Trump Halts $400M Tesla Armored Vehicle Deal
The Trump administration halted negotiations between the State Department and Elon Musk’s Tesla company to purchase armoured electric vehicles after rumours surfaced about a possible $400 million deal.
A State Department spokesperson said Musk’s electric car company was the only one that expressed interest in May 2024, when Joe Biden was president.
Musk has become President Donald Trump’s billionaire adviser, aiming to dismantle agencies and downsize the federal workforce.
While it was in its planning phases, the deal with Tesla was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers before the plans were put on hold.
His companies obtain hundreds of millions of dollars each year in contracts. SpaceX has secured nearly $20 billion in federal funds since 2008 to ferry astronauts and satellites into space.
Tesla had already received $41.9 million from the U.S. government, including payment for vehicles provided to some U.S. embassies.
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No government contract had been given to Tesla or any other manufacturer to produce armoured electric vehicles for the Department of State, the agency said.
The Biden administration had tasked the State Department to gather information from potential suppliers to buy these vehicles in September. An official request for bids was to be released in May, according to State Department data from December.
Though that solicitation is now on hold with no plans to issue it, the State Department said.
After reports emerged about the plans to buy from Tesla, the State Department changed the data entry on its expected contracts forecast for fiscal year 2025 late Wednesday.
The German automaker BMW is listed in at least one other entry for a different purchase, despite the State Department’s assertion that it should have been entered into the system as a generic “electric vehicle manufacturer.”
AP NEWS
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