A lot of #resist folks are patting themselves on the back today, pointing out that they predicted the inevitable fallout between President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, the CEO of both an important car and space company.
First of all, it’s not prescience to suspect that two people whose later careers have been defined by a populist disinterest in consensus and, more importantly, by a resistance to conventional advice are butting heads. This was a reasonable eventuality, and in the “nothing ever happens” universe, it could just as easily be reversed before I even finish this post.
Since The Morning Dump is not about politics unless it relates to cars, I’m going to focus on what this means for automobiles and not the memes. Admittedly, the memes are good. In terms of pure theater, it was amusing, though the chuckle I let out was more of the “this is killing me inside” variety. The suggestion from President Trump is that this is all about tax credits, which is a wild reason to set the world on fire for a day.
Musk might be done with Trump (I sort of doubt it), but everyone else is still trying to make a deal. Mercedes has an outline for one, and I think it’s an interesting proposal worth listening to. The world is a crazy place, as always, and the future of warfare is probably drones. Two companies we write about a lot want to be a part of that future.
Finally, it’s Pesage, the official start of Le Mans! Get excited.
Is This Really About EV Tax Credits?
I will not litigate the ongoing battle between Tesla CEO Elon Musk and President Donald Trump, which stems from Musk’s displeasure with the President’s Big Beautiful Law. I will just say that it got extremely nasty, with Elon Musk stating that the reason why a certain List hasn’t been released is because President Trump is on it, and that the President should be impeached. For his part, the President said Musk is mad about losing electric car tax credits and that the government should just cancel all Musk’s many government contracts.
Musk responded by threatening to shut down America’s space program. This isn’t a place where I talk about my political beliefs, but my non-political belief is that we have one elected President at a time, and it’s bad that one unelected person can wield enough power to kill the International Space Station.
That’s a lot of things happening, and yesterday it cost Elon Musk’s companies, notably Tesla, about $38 billion in valuation according to Bloomberg. For whatever reason, Musk chilled out at the end of the day and seemed open to reconciliation (with Trump, not for the bill). There was a rumor of a call between the two men, but President Trump quashed that idea a few minutes ago. Again, I’m not going to play-by-play this because it’s too exhausting and that’s not my job.
I will say that the contention that Elon Musk is mad about losing tax credits is one I’m not 100% sold on. Even before the election was decided, Musk made a point of saying that his company no longer needs the tax credit. He also thinks subsidies should end for gasoline and just about anything else.
Why? To me, this is the ultimate “pull the ladder up behind you” move. It took a lot of tax credits and government investment to get Tesla to profitability, and now Musk might benefit from depriving other companies of that advantage. It might be bad for Tesla, but it could kill a company like Slate Auto before it even sells a single car.
On the other hand, Musk’s big opposition to the bill did come after he reportedly tried to save the tax credits, according to Bloomberg Government:
The Tesla Inc. chief executive officer personally appealed to House Speaker Mike Johnson to save the tax credit, the person said, requesting anonymity to discuss a private conversation.
Tesla’s profitability, to this day, still relies heavily on carbon offset tax credits and other government programs. With flagging sales, perhaps Musk isn’t interested in a bill that risks any of his revenue? That’s President Trump’s contention, but at this point, you’re having to trust one of two people having a huge public spat.
The thing about Regina George is that Regina George was sometimes right.
Mercedes Proposes 1-For-1 Car Export Deal
Mercedes makes a lot of SUVs in the United States for sale in Europe. It also makes a decent number of cars in Europe for the United States. Given all the negotiations over trade between the EU and the United States, it behooves Mercedes to propose a 1-for-1 exemption for car sales.
According to Spiegel via Reuters, that’s what Mercedes wants:
Mercedes-Benz has proposed a deal under which U.S. cars could be imported into Europe duty free in exchange for tariff waivers on the same number of vehicles that EU automakers export to the U.S., the company’s CEO said in a German magazine interview.
“For every car that leaves the USA or Europe, a car from the other side comes in duty free,” Ola Kaellenius told Spiegel. “We have put this idea to both sides and it is a possible component of the negotiations between the USA and the EU.”
