Dear Elon: I told you so

I hesitate to say I told you so, Elon, but …. I told you so.

In a letter I sent last July care of 48 Hills, I urged you not to support Donald Trump. You were probably too busy campaigning for him to read the post in which I asked:

Why support a candidate (Trump) who vehemently opposes this country’s transition to electric vehicles? Trump’s vow to “drill, baby, drill” if elected favors gasoline-fueled, carbon-emitting cars over electric-battery charged engines, and one way or another that means fewer Teslas sold, as Trump’s policy reduces public support for renewable energy and your kind of car.

Now Trump’s going to end tax credits and subsidies for electric vehicles. He’s rumored to be selling the red Tesla sedan you sold him at the White House, and thanks to his actions your cars may become even less salable than they’ve been in recent months. Tesla has already lost considerable profits this year, compared to last, and that was before Donald Trump’s plan to increase the cost of EVs.

I myself contributed a little to the decline in Tesla’s profits in 2024-25, as I didn’t buy one of your company’s cars, and instead participated in San Francisco’s weekly “Tesla Takedown” outside the Van Ness Avenue showroom to protest your firing of federal workers and your other reductions of government services in the name of “efficiency.”

Now, 11 months after I warned you about Trump, you’ve stopped sleeping in the Lincoln bedroom and left the White House with a black eye (yours, not Trump’s, an eye which you claim came from a punch your five-year old son X gave you).

And now you’re giving Trump a black eye, metaphorically speaking, by objecting on X to his “one big, beautiful bill.”

Not only is Trump advocating changes that will hurt electric car sales, he’s promoting tax cuts and a budget so offensive to you that you’ve threatened to fund campaigns against anyone in Congress who supports Trump’s bill now in the Senate. Meanwhile he’s trying to divert the public attention from an unpopular bill with spectacles such as the unneeded show of military force and in Los Angeles and a military parade in Washington DC.

The troop deployment has captured the headlines, pushing aside your concerns that national debt will bankrupt America if the new tax cuts for the wealthy (yourself included) go through without further reductions in government spending. 

But I haven’t forgotten you. Only a few days ago you wrote on X: “I’m sorry, but can’t stand it anymore. Congress is making America bankrupt.” Some other sources agree about the ballooning debt. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the nation’s deficit will rise $2.5 trillion if the “one big, beautiful bill” passes in its current form and all the transactions it prescribes take place. It will lead to one big, not-so-beautiful deficit, as well as losses of federal services and assistance to millions of citizens who welcome federal programs.

There is another way to avoid the bankruptcy you fear, besides further cuts to Medicaid and to federal environmental, housing, transportation, health ,and education programs. The alternative will require you to change your position on a few issues, but you’ve done that before (as has Trump). Here’s what I propose:

First you return to San Francisco, which is almost as far from Washington as you can get politically if not geographically. This will help distance you from the White House. Once in town, invite local Tesla Takedowners and other skeptics of your activities to meet you on the steps of City Hall, and announce that you now agree with some if not all of their objections to Trump’s agenda. At the very least you can say that you don’t support Donald Trump’s budget, and want your San Francisco audience to oppose it too.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t stand it anymore,” you can begin, in fact you’re already said that on X. Then you confess: “I don’t want to see America go bankrupt, even though I’m a Canadian citizen. And we don’t need fossil fuel anymore. So I have come back to a city that loves electric cars, although your love may have switched from Tesla to Waymo in recent months. (You know in Los Angeles they’re now burning Waymos on the street, not Teslas.). You probably switched from X to another company, too.”

“But I’m on your side today against the ugly, abominable budget bill, and I’ll make some concessions to prove it.”

“First of all, I’m going to oppose all tax cuts that benefit the wealthy. Your city and state and our country need all the taxes the wealthy can afford to give. It’s time to pay my share. (Bezos and those other laggards should pay up, too.). That will add billions if not trillions to the Treasury.

“San Francisco is a city that will understand me (unlike Washington, D.C.) when I say there is another way to rescue the country financially, besides depopulating the federal workforce and destroying Medicaid, Social Security, and all those science labs. Instead, tax the wealthy. Also, to make America more financially sound, make the budget cuts that anyone in a No Kings march or a “Hands Off” rally will recommend: If you want to avoid a deficit, cut the bloated military budget, and don’t produce more nukes or war weapons; we have more than enough. Cut the funds for an unnecessary border fence, cut the funds wasted on cruel, unnecessary deportations and military intervention in American cities, cut the funds for new prisons and make Donald Trump pay for his own birthday parade.

“I’d rather not reduce space exploration funding just yet, we still need men like me on Mars. But first I plan to spend a few days more on Earth, especially in San Francisco, ride around in one of those Waymo cars and see if I can’t get Tesla to outmaneuver the competition with its own self-driving and fireproof line.” 

Finally, Elon, I want to thank you for saying you’re sorry. It’s a great beginning for your new life outside of Washington. If you take my advice and visit San Francisco soon, you could also march in the city’s No Kings Parade to counter the President’s self-celebrating birthday parade on June 14. It’s time for Elon Musk to join the resistance.

Joel Schechter is the author of several books on satire.