bought? Got it.

Nice cheap words. Nothing enforceable. Just like a car salesman. Look at the contract. Project 2025 to know what the real plan is

putin supports trump bigly. It must be a wonderbra made of tit-anum, one can only assume. Or lots of money. It could be money 💰 yeah.

What happened to "bigly?" This was a missed opportunity to use his formerly favorite adverb.

In numbers ... $45m?

Good thing is that there are other auto makers that make EVs, and even their worst EVs are still better than a Tesla.

Quid pro quo.

But Musk has more recently embraced conservative politics, especially the issue of free speech. Musk bought Twitter in 2022, rebranded it to X, and has dismantled many of the checks and balances meant to limit hateful speech and misinformation on the platform.

Why is free speech a conservative cause nowadays? It should not be.

Trump going back on his word? Well color me surprised

Seems nobody has mentioned how NHTSA has been looking very closely at Tesla autopilot and FSD. Its no wonder Musk would shell out what amounts to nothing for him in an effort to be able to continue offering his unsafe products.

But not electric boats????

I like Presidents who make Decisions based off who pays them the MOST money!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGZ10kZ4lmE

_{Media Bias Fact Check | bot support}

Trump brilliantly outs millions of people with no sense of humor in one sentence.