Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said Monday that if elected he would consider eliminating the $7,500 tax credit on electric vehicle purchases and that he would be open to giving Tesla CEO Elon Musk a Cabinet or advisory role.
“Tax credits and tax incentives in general are not a very good thing,” Trump said when asked about the EV credit in an interview with Reuters after a campaign event in York, Pennsylvania.
Asked if he would consider nominating Musk for an advisory role or a Cabinet job, Trump said he would. “He’s a very smart guy. I would certainly do that, if he would do that, I would certainly do that. He’s a wonderful guy,” Trump said.
Musk last month publicly endorsed Trump in the US presidential race. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
If Trump is elected, he could take steps to reverse Treasury Department rules that make it easier for automakers to take advantage of the $7,500 credit or ask the US Congress to repeal it altogether. While president, Trump sought to repeal the EV tax credit, which was later extended by President Joe Biden in 2022.
“I’m not making any final decision on that,” Trump said of the EV tax credit. “I’m a big fan of electric cars, but I’m also a fan of gasoline-powered cars, and hybrids and whatever other things come out.”
He said he would repeal Biden administration rules that would push automakers to build more EVs and plug-in hybrids to meet stricter emissions standards and said he sees a “very small market” for EVs because of cost and battery range issues.
Trump also said on Monday that he would take steps to discourage exports of vehicles produced by the Detroit Three automakers and others from Mexico by imposing new tariffs and would block Chinese automakers from building new plants in Mexico to make vehicles for the U.S. market. He has made similar threats during his presidency.
“If you put tariffs on those cars, they’ll come here too,” Trump said. “It’s very simple. It’s not complicated. If you say to Mexico, ‘Look, you’re stealing our car industry,’ which they’re doing right now.”
But Trump is open to Chinese and other automakers building vehicles in the U.S. “We’re going to offer incentives, and if China and other countries want to come here and sell cars, they’ll build plants here and hire our workers,” Trump said. “We’ll build our own cars. I want to build my own cars.”
In addition, Trump has strongly criticized Alphabet’s Google but declined to say whether he thinks the technology company should be broken up, after a judge ruled this month that Google is an illegal monopoly.
“They’re almost like the Wild West,” Trump said of Google, but he did not elaborate on what punishment Google should receive. “They’re going to pay a very big price for this.”
Trump had previously said he would hold off on banning short video app TikTok despite a law being approved in April setting a January 19, 2025 deadline for Chinese owner Bytedance to sell TikTok’s US assets. Asked if he could accept continued Chinese ownership of TikTok, Trump did not answer directly but said Bytedance could sell it.
“It’s very hard to ban something like that, because you’re talking about freedom of speech,” Trump said. “You’re talking about a lot of different things in this equation, but TikTok has treated me very well.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)