A law like this sort of already exists, which is how Volvo is able to sell Chinese-made cars here without paying tariffs.
Subaru And Kawasaki Want In On The Drone Game
A bunch of cheap unmanned drones may have just destroyed more bombers in one day since at least WWII. It’s a growing business, and Nikkei Asia has a report from the DSEI Japan defense equipment show, where both Subaru and Kawasaki were on hand to show off UAVs.
Kawasaki, in collaboration with French startup VoltAero, is developing twin- and single-engine drones that can fly up to 2,700 kilometers at speeds of up to 600 kilometers per hour with a maximum payload of 500 kilograms.
In 2030, the company aims to churn out 5,000 drone engines a year — a task not particularly hard for a company that makes some 500,000 motorcycles every year.
“When it comes to small and efficient engines, no one can beat Japanese motorcycle makers,” said a guide at the Kawasaki booth.
That makes sense given that a lot of these aircraft have engines that are basically of a design and size shared with motorcycles.
Happy Pesage Day!
The official start of the 24 Hours of Le Mans is going on right now in France. It’s Pesage, which is literally just French for “we’re going to weigh something.” It’s the initial tech inspection and weight-taking of the week, though it’s far from the last.
Just to make it exciting, this happens in the center of the town of Le Mans so that everyone can gather around and watch. I’ve only done it once, but it was incredibly fun and I highly recommend it.
There’s something incomparable to having the newest and fastest prototypes being driven through an old European city center.
Le Mans itself is also a fun town. I went looking for a stuffed animal for my daughter and discovered, in typical French fashion, that the place had like six lingerie stores and only one good toy store.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
For no reason at all, here’s “Boys Don’t Cry” from The Cure.
The Big Question
What’s your favorite Le Mans car of all time?
Top Photo: Depositphotos.com
Who’s patting themselves on the back for predicting the Trump / Musk blowup? That was as certain as death and taxes – the only question was when it would happen.
Ketamine is why he chilled out toward the end of the day.
Worshipping other dudes is cuck behavior. I do not understand how their fanbois don’t get this.
Yeah. It’s a lot. We are living in the dumbest of times. I appreciate your well-worded take on things Matt ????????
“which is a wild reason to set the world on fire for a day”
Trump’s agenda is setting the world on fire for a lifetime.
My favorite Le Mans car is the Pontiac.
Musk vs Trump:
Ever see “War Of The Roses”?
I hope that’s how this ends.
Civil war and 6% of the population dead? No thanks.
My guess is Urban was talking about the movie, not the actual war.
The movie.
Let’s be honest predicting the sun will come out tomorrow bet your bottom dollar is less likely to happen then Musk and Trump having issues.
Musk vs Trump. – if killing tax credits kills Tesla and other EV car companies, so be it. The market will sort it out one way or another. Customers will pay more or they won’t. I think it’s pretty clear this is all public drama to hide the bigger spat though.
Ummm, ok, but to be fair we should stop subsidizing petroleum fuels as well. And while we’re at it, stop subsidizing personal vehicles over mass transit.
If M keeps up the talk about not flying Space X for the govmt, ok fine, federalize Space X.
Government contracting 101 – if the usg stops paying, the company stops working. Trump started that and Musk responded with the obvious response. He doesn’t want to stop raking in that kind of revenue but would quit working if they quit paying.
Yes but if they do no agreement on allowed launches. My guess no one here plays chess?
Musk can buy Space-X it’s own private island. Or I am SURE the ESA would be happy to rent him space in French Guiana at their launch site.
Given what a PITA the FAA has been for them, I am a little surprised he hasn’t moved already (other those fat government contracts, of course).
You think the federal government should steal a private company? WOW!
It has been done in past as an emergenciy in war time. Those are the kind of emergencies that this pres is calling out to justify his actions, so . . . . not out of the range of possibilities. If M decides that he does not want to adhere to contracts to ferry folks to and from the space station and the pres decides it is in the national interest to make it happen, it can be done. I’m not saying it should be done, just that it could be done depends on the actions of M.
That would be COMMUNISM!!
Trump is talking about cancelling Space X contracts. Musk is reminding him that NASA has no way to get to space without Space X.
