Musk slammed as State Department reveals plan to buy $400m in ‘armored’ Teslas in biggest contract of 2025
Elon Musk was blasted Wednesday following revelations that the Trump administration plans to spend $400 million on “armored” Teslas in what’s reportedly the State Department’s biggest contract of 2025.
The five-year contract, which did not specify the Tesla model to be “armored,” was listed in the government’s procurement forecast for 2025 and was first reported by Drop Site News.
The contract was revealed even as the tech billionaire and Donald Trump “best buddy” is deeply embedded in the same federal government granting the contract as Musk peruses Treasury Department pay systems and can presumably examine information about rival contractors in what would appear to be a glaring conflict of interest.
The contract is due to be finalized in the fourth quarter and is currently in the “planning” phase, according to the document.
After reports of the news Wednesday the document about the contract was edited, and now says the federal contract is for $400 million worth of “armored electric vehicles,” with the brand name “Tesla” removed.
The news comes as the world’s richest man’s rocket company, SpaceX, is still receiving multi-million dollar contract payouts from the U.S. government as he continues to gut federal funding elsewhere through his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in the administration of his “best buddy” Donald Trump.
Critics called Musk out after learning of the Tesla contract with Marco Rubio’s department.
“This is what they call ‘efficiency?’” former White House ethics adviser and law professor Richard Painter asked sarcastically in a post on X.
“Musk’s plan: Shut down parts of the govt investigating him. Claim that he’s stopping government spending … Give himself all the money,” Tristan Snell, an attorney who prosecuted Trump University, angrily commented.
“Musk convinced MAGA he’s fighting to save their precious taxpayer dollars. Meanwhile, he’s teed up to win a $400 million contract making armored Tesla cars for the State Department. No talk of cutting that one, oddly enough!” wrote Jared Holt, a researcher at London’s Institute for Strategic Dialogue.
A New York Times analyses noted Wednesday that Trump and Musk are hunting for corruption “very selectively” while the president “is rolling back anticorruption efforts and ethical standards for himself and allies like Elon Musk.”
The Independent has contacted the State Department and Tesla for comment.
Musk was questioned by reporters about conflicts of interest during a bizarre press conference Tuesday evening in the Oval Office with his four-year-old son and Trump.
When it comes to conflicts of interest, Musk insisted: “You have to look at the individual contract,” with little added explanation.
