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“President Donald Trump shopped for a new Tesla on the White House driveway [last] Tuesday, selecting a shiny red sedan to show his support for Elon Musk ‘s electric vehicle company as it faces blowback because of his work to advance the president’s political agenda and downsize the federal government.” AP News
“Violence against Tesla dealerships will be labeled domestic terrorism and perpetrators will ‘go through hell,’ U.S. President Donald Trump said [last] Tuesday… About 350 demonstrators protested outside a Tesla electric vehicle dealership in Portland, Oregon, last week, while nine people were arrested during a raucous demonstration outside a New York City Tesla dealership earlier in March. There have also been media reports of vandalism on Tesla vehicles and showrooms.” Reuters
The left criticizes Trump and Musk and is supportive of efforts to boycott Tesla.
“If you’re out there watching your 401(k) shrivel up, or worrying about Musk cutting your Medicaid, Medicare or Social Security, or wondering how you’ll survive now that you’ve been unceremoniously axed from your federal job, I’m sure it’s a relief to know Trump cares deeply about Musk and his overpriced electric cars… It’s amazing what an uber-billionaire can buy these days. In Musk’s case, he seems to have bought control of the federal government and a presidential spokesperson for Tesla…
“Trump posted on social media: ‘Elon Musk is ‘putting it on the line’ in order to help our Nation, and he is doing a FANTASTIC JOB! But the Radical Left Lunatics, as they often do, are trying to illegally and collusively boycott Tesla, one of the World’s great automakers, and Elon’s ‘baby,’ in order to attack and do harm to Elon, and everything he stands for.’ If you still believe in capitalism, I’m not quite sure what an ‘illegal’ boycott is, but whatever. Words don’t mean much these days.”
Rex Huppke, USA Today
“Presidents have long promoted American businesses. Teddy Roosevelt supposedly coined the Maxwell House ad slogan ‘good to the last drop’ after having a cup, and Joe Biden once took a Ford F-150 Lightning for a spin, saying ‘this sucker's quick.’ (Sadly, the Ford Motor Co. did not pick that up as a slogan.) But neither Maxwell House nor Ford executives worked in the White House. Neither made massive donations to a presidential campaign…
“Trump was trying to help his top political ally by using the White House as a backdrop for free advertising, like some President's Day car sale come to life… When Barack Obama ran for re-election in 2012, GOP lawmakers seized on the catchphrase ‘crony capitalism’ to bash him for giving a speech to workers at a solar panel manufacturing plant run by Solyndra, which had received a loan guarantee under his economic stimulus program… [Now] crony capitalism isn't an attack line; it's the plan.”
Ryan Teague Beckwith, MSNBC
“I’ve always had my doubts about consumer boycotts, which at best tend to make the non-buyer feel good without achieving very much and at worst hurt ordinary employees with no power to grant whatever the boycotter wants. But MAGAworld evidently believes in them, judging by the way Bud Light’s sales plummeted after it featured a trans influencer in a marketing campaign…
“And while there’s no justification for violence against car dealers, peacefully not buying stuff is the safest form of protest imaginable for anyone fearful of retaliation by this regime… That boycotts get under the president’s skin where nothing else – not court orders, not the barely disguised horror of old allies abroad – seems therefore to make a strange kind of sense. To a president who sees everything in terms of making money, it’s consumers who matter.”
Gaby Hinsliff, The Guardian
The right defends Trump and Musk and is critical of efforts to boycott Tesla.
The right defends Trump and Musk and is critical of efforts to boycott Tesla.
“Teslas have been set on fire, spray-painted, and otherwise damaged. Charging stations have been burned and dealerships vandalized. Shots were fired at a Tesla showroom in Portland, Ore… Part of the point is intimidation. The agitation is meant to exact a price on Musk for DOGE and get him to abandon the effort, as well as to make Tesla’s workers and the company’s consumers afraid…
“Much mockery was directed at President Trump for touting the wonders of Teslas at a White House event, but the president was trying to counteract a campaign of harassment and vengeance directed at one of his top advisers, who he believes is doing good and necessary work. Asked by a reporter if he’d consider the anti-Tesla violence domestic terrorism, Trump said ‘yes,’ and rightly so…
“Musk enjoys being a provocateur. Yet, when he or his supporters talk of burning things down, they mean it metaphorically. His witless and inflamed enemies, on the other hand, are willing to literally burn things down. It is darkly amusing to see people for whom electric cars are necessary to saving the planet attack the most successful EV brand in the country, and take out the kind of charging stations that President Biden labored so mightily and futilely to build.”
Rich Lowry, National Review
“We are constantly implored to base our purchasing decisions on matters that have nothing to do with price, practicality or other qualities of the product itself – but rather on the political views of people who run the company… A similar thing is going on with the bakers Gail’s, which is opposed by some because its chairman, Luke Johnson, was a prominent Brexit campaigner…
“This attitude – don’t focus on the product but on the people who make it – is also feeding protectionism. We are constantly urged to boycott products on the basis of the country from which they are derived…
“Tesla, indeed, had already come under fire in Germany before Musk started his political flip to the right – its factory near Berlin was opposed by many, notionally on the grounds that it would destroy a few trees, but more realistically on the grounds that it was an American car, not a German one… If consumers carry on this way, they are going to deprive themselves of choice and make themselves poorer.”
Ross Clark, Spectator World
“On abortion, free speech, the Second Amendment, and other topics, I have strong views that are no doubt contradicted by my toaster or my dishwasher or the batteries in my golf cart. And… boy can you hear how stupid that sounds? Quite obviously, my toaster and my dishwasher and the batteries in my golf cart do not have political views, and the views that are held by the individuals or companies that make them are not the reason that I own those items or why I chose them over the competition… Not everything has to be sucked into the maw.”
Charles C. W. Cooke, National Review
Orange Alert: What Caused the Colors on This Snowy Owl?
New York Times
