Trump and Musk pull plug on national EV network as they wage war on other people’s EVs

The Trump-Musk administration’s war on electric vehicles in the US has taken an astonishing new turn, with a decision to pull the plug on the EV charging facilities at all federal government buildings, and to sell – or at least mothball – the entire electric fleet.

The decision, first reported at The Verge, and also on Electrek, as well as Colorado Public Radio and other media outlets, means the effective shutting down of more than 8,000 operating charging ports across the US.

The Verge quotes an email sent to regional offices by General Services Administration (GSA), which looks after government buildings, vehicles and other logistics:

“As GSA has worked to align with the current administration, we have received direction that all GSA-owned charging stations are not mission-critical,” the email says. “Neither Government Owned Vehicles nor Privately Owned Vehicles will be able to charge at these charging stations once they’re out of service.”

The email says that the charging stations will be “turned off at the breaker.” The Trump-Musk administration has already taken the GSA’s fleet electrification webpage offline as part of its war on “woke” ideas. That includes any mention of climate, which must be erased from all government websites and funded programs.

The decision follows the previously announced shutdown of the rollout of EV charging networks under the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program, but the latest is astonishing because it means the shutting down or revenue-earning existing infrastructure.

As Electrek points out, along with the Trump’s decision to cancel EV rebates – loudly applauded by Musk – the biggest beneficiary of these decisions is Tesla itself, at least in so far as removes competition for its own vehicles, and its own charging infrastructure.

Tesla dominates the US market in a way that is only matched in Australia, historically accounting for around one half of all EV sales and still sitting at around 45 per cent.

However, Tesla sales have plunged significantly in January, and while some insist it is because buyers are waiting for the new Model Y, it seems clear by the scale of the falls that consumer reaction to Musk’s actions in the Trump administration, his attacks on climate science, his castration of government agencies and his support of far-right parties accounts for some of it.

That has attracted responses in Canada, where Tesla has been excluded from a Toronto City EV drivers support program and the Ontario governor has threatened to tear up a $C100 million contracts with Musk’s Starlink.

And in Germany, energy company LichtBlick and drugstore giant Rossmann are ditching their Tesla company cars and replacing them with other EV brands, saying their corporate values are incompatible with Musk’s ideology. They say it is a direct response to Musk’s support for the far-right AfD party ahead of the elections that were held on Sunday.

But if Tesla is suffering consumer blowback, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow has pointed out how Musk is also benefitting significantly from decisions made by the Trump administration in multiple other ways.

These include the Department of Justice dropping a discrimination case against Musk’s SpaceX, and one of the agencies regulating autonomous vehicles – the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration – has been hit by massive cuts, just as Tesla seeks to roll out self driving cars in the latest iteration of its FSD technology.

There is also a question about the future of a federal $US6.6 billion loan to Rivian, probably Tesla’s biggest domestic rival, and who have finally worked out how to make EVs and make money at the same time.

“Never mind that he took huge US government subsidies to build Tesla an to build that charging network,” Maddow notes. “Now that (Musk) has done that and he’s the biggest game in town, the Trump administration nis pulling up the ladder so nobody else can compete with him.”

And, Maddow notes, the key regulators overlooking Musk’s Starlink program, and his Neuralink technology (and its use of animals in research) have also been fired, as has the inspector general looking into Musk’s alleged refusal to detail his contacts and ties with foreign governments.

The National Transportation Safety Board has also announced that it will now only communicate with the media through its account on the Musk-owned X. “We cannot respond to every email asking for the details of media briefings,” the agency said.

Little wonder that Trump took aim at Maddow in his speech to the CPAC conference over the weekend, where the leader of the French far-right National Front cancelled an appearance due to Steve Bannon’s alleged Nazi salute, Musk waved around a “chainsaw” and conservatives announced a formal campaign for Trump to serve another term in office.

Trump bristled at Maddow’s suggestions that he had left the business of government up to Musk, while he golfs and focuses on publicity stunts. He accused MSNBC of being a “threat of our democracy” and urged Musk “to be more aggressive.”

“Yes, Mr President,” Musk said in response on X.