As the stock market continues to drop due to President Donald Trump’s tariff program and resulting anxiety over the possible recession economists warn may come — reinforced by his refusal to rule one out — the President has decided to go on a campaign to promote Tesla, the electric vehicle company owned by the leader of his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), billionaire tech magnate Elon Musk. Tesla’s stock price reportedly had been sliced nearly in half since Trump was elected.
Late Tuesday afternoon Trump and Musk “turned the South Lawn of the White House into a temporary Tesla showroom in a conspicuous favor to his adviser Elon Musk,” NBC News reported. “Tesla delivered five of its vehicles to the White House and parked them on a driveway for Trump to personally inspect, hours after he said in a post on his app Truth Social that he planned to buy a Tesla to demonstrate his support for Musk and for the slumping car company.”
CNN called it “an extraordinary scene” as Trump “effectively held a combination press conference and live Tesla ad outside the White House,” while noting that “Tesla stock climbed on Tuesday, with Trump saying that he would label any violence against Tesla dealerships as domestic terrorism.”
Many Americans are increasingly concerned about the economy as Trump’s tariffs start to take hold and the markets continue to drop. The DOW, for example, has lost 2800 points in the past month, including Tuesday’s drop of 478 points.
Trump lavished praise on Musk’s Model S, repeatedly calling it “beautiful” and expressing surprise, remarking, “everything’s computer.” His remarks are in stark contrast to his history of denouncing electric vehicles, and more recently, indicating he plans to make it more expensive for Americans to buy them.
According to Kelley Blue Book, the Model S starts at $76,880.
During the event, Musk lavished praise on President Trump, declaring, “As a function of the great policies of President Trump and his administration, and as an act of faith in America, Tesla is going to DOUBLE vehicle output in the United States within the next two years. Double.”
Trump told reporters he was going to buy a Tesla today “because number one this is a great product, as good as it gets, and number two because this man has devoted his energy, and his life to doing this.”
“I think he’s been treated very unfairly by a very small group of people, Trump continued. Earlier this week on social media Trump blamed “Radical Left Lunatics” for “illegally,” he claimed, boycotting Tesla.
“And I just want people to know that you can’t be penalized for being a patriot. And he’s a great patriot. And he’s also done an incredible job with Tesla and I mean, nobody else has a car company started up in the last 30 years that’s been successful, and I don’t think so. And not only successful, but super successful and because he’s able to find billions and billions and billions of dollars of fraud and waste and all other things.”
“I mean, our country is gonna be very strong very soon,” Trump added, “because of a lot of the things that he’s done, and a lot of the things that I’m doing. And uh this there is no better team, but there’s no better for what we’re doing. There’s nobody like this, and he shouldn’t be penalized, and when I watched the other day, I said, I can’t believe it. It should be the opposite.”
But it was Fox News’ Peter Doocy, known for his attacks on the Biden administration, who shifted the conversation, challenging the event that resembled a presidential endorsement of Tesla.
“President Trump, buying a new car while there are some folks who will see this clip at home, and they are struggling with their retirement accounts — down at the moment — uncertainty about work ahead,” he told Trump.
“Well I think they’re going to do great,” Trump declared, bypassing the line of questioning. “Our country had to do this. We had to go and do this.”
“Other countries have taken away our business. They’ve taken away our jobs,” Trump insisted.