- donald trump, speaking during the world economic forum in davos, switzerland, on january 22, said we should protect tesla ceo elon musk as a genius.
- tesla has not announced any plans for additional u.s. facilities, but the president stated that the ev maker is "going to be building a very big plant in the united states" and that musk "has to."
- tesla’s next factory will be built near berlin, germany.
president trump made it clear that he's a fan of tesla and spacex ceo elon musk. in an interview with cnbc at the world economic forum in davos, switzerland, on wednesday, the commander-in-chief was questioned about tesla's standing as currently worth more than general motors and ford. the answer included praise for musk but also proclaimed plans for another u.s. gigafactory that’s a surprise to us and possibly tesla.
"you go back a year and they were talking about the end of the company and now all of a sudden they're talking about these great things," trump said during the interview. but he also dropped a weird bit of news, speculation, or just something he made up on the fly.
"[musk is] going to be building a very big plant in the united states. he has to. because we help him, so he has to help us."
now tesla already has a very big plant in the united states. in fact, it has three. there's the gigafactory out in the nevada desert, the solar panel facility in buffalo, new york, known as gigafactory 2, and the tesla factory in fremont, california. so far the company and its ceo have yet to announce any additional factories in the united states. car and driver reached out to tesla about the mystery plant but without result.
the company is also already expanding abroad. it recently announced that its shanghai factory in china is already producing the model 3 for that market and that it will be building a european gigafactory near berlin, germany.
maybe trump is privy to information the rest of us don’t have access to. he did say that he spoke on the phone with musk recently. "because we help him, so he has to help us" could be a throwaway line of the type trump often employs. but it's worth noting that tesla currently employs a large number of factory workers, salespeople, service techs, and a host of engineers and managers at its three facilities, silicon valley headquarters, and numerous showrooms.
but trump hastened to express his desire to protect the mercurial tesla ceo, saying, "he's one of our great geniuses, and we have to protect our genius." he then said that we have to protect thomas edison, who has been dead since 1931. we will set aside the fact that musk is more of a fan of nikola tesla (for whom his company is, after all, named) than of tesla's rival edison.
trump also talked up musk's spacex program, saying, "he's also good at the rockets. he likes rockets and he does good at the rockets, too, by the way." so overall, he seems like a fan. a fan who might have information about the company's future or just one who believes that praise is enough to build a giant factory.
back in november, trump announced that he toured a newly opened apple factory in texas. the problem was, the factory has been around since 2013 and owned by flex, a manufacturer of apple devices. so this isn't the first time trump has announced factory news that was not really news.
finally, as he got ready to depart davos, trump noted that climate activist greta thunberg (who like elon musk is trying to encourage change for a world with less pollution) should shift her attention away from the united states. "you have another continent where the fumes are rising at levels that you can't believe . . . i think greta ought to focus on those places," he said. recent studies note that u.s. air quality has gotten worse since 2016.