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
“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.
Trump’s comments Friday underscored a consistent message from his administration: that Tesla is special and should be treated as such.
But any upside for Tesla’s business would directly enrich CEO Elon Musk, who is a special government employee overseeing an unofficial department that is trying to gut federal services and employment rolls.
Last week, Trump staged a live Tesla ad on the White House’s South Lawn, telling reporters he would write Musk a check for one of them for himself. The spectacle offered Tesla shares a sharp but short-lived bump.
It is not unusual for the US government to try to boost certain domestic industries broadly. But they don’t single out one business over and over the way they have with Tesla, an American company with several American rivals, said Jordan Libowitz, vice president for communications at the advocacy group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW.
The Tesla cheerleading reached a new apex on Wednesday. As Tesla’s stock was tumbling, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick went on Fox News to urge viewers to buy Tesla’s “cheap” stock — a moment that appeared to violate government ethics rules and simultaneously offer misleading investment advice. (Despite Tesla shares losing about half their value since December, they are not, in fact, “cheap.” By traditional metrics, Tesla shares remain some of the most expensive on Wall Street, trading at 60 times its projected 2026 earnings, per Fortune.)
Lutnick’s Tesla comments didn’t end up helping much, as Tesla’s stock — weighed down by falling sales and a growing brand crisis — fell 1.7% in premarket trading following his appearance.
“Saying ‘buy the stock’ is something we can’t think of ever seeing before,” Libowitz said, noting that a large portion of Musk’s wealth is tied up in Tesla stock. “It’s hard to see it as anything other than the White House doing a solid for one of its senior people.”
The White House, Commerce Department and Tesla didn’t immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.
