Used Car Salesman Fascism

Trump, Musk, and the effort to prop up Tesla

The President of the United States wants protesting Tesla to be illegal. In the span of 24 hours he’s found multiple pathetic and fascistic ways to prop up Elon Musk’s struggling automaker. For those who don’t know, Tesla stock plummeted Monday. The company had its worst performance in years. The massive gains made since the election are gone, and over $700 billion in value has been wiped out. Enter Donald Trump.

Trump wants to help Tesla, he wants to help this company real bad. First, the President weighed in with a post tacitly confirming that the boycott of Tesla and the protest campaign against it are working, and, simultaneously, showing us what we’re up against:

It’s the perfect encapsulation of this regime. The soft power of the President declaring he’ll buy a Tesla mixed with the threat of state power to attack the movement targeting the company. Then, Tuesday, he took his Tesla savior act to the next level, holding an entire press conference at the White House to support Musk’s car company. Seeing Trump kiss the feet of the world’s richest man again and again and again was viscerally sickening, and I hope you missed out.

I’ll refrain from repeating every line of the sales pitch to you, but there were Teslas staged in front of the White House, Trump climbed into one, and he commented on the good prices and computers they have. And, notably, the President declared that anyone who attacks Tesla dealerships will be considered a domestic terrorist. Like much of what he says there’s no legal basis for this, but Trump and Musk are so compatible because they’re both sociopaths willing to lie constantly.

For instance, Musk responded to Trump cutting this Tesla ad by saying his company will double U.S. production. Given the falling demand for his vehicles this makes absolutely no sense. But it might lead a few more conservatives to buy a Tesla, which is all that matters. Nothing else seemed to matter to Trump here either. It was all a naked sales pitch, so much so that the President can be seen holding talking points in this photo:

What’s so shocking about all this isn’t the President trying to sell cars. Having the billionaire owner of the company (who is also messing with the workings of our government) right there is an ugly scene, but the U.S. government has always been enmeshed with capitalist interests. Who can forget George Bush urging Americans to go out and spend money after 9/11? And of course the Big 3 US automakers—Ford, GM, and Stellantis (formerly Chrysler)—have received plenty of help from the government. But not only was this display more vulgar, it also contained an explicit threat to those who would protest Tesla.

Namely, the threat to label anyone who attacks Tesla a domestic terrorist is both an exceptional moment and an exceptional escalation. And we should be clear that when Trump says “attacks” on Tesla dealerships, he doesn’t have to mean firebombs. Who says what constitutes an attack? Right now the answer is the Trump administration. Six protesters were just arrested at a Manhattan Tesla dealership protest. One image from the action shows what appears to be a fractured glass door:

Is this an attack on Tesla? What about graffiti, is that “an attack?” Are the people protesting the coup carried out by a Nazi billionaire now domestic terrorists in the eyes of this regime? It’s quite possible that that’s where things are heading. We shouldn’t put anything past the fascist administration that just kidnapped a Palestinian green card holder for his political activities. Mahmoud Khalil acted well within the law, and the Trump government isn’t even pretending otherwise. Yet he’s still in Louisiana while his pregnant wife is in New York.

So the White House Tesla press conference wasn’t just the President hawking mediocre cars made by his backer, the richest man on Earth, it was a signal that protest against Musk and his company may be met with growing force. Pair Trump’s comments in his car ad with his earlier statement on Truth Social declaring the Tesla boycott “illegal and collusive” and you have a strong indication of how this administration could proceed when people choose to push back against the oligarchs waging class warfare against us. The law is likely to be stretched to the breaking point to protect the ruling class from our righteous anger.

We, of course, cannot let them win. Tesla must become an even more toxic brand. This immensely overvalued company represents most of Musk’s wealth and power. Continuing to push the stock price down weakens him, and this regime. And we now have another motive for sinking the Tesla brand — fighting the soft power of the two fascists in charge, showing the stark limits of their influence.

What Trump and Musk are doing here is attempting to use both their cultural power and the hard power of the United States to prop up Tesla. If they’re successful, Musk will be able to use the threat of his infinite funds to help keep Republican members of Congress in line and influence politics more broadly. He’ll also be able to use the wealth that Trump helps protect to turn around and help Donald Trump. It just came to light that over the past few days Musk has been signaling his intent to make a “donation” of $100 million to Trump’s political machine. And now the President just happens to do this little favor for his fellow oligarch.

So the need to fight back against the President and the world’s richest man, an effort that has already seen immense success, is clear. If we persist, Musk loses power. If Tesla stock keeps tanking, as it did Monday and has for months thanks to the toxicity we’ve built around his brand, Musk’s clout and wealth will diminish, and Trump’s will too. That’s why they’re pulling out all the stops here. That’s why they’re using both their influence and the threat of violence in an effort to push the stock up after its worst day in several years.

Far beyond this moment, beyond this one company, the co-presidents are also demonstrating their particular fascist approach. And, as disturbing as it might be, it’s instructive. This used car salesman fascism is something we can expect a lot more of. Trump and Musk don’t have the power to bilaterally decree their every wish, so to wield power right now they’re combining their cultural power with as much state violence as they can muster to shill for Tesla. And it won’t be the last time they shamelessly use this blend to try to prop up one another’s fortunes — arguably the primary purpose of their regime.

Cops guarding a cyber truck. Source.

You’d think the co-presidents would have the advantage here. They have millions of followers and the power of the U.S. government. But, somewhere along the line, something went wrong. Tesla is, or three months ago was, overvalued by a trillion dollars. And a mass movement rose up to hit Musk where it hurt, just as he’s trying to hurt the entire country. It worked, it’s working, his most valuable asset is plummeting. So now he and the President he bought are acting from a position of weakness, and their sad and slimy effort to support Musk’s wealth by hook or by crook might not make it. In fact, some commentators are already speculating that it’ll make the Tesla brand even more polarizing and toxic.

We forced their hand here. If millions of people hadn’t denigrated Tesla and collectively focused our efforts on devaluing the brand, this two-bit pitch to buy Musk’s cars wouldn’t be necessary. If thousands of people hadn’t responded to the call to protest Musk’s coup at dealerships and other Tesla locations across the country, we wouldn’t have gotten this car ad at the White House and its attendant threats. Fascism has always been the violent response to capitalism in decline, and we’re seeing a perfect microcosm of that right now. So the answer to all of this, to the President of the United States and the world’s richest man attempting to influence and strong-arm us into buying Nazi cars is to keep pushing. Keep boycotting, keep making the brand toxic, keep protesting. It’s working.

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Just one resource today: TeslaTakeDown.com