Trump Indicators a Future for Elon Musk within the White Home

Donald Trump instructed a Reuters reporter on Monday that he’d think about ending the $7,500 tax credit score for electric-vehicle purchases. He additionally stated he’d think about appointing Tesla CEO and EV tax credit score enjoyer, Elon Musk, to his cupboard or another advisory place.

Trump was campaigning in York, Pennsylvania when Reuters requested him about having Musk grow to be part of the administration.

“I might, he’s very good. I had an important discuss with him the opposite day, as , it went on for 2-and-a-half-hours virtually, maybe you listened, however he’s a really good man. I actually would, if he would do it. I actually would. He’s an excellent man,” Trump stated, delivering the type of rambling non-answer that’s not taking part in as effectively in 2024 because it did in 2016.

Musk ran with it on X. “I’m prepared to serve,” he stated in a joking submit that featured a manipulated picture of himself standing earlier than a podium that reads “Division of Authorities Effectivity.”

The title comes from an offhand remark Musk made throughout his lengthy dialog with Trump on X final week. “I feel it could be nice to simply have a authorities effectivity fee that takes a have a look at this stuff and simply ensures that the taxpayer cash, their hard-earned cash, is spent in a great way. And I’d be joyful to assist out on such a fee. I’d like it if it had been shaped,” Musk stated through the interview.

Trump was additionally non-specific on the problem of electrical car tax credit. The U.S. authorities at the moment provides a $7,500 tax low cost to anybody shopping for an electrical car. It’s meant to incentivize folks to purchase electrical as a substitute of carbon-spewing gas-powered vehicles that are a major contributing consider international warming.

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When requested if he’d finish the credit score, Trump waffled. “We’re taking a look at that. That’s a giant factor. However tax credit and tax incentives usually are not usually an excellent factor,” he stated.

The Trump-era tax cuts had been filled with tax incentives and credit. Famously, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act doubled the child tax credit.

“I’m not making any last choices on it,” Trump stated on the EV tax credit score. “I’m a giant fan of electrical vehicles however I’m a fan of gasoline-propelled vehicles and in addition hybrids. And no matter else occurs to come back alongside. And you’ll’t mandate you can solely purchase an electrical automobile.”

Musk’s posts on X targeted on the imaginary cupboard place and never the tax credit, a shopper incentive Tesla desperately wants. The corporate has posted two straight quarters of losses. Tesla’s model, thanks partly to Musk’s antics, is poisoned. Parking heaps filled with Teslas sit unsold. Musk’s empire is one constructed on tax incentives and government subsidies.

But Musk continues to play ideological footsie with the American proper, a bunch of people that clearly wouldn’t have the identical long-term pursuits as he does. Throughout their interview on X, Musk pushed Trump on sustainability and the surroundings.

Trump pushed the dialog, as a substitute, towards nuclear warfare. “The one factor I don’t perceive is that folks discuss international warming, or they discuss local weather change, however they by no means discuss nuclear warming,” Trump stated, ignoring Musk’s very actual issues about our warming planet.

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