What’s your favorite Le Mans car of all time?
Definitely the NASCAR
Favorite LeMans car? How about either the Bentley 4½ Liter Blower or the Rondeau M379.
Musk and Trump
Don’t ever forget that Trump was in Wrastling for a while.
The last week has felt like a classic “Heel turn”. Musk is a good guy, helping Trump, he’s the bestest friend ever. Now he has stabbed Trump in the back and going to be the worstest enemy ever for a while.
I’ve seen this plot back in 1996. Elon Musk is not doing nearly as good at selling this heel turn as Hulk Hogan did.
My question isn’t Musk v Trump. My question is what is all this smoke, mirrors, bad acting and baby oil covering up?
It is attempting to cover up the fact that the “Big Beautiful Bill” will massively add to the debt, give most of its benefits to the top 10% and make most of its cuts to the poor.
So far it only seems like the bond markets are paying attention.
So we have a $34 trillion deficit half was caused by Barry and whoever had control of the Autopian. That is $17 trillion. Then whoever had the auto pen spent every dollar in the account, throwing gold bricks off the Titanic, so no money left but Trump increased the ceiling to get federal government employees paid and it is his fault? Should he not pay anyone? Should he minimize the federal government? Apparently not because liberals went crazy. Can anyone here present a plan Trump should follow after Biden emptied the bank account like a crazy woman filing for divorce and after Biden let 11 million illegals in and commit to housing, feeding, and free medical care? Don’t say f Trump present a solution.
You need better news sources.
Possibly he does? But do not fool yourself into believing the news sources you rely upon on any more accurate or factual. The majority of all news we come across is being manipulated to shape how we perceive what we are viewing.
ANyhow, back to your comment, I seem to have missed the part of your comment where you actually refute or correct any of the points that Fiatspyderfan made. Or, are we all just supposed to agree with you that he is wrong and his comments are incorrect? Is that how you like your news information delivered to you?
No, I just don’t have the energy to engage with someone who says “Barry” and ascribes the debt ceiling raise to getting people paid, which is completely absurd. Have a good night.
Fair enough… all the same, you already DID engage with him. “You need better news sources.” You just can’t back it up. *shrug*
Have a good morning (different part of the world).
I can say “you are just dancing around the issue because you know you’re wrong on the central point” without bothering to detail all the ways this is possibly the most irresponsible budget ever created in the USA, which is amply documented elsewhere.
But orange man which you have used is okay? And yes Biden spent every dime in the Treasury he could. Remember it was one of his nominated ones who used gold bricks off the Titanic. And trust me you aren’t the only one trying to get people to see the truth only you aren’t producing the truth. I think TDS is more real than COVID.
Okay I see your list of my mistakes are at zero. Isn’t that like I’m perfect?
The debt ceiling should just go away. It is simply stupid that Congress votes for a budget that requires borrowing and then has to have another vote to pay the bill. The US Federal government should always pay our debt and never even talk about defaulting. The time to argue about debt is when it is authorized not when the bill comes due.
As to federal debt – EVERY president in my lifetime has added to the debt:
Regan – 161% increase in two terms
HW Bush – 42% in one term
Clinton – 29% in two terms
W Bush – 73% in two terms
Obama – 64% in two terms
Trump – 39% in first term
Biden – 30% in 1 term
In the last 45 years NEITHER party has actually done anything to address the debt – they simply spend money on different things and shout about the debt when the other party is in power. When they have control they both spend, spend, spend.
What should Trump do in his 2nd term? Not put forward a budget with $4.5 trillion in tax cuts were the vast majority go to the top 10% of Americans. What he should be doing is raising taxes, cutting spending, and shoring up Social Security and Medicare but that is hard. Doing yet another massive tax cut that will only put the USA is worse shape is easy and pays off the people that funded his campaign. For all the talk about being different it is textbook Republican – cut taxes for the rich – pretend the benefits trickle down.
If he wanted to do something radical he should eliminate corporate taxes altogether. Only 9% of federal revenue come from corporate taxes and they have armies of accountants to minimize what they pay. So just get rid of corporate taxes AND the special low capital gains tax. Tax investment income the same as income earned on a W2.
