F Minus today called on the Massachusetts firm Tremont Strategies to cut ties with Elon Musk’s Tesla because of the financial harm that President Trump and Musk’s DOGE initiative are inflicting on the firm’s other clients, among them Harvard University, Amherst College, and the University of Chicago’s Marine Biological Laboratory.
“DOGE’s and Trump’s attacks on Harvard are so extreme that Tremont Strategies needs to walk away from Musk and Tesla,” said James Browning, Executive Director of F Minus. “It is wrong to take Musk’s money while DOGE is slashing education funding and Trump is attempting a hostile takeover of Harvard and other universities. Working for Musk at this moment gives him political cover and normalizes his and Trump’s destructive behavior.”
Tremont Strategies has lobbied for Tesla since 2019 and currently lobbies for the President and Fellows of Harvard College, the undergraduate college of Harvard University. Yesterday, the Trump Administration announced that $2.2 billion in federal grants to Harvard would be frozen after the university refused to comply with a list of Trump demands that included handing over admissions data and shutting down any programming related to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Tremont client Amherst College has not been directly targeted by DOGE, but has begun to delay maintenance programs in response to DOGE-driven cuts to federal education funding. The University of Chicago’s Marine Biological Laboratory has used Tremont to obtain funding for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, where DOGE cuts are now forcing the Institute to lay off staff. Other Tremont clients who use the firm to lobby on climate or environmental legislation include the Massachusetts Audubon Society and the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations.