In recent weeks, there's been rising consumer backlash against Tesla. The Wall Street Journal’s Becky Peterson explains how Elon Musk's role in Trump's government is impacting his businesses.The Washington Post’s Mary Beth Sheridan examines Trump’s relationship with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.A judge says Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil will remain in a Louisiana immigration jail for now. There's been widespread condemnation of his arrest by human rights lawyers and first amendment experts, but Democrats in Congress haven't fully rallied around his case.Plus, The White House withdraws its nomination of anti-vaccine activist Dave Weldon for director of the CDC, why a congressional hearing came to an abrupt end over gender identity, and the surprising outcome of Greenland’s election. Today’s episode was hosted by Shumita Basu.
Chapter 1: What is the Tesla backlash about?
But first, to Elon Musk and the growing backlash against him and his electric vehicle company, Tesla. Since President Trump took office, Musk and his Doge team have been the face of efforts to slash federal spending and cut tens of thousands of federal jobs.
In response, Tesla has faced blowback from consumers, some of whom are not happy about the large role Trump gave Musk in the federal government and how his decisions are impacting their lives. Wall Street Journal reporter Becky Peterson covers Musk and Tesla and told us about how consumer sentiment has shifted since Trump's inauguration.
We've seen people increasingly come out and protesting Tesla properties, whether that's showrooms, where there's been a number of peaceful protests across the country.
Chapter 2: How have Elon Musk's political ties affected Tesla?
Some Tesla owners have been selling or trading in their vehicles because they no longer want to be affiliated with Musk and his politics. In other incidents, things have escalated.
There have been service centers that have been riddled with bullet holes. There's been some instances of arson at Tesla superchargers and examples of people having their Tesla spray fainted with graffitis, often swastikas or other references to Nazis.
Chapter 3: Why are Tesla owners protesting and trading in their cars?
President Trump on Tuesday vowed to label any violence against Tesla dealerships as economic terrorism, and he told reporters any perpetrators will, quote, go through hell. Tesla's also taken some serious hits in the stock market. It's been down every week since Musk went to Washington. Since mid-December, the company has lost more than half its value. That's around $800 billion in market cap.
And earlier this week, Tesla's stock experienced its biggest drop in value in a single day since 2020. It rebounded Tuesday, however, after President Trump's comments in support of the company, where he turned the White House driveway into a pop-up Tesla showroom of sorts, lined up several vehicles and made a personal promise to buy one.
Chapter 4: What is the impact of Trump's support on Tesla's market performance?
We saw Donald Trump sit in one of the cars and he joked about how he doesn't get to drive very much anymore.
The president also called on Americans to support Tesla and Musk.
Number one, it's a great product, as good as it gets.
There are ethics rules prohibiting employees of the executive branch from promoting or endorsing products on behalf of their friends or their relatives. But The New York Times reports that those rules do not apply to the president.
And while it's perhaps not very surprising that Trump is standing by Elon Musk, one of his biggest financial supporters, his support of Tesla in this moment contradicts his administration's goals for EVs more broadly and his own stated opinions on them. Trump has had a lot of harsh things to say about electric vehicles over the years. He's criticized their cost, their mileage, their battery life.
He changed his tune last August when Musk endorsed his run for president, saying, quote, But since taking office, Trump has rolled back Biden-era incentives that encouraged EV sales and manufacturing. And just this week, Trump's administration halted much of the federal government's efforts to adopt EVs into its fleet of cars and trucks.
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Chapter 5: How has the political landscape shifted Tesla's customer base?
Elon Musk has evolved, too, in his politics and in his opinion of Donald Trump. He went from being a one-time Trump critic to now influential advisor. We asked Peterson what were some moments that helped crystallize Musk's political leanings. She said, of course, when he bought Twitter in 2022 and started sharing a lot more of his personal views.
But also even further back, the beginning of the pandemic, Peterson says, was a real turning point for him.
