\n
![](\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/img-assets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/GettyImages-633679096-e1721162545565.jpg?w=2048\")
<\/p>\n [ad_1]
\n<\/p>\n
After Tesla<\/a> CEO Elon Musk reportedly pledged $180 million ($45 million per month) to Trump\u2019s campaign\u2014which would be the largest financial commitment in this presidential race by a tune of $130 million\u2014some<\/a> thought the billionaire could change Trump\u2019s mind on electric vehicles (EVs), which he hates<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cElon\u2019s out founding Super PACs and telling donors to give money to Trump and so I think, you know, Trump\u2014in his kind of calculating\u2014is like: \u2018Well, I better lay off EV stuff,\u2019\u201d Michael Murphy, a Republican strategist and CEO of the EV Politics Project<\/a>, previously told<\/a> Fortune<\/em>.<\/p>\n But after Trump\u2019s \u201cEV-bashing\u201d at the Republican National Convention Thursday night, where he accepted the Republican Party\u2019s nomination for the presidency, Murphy believes Trump has \u201cbetrayed\u201d Musk.\u00a0<\/p>\n Trump \u201chad backed off [on criticizing EVs for a few weeks], and then the speech came, and one of his wide-eyed assistants stabbed in the prompter, so he gleefully went off on a big EV-bash,\u201d Murphy said.\u00a0<\/p>\n On Thursday evening, Trump said his presidency would reverse the \u201cgreen new scam,\u201d particularly by ending \u201cthe electric-vehicle mandate on day one,\u201d thereby saving \u201cthe U.S auto industry from complete obliteration,\u201d and \u201cU.S. customers thousands and thousands per car.\u201d<\/p>\n It isn\u2019t clear exactly what the \u201celectric-vehicle mandate\u201d is. Murphy, who is an expert on EVs, didn\u2019t know either, but suggested it could refer to the Biden administration\u2019s subsidies for the vehicles, which he says has led to larger growth of manufacturing jobs currently than under Trump.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAnd then Trump says, \u2018Well, it\u2019s all government boondoggle.\u2019 Well, that\u2019s what the Chinese are doing,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cThe Chinese have written much bigger checks to build a huge EV industry that loses money to come in and unfairly compete and put Americans out of work. So Trump doesn\u2019t have the policy theft to understand the issues, he just does applause lines that are based on complete ignorance.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Trump also focused on the large amounts of spending on EV chargers, citing a statistic that the administration spent $9 billion on eight EV chargers, which is factually incorrect<\/a> (the government spent $7 billion on eight charging sites across six states, with no indication that any of them have broken).\u00a0<\/p>\n The rhetoric could harm Musk and his company, even though Trump threw in a half-hearted bone to the EV industry during the speech (\u201cAnd if you are going to do this all over our country, this crazy electric Band-Aid\u2026 And by the way, I\u2019m all for electric. They have their application.\u201d). Musk has received billions of dollars in subsidies for several of his companies, and Trump even previously said Musk would be \u201cworthless\u201d without them due to Tesla\u2019s safety issues in its self-driving program and Musk\u2019s private space firm SpaceX<\/a> for launching \u201crocket ships to nowhere.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Yet Musk himself recently called for the elimination of subsidies for the electric industry.<\/p>\n \u201cIt will only help Tesla,\u201d Musk posted<\/a> on X, shortly after endorsing Trump. \u201cAlso, remove subsidies on all industries!\u201d<\/p>\n Trump has, in the past, repeatedly bashed Musk, claiming in 2022 that he \u201ccould have said, \u201cdrop to your knees and beg\u201d and \u201c[Musk] would have done it.\u201d<\/p>\n Now that relations between the two are cozier\u2014Musk has gone all in on supporting Trump since the former president survived an assassination attempt last Saturday, while Trump called Musk \u201cfantastic\u201d in a recent Bloomberg<\/em><\/a> interview\u2014Murphy hopes the world\u2019s richest man can make an impression on Trump.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think Elon will have a positive influence on Trump, but it\u2019ll take time,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cThe more that American voters understand that the EV issue is a consumer choice and a jobs issue, the more voters will not reward this kind of rhetoric. You know, it\u2019s misleading and demagogic, and it only helps the Chinese.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n