Donald Trump, Tesla Salesman
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
In 2023, Donald Trump posted that electric-car supporters should “ROT IN HELL.” Now he is showcasing Teslas on the White House lawn. Yesterday, the president stood with Elon Musk and oohed and ahhed at a lineup of the electric vehicles, saying that he hoped his purchase of one would help the carmaker’s stock, which had halved in value since mid-December thanks to a combination of customer backlash and general economic uncertainty . (The stock has rebounded by 7.6 percent since yesterday.)
Trump does not own shares in Tesla, as far as we know. He has said that he is supporting the carmaker because protesters are “harming a great American company,” and has suggested that people who vandalize Tesla cars or protest the company should be labeled domestic terrorists. But he also seems interested in helping his friend, the special government employee Elon Musk, maintain his status as the wealthiest man in the world. Yesterday’s White House spectacle was, my colleague Charlie Warzel wrote , “a stilted, corrupt attempt to juice a friend’s stock, and certainly beneath the office of the presidency.”
If any other government official had similarly promoted a friend’s product (especially on hallowed White House grounds), they would have been in clear violation of the specific regulation restricting executive-branch employees from using their role to endorse commercial products or services, Kathleen Clark, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis, told me. But the president and the vice president are exempt from that regulation, as well as from some of the other ethics rules that govern federal officials. Norms, in this case, are the primary lever for holding the commander in chief accountable.
Trump has repeatedly demonstrated his appetite for overturning norms and pushing ethical bounds , so his latest stunt as a Tesla salesman is not altogether shocking. When Trump learned in 2016 that U.S. presidents are exempt from the conflict-of-interest rules that restrict other government officials, he seemed delighted. “The president can’t have a conflict of interest,” he told The New York Times then. “I’d assumed that you’d have to set up some type of trust or whatever.”
Despite the lack of legal restriction , modern presidents have generally moved assets into blind trusts , which are controlled by independent managers, in order to diminish any perception that they are profiting from the office (or that they are making policy decisions to boost their own investment portfolios). Trump has shuffled around his assets since taking office but in general has chosen to put his family in charge of managing them. Trump recently said that he’d transferred his shares of Truth Social into a trust controlled by his son Donald Trump Jr., a move that is “irrelevant from an ethics point of view” because the money could still flow to him, Clark told me. And with his own family controlling the trust, Trump likely knows exactly where his money is and can make decisions that would increase the value of his holdings.
Presidential conflicts of interest, or even the appearance of them, can undermine public confidence (nearly two-thirds of Americans said they believe that all or most elected officials ran for office to make money, a 2023 Pew Research Center survey found). Trump may not be directly profiting off Tesla, but the problem with him hawking cars poses the same issue as other potential conflicts of interest: What’s good for Truth Social or Trump’s meme coin or Tesla is not necessarily what’s good for the country, and Trump has so far not inspired confidence that he will prioritize the latter.
Musk, too, hasn’t assuaged concerns that he will separate his business interests from his role in the Trump administration: Musk’s corporate empire relies on government contracts. And the federal firings he is overseeing through his DOGE initiative are already reshaping agencies that regulate his companies.
After he sat in the Teslas and complimented them in front of cameras yesterday, Trump told the press that he would buy one of the vehicles and pay with a personal check . That relatively small financial commitment makes a big statement about the president and where his priorities lie: with the interests of his friend, the billionaire.
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Ever get the feeling Donnie is going to reprise Harry Wormwood in Matilda 2.0?
A bit off-topic, bbut i saw an article that mentions a different aspect to this story.
While Trump may start saying how wonderful those cars are, (and he just bought one)-- Presidents are not allowed to drive in public! So either he won't get to drive it at all-- or maybe he'll just drive it around the South Lawn of the White house.
the melon felon can only drive golf carts ...
Elected offficails should not be allowed to promote specific products.
Of course there are precedents--anyone remember this one:
Ivanka Trump says she had ‘every right’ to promote Goya Foods products on social media.
Government watchdogs and ethics experts take a different view
By Associated Press
Photo:
(Photo credit: Associated Press)
the networks pulled her hillshire farms yard 'o beef sausage ads 8 years ago last xmas as way too suggestive ...
Goya?
Doesn't sound American! (In fact, it could even be Mexican!)
ICE must be informed-- sounds to me like she must be deported!!!
Because Elon Musk - the richest man on the planet - needs more fucking help from the government.
the perks of a $300+ million campaign contribution ...
How Mr Quid meets Mr Pro and Mr Quo...
Where I come from, we call that “bribery.”
Swampy Swampy Swampy!