Violent attacks on Teslas are likely coordinated and funded by a “mentally ill” left that’s succumbed to the worst ravages of Trump Derangement Syndrome.

That’s the considered opinion of Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, who said in an exclusive interview Thursday with The Heartlander that the attacks aren’t budding randomly from nature.

“Oh, I’m sure they’re not organic,” Hawley declared. “Here’s the thing that has me laughing my head off: A year ago or less, all of these liberals were driving their electric vehicles from wherever and touting their moral superiority because they cared about the climate, and they would never drive an external combustion engine again. And now these same people who are so proud to be in their EVs are showing up at EV dealerships and literally setting them on fire. 

“You can’t make this stuff up. These people are nuts. They’re absolutely insane. And this is the problem with the Democrats: They’ve become the party of the mentally ill. I mean, it is pure insanity. 

‘They’ve totally lost it’

“Look at their behavior at the State of the Union – waving around sticks and canes and trying to disrupt the president, and refusing to clap for a kid who has cancer. They’re nuts. I mean, they’ve totally lost it.”

Are the attacks coordinated – acts of domestic terrorism, as President Trump has promised they’ll be treated as?

“Oh, I can’t imagine that they are spontaneous,” Hawley said of the vandalism and arson of Teslas in public and at dealerships. “It’s just like the campus protests. I mean, they all look the same – George Soros-funded, we know, and he and his groups funded a bunch of these campus protests.

“I bet they’re doing the same thing with the EV protests. I mean, this is the only thing they know to do. Again, they’re the party of the mentally ill. All they know to do is go out and disrupt, burn stuff down – literally, burn stuff down – because they can’t accept the results of an election, they can’t accept the fact that their policies are nuts and the American people don’t want them.”

How has Elon Musk, America’s leader in EVs, become such a villain of the EV-loving left?

“Well, it’s just because he’s associated with Trump. This goes back to their Trump Derangement Syndrome. It knows no bounds. Anybody who is associated with Trump, they just can’t take it. 

Leftists incapable of self-reflection

“They will never look in the mirror, the left, and say to themselves, ‘Huh, we’ve been supporting men in women’s sports. Gee, most normal people don’t want that. We’ve been supporting illegal immigrants getting Social Security benefits. It’s going to bankrupt that great American program. Gee, most Americans don’t want that.’ 

“They’re just incapable of this. They don’t realize the problem is not Donald Trump. He won the election. The problem is them. It’s their policies and their general nuttiness.”

As for the sometimes violent, often intimidating and antisemitic campus protests against Israel, the Trump administration is seeking to deport recent Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil, an alleged ringleader of protests there that have gotten out of hand and have included “repugnant fliers glorifying Hamas,” as the New York Post has reported.

Does the Trump administration have the right to deport him? While the courts are weighing it, Hawley doesn’t need to.

“If you are here as a visitor to the United States, then you need to abide by the laws of the United States and not throw your lot in with a terrorist organization,” Hawley argues. “That guy went around and organized pro-Hamas terrorist protests. He was part of illegal protests on the Columbia University campus, occupying buildings.  

“To my mind, that’s grounds right there to throw him out of the country. He is not a citizen. He’s not born in this country. He’s not a naturalized citizen. He is here on a visa. That means he is a guest.

“And my view is, if you threaten to hurt Jewish Americans, if you break American law, if you engage in radical pro-terrorist protests that violate our standards and our laws, you ought to be gone. I mean, goodbye. Cancel those visas”

Tariffs: ‘Dial down the rhetoric’

On the escalating tit-for-tat tariffs among the U.S. and its trading partners, Hawley said his concern isn’t a global trade war.

“Here’s what I’m concerned about: I think Canada and Mexico and these other countries, they need to dial down the rhetoric and they need to admit that they’ve been ripping off the United States for years. Let’s be honest. 

“Canada has been charging dairy producers in Missouri 200%, 300% for our products. That’s not fair. Mexico, they’ve been stealing our auto jobs even under NAFTA. They’re still stealing our auto jobs. They are not following the NAFTA trade agreement terms. That’s not fair. 

“So I just say this, if you want fair and equal trade, I think that the United States is here for it. That’s what Donald Trump is asking for. That’s what we need. But these countries want to have it both ways. They want total access to our market, but they want unfair trading terms in protecting theirs. You just can’t do that. You cannot do that.

“We want fair trade, we want a fair deal for our farmers, for our producers, for our manufacturers.”

COVID: China ‘should pay reparations

On Missouri’s March 7 $24 billion federal court judgment against China for “causing and exacerbating” the COVID-19 pandemic, Hawley says the state should be aggressive about seizing Chinese assets nationally to satisfy a richly deserved ruling.

Should the Trump administration assist Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey in seizing those assets?

“Oh, they should help, and I certainly hope so,” Hawley says. “I’m just delighted about this. China is responsible for COVID. Their lab is the one that cooked it up. It was altered in that lab, it was released from the lab. They lied about it. They deceived the world about it. They should pay reparations for it. 

“I’ve been saying this for years. And I’m delighted that the attorney general went to court. He got that judgment, he was right to do so, and he ought to collect and seize everything he can that belongs to the communist government, all over the United States, and give back to the people of Missouri. They deserve it.”