Trump Says He Supports Electric Cars Now That Elon Musk Endorses Him

"I have to be because, you know, Elon endorsed me very strongly."

Peas in a Pod

During a characteristically rambling speech in Georgia over the weekend, former president Donald Trump claimed he had "no choice" but to support electric cars because Tesla CEO Elon Musk had endorsed him.

Musk, who has quickly turned his social media echo chamber X-formerly-Twitter into an unofficial extension of Trump's reelection campaign, came out in support of Trump following the assassination attempt last month.

And now, in a quid pro quo move, Trump said at the speech that he's now "for electric cars."

"I have to be because, you know, Elon endorsed me very strongly," he said, as quoted by Business Insider. "So, I have no choice."

It's an unlikely pairup given Trump's two-sided stance on electric vehicles. The former president has simultaneously opposed the electrification of vehicles — likely the result of his close ties to the fossil fuel industry — and claimed to be a "fan" of EVs.

His latest flip-flopping, in other words, feels like less a commitment to the environment and more like yet another example of back-scratching among wealthy elites.

Make America Gas Again

Shortly after Musk endorsed Trump, the Wall Street Journal reported that he was donating a whopping $45 million a month by making personal contributions to a political action committee called the America PAC.

Musk denied the report, calling it "simply not true" in an interview with far-right commentator Jordan Peterson. "The intent is to promote the principles that made America great in the first place," he said.

He did, however, seemingly confirm that he pledged "$180 million to elect" Trump in a followup tweet.

As usual, there are probably limits to Trump's largesse. During his speech over the weekend, Trump said that he only wants EVs to represent a "small slice" of the auto industry and that "you want to have gas-propelled cars. You want to have hybrids. You want to have every kind of car."

EVs aren't the only tech on which Trump has sharply reversed his views. He's also completely flipflopped his stance on crypto.

In short, making sense of Trump's ramblings is largely a fool's errand. Where he and Musk stand as of right now remains murky at best.

But if there's one thing that unites the two, it's an undying love for making as much money as possible — a trait that's seemingly come at the cost of any form of personal conviction or coherent political stance.

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