“"We ended the last administration's insane electric vehicle mandate."”

Address to a joint session of Congress (and subsequent remarks)

There was no federal electric vehicle mandate to end. Biden's Executive Order 14037 set a goal, not a requirement, that 50 percent of new passenger cars and light trucks sold in 2030 be zero-emission vehicles, counting plug-in hybrids. NPR reported on inauguration day that no federal policy required all vehicles to be electric.

The closest thing to a mandate was a state rule: California's ban on new gas-car sales by 2035, enforced under a Biden-era waiver and adopted by about a dozen states. Trump signed the resolution blocking it in June 2025, three months after telling Congress the mandate had already been ended. His own January 2025 order revoked EO 14037 and directed agencies to terminate state waivers 'where appropriate', and described subsidies as effectively mandating EV purchases, rather than ending any binding federal requirement.

NPR, January 20, 2025: "There is no current federal policy requiring all vehicles be electric, but the Biden administration put in place several policies promoting electric vehicles as part of its efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions and limit climate change."