U.S. President Donald Trump’s beef with electric vehicles runs deep and his opposition to previous federal policies supporting electric vehicle adoption is well documented.
During his second term in office, Trump rolled back consumer incentives, terminating the $7,500 federal EV tax credit and relaxing EPA greenhouse gas and tailpipe standards that previously pushed carmakers toward electrification. His administration also froze or cut federal funding or approvals for expanding national fast-charging EV stations.
Despite all these measures, which have contributed to a significant slowdown of the U.S. EV market, Donald Trump wastes no opportunity to bash electric vehicles. And now he’s taken EV drivers in his crosshairs.
The “Disease” Trump Was Referring To Is Likely Range Anxiety
In an August 5 speech on the administration’s tax cuts agenda at the Red Rock Casino in Las Vegas, Trump told the crowd that people who drive electric cars “have a disease,” although he stopped short of giving it a name (a wasted opportunity, we know).
“You ever see the signs? You’re driving along in an electric car? They have a disease, you know, it’s a disease where it’s called, like, they get screwed up, they’re driving, and they realize their battery’s getting low and they start thinking about it when it’s three-quarters full, it loses a little bit and they say where am I gonna [charge]?” Trump said in a rather bizarre outburst.
Getty Images
He was likely referring to range anxiety, which some EV drivers experience—especially those who have never driven an EV before or who live in an area with poor charging infrastructure. But while the “disease” remark could be excused as a reference to range anxiety (even though that’s quite a reach), what came next is harder to defend.
Trump bluntly called EV drivers “crazy” for their choice of wheels. “And you’re driving down the highway and you’ll see a sign electric charging station with an arrow 89 miles to the right. These people are crazy,” he said.
Trump Said America Has “A Thousand Years Of Gasoline”
Besides mocking people simply for choosing to drive electric cars, Trump also made some questionable remarks about oil reserves, noting that America holds “60 percent of the world’s oil and gas, including Venezuela.”
The last time we checked, Venezuela was still a sovereign nation under international law, despite the January 2026 U.S. military intervention that led to the forced removal of President Nicolas Maduro.
In this context, counting Venezuela’s oil and gas reserves as part of those of the United States is a big stretch. “We have a thousand years of gasoline and it’s what people prefer,” Trump said in his speech. As of early August, the U.S. national average for regular gasoline stands at $4.06 per gallon, according to the AAA Gas Prices Report.
About the author
Dan Mihalascu
News Editor