A big one was in 2020 when Tesla's only U.S. factory in California had to stop making cars because of coronavirus lockdowns. We saw Elon get really upset about those lockdowns and really turn against the state of California in response. It was soon after that that he moved the company to Texas and he started advocating for different politics.
And as Musk's politics changed, so it seems has Tesla's fan base.
Chapter 6: How is Mexico's president negotiating with Trump?
We looked at sales and survey data, which suggests that politics is definitely affecting demand. Tesla had... a long history of being very popular in Democratic-leaning areas like San Francisco and Los Angeles. Now, though, it looks like Republicans are more likely to say they would buy a Tesla than Democrats are, which is a sharp reversal from much of the company's history.
Now to Mexico, where President Claudia Sheinbaum has stood out among foreign leaders as a skillful negotiator with President Trump. On two separate occasions, she's persuaded him to delay tariffs on her country by making the case that Mexico's efforts to deter people from bringing fentanyl across the border were already having measurable impact.
and by telling him about a public awareness campaign launched by Mexico to discourage fentanyl use. That campaign, according to a source in Mexican government who spoke to The Washington Post, was largely designed to impress the U.S. government. Mexico doesn't have a fentanyl use epidemic. And it worked. Trump spoke glowingly about his call with Shane Baum to reporters last month.
I thanked her for that. You know, I make so many calls and I never learn anything from anybody. I know everything and I never learn anything from anybody. And I spoke to this woman. As soon as she said it, she didn't have to say exactly what I said. Exactly. What a great idea.
Mary Beth Sheridan, the bureau chief for The Washington Post in Mexico, told us about the dynamic between these two leaders. It's been a surprisingly warm relationship. She told us a lot of Shane Baum's success working with Trump can be attributed to her preparation. Ahead of her meetings, she talks to a lot of advisors and runs through different scenarios.
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Chapter 7: What strategies does Claudia Sheinbaum use to work with Trump?
She tries very hard, I think, not to be confrontational, not to jump on any insulting statement or whatever, to stay very cool.
She calls it a cool head. She was elected easily by a 30-point margin, and her current approval rating stands at a massive 85%. She came into office with the reputation of being a kind of low-key academic type. She has a Ph.D. in energy engineering. And Sheridan told us that cool-headed approach is serving her well. She's also being praised for knowing when to wait a situation out.
For example, she hasn't been quick to announce retaliatory tariffs.
between the time Trump says he'll impose the tariffs or even does impose them and the time where he and Shane Baum will have a conversation, usually a few days will pass. And in that time, the markets typically have fallen or the U.S. automakers or other U.S. businesses are complaining to Trump and raising concerns and so on. So
Essentially, Trump comes under pressure from American companies and the markets and so on. And so by the time he gets on the phone with Sheinbaum, he seems a bit more ready to make a deal.
Now, Sheinbaum has also made plenty of concessions to Trump. She sent more than 10,000 troops to the border to deter fentanyl shipments and illegal migration. She extradited 29 suspected drug traffickers to the U.S. And despite her diplomatic victories, Trump's threats to impose tariffs on Mexico haven't disappeared.
The steel and aluminum tariff enacted yesterday impact Mexico, which is one of the top exporters to the U.S., Sheridan reports that Trump has not ruled out using the U.S. military to strike fentanyl targets in Mexico. And Sheridan says Mexican officials are braced for the possibility that their currently positive relationship with Trump could become more volatile.
What I think that people in the Scheinbaum circle feel is that we're bound to have more uncertainty because Mexico is kind of at the center of all these issues, drugs, migration, trade. It's a crucial partner of the U.S., so doubtless there's going to be more turmoil.
Detained Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil will remain in a Louisiana immigration jail as his case makes its way through court, a judge ruled on Wednesday. Khalil is a green card holder living in the United States legally and permanently. But he was arrested on Saturday in New York by ICE officials, who said his green card was being revoked.
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