1 of 5 | Elon Musk, Tesla CEO and Senior Adviser to the President of the United States, looks on as President Donald Trump speaks in front of Tesla vehicles at the White House in Washington, DC on Tuesday. President Trump said he will buy a Tesla vehicle to support Elon Musk after recent attacks on Tesla charging stations and calls for boycotts of Tesla products. Photo by Samuel Corum/UPI |
License PhotoMarch 11 (UPI) — President Donald Trump toured Teslas on Tuesday outside the White House, where he pledged to buy an electric vehicle in a show of support for Elon Musk as he faces boycotts for cutting federal spending through the Department of Government Efficiency.
Trump and Musk, who is Tesla’s chief executive officer, shopped the Teslas lined up in red, white and blue outside of the South Portico, where Musk announced the EV maker would double its vehicle output in the United States over the next two years.
The photo-op comes after Tesla’s stock plummeted more than 15% on Monday. Tesla share prices have dropped more than 40% year-to-date amid backlash over Musk’s role in the Trump administration.
In addition to boycotts, Tesla vehicles and charging stations have become targets of vandalism. A fire at a Tesla electric vehicle charging station in eastern Massachusetts is believed to be arson, according to investigators, and a woman in Colorado was arrested for repeatedly vandalizing a Tesla dealership.
“I think he’s been treated very unfairly by a very small group of people, and I just want people to know that he can’t be penalized for being a patriot,” Trump told reporters Tuesday.
“You should cherish him,” Trump added. “We have to take care of our high-IQ people, because we don’t have too many of them.”
In response to a reporter question regarding the recent stock market downturn, Trump said it is part of rebuilding the United States.
“Markets are going to go up and they’re going to go down but, you now what, we have to rebuild our country,” Trump replied, as he vowed to buy a Tesla on Wednesday morning.
“To Republicans, conservatives and all great Americans, Elon Musk is ‘putting it on the line’ in order to help our nation, and he is doing a fantastic job. But the radical left lunatics, as they often do, are trying to illegally and collusively boycott Tesla, one of the world’s great automakers, and Elon’s ‘baby,’ in order to attack and do harm to Elon and everything he stands for,” Trump wrote Tuesday in a post on Truth Social.
“I’m going to buy a brand new Tesla tomorrow morning as a show of confidence and support for Elon Musk, a truly great American,” Trump added.
During Tuesday’s tour, Trump pointed to a red sedan. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the president would pay “full market price” for the car.
Musk spent close to $300 million during Trump’s presidential campaign. His satellite Internet company Starlink and EV automaker Tesla compete for billions of dollars of federal contracts managed by agencies that the billionaire has now been tasked by DOGE to overhaul.
Last month, U.S. State Department documents revealed plans to purchase $400 million worth of armored vehicles from Tesla this year. That was before Democrats questioned a possible conflict of interest with Musk’s dual role in the Trump administration.
The $400 million contract “is now on hold and there are no current plans to issue it,” a State Department spokesperson told The Hill one day later.
