Donald Trump Jr. gets a fact check dressing down from Pete Buttigieg – and Musk appears to approve

Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg took to X on Monday to fact-check misleading claims about the state of a Biden administration initiative to build more electric vehicle charges.

Earlier that day, Michael Rulli claimed that the federal government had spent $7.5bn to build eight electric vehicle charging stations, in what he called “evidence of squandering billions on something nobody wants, while millions struggle to afford the things they need.” The president-elect’s son, Donald Trump Jr., retweeted Rulli’s message, claiming the program “does not seem like a great return on investment...but hey he checked a woke box so it’s totally worth it.”

In response to the posts, Buttigieg said their information was “false.”

“To start with, $7.5B has not been spent, nor anything like that. That’s the entire program budget for the NEVI [National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure] program, which is to help build out a national charging network by 2030,” the official wrote in a thread.

“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,” he added. “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.”

The exchange got the attention of Trump ally and EV manufacturer Elon Musk, who said Buttigieg’s information was “helpful to understand.”

Despite the rebuttal from Buttigieg, conservatives aren’t the only ones concerned about the slow rollout of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s $7.5bn plan to spur EV charging stations.

As of March of this year, only seven stations in four states had been built.

“I think a lot of people who are watching this are getting concerned about the timeline,” Alexander Laska, deputy director for transportation and innovation at the center-left think tank Third Way toldThe Washington Post at the time.

The Department of Transportation has approved plans for further NEVI projects in all 50 states, according to its website.

The back-and-forth on X is also a reminder of Musk’s unique position within the incoming administration, which combines personal interest and public policy.

Musk, as head of the Trump administration’s non-governmental DOGE commission on cutting government spending, could have enormous influence over the federal budget, which currently provides contracts and subsidies to Musk enterprises like SpaceX and Tesla.

The world’s richest person, despite publicly boasting that Tesla didn’t need the subsidies, recently railed against a California plan to restart consumer EV tax credits if Trump follows through on an expected move to cut them, instituting a state policy that might not include Tesla.

The billionaire called the proposal “insane.”