Percentage is just crap fake news. A president raises a a $1 budget to $4. That’s 400% but $3. Now that it’s at $34 Trillion $30 trillion is less than 100%. Need some math skills. Because raising it $3 is much better than raising it $30 trillion.
That is an EXTRA 3 trillion over 10 years – ON TOP of the $1 trillion a year that were are already adding to the debt with current law.
Raw numbers:
if you just want to look the raw national debt by year the increase by president:
Obama: $9.6 T
Trump: $7.1 T
Biden: $8.5 T
Trump was a much bigger spender than Obama but slightly more restrained than Biden.
Buddy. Obama was recovering from the Great Recession and Biden recovering from the Covid recession. Those events *should* expand the national debt. That’s what its for. Why you would ignore the Bush tax cuts and the Trump tax cuts and republican refusal to raise taxes during those regimes is beyond me. We are still living in the Reagan economic paradigm where raising taxes is a dirty word.
We’ve been cutting government benefits for 50 years now. Sometimes you really do just have to raise taxes on the billionaires. But the billionaires are who the Republicans are working for.
This is why I push Autopian to have someone who knows economics so many here have zero knowledge of it.
FUCK him, and your unsubstantiated bullshit.
Have a nice* day.
This is a man who, on the campaign trail, specifically equated me and all other American atheists with terrorists and arsonists, and said we’re not welcome in the MAGA vision of this country’s future, so, yes, FUCK TRUMP, and I’m fully justified in saying that. And frankly, fuck anyone who values freedom so little that they would accept that and cast a vote that supports that Christofascist bullshit.
As opposed to the great deplorables by Hillary Clinton who only considered NYC and California as sane voters? Yea she lost too.
Sir Digby, you seemed to have forgotten that Trump (and every OTHER republican president) equated all of you American atheists with racists, facists, and Nazis.
The first time around, Trump added $7 trillion to the national debt. That’s 26 percent of the total national debt, in four short years.
Biden and Obama are 50% of the debt. And remember after Obama added 12 trillion he joked about the shovel ready projects weren’t shovel ready and the $20 billion for a shovel ready solar panel company that never produced 1 panel? People please research your party and never blindly follow them
Do you remember the steaming piles of shit Obama and Biden got handed? I mean, look, I hate Trump with a white hot passion but I doubt anything would have been substantially different with Covid if anyone else had been in office. So I can think with a straight mind and not be hyper partisan. I would suggest that you are not doing the same.
f Trump
I would love to see a Le Car race at Le Mans.
How about a race of a dozen of them, each with 5 passengers totaling at least 400kg and towing a pop up trailer. We could call it the 24 days of Le Car at Le Mans.
None of them will last the requisite 24 hours. Maybe 24 minutes.
Thanks again Matt… as always, I enjoy The Morning Dump mix of global politics as it might eventually effect/is now influencing the auto/transportation industry, along with regular auto industry news and I also enjoy your music pick at the end. 🙂 I’m a bit older than you are, but our varied musical tastes seem to overlap quite a bit. 🙂
I saw one of those bechromed black and gold Maybach SUVs yesterday. I don’t know what they cost, but I’m sure it’s a lot. It was shiny, but really, my reaction was sort of just “meh.”
I think the CA DMV treats new non-vanity but in retro yellow on black colors license plates like vanity plates, with a surcharge every time you renew your registration. I bought a new (old) car yesterday and the regular blue on white CA plates on it are faded/mangled (the car is 36 years old) and I was thinking about how nice it would be to get new/shiny yellow on black plates for it (even though the car itself is definitely not new or shiny looking).
A pic of my ‘new’ car, which is my third Volvo and first station wagon ever: https://imgur.com/a/BAMywOQ …it’s an ’89 Volvo 240 wagon with AC and a manual transmission. I think it’s a DL trim car, but it does have power windows/heated seats though not all work atm. The idle is a bit lumpy (new cam installed by prior owner) but it drives well, albeit a bit loud at 70 MPH due to whine from the diff. The list of what work it still needs is long, but I’m in no rush, which is good, since it probably has less than the 100 HP it started with. 😉
Boxy but sweet! Very good catch on the A/C + manual combo.
