Citizens of the United States who are eligible to vote are just over a month away from determining who the next President of the United States will be. In the electric vehicle space, Tesla CEO has made it very clear on his X platform that he supports the Republican candidate, Donald J. Trump, to win. But does Tesla the company expect Trump to win? It’s doesn’t appear that way.
According to Politico Influence, Tesla has hired Akin Gump to begin lobbying for Tesla in D.C. This is interesting on several levels, including the fact that Musk terminated the government affairs team (along with the Supercharging team) as Musk went to cut costs and also swing politically to the right.
Last week, though, according to the report, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer Feld began lobbying for Tesla last week. The company is lobbying on issues related to battery storage and international market access.
Helping the efforts includes some big names, including an aide for John Dingell (D-Mich.).
Lobbying the government in charge is, of course, normal practice. But with Musk cutting all of its efforts and swinging for the fences for Trump, it’s quite odd to see the company gearing up to lobby a Democrat-controlled government. Being this close to the elections, it seems odd to spend the money.
Unless, of course, someone at Tesla expects the Democratic nominee to win in November and a Harris government taking charge on Jan. 20, 2025. This move would have to be supported by Musk, considering his propensity to micromanage his businesses, so is he publicly supporting Trump but secretly expecting Harris to win? That’d be pretty telling.
Not surprising, mind you. But telling.
