Democrat questions Rubio over reported State Department Tesla purchase

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) pressed the State Department on Monday for answers about the agency’s plans to purchase $400 million worth of armored Teslas after new reporting disputed its initial claims about the contract.

The State Department faced backlash last month after it appeared that Elon Musk’s Tesla was set to receive a $400 million contract for “armored Teslas.”

The agency emphasized at the time that the contract originated in the Biden administration and that there were “no current plans to issue it.” The document featuring the contract was later quietly updated to say “armored electric vehicles” instead of “armored Teslas.”

However, NPR reported last week that a State Department document from the Biden administration showed the agency planned to spend just $483,000 on armored electric vehicles and $3 million on supporting equipment in 2025, well below the $400 million that later appeared on the procurement forecast.

The procurement document that drew attention last month also claimed to have been published in December during the Biden administration but does not appear in the Internet Archive for that month, NPR noted.

“As a result of these publicly reported events, the question has been raised whether, after significant public blowback, the Trump Administration created and backdated government documents to make it appear that the idea to spend $400 million in taxpayer money on Tesla Cybertrucks originated with the previous administration,” Blumenthal said in a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday.

“If that occurred, the Trump Administration not only recognizes the tremendous conflicts of interest inherent in Mr. Musk’s dual roles, but is also taking active steps to hide the fact that it is ensuring that Mr. Musk’s position is benefitting his companies,” he added.

Blumenthal also sent a letter to Rubio last month about the contract but did not receive a response, he noted.

The Trump administration has repeatedly faced questions about potential conflicts of interest surrounding Musk’s work leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO, whose companies have benefited from billions of dollars' worth of federal contracts, has vowed to cut trillions of dollars in government spending through his work at DOGE.

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