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 online forecast about the contract was edited to remove the word “Tesla” and simply referred to $400 million worth of “armored electric vehicles.”
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).
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.
When it comes to conflicts of interest, Musk insisted: “You have to look at the individual contract,” with little added explanation.
Credit: INDEPENDENT