In a move that stunned environmental advocates, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) under Trump dropped a high-profile enforcement case on behalf of the EPA against a Louisiana rubber plant whose emissions of chloroprene, a chemical considered to be a likely carcinogen in humans, reached hundreds of students in nearby schools.

For Tesla, the quarterly financial consequences of Musk’s decision to wield the hatchet for Trump’s attack on federal jobs, public programs and civil society couldn’t be clearer. In the longer run, Tesla faces big-world challenges,