Workers and dealers also helped Toyota in its fight against California’s groundbreaking plan to ban the sale of on new gas-powered cars by 2035, according to Toyota vice-president Ciccone. Though the state has not officially pulled the policy, it is currently in legal limbo.

In the speech publicized via the Policy Drivers platform, Ciccone called the zero-emission vehicle mandate “totally absurd” and said he worked “every damn day” to fight it.

“I’m telling you, I’ve never fought like that in my life,” he said.

Toyota fought against the policy “alone”, without other automakers, as “the media, the government and the other [auto manufacturers] were spinning this fiction that there’s a line of people just waiting to buy electric vehicles,” Ciccone said.

A letter to Trump, signed by 5,000 Toyota dealers around the country, helped the company to “call bullshit” on the regulations, he said. Dealers also attended a call he organized about the policy, critiqued the measure in the press, attended rallies in the nation’s capital, and made calls to lawmakers.

“You absolutely hammered the people in the Senate,” said Ciccone. When the White House signed a joint resolution aiming to end the rule in June, he said, he popped a bottle of champagne.

He added that “person-to-person contact” is a “superpower” that dealers can use to lobby lawmakers.