It was a strange year for America, as election years often are. There was an intense backlash against the seemingly inevitable tide of social progress and the concept of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Science once considered relatively settled—such as the safety of vaccinations and even the efficacy of pasteurization—were up for debate. The very foundations of American life were called into question.
Regardless of how the coming years play out, it’s clear we live in a new era, even if most companies and politicians are loath to admit it. And if there’s one vehicle that has fully grasped the enormity of America’s cultural shift, it’s the Tesla Cybertruck.
Let me explain.
The Trump Effect
In the wake of Trump’s victory, his outsider-heavy Cabinet appointees, and his unorthodox economic policy proposals, it has become clear that the 2024 election was a referendum not just on who the president would be but also on the neoliberal status quo itself. The status quo lost.
History, despite all claims to the contrary, has not ended.
Regardless of whether the existing status quo was worth maintaining, big business is always alarmed when it shifts drastically, and auto manufacturers are no exception. President Donald Trump’s election has thrown the automotive industry for a loop. His proposed tariffs for Mexican and Canadian imports would negatively impact most automakers, who have cumulative dozens of plants in the NAFTA-protected lower-wage countries.
President Donald Trump’s election has thrown the automotive industry for a loop.
Additionally, Trump railed against electrification mandates, despite a cumulative $312 billion in EV-specific investment across North America. He had good political reason to: One of the very few pieces of signature legislation passed by his opponent, President Joe Biden, was to push manufacturers to build more EVs and make them more affordable for buyers (via generous tax credits). Trump’s victory and pledge to roll back the Biden legislation has led some automakers aiming to comply with aggressive Biden-administration clean-air targets to begin divesting from their electric car facilities.
And yet, one of Trump’s closest allies in his third election campaign was Elon Musk, whose fortune and profile were raised by EV manufacturer Tesla. How do we make sense of this seeming contradiction? To rail against electric cars, and yet ally yourself with the most successful EV manufacturer in American history?
It’s simple: All of these Trump positions stand to help Musk personally, and he knows it.
Elon and the System
Photo by: Tesla
Regardless of Musk’s personal politics—which have shifted dramatically over the past two decades as he rose to prominence—he has always stayed consistent in one matter: He knows how to use the system to his advantage. He and his companies have long been big spenders on lobbying and political donations, and the return on that investment has been massive.
Tesla’s Fremont plant—which allowed it to catapult from a boutique EV manufacturer to one of the most valuable companies in the world—was financed by $465 million in taxpayer-funded loans. Since the company first started selling the Roadster in 2009, it has made over $9 billion in profit from government-mandated emissions credits it has sold to other automakers, while also receiving nearly $3 billion in direct taxpayer-funded subsidies. SpaceX, another of Musk’s ventures, has also profited massively from government funding, both for its launch vehicles and its Starlink satellite internet service.
In the past election cycle, Musk has championed the repeal of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) EV tax credits, as doing so would benefit Tesla by heavily punishing unprofitable competitors. Although Tesla received some $17 million via the IRA in funding for its charging stations, Musk personally argued at the time of the law’s discussion that it was “unnecessary.” These are both likely to end under a Trump presidency.
Musk also frequently and publicly butted heads with former President Joe Biden, especially over his support for unions, as Tesla employees are not unionized and Musk is a staunch opponent of unionization efforts. In Trump’s previous term as President, the NLRB was much less pro-labor than under President Biden; Trump’s second term will likely continue that trend.
Regardless of Musk’s personal politics… he has always stayed consistent in one matter: He knows how to use the system to his advantage.
Musk’s opponents often paint him as a “grifter” with no real understanding of his businesses, but he is the world’s richest man—with $110 billion more in wealth than the next-richest man, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Tesla, by market cap, is worth more than the next sixteen most valuable car companies combined. That worth is not a statement to the cars that Musk produces, but it reflects a belief that he will find a way to continually make more profit from them.
Sure, Musk spent $250 million dollars on the Trump campaign, an unprecedented amount in American politics, which some considered unwise. But his net worth has surged 66 percent since Trump’s win, and Tesla has now hit its all-time highest value. It isn’t just an absurd return on investment—it is a direct endorsement of his strategy by investors.