I’m marveling at the heated seats in 1989.
Volvo offered heated seats in the ’70s, and I doubt they were alone in that.
My ’78 Benz has front and back heated seats.
Apparently Cadillac briefly had the option first ~1966, then the other Swedes at Saab rolled them out in 1972 (maybe as a standard feature?). Jason had an article on it years ago on the old lighting site.
My 83 Saab 900S had heated seats. AFAIK they were standard.
I had a VW TDI (2000) which was a GLS trim version, and it had the winter package too… it had heated seats. I think my ’98 Benz CLK 320 had them too, but I only drove that car for a year, so my recollection is a bit fuzzy about it (it was back at the dealer for fixes/problems 7 times that year). My current daily, a ’04 Volvo XC90 (that the 240 is intended to eventually replace) does not have heated seats, but it’s not one of the fancier versions.
The black plates are SO worth the cost.
I tend to agree, and it comes out to less than $2 per month (I think… I haven’t read that part of the CA DMV site yet) but of course, a shiny new set of black yellow plates might look incongruous on a 36-year-old car that’s missing at least half of its clear coat (and a few pieces of trim besides). I have no plans to re-paint the car, though I will endeavor to source/replace the missing bits of trim (preferably with used pieces so they match).
However, the thriftmeister in me decries the black and yellow plates as a frivolous and unnecessary expense, and rationalizes keeping the current faded, scuffed, and bent plates since they look ‘period correct’ (I assume there wouldn’t be a cost to replace them with new regular (blue on white) CA plates, since they actually look somewhat older than the car itself. 😉
I’ll probably reach a decision and register/insure the new (to me) Volvo wagon this week. All I’ve done so far is empty the back of all the spare/extra/broken parts the previous owner included (along with a Haynes manual, which I’m sure to make use of). 😉
There must be some companies that restore/repaint CA plates, because I’ve seen some plates here that clearly have been redone, whether the standard CA plate with the modern script in black and white, or a new black plate (I can tell by the odd six digit number letter combo they only use on the new black plates) in blue and yellow.
I’d try getting your originals restored unless they’re just in tatters, in which case I’d get new black plates painted blue and yellow.
This is so common that there must be companies doing this well, and I never see anyone in trouble over it.
Being (late) middle-aged, I tend to watch a lot of police bodycam videos on Youtube (it’s spoiled me for scripted drama) and I do see a lot of folks pulled over for obscured or modified plates, but it’s probably rare statistically.
Spent the morning replacing bits of petrified evap hose on my XC90 (SO many hoses!) so I’m done thinking about cars for a few hours. 😉
Ukraine has released a ton of video from those attacks. It’s utterly insane. Rows of bombers going up in flames from tiny little exploding drones landing in just the right places.
I flew FPV for 7 years, the destructive potential was obvious to me as you basically can’t outrun the things as long they have signal and battery. The Ukrainians are taking that to the next level. The footage from that war is scary as hell.
One of the very few upsides for Ukraine of the Russian invasion (which started in 2014 of course, with their annexation of Crimea) is that the Ukrainian military has (by necessity) gotten SO GOOD at drone warfare of all kinds. Whatever the US military manages to glean from this war (in all areas, not just drone tactics) likely makes what it’s cost America worth it, since many future conflicts are going to look a lot like the Russia/Ukraine war.
Agree with you both, this has been the most bonkers, sci-fi, surreal period of battlefield footage I could have imagined. And now Russia’s using fiber optic drones with miles of cable spooled in canisters underneath, all to avoid wireless ECM/jamming.
I sincerely hope we’re all taking notes, otherwise our next conflict might end up looking like how the US Civil War was fought using mostly Napoleonic tactics, with pretty gruesome results.
If Ukraine falls, someone better have a Project Paperclip ready to grab their drone engineers. Sticking munitions and nav computers on quadcopters seems trivial but the knowledge these folks have about what doesn’t work was bought with a lot of blood and treasure.
I hope/assume that’s already a thing, with plans all made and the necessary assets able to quickly be gathered…