When Trump is President............

[Sunlight]

Being foreign I follow US politics but don't know the minutiae so was wondering when Trump is president (or is that IF....?), will he be pro-EV or anti-EV?

Is he an 'oil man' or independently minded? Presidential decrees could influence the way EVs develop....

How does TMC see a Trump-led USA?

 

[Lloyd]

IMO he will be Neutral EV, but he will be PRO us manufacturing, so net good for Tesla.

 

[JeffC]

Trump is anti free trade which would be bad for Tesla and really the whole world, including the U.S. Trade barriers make it harder to import and export which certainly hurts an American manufacturer, especially one trying to export cars. Economists have known since Adam Smith that free trade is beneficial overall, and almost all of them agree with that position today. The theory and empirical evidence is pretty clear.

 

[Fallenone]

He's pretty much against government subsidies so that's a negative. But he is pretty pro US manufacturing so that's a positive. And I think he's neutral on oil. Net effect, I don't know.

 

[bonnie]

Well IF (and that's a pretty big 'if' in my book) he were elected, I doubt he'd be open to the shenanigans going on in state legislatures, where the dealership lobbies are working hard to stop Tesla from selling. It smacks of 'politics as usual' & 'vote buying through political donations' and he's busy claiming he's not that guy. If he didn't speak out against it, then he would be 'that guy'.

We shall see.

 

[JeffC]

Trump is for trade protectionism, which hurts American manufacturers. When one county enacts trade barriers, other countries set up trade barriers against the other country in response. The net result is that there's less trade overall, and both countries do less trade with each other. That's bad for manufacturing. Trump does not seem to understand this, even though pretty much every economist agrees its the case.

 

[Electroman]

Trump is a businessman at heart has the instincts. He can and will be bought by big oil and the fat cat dealers.

 

[Erleichda]

He already has been bought by big oil...

Trump taps climate change skeptic, fracking advocate as key energy advisor

Now go stop him from winning or Tesla is in big trouble.

 

[stopcrazypp]

One thing to be careful about Trump is that he can change plans/positions at a drop of the hat. With that huge caveat, his current position seems to be protectionism against China. This can hurt Tesla by China doing retaliatory policies and hurting Tesla's move into the Chinese market.

His other policy seems to be deep cuts to corporate/income/capital gains taxes (with the most wealthy being the biggest beneficiaries). The positive is that there is a lower tax rate to Tesla and there might be more money available for wealthy people who might buy Teslas (although with Tesla moving down market this advantage is slim). The negative impact to Tesla is it can destroy the budget of the Federal government and this can lead to cuts to plug-in related programs (at federal, state, and local levels, since cuts in federal funding ripples all the way down).

 

[flamingoezz]

he changes his stances so often nobody really knows what his positions will be by the time he takes office.

 

[2018 Steve]

And we can surely trust the Clintons or Socialist Bernie???

 

[S'toon]

I'm not too sure where people are getting that he's pro-US manufacturing from. He's outsourced his products to non-US manufacturers such as China himself.

 

[Drivin]

Trump is anti free trade...Trump is for trade protectionism,.

Nope.
He is against bad deals pretending they are "free trade".
Some trade deals are good. Some are bad.

"In a system of truly free trade and floating exchange rates like a Trump administration would support, America's massive trade deficit with China would not persist." From his website.

 

[Vitold]

Trump will do anything you'd like him to do until he decides that he's done with you.

Business is business after all.

EDIT: btw, if it rhymes it must be true

 

[eloder]

And we can surely trust the Clintons or Socialist Bernie???

Regardless of your views of democratic socialism, socialist countries in Europe are leading the way in EVs by far. 2/3rds of all new car sales in Norway are electrified and over 15% are pure EV, compared with less than one half of one percent in the US today. Or in other words, socialists are 30 times more advanced than we are at advancing superior electric transportation.

Any candidate who has climate change front and center in the spotlight is going to help propel the EV revolution, as transportation is the biggest source of climate change today.

Trump isn't likely to be EV friendly at all. While he says one thing, just look at his track record that heavily favors using undocumented workers and foreign labor in his own businesses. Any true pro-American politician today would bend over backwards to have an American-designed, American-manufactured car be successful as possible, yet the only states passing anti-EV and anti-Tesla laws are those dominated by the legislation of one specific political party.

 

[kort677]

If I was a mod here I'd move this thread to the political bin

 

[deonb]

If I was a mod here I'd move this thread to the political bin

There is a similar thread on the Clinton side. Whatever your particular political views are, it is good to explore the long-term impact on Tesla of voting for one or the other candidate, don't you think?

 

[ICE FREE]

Trump will be bad for business, bad for the environment, bad for EV's, bad for international relations, bad for women, bad for laborers. But, he will definitely be lining his own pockets. Since he ran for president all of his own companies revenues have essentially doubled in 1 year... That is no accident.

 

[cdub]

If! NOT When

But I'm not happy with either of the presumptive nominees.

I've also come to the conclusion that I'm much happier not following political or cable news. Better for my stress levels.

I've become a firm believer in the low info diet....at least in all things political.

The Low Information Diet

 

[pmadflyer]

Not to be political, please read up on Kansas school funding. Form your own opinions. I'm graduating with an engineering degree next year, and skipping town with everyone else. I had a decent part time job at the University, but lost it due to, "department wide funding issues." Right before that, we were told we had to halve our specimen numbers because none of the graduate research project got funding. Lastly, my sister in high school has it far worse.