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LAST UPDATE | 11 Mar
US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump picked a “brand new Tesla” outside the White House to show support for his top campaign donor and advisor, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, amid a drop in the company’s share price.
Trump shopped for a new Tesla among several cars parked in the front lawn of the White House this afternoon, joined by Musk and his son.
Trump told reporters that he would write a check for the car, which retails for roughly $80,000 (€73,000), and leave it at the White House so his staff can drive it.
During the press conference/Tesla endorsement,the US president said he hopes his purchase will boost Tesla’s fortunes.
Despite his troubles, Musk still announced that he plans to double Tesla production in the United States in the next two years.
Trump had announced that he would make the Tesla vehicle purchase in a post online yesterday.
”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!,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform last night.
“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.
“Why should he be punished for putting his tremendous skills to work in order to help MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN???”.
But DOGE’s cost-cutting campaign has faced increasing resistance, including protests, court rulings and some pressure from lawmakers.
Trump told reporters outside the White House today that violence related to Tesla protests would be prosecuted as domestic “terrorism”.
Tesla Takedown, an international protest group targeting Musk’s vehicles, said that Americans “won’t stand for that”.
“The right to peaceful protest is a fundamental part of American democracy,” the group said in a statement.
“By singling out his biggest donor’s business as somehow outside of that democracy, Trump is yet again showing us who he is: a corrupt would-be king.”
Tesla Takedown added that they are “a nonviolent grassroots protest movement”.
“We oppose violence and destruction of property. Peaceful protest on public property is not domestic terrorism. They are trying to intimidate us – we will not let them succeed,” the protest group said.
“We will not be bullied or allow our rights to be trampled on or stolen.”
Tesla investors have feared boycotts and buyer backlash over Musk’s actions and close ties to Trump.
Some owners of Tesla’s pioneering electric cars have voiced buyers’ remorse over Musk’s foray into politics, including his backing of Trump and far-right parties in Europe, and sharing conspiracy theories online.
Tesla shares closed down more than 15% on Monday, as uncertainty over Trump’s import tariffs and threats have left US financial markets in turmoil.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq tanked 4% owing in part to the plunge in high-flying titans including Apple, Amazon and Tesla.
Meanwhile, Musk, the world’s richest person, said his social media platform X was hit by a major cyberattack, raising questions as to whether the politically divisive billionaire is being targeted for his decision to gut staff at what was once Twitter is haunting the social network.
In an interview with Fox News, Musk said he was not sure what had caused the outage, but said there was “a massive cyber attack to try to bring down the X system with IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area”.
Additional reporting from © AFP 2025
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