@WhiteHouse This administration is a joke.
Truly an embarrassment to what our great country has always been.
I remember when we stood up to bullies. Now we just aspire to be one.
@marketswithmay@SenWarren A wealth tax would not hinder Musks creation.
We should try to do both things.
Figure out how to empower people AND better fund society (which could include increased SBA loans, tax breaks for small business etc. which could aid your or) through a reasonable wealth tax.
A man with no working truck convinced Wall Street he had built the next Tesla. His company hit $30 BILLION. All he did was push it down a hill with no engine.
> Trevor Milton founded Nikola in 2014, named after the same inventor as Tesla.
> The goal was to build hydrogen powered trucks that would make diesel obsolete. He had no trucks.
> In 2018 he released a promotional video called Nikola One In Motion. It showed a sleek semi truck accelerating smoothly down an open highway.
Investors went wild.
> What nobody knew was that the truck had no engine, no fuel cell, and no propulsion system of any kind.
> Milton's team towed it to the top of a hill, tilted the camera to hide the slope, and let it roll.
> He spent the next four years doing the same thing with words. On podcasts, television and social media.
> Investors were told Nikola could produce its own hydrogen. It could not. They were told the trucks were ready for production. They were not. They were told orders were flooding in. They weren't.
> In June 2020 Nikola went public. Within days the company was worth $30 BILLION, more than Ford.
> Milton's personal stake hit $7.3 BILLION overnight.
> A $32.5 MILLION ranch in Utah followed. A record for the state at the time.
> In September 2020 Hindenburg Research published a report calling Nikola "an intricate fraud" built on "an ocean of lies." Milton resigned within ten days.
> A federal jury convicted him of securities fraud and wire fraud in 2022. Sentenced to four years in prison the following year.
> He never went. He was free on $100 MILLION bail pending appeal.
> He and his wife donated $3.2 MILLION to Donald Trump's 2024 campaign.
> In March 2025 Trump gave him a full pardon. The pardon erased $168 MILLION in restitution to defrauded shareholders.
> Nikola filed for bankruptcy the following month, leaving thousands of investors with nothing.
The company never had a product. The only thing that was real was the $30 BILLION valuation, the $7 BILLION that landed in his pocket and the pardon that made sure none of it had to be returned.
@marketswithmay It’s an easy sentiment to hold when you are financially secure. It’s much harder when you fear for your and your families ability to make ends meet.
What we are doing currently is not America. I also don’t think it lasts.
@elonmusk you need to do better. To be better.
You’re harming America with your constant deeply polarizing takes and amplification of propaganda.
You can love this country and disagree with the direction we are taking.
@elonmusk I’m an Independent, love America. I have shame over many of the initiatives and direction of the administration.
My lack of current pride has nothing to do with hating America.
This polarized viewpoint that if you do not agree you hate America is destroying us.
@DeptofWar@PeteHegseth is wildly unqualified.
The US government has become a propaganda mill and the anti deep state party is creating precisely that.
I am losing faith in our great nation.
Do better. Put aside the political grandstanding and act like you belong in the job.
@SpeakerJohnson Compromise is not and ugly word. Figure out how to work with the other side and stop trying to ram through every little thing with false flag arguments like this one.
@PressSec Yes, renaming the department of defense the department of war certainly signals an administration bent on peace.
Who buys this nonsense? Certainly not the rest of the world.
@realDonaldTrump This speech started so reasonably and appropriately and ended so badly.
This is a moment for de-escalation, not a time to fan flames.
One cannot call for people to not demonize and then go on to demonize. This is irresponsible to the highest degree.
@jordansarmo@EdKrassen@grok Trump did provide another 3.2B on top of what was already given. So it wasn’t “free”.
Grants are how we move in a direction we feel is good for the nation. To renegotiate already awarded grants to force a private company to give up equity is a socialist shakedown.