In addition to this sort of gaslighting (pardon the pun), Trump also exploits xenophobic fears about E.V.s. Last year, at a rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, the former president delivered an incoherent rant about a friend of his who, he said, regretted buying an electric car. Besides, Trump added, “people can’t afford them,” and “the batteries are made in China.” (These are all issues that Biden’s E.V. subsidies help address, but that’s irrelevant to the GOP’s manufactured culture war.)
Trump’s not the only Republican sounding this alarm. Senator J.D. Vance (author of Hillbilly Elegy) has been attempting to roll back the E.V. subsidies in the Inflation Reduction Act, arguing that they’re “green energy daydreams” that will send jobs to China, although they are likely to do the opposite (and, as my TNR colleague Kate Aronoff pointed out earlier this fall, Vance himself is no friend to the autoworkers).
This foolishness looks even more foolish now, as United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain, who has just presided over the biggest labor victory in decades, may have just rendered the Republican posturing on E.V.s irrelevant. That’s because United Auto Workers’ recent victory over the Big Three automakers makes significant strides toward creating green jobs in their industry.