Donald Trump, Car Salesman

I understand there was an auto show at the White House.

Donald Trump probably wanted to be an automaker.  Why not?  Henry Ford.  David Dunbar Buick.  Walter Chrysler.  Arthur and Louis Chevrolet.  John and Horace Dodge.  They all achieved something Trump still hasn't - turned their surnames into reputable brands.

Geez, even John DeLorean was more successful at that.

Trump has never made cars - if he had, he would have made Malcolm Bricklin look like Alfred P. Sloan - but thanks to his buddy Elon Musk, a real automaker, he got to sell them.

The trouble is, featuring the entire Tesla lineup at the White House and presenting an infomercial for the press was ethically dubious at best, illegal at worst.

And to remove all doubt that he wasn't just showing them off, Trump even had a list of the prices of the vehicles in Tesla's lineup in his hand - and made sure a camera caught it.

Better that Trump wasn't at a real auto show, though, because he'd be checking out the spokesmodels and grabbing them by their (*SHUT YO' MOUTH!*) in minutes.

One thing, though - after promoting fossil fuels as the linchpin in our energy supply and getting donations from Big Oil, why is Trump suddenly so simpatico with electric cars?  (Not that he could drive a Tesla - like that other evil new Yorker Robert Moses, Trump never drove a car in his life.)

Trump pulled this stunt at the White House to help his benefactor Musk at a time when Tesla sales and stock prices are plummeting in response to Musk's job slashing in the federal government at a time when he should be slashing prices on his cars.  And who's going to buy these cars as a result of Trump's shameless promotion? Certainly not the average American, who's likely unemployed or about to be and likely couldn't afford a Tesla even with what passes for gainful employment these days. 

Even Tesla owners are jumping ship.  Onetime Tesla owners like Sheryl Crow are selling their cars as a way of getting back at Musk, and Crow donated the money she made off selling her car to National Public Radio.  Those keeping their cars are actually buying badges of other car brands and putting them on their Teslas (well, sure, how about a Volkswagen emblem on a Tesla sedan, seeing as the ID.7 isn't coming to These States after all!).

Only one thing wrong - you can't rebrand a Cybertruck.

Let me get something straight.  I love Teslas.  I always have.   True, the brand may have suffered a drop in quality and reliability since the its heady days in the mid-2010s, when Trump began his first presidential campaign.   I test-drove one, though, and I loved it.  And so you can understand why I'm upset to see what Musk is doing to his own company.  Tesla is too good a car to go the way of the DeLorean, which went down in a cocaine-trafficking setup.  The company must be saved.  And there are two things that must be done in order to save it.  First, Tesla's board of directors must fire Elon Musk.

The second thing?  Discontinue the Cybertruck.