Musk falls back on donation promises & pledges for Trump

In addition to signalling his support for the presidential candidate, Elon Musk asserted that the selection of Vance was an “excellent decision.” This is an interesting take from Musk since the new vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance is behind the ‘Drive American Act‘, the aim of which is not only to remove the existing subsidies for electric cars, but also to replace them with the ‘America First Vehicle Credit’ in order to subsidize combustion vehicles manufactured in the USA. Initially, the Tesla CEO sang a different tune:

Last week, rumours surfaced that Musk had donated to the Political Action Committee (PAC) behind the Trump campaign, although the amount remains unclear. Media reports stated that the planned donation amount will stand at $45 million per month. Musk has replied to a Wall Street Journal report asserting as much, writing on social media: “fake gnus”.

The news that Musk donated to the PAC was also revealed by unnamed “people familiar with the matter,” casting a very intransparent light on the entire deal.

Since the announcement, Tesla’s stock price has fallen by 2%, indicating that Tesla’s shareholders were not entirely happy about the move. Recently there has been further controversy with the Tesla CEO, who managed to secure a 56 billion dollar share package as his compensation. Furthermore, the promised launch of the $25,000 electric car and robotaxi continue to be pushed back. An impact report by Tesla also recently saw that the 2030 sales targets seem to have vanished.

electrek.co, cnbc.com, wsj.com (both donation rumours),