Pete Buttigieg Supercharges The Truth As He Chops Down Musk/Trump Lies
After Donald Trump Jr. posted misinformation about the EV charger program, that was backed up by Elon Musk, Pete Buttigieg showed how to debunk the lies.
The Daily is a reader-supported newsletter that is committed to democracy, freedom, truth, and civil rights. Please join our community by becoming a subscriber.
Pete Buttigieg Takes On Misinformation
Misinformation isn’t just for political campaigns. Donald Trump Jr. and his dad’s little buddy Elon Musk gave the nation a preview of what they can expect starting on Janurary 20, 2025.
Donald Trump Jr. reposted a tweet that stated, “Pete Buttigieg will leave his post as Transportation Secretary having spent $7.5 BILLION to build 8 EV charging stations. His legacy will be squandering billions on something nobody wants, while millions struggle to afford the things they need.”
The tweet you quoted is false. To start with, $7.5B has not been spent, nor anything like that. That’s the entire program budget for the NEVI program, which is to help build out a national charging network by 2030.
Secondly, there are chargers now operational in nine states (which does not mean 9 chargers, to be clear). These are only the first handful though. Most are to be built in the 2nd half of the decade.
Third, in this program, the chargers are built by the states, not the federal government. And while it takes time to get a novel multi-billion dollar program going across 50 states, the states are on track.
Buttigieg then posted a link to the data and the map.
Facts are going to matter more than ever in the future. As we remember from the first go around with Trump, nothing was off limits. Lies and misinformation were how his White House communicated with the American people.
The members of the Biden administration will have to be vigilant because Trump will try to demean their success while taking credit for what works.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The Daily to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.