Betrayed by Elon Musk – CleanTechnica

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Last Updated on: 28th March 2025, 10:48 am

My Tesla Model 3 is going on 6 years old now and my wife and I still love it. However, my wife just came home with the bumper sticker shown above.

I am a huge proponent of electric vehicles (EVs) and clean energy. Otherwise, why would this be my 154^th article for CleanTechnica. Even after 6 years, I observe that the technology of electric cars in general and my Model 3 in particular is incredible. Just one example: My Model 3 is approaching 150,000 miles and still going strong in every respect. If I had driven a gas car this far and changed the oil every 3,000 miles at Jiffy Lube as recommended, that would be out 50 hours of my time and $2,500. Not a single oil change is required for an EV. Even if you only change your oil every 5,000 miles, it would be 30 hours and $1,500 lost.

A little background: I am an emeritus scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and was promoted 5 times in the 30 years I worked there. Perhaps I performed valuable service for the American people. I am so glad not to be a government employee in the era of Trump.

Besides coming to America 30 years ago as an essentially penniless immigrant and becoming the richest man on the planet, Elon Musk has accomplished many things. I used to be a big fan of Elon. His hits and misses are listed below.

• Up until Elon’s company Space X, if you launched multi-stage rocket into space, you dumped the huge first stage into the ocean. Elon’s company figured out how to get that big first stage to land tail first on a barge in the ocean and then reuse the rocket multiple times at huge savings. Who would have thunk it?
• NASA gave Boeing (the company that built the B-29 in WWII, the first jet refueling tankers, the 707, 720, (1570) 747s, 767, and (7283) 737 commercial airliners) ~$5 billion and SpaceX ~$3 billion. The task: replace the space shuttle and fly cargo and astronauts to the Space Station. SpaceX beat Boeing by years flying cargo and astronauts to the Station and I don’t have to mention the two astronauts who recently spent 8 months on the Space Station because Boeing’s rocket failed to get them home. They just came home on a SpaceX rocket.
• SpaceX developed the Starlink communications system which allows you to access the internet and do Wi-Fi calling from anywhere on the planet. SpaceX presently has 7,052 functioning Starlink satellites that it put into orbit. Elon has given the Ukrainians the Starlink dishes and routers and authorized them to use the system to fight the Russians.
• Elon was the driving force on the Tesla Model S, X, 3, Y, and Cybertruck, plus the incredible Supercharger EV charging system that has proven that EVs are a viable alternative (and much superior) to gas cars even for cross-country travel. By the way, the Model Y has been the bestselling car in the world for two years running (better than the Ford F-150, Toyota Hilux (Tacoma), Toyota Camry, Toyota Corolla, Honda Accord and Civic). Tesla has also developed the incredible Full Self Driving artificial intelligence driving system that works with every Tesla since 2018 everywhere in the US (however, it hasn’t lived up to Musk’s full automation promises). The Tesla Semi shows promise, but hasn’t gone into mass production after 7 years.
• He also has The Boring Company, which digs tunnels. It has dug a short tunnel in Las Vegas, but hasn’t revolutionized urban transportation.
• If you have watched Musk lead public events, you know that he is a crummy public speaker. (He’s no Steve Jobs.)

Tesla promised on its website that its goal was to revolutionize transportation and make it “clean.”

How has Elon betrayed us?

• The goal to revolutionize transportation and make it “clean” has been removed from the Tesla website.
• Elon has thrown his full support behind Donald Trump (I will outline how this is a betrayal below).
• Elon has gone wild with his DOGE crew, with the purported goal of eliminating waste in the federal government (I will outline how this is a betrayal below).
• The reason Musk is the richest person in the world is that the market cap of Tesla is greater than the top 35 automakers in the world combined. At its peak, its market cap was one of the top 5 companies in the world. Since Musk owns billions of dollars worth of Tesla shares, that is the source of a large part of his wealth. He betrayed Tesla stockholders when he sold billions of dollars of his shares to buy Twitter. He is also betraying Tesla stockholders now as Tesla is becoming a dirty word because of his work with DOGE for Trump, which is driving the stock price down.

How is supporting Trump a betrayal?

• Trump is one of the most anti-EVs and anti-clean energy people on the planet.
• Trump solicited campaign contributions from the fossil fuel industry with the promise that if elected he would do everything he could to kill EVs and clean energy production.
• Trump hates wind turbines (you can see some on the horizon at one of his properties, and he has had a crusade against them ever since).
• Trump has canceled all offshore wind farm leases in US waters.
• Trump has canceled all the Biden money allocated for EV chargers.
• Trump plans to kill all EV subsidies, like the $7,500 tax rebate you get for buying a new EV with enough US-made content. (One of the arguments for removing EV subsidies is that EVs should compete on a level playing ground with fossil fuel cars. However, no one is proposing to cancel the billions of dollars of subsidies the fossil fuel companies have been receiving since WWI).

How is Elon’s work at DOGE a betrayal?

• DOGE is firing as many government employees as it can with just one criterion: which are the easiest to fire? He has fired thousands of probationary employees with no regard to how well they are doing their jobs. These are in fact for the most part the youngest, best qualified employees in the federal government. However, they are also recently promoted employees, who in some cases have been in their careers for decades. They are told they are not doing their jobs, which is a lie. Many of the fired employees are US military veterans. Others are single parents (some widowed) supporting children. Many have recently been promoted because of outstanding work and are still in the probationary period for their new jobs.
• All those fired have uprooted their lives to take their jobs and now they are out of work. You might think that Musk would be respectful and remorseful of firing these employees. Instead, Musk is running around gleefully waving a chainsaw.
• The rationale for all the firing of government employees is to reduce the size of the federal deficit. During Trump’s first term, Republicans passed a big tax cut that went primarily to the rich and to corporations. This tax cut increased the federal deficit by trillions (yes, trillions) of dollars. In order to make the deficits due to the tax cut appear smaller, the legislation was sunsetted after 5 years. All of this pretend worry about the federal deficit is only to make the extension of this gift to the rich and corporations less objectionable.

If you find any of my articles helpful to you and you want to buy a Tesla, feel free to use my referral link: https://ts.la/arthur73734. If you are buying a new Tesla and use my link (be sure to use it when you make your order), you’ll receive $1,000 off your purchase price of a Model 3 or Model Y and 3 months of Full Self-Driving. (Just be prepared to intervene immediately if it screws up.)