The Trump administration can’t stop shilling for Tesla

The White House appears to have a carrot-and-stick approach to making America love Teslas. Buy the car and the stock, officials say. And anyone caught vandalizing a charging station should expect to be labeled a “terrorist thug,” one possibly bound for a Salvadorean prison, as President Donald Trump wrote Friday.

The White House appears to have a carrot-and-stick approach to making America love Teslas. Buy the car and the stock, officials say. And anyone caught vandalizing a charging station should expect to be labeled a “terrorist thug,” one possibly bound for a Salvadorean prison, as President Donald Trump wrote Friday. The Trump administration’s unique affection for Tesla is just one of the ways that officials appear to be using their power to advance their own business interests in ways that ethics experts say are both unprecedented and alarming. “This is just not done,” Hui Chen, an anti-corruption expert and former federal prosecutor, told CNN. “This endorsement of a domestic brand in a space where there are many domestic players is unconventional, to say the least.” The latest warning from Trump came Friday, when he suggested that acts of vandalism against Tesla showrooms and vehicles were more concerning than the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, when a violent mob tried to overturn the 2020 election that Trump lost. “When I looked at those showrooms burning and those cars… exploding all over the place, these are terrorists,” Trump said in an Oval Office briefing. “You didn’t have that on January 6… these people are terrorists.” Of course, vandalism isn’t terrorism unless you drastically stretch the word’s meaning, Chen notes. Vandalism is a crime, but “to call vandalism against Tesla in this unique set of circumstances an act of terrorism… There’s just simply no basis for saying that,” she said.