“Trevor Milton, founder of Nikola trucks, has been charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan in connection with their investigation into allegations of fraud and for making false and misleading statements to investors. Prosecutors say that when Milton unveiled their tractor trailer truck it had to be plugged into the wall, the headlamps were activated by remote by a staffer, and air had to be pumped in because there was a slow leak in the air lines of the truck.”

“And yes, prosecutors do say part of Milton’s conduct was video of the Nikola truck in the Super Bowl ad was not in fact of a working truck but was towed to the top of a hill. Breaks were released and it rolled downhill. Prosecutors say in February of 2020 Milton made statements that his pickup truck – called the Badger – would be built with its own parts and frames. Meanwhile they were using Ford F-150 trucks for chassis and frames on their prototypes” reports NBC’s Tom Winter.

Trevor Milton’s donor lookup page on OpenSecrets.org lists a whole shit ton of donations to Republican candidates and the NRCC – and that’s just his public contributions, so who knows what else he’s been up to. Nikola (really stupid name by the way, couldn’t have made it more obvious they were pissed Elon Musk got to Tesla first), is the second American electric pickup truck company born in the era of Trump’s “manufacturing is back” bullshit to turn out to be built on a foundation of lies. Then there’s that little Foxconn clusterfuck in Wisconsin.