QOTD: Does It Make Sense for Elon Musk to Endorse Donald Trump?

by Tim Healey

Published: July 19th, 2024

qotd does it make sense for elon musk to endorse donald trump

It's a brief topic on our podcast today, but I have to wonder why the head honcho at an automaker that solely makes EVs is endorsing the presidential candidate whose administration will most likely be less favorable towards the technology should he win.

To be clear, I am coming at this purely from a business and policy perspective. Musk may have other reasons to support Donald Trump over Joe Biden (or should Biden drop out, an as yet unknown Democrat). And one thing I've learned about politics is that sometimes we support a candidate for one reason or another but that same candidate would disagree with us on certain policies. I know I once supported a candidate who I disagreed with on a lot of issues because he promised to clean up corruption, for example.

But Musk has to know that a Democratic administration almost certainly would be more friendly to his EV business than a Republican one would. And yes, this is very cynical of me, but I suspect that corporate head honchos tend to consider their business interests over their personal ideologies. Then again, Musk has sometimes gone against that particular grain.

Yes, this is a political QOTD during a week chock full of political news -- including a response to the attempted shooting of Trump that has been, at least in some quarters of social media, as divisive as ever. So please, please, please place nice down below. Stick to the topic and don't insult each other. The banhammer is ready and I do check the comments during the weekends.

So with that in mind, sound off below.

[Image: photosince/Shutterstock.com]

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Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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6 of 152 comments

Mike on Jul 22, 2024
So many of these comments will not age well. He can endorse whoever he wants. The best part is that Trump WILL win in November. He will do his thing and no matter what, if you hate him now, you will hate him 1,2,3,even 10 years from now. The country going back to normal and and being successful will be make us all better off, despite how you feel about him.

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- VoGhost on Jul 22, 2024
  Mike, what is your definition of 'normal' America? Telling people to drink bleach? Calling our veterans losers? Dumping on our allies? Begging North Korea for recognition? Reducing taxes on the ultra wealthy while taxing regular Americans through tariffs? Trying to take away health care from tens of millions? Claiming to be cutting drug pricing and passing an infrastructure bill, and only failing? Cutting food stamps for the starving? Eliminating our ability to respond to pandemics? Watching while the country was torn apart by riots? Inciting a treasonous riot attacking our capital? Imposing lock down because he failed to protect us from a virus? Destroying more jobs than he created? Leaving us in a deep recession? Yeah, that's not normal. That's evil
  
  1
- EBFlex on Jul 23, 2024
  Daily reminder everything TrollGhost says is a lie and he thinks diesel engines are zero emission.
  
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- Jkross22 on Jul 23, 2024
  Mike, I think you're spot on. The Repubs can still crash the car, but it's looking less likely each day.
  
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- VoGhost on Jul 23, 2024
  I dunno Mike. Most Republicans say they are opposed to the idea of a senile old man suffering from dementia in the White House.
  
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MKizzy on Jul 22, 2024
The top executives of many of the Fortune 500 companies support GOP candidates with their votes and donations while happily filling their corporate coffers with Progressive dollars. Unlike Musk however, they're smart enough to at least try to keep it to themselves. Perhaps Musk's political openness combined with his seemingly declining interest in Tesla is a sign he'll abandon Tesla by the end of the decade.

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