Start the revolution…’: The government’s alleged armored Tesla spending plan is upsetting the internet
The internet has taken up arms against armored Teslas.
According to a recently uncovered procurement document from the State Department, the U.S. Government intends to purchase $400 million worth of armored Tesla vehicles. At least, they were. After news outlets began reporting that Tesla would be the beneficiary of government money—giving the appearance of self-dealing by Trump administration mainstay Elon Musk—State Department officials were quick to put a spin on the story.
According to a statement from the State Department, “the solicitation is on hold, and there are no current plans to issue it.” Just in time, because the internet was getting worried. “Start the revolution,” wrote one user on Elon Musk’s X, who brought up that House Republicans are planning to gut Medicaid and SNAP benefits for American citizens—which Americans sorely need more than bulletproof electric cars for their government.
Numerous other X users joined in the internet-wide call to arms. As user David Dayen wrote, “They want to take food and medicine away from poor people and give that money to billionaires instead.”
Another user, Chris Cappy, wrote, “The Department of State plans to procure up to $400 million in Tesla armored vehicles. This sounds like the kind of waste and abuse we wanted to stop.”
In the lead-up to Donald Trump’s presidency, Elon Musk announced that as leader of the still-to-be-formed Department of Government Efficiency, he would seek to cut $2 trillion from the federal spending budget. Musk later walked the amount down, saying that half of his original figure would be more feasible. Musk’s original number represents a little less than a third of government spending, the majority of which are mandatory expenses such as the Medicaid benefits and Social Security checks that millions of Americans depend on.
While Donald Trump campaigned on the promise to improve the financial situation of the average American, his administration has done little to help so far. The cost of groceries continues to rise under Trump, while the president himself appears to be more concerned with rooting out DEI practices and limiting the rights of minorities while facilitating the mass deportation of immigrants from U.S. soil. Elon Musk, meanwhile, has thrown government officials into a frenzy after DOGE employees attempted to gain access to the U.S. Treasury and USAID, as well as the Department of Education. Musk has since ordered an office within the Education Department to slash its budget by nearly a billion dollars.
While the plans to cut Musk’s electric car company a paycheck for $400 million while much-needed government agencies see their budgets trashed have been officially postponed, there are reports that the State Department intends to (unofficially) go through with the armored EV purchase after all.
As reported by Rolling Stone and Bloomberg, the State Department has revised its procurement document to no longer feature the word “Tesla,” and the $400 million in question is now earmarked for “armored electric vehicles.” Considering the Trump administration’s push to favor U.S.-based manufacturing in the automotive industry, as well as Elon Musk’s unprecedented level of political pull within it, it’s hardly a stretch of the imagination to believe that Musk’s car company will remain the recipient of federal money after all is said and done.
Musk himself has publicly denied any knowledge of the $400 million Tesla purchase. “I’m pretty sure Tesla isn’t getting $400M,” Musk wrote on X. “No one mentioned it to me, at least.”
According to Trump, his administration will continue to watch Musk’s work to prevent self-dealing. “If we thought there was a lack of transparency or a conflict of interest,” Trump said in an Oval Office press conference, “we would not let him do that segment or look in that area.” Despite the president’s promises, Donald Trump’s previous administration faced numerous accusations of conflict of interest, and his current administration appears to be repeating this pattern, despite what the State Department says.
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