US President does infomercial at White House for company owned by his biggest political donor

Donald Trump, the President of the United States, performed what basically amounts to an infomercial at the White House for Tesla, a company controlled by his biggest political donor, a day after its stock crashed.

Yesterday, Tesla’s stock crashed 15% – resulting in a 50% drop from its peak in December.

Last night, Trump posted a message on Truth Social supporting Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO and his biggest political donor. In the message, he called the Tesla boycotts “illegal” and he said that he would be buying a Tesla vehicle to show his support for Musk.

He has apparently followed through today, but he went a quite a bit further as he held a press conference in front of Tesla vehicles at the White House:

The President, who has previously shared misinformation about electric vehicles being “unusable,” praised Tesla’s vehicles and said that he would be buying a Model S Plaid.

He is not allowed to drive, so he said that he would let White House staff use the vehicle instead.

The President was photographed with notes that included talking points about Tesla’s pricing and “Full Self-Driving” features:

It falsely claimed that “all cars have self-driving, just needs to be turned on”, which is misleading since Tesla vehicles are incapable of self-driving. They are equipped with a level 2 ADAS system that requires the supervision of a driver at all times, and Tesla takes no responsibility in the case of an accident.

Tesla’s stock (TSLA) rose up 5% on the publicity stunt today, but it closed up 3.8% compared to being down 15% yesterday.

Electrek’s Take

When I write those headlines, I feel like I’m running The Onion in an alternative universe where satire is the reality.

But you can’t accuse me of “clickbaiting” because this headline is actually accurate.

For years, Trump has been one of the biggest promoters of misinformation about electric vehicles in the US. We have often reported on the ridiculous things he has said about them.

That hasn’t changed. In fact, Trump is still pushing hard against electric vehicles. We recently reported on Trump shutting down 8,000 EV chargers at federal buildings and he is pushing to remove the tax credit on electric vehicles.

This is purely transactional. Elon gave him $250 million, so now that Tesla’s stock is in free fall, he gives him a boost.

Like his Bitcoin pump, it isn’t likely to work. My hope is that it will at least help open the minds of some of his fans to electric vehicles, but I have doubts.