OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
6:23 PM – Monday, December 23, 2024
According to a corporate representative on Monday, Ford Motor Company is contributing $1 million and a fleet of cars to the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump in January.
The incoming administration’s proposed policies on tariffs and electric vehicles (EV) are expected to affect Detroit automakers like Ford, who are having difficulty increasing sales of their battery-powered EV models.
Trump has previously suggested eliminating the EV tax credit, which is said to benefit companies like Ford. Currently, drivers who purchase or lease an electric vehicle are eligible for a $7,500 federal tax credit.
However, the tax credit perk’s future could be questionable since Trump and other officials in the incoming GOP administration have deemed it unnecessary spending in the past. Though, naturally, there is also a chance that the tax credit could remain in place or be phased away gradually. Time will tell.
Meanwhile, Democrat officials like Governor Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) have argued that he will do everything in his power to fight any efforts to rid the tax credit.
“We’re not turning back on a clean transportation future — we’re going to make it more affordable for people to drive vehicles that don’t pollute,” said Newsom in a statement in November.
Many people assume that Elon Musk, a founder of the popular EV company Tesla, and a notable official in the incoming Trump administration as one of the heads of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), could possibly affect any decisions regarding EVs. However, Trump has already maintained that Musk will be putting “America First” over all of his companies.
Although the first federal EV tax credit was established under President George W. Bush’s U.S. Energy Policy Act of 2005, the tax credits, which are $7,500 for new cars and $4,000 for used cars, were introduced as part of President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act to “combat climate change by encouraging the sale of EVs.”
Americans who agree with doing away the EV tax credit perk argue that if a customer is already wealthy enough to purchase an EV vehicle, then they will survive financially and should not mind if that tax credit is taken away. On the other hand, critics have argued that the tax credit is an important, beneficial perk as it “rewards those who are conscious about the environment.”
Earlier this month, Jim Farley, the CEO of Ford, expressed optimism to reporters that Trump would be receptive to hearing the American automaker’s thoughts on these steps.
“[Given] Ford’s employment profile and importance in the U.S. economy and manufacturing, you can imagine the administration will be very interested in Ford’s point of view,” Farley said.
In terms of support, Amazon and Meta Platforms are among the other big businesses that have financially contributed to the incoming GOP inauguration. Meta and Amazon both paid $1 million in donations to the president-elect’s inaugural fund last week, followed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who promised that he would give the same amount as well.
General Motors (GM) has also pledged to donate $1 million to Trump.
Trump’s 2017 presidential inauguration brought in a record $106.7 million, while companies like Pfizer, AT&T, and Boeing contributed $61.8 million to Democrat President Joe Biden’s 2021 inauguration fund.
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