“These Guys Aren’t Screwin’ around.” Gavin Newsom on Trump’s Sabotage of US Auto Industry

California Governor Gavin Newsom at the Security Conference in Munich this week gave a succinct answer to question about the impact of Trump’s anti environment initiatives on US autos and air quality.

Meanwhile, and I’m serious here, the White House official account published the bizarre and need I even say inaccurate video below, depicting blue haired Prius drivers suffering because, purportedly, their engine, and thus their air conditioning, have stopped while paused at a red light.

Atmospheric scientist here, again. Let's do the math.

Auto start-stop saves 3 billion gallons of fuel and prevents ~30 million tons of CO₂ annually. You just killed it.
Meanwhile, NOAA's own data shows U.S. climate disasters averaged $140 billion/year over the last decade. In… https://t.co/SFdUoO4jBG

— Chris Gloninger, CCM, CBM (@ChrisGloninger) February 13, 2026

There were multiple “Community Notes” on the post.
—–

Notes suggesting context to be shown with the post

Toyota Prius is hybrid vehicle, which has electric Air Conditioning working independent of compustion engine and starts using electric motor with no delay. There is also no button for disabling engine autostop. Video is totally inaccurate.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Prius

The video is actually wrong, regarding the Prius’ air conditioning, which is electric and always on, even when the combustion engine is off. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Prius

_

As a serial Prius owner of almost 20 years, can confirm.