Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump would put a screeching halt to lavish EV subsidies despite his budding bromance with Tesla billionaire Elon Musk.In an interview at a campaign event in Pennsylvania on Monday, The Donald said he’d end the Biden-era largesse even as he give consideration to naming Musk to a senior level cabinet position.Under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), car buyers are eligible for up to USD$7,500 in tax credits to buy EVs — including Teslas.“Tax credits and tax incentives are not generally a very good thing,” the Republican candidate said. "I'm a big fan of electric cars, but I'm a fan of gasoline-propelled cars, and also hybrids and whatever else happens to come along.".Trump said he would also rescind Biden’s EV mandates to meet tougher emissions rules and that he sees “a much smaller market” for EVs in general, because they’re too expensive.Trump unsuccessfully tried to revoke the EV tax credit while he was president in 2019, which was expanded under the Biden administration. Previous estimates by Congress have pegged the cost of the subsidy to taxpayers at $7.5 billion between the 2018 and 2022 fiscal years.He also vowed to slap punishing tariffs on cars made in China and Mexico — presumably including the Tesla — to encourage manufacturers to build plants in the US.“If you put tariffs on those cars, they're going to make it here" Trump said. "It's very simple. It's not complicated. If you tell Mexico, 'look, you're stealing our car industry,' which they're doing now."“If China and other countries want to come here and sell the cars, they're going to build plants here, and they're going to hire our workers.”.Tesla had no official comment on the remarks. They come amid a growing rapprochement between the two billionaires that saw Musk formally endorse Trump in July and pledge $45 million a month to his campaign, which Musk later denied.Earlier this month, Musk interviewed Trump on X Spaces in a rambling chat resulted in the United Auto Workers — some of whom work for Musk — file federal labour charges for bragging about cutting employees at Tesla plants.In addition to chairing Tesla, Musk’s SpaceX has billions in contracts to build spy satellites for the Pentagon and ferry astronauts into space for NASA.That wouldn’t stop Trump from giving the mercurial rocket Man a plum post in a future administration. “He’s a very smart guy. I certainly would, if he would do it, I certainly would. He’s a brilliant guy,” Trump said.For his part, Musk posted an AI-generated selfie to Twitter (“X”) — which he also owns, with the caption: “I am willing to serve.”
