SACRAMENTO, CA - California Governor Gavin Newsom apparently cannot get over Kamala Harris's election loss. In an ultimate display of immaturity more befitting a toddler, Newsom, who fancies himself a someday contender for president, is using his position to exact revenge on Elon Musk by excluding Teslas from a rebate plan for electric vehicles he is proposing, the New York Post reports.
On Monday, Newsom released details of a plan to extend the expired Clean Vehicle Rebate Program if President-elect Trump follows through with a pledge to eliminate a federal tax credit for people who purchase electric vehicles. The tax credits are worth up to $7,500 for new zero-emission vehicles.
However, since Trump and Musk began working together, the president-elect has softened his stance. The California program offered rebates as high as $2,500 on electric vehicles.
In announcing his proposed rebates, Newsom specifically mentioned that Teslas and possibly other manufacturers would be excluded to “promote more market competition and innovation,” according to his office. That would require negotiation with the California state legislature.
In response to Newsom’s exclusion of Tesla, Musk posted on X that it was “insane,” noting that Tesla is the only auto manufacturer producing electric vehicles in the state.
According to data from the California Air Resources Board, 42% of the rebates under the previous rebate program went to buyers or lessees of Tesla vehicles.
In calling for a special session, Newsom specifically mentioned President-elect Trump, saying he is looking to “Trump-proof” state laws by giving the attorney general more funding to fight the federal government.
After Newsom’s statement, Trump took to social media to slam him while calling out the high cost of living in California as well as the state’s homeless crisis.
Trump said Newsom was “stopping all of the GREAT things that can be done to Make California Great Again.”
In responding to Tesla's exclusion, Newsom’s office claimed it was to allow other competitors to “take root.” However, it is rather obvious that the reason is Musk’s support of Donald Trump and his appointment to DOGE along with Vivek Ramaswamy to root out government waste.
“Consumers continue to prove the skeptics wrong–zero-emission vehicles are here to stay,” Newsom said in a statement.
“We’re not turning back on a clean transportation future–we’re going to make it more affordable for people to drive vehicles that don’t pollute.”
One analyst said Newsom’s proposal to exclude Tesla could create a “Game of Thrones battle” between Newsom and Musk.
“This is clearly a political move of Newsom and California towards Musk,” said Dan Ives, senior analyst at Wedbush, noting that Musk “now has a front seat to the Trump White House and will be a key player in ultimately getting these federal tax credits wiped away among a myriad of other things on the federal front.”
He further said that Newsom’s proposal could lead to Musk moving operations out of the company’s Fremont, California plant to Austin, Texas, where it houses a Gigafactory. In 2021, Musk relocated Tesla headquarters from Palo Alto, California, to Austin after getting into public disputes with state regulators over COVID-19-era restrictions and lockdowns.
Musk, in July, said he was moving SpaceX and X out of California and to Texas, noting that the “final straw” was a law Newsom signed that bans school districts from requiring teachers to notify parents of changes to a child’s gender identity.
If Musk were to relocate Tesla out of California, it would join Oracle, Chevron, CBRE Group, Inc., Charles Schwab, and others in abandoning the increasingly radical state of California.
Good luck with that 2028 presidential run.
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