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  • Current Events & Politics Moderators: deficiT | tryptakid | Foreigner

US Politics the 2025 trump presidency thread

The fact Donald Trump feels he needs to use the whole 'existential threat' spiel tells us that Tesla sales ARE struggling. That he took time off from playing golf suggests it's SERIOUS.

time.com

Tesla's Sales Have Been Hit Around the World

Recent data shows that the EV maker's sales have seen major drops in markets around the world.
time.com time.com

Although Elon Musk holds 13.04% of the Tesla stock, it's possible of other shareholders to vote to remove him as CEO. It strikes me that Elon Musk could, quite resonably, satate that he feels unable to manage Tesla while working for Donald Trump. If people aren't buying Tesla cars BECAUSE of him, it would be to his financial benefit and avoids loss of face. He would still hold the shares, after all.

But it's my opinion that the 'big win' Elon Musk sees worth supporting Donald Trump is 'robot taxis'. Musk has been claiming there will be driverless taxis in the US 'by next year' for almost a decade but tests kept showing that the technology just isn't ready yet. But I'm sure under this administration, safety will not be the highest priority.
 
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rollingout.com

Arson attack on Tesla in France protests against Elon Musk

A Tesla dealership in a suburb of Toulouse, France, was set ablaze in what a group says is a protest against billionaire Elon Musk.
rollingout.com

I'm not about to defend anyone destroying someone else's property, but I can foresee Tesla eventually pulling out of European sales. Certainly, the figures from the article I posted show that in an economic bloc primed for EV sales, customers are simply deciding not to choose Tesla.

After all, why should Europe enrigh the US? Donald Trump is VERY clear on the topic of 'America First'. Well fine, expect buyers not to want that association.

There must reach a point where the uncertainty around sales will make investing in a new Tesla dealership an unattractive proposition. MAYBE Tesla is underwriting such investment, but it's not like there aren't many marques that are only sold within the USA. So it wouldn't be unique for Tesla to decide Europe isn't going to be a profitable market (for one reason or another).
 
if i was a tesla shareholder, i'd be pretty mad at elon musk right now. he's doing nothing to improve shareholder value and, as somebody who's demanding federal employees be accountable, tesla shareholders will surely, and unironically, hold him accountable?

alasdair
 
alasdairm said:
if i was a tesla shareholder, i'd be pretty mad at elon musk right now. he's doing nothing to improve shareholder value and, as somebody who's demanding federal employees be accountable, tesla shareholders will surely, and unironically, hold him accountable?

alasdair
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finance.yahoo.com

Well, all of them are serious players and they are certainly going to be considering if Elon Musk's vocal, reactionary and very public personality are costing them money.

Every so often a list of potential replacement CEOs becomes 300 words of copy for one financial news outlet or another.

Some of them also hold shares in other EV manufacturers and may have someone in mind with appropriate experience.

The BIGGEST lie is that Elon Musk founded Tesla. He didn't. Investors will know that so it's possible that someone else at Tesla would be seen as a good compromise.

People don't often decide on their new car based on the behaviors of the CEO. Don't forget, Lee Iacocca worked at Ford for many years so understood engineering. The few bits of 'engineering' Elon Musk insisted on undertaking resulted in huge cost overruns. So maybe someone from Tesla who DOES have engineering knowledge and is able to quietly make the marque a success by avoiding the whole cult of personality?
 
4DQSAR said:

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finance.yahoo.com

Well, all of them are serious players and they are certainly going to be considering if Elon Musk's vocal, reactionary and very public personality are costing them money.

Every so often a list of potential replacement CEOs becomes 300 words of copy for one financial news outlet or another.

Some of them also hold shares in other EV manufacturers and may have someone in mind with appropriate experience.

The BIGGEST lie is that Elon Musk founded Tesla. He didn't. Investors will know that so it's possible that someone else at Tesla would be seen as a good compromise.

People don't often decide on their new car based on the behaviors of the CEO. Don't forget, Lee Iacocca worked at Ford for many years so understood engineering. The few bits of 'engineering' Elon Musk insisted on undertaking resulted in huge cost overruns. So maybe someone from Tesla who DOES have engineering knowledge and is able to quietly make the marque a success by avoiding the whole cult of personality?
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Worm seems to be turning on Elon et. al - (free link share from The Atlantic):

www.theatlantic.com

Elon Musk Looks Desperate

How to lose $148 billion in less than two months
www.theatlantic.com www.theatlantic.com

Yesterday’s White House stunt had all the hallmarks of Trump corruption, but there was something else, too—an air of desperation. It was a tacit admission that the protests are working and that Musk and Trump are rattled enough by current sentiment that they’re willing to turn the South Lawn into a showroom. Watching Musk clam up on Fox Business or quietly idle next to Trump in front of the White House, it’s even easier than normal to see past Musk’s trademark bullshitting and bluster. These moments make clear that this time, Musk has wagered the only thing he can’t easily buy back—the very myth he created for himself.
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It is fair to say that Donald Trump does have a certain amount of 'form' when it comes to throwing others under a bus IF it provides someone else to blame.

