President Donald Trump is trying to block two projects that Tesla would benefit from that fund electric vehicle charging infrastructure -- a move that Elon Musk's political interests appear to be at odds with his car company's goals of advancing sustainable energy. latest example.

Trump's strategy is not guaranteed to succeed. But if that happens, Tesla could lose two sources of funding the automaker has used over the past two years to build a market-leading electric vehicle charging network.

Among the many executive orders Trump signed on the first day of his second term, he announced that "all agencies should immediately suspend disbursements" of funds from programs enacted by the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act. He specifically called for an end to funding for electric vehicle charging stations through the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) formula program and the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure (CFI) grant program.

These agencies shall submit a review of "the processes, policies, and plans for awarding grants, loans, contracts, or any other financial disbursements" within 90 days of the date of this order, and all agency heads shall submit reports to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the National Economic Council (NEC). The order also states that agencies cannot disburse additional funds unless "the Director of the Office of Management and Budget and the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy determine that such spending is consistent with any review recommendations they choose to adopt."

Musk has long claimed that Tesla's mission is to "accelerate the transition to sustainable energy." But he is now officially working with the second Trump administration, which made a major shift on sustainable energy on its first day in office. Trump has signed orders halting federal leasing for offshore wind development, withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris climate accord and seeking to reverse other EV policies from the Biden administration.

As TechCrunch first reported last week, Tesla was recently part of a team that received $100 million in funding from the CFI program to build charging infrastructure for heavy-duty electric trucks in Illinois. The company hopes to receive about $40 million from the group's initial $126 million funding request. Tesla has also repeatedly sought about $100 million in CFI funding to build a truck charging corridor between northern California and southern Texas, but the application has been repeatedly rejected.

Tesla's CFI grant in Illinois is a fraction of the nearly $2 billion the Department of Transportation has allocated over the past two years. Tesla received a larger share of the grant from the NEVI program, which distributes small amounts of money to states, which in turn use the funds to provide grants to build charging infrastructure. Tesla has won about 13% of all NEVI awards by mid-2024 and is using the millions of dollars to further build out its Supercharger network, which is now open to nearly all rival electric vehicles.

Martin Lockman, a fellow at the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School, said Trump could slow or halt future spending on these projects. He may be especially able to do this if his administration can successfully fight a legal battle against the Impoundment Control Act, which limits the president's ability to block Congress from spending money that has been appropriated.

"There's a lot of wiggle room here, and the Trump administration will certainly do everything it can to delay spending under these bills," he said.

However, it is unclear whether Trump can legally stop funding awards that are already under contract.

"The people who signed the contract today have the rights under those contracts, and the president cannot take away those rights," he said.

But Lockman warned that if agencies feel enough pressure from Trump, they could violate the terms of those contracts — and potentially the laws that created the funding programs in the first place — and refuse to release the funds. In this case, companies, state and local agencies, or other entities that receive NEVI or CFI awards will have to work toward achieving those awards.

"If the new administration wants people to fight for contracts in court, that will certainly create a huge hurdle for electric vehicle infrastructure," he said.