While most automakers are frantically attempting to conduct business with a dying status quo, shifting product strategies to try and meet the regulatory environment, Musk has simply aimed to directly shape governmental policy himself.
This is a new era of capitalism. Musk’s business success demonstrates he has understood it well.
The Years of Lead
Much in the same way that Musk’s business acumen has not relied on traditional capitalist techniques to build wealth, the Cybertruck hasn’t relied on traditional means of marketing. Tesla famously has no PR department, and until very recently, it had no advertisements. Tesla’s sole means of informing the public about itself was either word-of-mouth, or word-of-Musk, and the Cybertruck has been his pet project since it debuted in 2019.
The Cybertruck’s stainless-steel skin and angular geometric styling were all Musk. He is quoted in Walter Isaacson’s biography saying, “I don’t care if no one buys it… We’re not doing a traditional boring truck… I want to build something that’s cool.”
Stylistically, Musk said he was inspired by the dystopian film Blade Runner and has described the Cybertruck as “an armored personnel carrier for the future.” To drive this home, Musk has continually played up the truck’s “indestructible” nature, hitting it with bats and shooting it with small arms.
More recently, when a Cybertruck was used in a possible terrorist attack in Las Vegas on New Year’s Day, Tesla’s fans declared its strength during the car bombing as a selling point. “Cybertruck actually contained the explosion”, said Musk in the aftermath, giving the Cybertruck credit for the lack of damage to the nearby hotel lobby.
Musk has correctly diagnosed what Americans—especially wealthy Americans—crave in their lives: Security. Safety. The Cybertruck plays to these desires.
In the past five years, American society has not just become more polarized—it has witnessed a lot of violence. 2020 saw a spike in the homicide rate that brought per-capita murders to a level not seen in decades. Three-quarters of these homicides were shootings, the highest percentage ever recorded.
Mass shooting frequency has been trending upward for over a decade. January 6th, 2021 saw congresspeople and even the vice-president targeted for serious harm or death. Last year, President Trump was nearly assassinated in the middle of giving a speech. Last month, a health insurance executive was shot and murdered in broad daylight by a gunman who had anti-insurance-company views—and a lot of people are happy about it.
Musk has correctly diagnosed what Americans—especially wealthy Americans—crave in their lives: Security. Safety. The Cybertruck plays to these desires.
While it’s important to note that violent crime has receded from the 2020 spike, and in general we enjoy the lowest crime rates in three decades, six in ten US adults believe that reducing crime should be a top priority for our government.
These are all indicators that American society is neither stable nor satisfied, and the depth of the political division means it is unlikely society will stabilize in the near future. Polling indicates that a vast majority of people are scared for their personal safety—and they’re scared things will only get worse. Even if we are not yet in America’s Years of Lead, roughly half of Americans fear that we’re heading toward it rapidly.
The Cybertruck Has Read The Room
There have been bitterly polarized reactions to the Cybertruck, of course, but that simply mirrors an America that increasingly cannot agree on anything. Besides, its first full year of sales has shown that it has plenty of proponents: It was the third best-selling EV in America last quarter and outsold every other electric pickup on the market combined. Where the friendly futurism of the Rivian R1T and the nostalgic supertruck vibes of the Hummer EV failed, the Cybertruck’s dystopian ethos has succeeded. Even more importantly to Musk and his investors, it’s actually profitable—unlike most other EVs on the market.
The Cybertruck—with its bulletproof doors and windows and “Bioweapon Defense Mode,” and Musk’s constant claims its design allows it to plow through people and cars alike—is, in its own way, visionary. Much has been written about the vehicular arms race as it relates to ever-larger, heavier SUVs, but the Cybertruck is the first vehicle designed to be the winner of America’s arms race, full stop.
I doubt that having a pickup that’s immune to small-arms fire will save many lives; crumple zones probably have done more for humanity than bulletproof cars. But we are, increasingly, in a brave new world. The rules are different, the science is up for debate, and perception is what matters. The Cybertruck saw what American consumers wanted, when everyone else refused to reckon with them. Tesla delivered the car of the moment and made money doing it.
If that isn’t visionary, nothing is.
