Incumbent President Joe Biden has officially withdrawn from the 2024 U.S. election, amidst expectations that another term from former president Donald Trump could drastically affect the landscape of federal electric vehicle (EV) programs.
President Biden announced the news in a letter shared on Sunday, in which he announced an endorsement for Vice President Kamala Harris after months of criticism of his age and mental acuity. The announcement also follows Elon Musk’s official endorsement for former President Trump last weekend, and after Trump recently selected Ohio Senator JD Vance as his running mate.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 21, 2024
It’s not yet clear whether Harris will become the Democratic nominee for the 2024 election, though Biden’s endorsement will likely hold some weight in the party’s decision. This endorsement also comes as Republicans aim to do away with some of Biden’s aggressive EV adoption measures, including the Biden target of making 50 percent of vehicle sales fully electric by 2030, and the $7,500 EV subsidy.
In recent weeks, Trump has said that he would end the mandate on his first day back in office, eliciting widespread discussion about subsidies, government, EV adoption, and more. Vance also proposed an anti-EV bill last year seeking to replace the subsidy with one of the same amount for gas vehicles.
Despite his past statements about EVs, Vance recently praised Musk for building Tesla, saying that he was similar to an “older generation of American entrepreneur.”
“Elon is actually a great example of an American entrepreneur,” Vance said during an interview last week. “He’s built a company, but also a company that’s employed a lot of good American workers. If you think about it, Elon Musk is, in some ways, a throwback to an older generation of American entrepreneur. He builds real things. He builds cars. He builds rockets. And that’s the kind of economy that President Trump wants to create.”
Musk recently denied reports that he was paying $45 million per month to a political action committee (PAC) supporting Trump, though he did follow up to say that he had created his own PAC to support candidates with a focus on merit-based, personal-freedom-focused policy, adding that the funding is currently far below that amount.
“That is false,” wrote Musk on X. “I have not pledged anything to anyone! I did create a PAC that is focused on supporting candidates who favor a meritocracy and personal freedom, but funding to date has been far below that level.”
President Joe Biden comes after Elon Musk following Trump endorsement
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