Elon Musk slammed after government revealed plan to buy $400,000,000 worth of ‘armored Teslas
Elon Musk has been slammed after the government revealed a plan to buy $400 million worth of ‘armored Teslas’.
The State Department released their procurement forecast for this fiscal year and people were surprised to see a familiar company mentioned.
Musk seems to have well and truly taken on the role as ‘First Buddy’ to President Donald Trump after donating $260 million to his election campaign.
Elon Musk has taken center stage in the Trump administration (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Since Trump’s victory at the polls, Musk has now taken center stage in the new administration under his new position as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
It’s not technically a government department and is more of an outside advisor, but that didn’t stop Musk and his DOGE employees from blocking elected officials from entering the Department of Education building in Washington DC.
Fears have grown over Musk’s involvement with the government, which have only heightened since he was granted full access to the Treasury payment system.
Now, it seems that there could be other parts of the system which may hold an interest to him.
Musk’s electric vehicle company, Tesla, was named in the State Department’s forecast where they cited plans to spend $400 million in buying armored Teslas.
It stated that the plan would start in 2025 and last for five years.
However, now the document has been edited to remove any mention of the company’s name.
While Musk is usually very vocal about criticism against him on X, formerly Twitter, he is yet to comment on this.
The government had a plan laid out to buy armored Teslas (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Musk’s access to Treasury financial data has been halted for now after New York judge Paul A. Engelmayer placed an injunction to block him.
The preliminary injunction came into effect on Saturday (February 8), and will last until the next court hearing tomorrow (February 14).
As part of the ruling, Musk and his team have also been ordered to immediately destroy any copies of records that they have.
This comes after the Trump administration was sued by 19 state attorneys general, who claim that giving DOGE access to the records violates federal law.
Musk didn’t seem best pleased by the injunction, which he has taken to X to describe it as ‘absolutely insane’.
He wrote: “How on Earth are we supposed to stop fraud and waste of taxpayer money without looking at how money is spent?”
In the judge’s order, it said that states would ‘face irreparable’ harm if immediate relief wasn’t implemented.
The order continued: “That is both because of the risk that the new policy presents of the disclosure of sensitive and confidential information and the heightened risk that the systems in question will be more vulnerable than before to hacking.”
Featured Image Credit: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Elon Musk quizzed over ‘hostile takeover’ of US government in first press conference from Oval Office
This is Musk’s first appearance at the White House since President Trump took office
Elon Musk responded to the ‘hostile takeover’ of the US government in his first press conference from the Oval Office.
The Tesla CEO made an unexpected appearance at the White House on Tuesday where he covered topics such as restoring democracy, self-policing, current politics and social security fraud.
The X account called ELON CLIPS shared the full interview with timestamps on topics that were addressed.
Standing beside President Donald Trump, Musk defended his sweeping cost-cutting measures and denied accusations of a ‘hostile takeover’ of the US government.
The world’s richest man wore a black Make America Great Again cap and had his young son, named X Æ A-Xii (X, for short) – on his shoulders for part of the conference.
Here’s a compilation of all of Elon Musk’s comments on DOGE’s action earlier today at the White House: 0:00 Restoring Democracy 1:58 Addressing the deficit 2:55 Suspicious personal wealth 3:46 Basic payment controls 6:18 Social security fraud 7:03 The Retirement Mine 8:48
Musk addressed concerns about his role as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the agency tasked with slashing federal spending and workforce numbers. Trump had Musk’s back by signing an order to grant more authority to DOGE and instructing the heads of government agencies to comply with it.
Democrats have allegedly criticised the agency for not being transparent, and legal issues have also slowed down its work.
However, Musk described using ‘common sense’ measures that are neither ‘draconian or radical’ to tackle the government cuts.
“The people voted for major government reform and that’s what the people are going to get,” the 53-year-old said. “That’s what democracy is all about.”
He also took aim at what he called an ‘unelected, fourth, unconstitutional branch of government’ that he said has ‘more power than any elected representative’ – referring to federal employees who he believes hold too much power over elected reps.
“It’s not optional for us to reduce the federal expenses,” Musk continued. “It’s essential. It’s essential for America to remain solvent as a country.”
Andrew Harnik / Staff / Getty
Other clips of Musk being questioned about how he was going to police himself whilst he’s now in a ‘place of conflict.’
He explained that ‘everything they will be doing’ will be ‘public’ so everyone will have ‘full transparency’ behind the scenes.
When pressed on how he plans to cut the federal budget deficit from $2 trillion to $1 trillion, the SpaceX founder boiled it down to two key things: ‘competence and caring.’
He also touched on his SpaceX and Defense contracts where Musk clarified that his companies are working with the government to strengthen national security while pushing technological advancements.
“I fully expect to be scrutinised,” he added. “It’s not like I think I can get away with something.”
Viewers of the press conference have been quick to rally behind Musk writing: “DOGE for the win” and “Trump is extremely lucky to have Elon on his team, its an absolute blessing.”