I think the telltales will be Donald Trump beginning to distance himself from some of Elon Musk's behaviors.

However else you look at it, Tesla sales have crashed in Europe BUT I suspect Elon Musk my decide that he can spin that into 'America First', But if investors see the car maker pull out or at least hugely downsize in Europe (a market FAR more primed for EVs than the US0, that's an enormous price to pay and US sales would have to be HUGE to offet that. Testla's cost more to produce than competitors so the image was a KEY selling point. But being Mt. Tesla and then being massively unpopular in the largest sales region on the planet... is problematic for investors.

It's also the case that Donald Trump has declared 'drill, drilll' so if US fuel prices go down, that's NOT going to help Tesla. THAT could prove to be a bone of contention.
 
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Jen X said:
No offense guys but I don't think America is progressive enough to vote a woman let alone a non white one to be the president.
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Watch democrats double down and run a trans, lesbian, and darker black woman that hates white men in 2028. They are so fucking clueless, this is an illiterate white Christian racist country - read the fucking room and play to it if you want to win.
 
Jen X said:
Time to start voting in people under 70
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Buffering Mitch Mcconnell GIF by Creative Courage
 
AOC seems to be stepping up a bit as of late. I'd love to see her take a run at it.

Honestly - Mayor Michelle Wu of Boston just held court in Congress and stared down Homan and the good ole boys who were glad handing each other about immigrants and violence - she held her own talking about how Boston is an example of progressive excellence in The US - a safe city with good infrastructure, not without problems but many of which are caused by federal fickleness (health care shenanigans, immigration uncertainty etc.) - I wouldn't be surprised to see her take a run at Governor or even Presidency in the future
 
@tryptakid - I only just watched the footage. I found it pretty cringe-making. Donald Trump is not a good fit for selling the image Tesla has previously tried to associate with it's cars.

Apart from a house, a car is the most expensive purchace most people will ever make so they aren't just buying a car, they are buying into an entire lifestyle. An image. They want others to judge them in a positive light for what they choose to drive.

With the best will in the world, the brand Donald Trump is most famously associated with is McDonalds. I'm not attacking McDonalds. I'm sure their marketing team loved the fact that Donald Trump served their food in the Whitehouse, that he worked at a drive-thru as a photo-op and has repeatedly name-checked them as his favourite food.

But that is totally at odds with what any car buyer wants to be part of, even tangentially. I only know a little bit about marketing but one thing I was repeatedly told was that 'consistency of tone' is the foundational to building a brand,

This, this was a totally different tone, and I would suggest, not one compatible with increased percieved value of Tesla.

As others have mentioned, MAYBE Elon Musk is now in such a poor financial position that he's prepared to take a risk and see if it pays off? Maybe there are enough MAGA who will put aside image and buy purely from loyalty. I don't know. But I suggest it's not going to make anyone undecided actually choose to buy a Tesla if they were considering other options.

I DO have an honest question. Was Elon Musk attempting to use Donald Trump to sell Tesla and/or was Donald Trump attempting to use Tesla to make him appear more sophisticated? I ask because Elon looks and sounds REALLY uncomfortable. There is no sense of any rehersal or script. As always, Donald Trump extemporized on how wonderful all the cars were, but he isn't a man who uses scripts. However, he did SEEM to know exactly what to expect. Musk... sounded HORRIFIED.

Meanwhile, somewhere in London:

postimg.cc

elmo — Postimages

postimg.cc postimg.cc

I can't speak of the media elsewhere, but even the most right-leaning newspapers in the UK couldn't resist point out detail such as the specific model bought by Donald Trump has been subject to multiple recalls and *shock* Donald Trump won't actually be driving it. Apparently a staff member called 'Martin' is the lucky winner.
 
postimg.cc

POWER! — Postimages

postimg.cc postimg.cc

It's becoming a thing where Londoners are actually taking photographs and sharing them on social media platforms.

The next thing, apparently, is going to be a pop-up shop where you can by 'Everyone Hates Elon' stuff.

Whatever your opinion, it's almost certainly going to be highly collectable.
 
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