The relationship between Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk and President Donald Trump has been mostly positive since their notorious spat last year. After all, the billionaire poured hundreds of millions of dollars into Trump’s 2024 campaign and remains a key supporter today.
Still, Trump continues to share his distaste for the electric vehicle (EV) sector.
"I ended the electric mandate. I don’t want to talk about it because Elon wasn’t exactly thrilled with me, but I had to do it. We love Elon," Trump said Wednesday during a speech in Las Vegas, Nevada, according to Electrek.
The never was a “mandate” to switch to EVs, as the president has sometimes publicly lied about. Instead, the president is referencing the ending of the $7,500 federal tax credit, which his administration ended when he took office for a second presidential term.
"I ended (it) because it said that within a very short period of time, like 20-30, everybody had to have an electric car — even though there was no way you could charge it."
Again, there was never a mandate to make every consumer buy an EV, just some states having goals to have all EVs by 2030 or into the future.
"You ever see the signs? You’re driving along in electric car, they have a disease, you know it’s a disease…they’re driving and they realize their battery’s getting low, and they start thinking about it when it’s ¾ full."
Trump went onto say that EV drivers, and those looking for charging stations while driving are "crazy."
While Tesla and other companies have increased the number of charging stations across the country, locations to charge a vehicle and the given range remain a concern and a reason that some consumers haven’t made the switch to electric yet.
Tensions Over EV Sector
Trump’s sharp rhetoric directly undermines Musk and signals fresh hostility toward the sector, despite offering a brief nod of approval for EV in his speech.
"I like electric cars,” he said. “You know, we sell 7% of our cars despite all the taxes and all of the things that we gave away. 7%."
While that figure aligns with current U.S. market share, EV advocates have little reason to celebrate as European adoption tops 20% and China sits above 50%.
Trump Vs. Musk Fights
When Musk publicly opposed the Big Beautiful Bill, Trump clapped back, claiming his campaign-trail backer had "Trump Derangement Syndrome."
The president also claimed Musk was upset over how the bill would affect the EV sector. Musk denied the claim.
“This is an unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill because it does not include the policies he wanted. The President is focused on passing the historic piece of legislation and making our country great again,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Benzinga at the time when asked for comment on some tweets made by Musk.
Tesla stock saw it’s biggest one-day market cap loss at the time, losing $152 billion on June 5, 2025 as the two figures publicly battled on social media.
Today, while Trump continues to bad mouth EVs and autonomous vehicles, his administration continues to support Musk and his companies with policies and new regulations.
This includes recently making it easier to advance autonomous vehicles from the likes of Tesla, even though Trump once publicly opposed them as well.
"Do you like autonomous? Does anybody like an autonomous vehicle? Know what that is? Right? When you see a car driving along? Some people do, I don’t know. A little concerning to me, but the autonomous vehicles we’re going to stop from operating on American roads,” Trump said in October 2024 at the Detroit Economic Club.
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