Ford to lose billions hitting the brakes on EVs, thanks in part to Trump

Happy Tuesday! Here’s your Tuesday Tech Drop, a roundup of the top stories at the intersection of technology and politics from the past week.

Ford flip-flips on EVs

Ford’s electric vehicle plans appear to have fallen victim to President Donald Trump’s self-destructive economy. The company announced Monday that it is planning to take a nearly $20 billion hit as it pivots away from battery-powered vehicles, a move the company’s CEO attributed in part to Trump’s anti-EV agenda.

As Reuters reported:

The outlook for electrics dimmed significantly this year as U.S. President Donald Trump’s policies yanked federal support for EVs and eased tailpipe-emissions rules, which could encourage carmakers to sell more gas-powered cars.

U.S. sales of electric vehicles fell about 40% in November, following the September 30 expiration of a $7,500 consumer tax credit, which had been in place for more than 15 years to stoke demand. The Trump administration also included in the massive tax and spending bill that passed in July a freeze on fines that automakers pay for violating fuel-economy regulations.

Trump’s economic agenda has been devastating for carmakers and consumers alike. His tariffs have raised production costs for auto manufacturers, and consumers have begun seeing those price hikes as well. Meanwhile, the administration’s infatuation with gas-guzzling vehicles is causing one of America’s biggest automakers into a costly pivot.

Read more at Reuters.

Online protections for children

A House subcommittee advanced more than a dozen bills that their authors say are designed to protect children from abuse and other manipulation online. But there’s bipartisan concern that the bills either don’t go far enough or prohibit states from taking effective measures on their own.

Read more at Tech Policy Press.

Agencies adopt Trump talk

A recent report from The Guardian looks at how social media accounts linked to federal agencies have been parroting the president’s trolling language and deliberately antagonistic behaviors online. It’s an effective look at how agencies — much like Trump — are trying to corner the market in the attention economy.

Read more at The Guardian.

Democrats’ AI panel raises eyebrows

The list of Democrats named to House Democrats’ new panel on artificial intelligence includes multiple staunch allies of Big Tech, raising questions about the party’s ability to effectively regulate the industry.

Read more at MS NOW.

States join FTC’s Uber lawsuit

Several states have signed on to a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit accusing Uber of charging riders for its Uber One service without consent, along with deceptively promising savings and making it difficult for users to cancel subscriptions. Uber denied the claims and said in a statement: “If this lawsuit were to succeed, it would upend how virtually every modern subscription service operates.”

Read more at The Wall Street Journal.

Trump admin looks to tap techies

The Trump administration has made firing federal employees its modus operandi since the president’s return to office this year. But there’s one group of people it’s apparently keen on hiring: techies. A new report highlights an initiative being run out of the Office of Personnel Management to tap Big Tech companies to help fill the government with tech workers who can speed up the government’s adoption of AI tools.

Read more at FedScoop.

Trump’s crypto embrace

A new report from The New York Times helps quantify how great a boon Trump’s hands-off approach to regulating cryptocurrencies has been for crypto executives and investors, a group that includes the president and his family.

Read more at The New York Times.

Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.