Democrats call out Trump actions on Tesla, Musk

High-level policy discussions that could benefit Tesla and its biggest shareholder Elon Musk are underscoring the political complexities of the world’s richest man playing a central role in the Trump White House.

They are also giving ammunition for Democrats to go on the attack against Musk, who at breathtaking speed is remaking a federal government by offering buyouts to federal workers and seeking to dismantle various agencies in the name of saving the government money.

Democrats on Thursday were firing shots after several news outlets reported that the State Department planned a $400 million purchase of armored Tesla Cybertrucks based on a procurement forecast published in December — after President Trump won the election but before his inauguration.

“You saw the story about the contract Tesla was apparently on the verge of getting for $400 million for the Tesla truck,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who also pointed to a pause on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) by the Trump administration as a bad sign.

Trump earlier this week signed an executive order pausing enforcement of the FCPA, which prohibits U.S. businesses from bribing foreign government officials to benefit their interests.

“It is a big deal,” Van Hollen said. “Number one, it sends a very bad message. It sends the message that anything goes in terms of practices."

Van Hollen also drew a link between the law’s suspension and Trump’s decision to fire 17 inspectors general across the federal government last month.

“Unfortunately, it’s the same message the Trump administration is sending here at home. When you get rid of all the inspectors general, you open the door for corruption. It seems to be a theme,” he added.

The procurement issue is a fair bit more complicated than Tesla and Musk being handed $400 million.

It was launched under the Biden administration, which had sought to make more investments in electric vehicles (EV). Trump has signaled a shift in the opposite direction.

The State Department on Thursday said the armored EV procurement was not going forward, with a spokesperson saying the solicitation for the contract was “on hold” with “no current plans to issue it.”

If it is issued, other EV manufacturers would have a chance to make bids.

Still, the optics were not helpful for the administration.

The agency’s procurement forecast for 2025 initially showed a planned contract for “armored Teslas” to be awarded by Sept. 30, but the document was later amended Wednesday to say “armored electric vehicles” instead of “armored Teslas.”

When informed of the State Department’s explanation that the procurement for armored electric vehicles was a leftover from the Biden administration, Van Hollen said: “Look, all I know is what we saw with respect to the timing.”

“The Trump administration needs to recognize when you’ve got the president of the United States handing the keys of the federal government over to Elon Musk, they need to go the extra mile to make sure that everything is done appropriately. Otherwise, it will open the door to corruption,” he said.

Musk’s companies, which also include SpaceX, have a host of valuable government contracts.

In pausing enforcement of the FCPA, Trump said the law had been enforced in “excessive” and “unpredictable” ways and argued it had put U.S. companies at a disadvantage in gaining access to deep-water ports and critical minerals.

The president also directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate whether enforcement of the law under previous administrations was “inappropriate” and to compensate parties charged with violations if “remedial measures” would be warranted.

Two companies that had been fined under the law, Glencore and Rio Tinto, are Tesla suppliers. CNBC reported that Glencore, a major supplier of cobalt, which is used to make lithium-ion batteries, paid more than $1.1 billion to end investigations of violations of the FCPA.

Sen. Ron Wyden (Ore.), the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said the decision to suspend the antibribery law would benefit Musk.

“Elon Musk is getting what he paid for. Donald Trump is gutting a law that cost Tesla suppliers more than $1.5 billion in settlements for paying bribes and other corrupt actions overseas,” he said in a statement to The Hill.

“Axing the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act will help Musk’s companies and make it harder for companies that want to play by the rules to say no to shakedown schemes by corrupt foreign officials,” he said.

Sen. Susan Collins (Maine), the Republican chair of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, called the suspension of the foreign corrupt practices law unwise.

“On the face of it, that does not sound wise to me, but I don’t know what prompted it,” she said.

“First of all, I don’t think the administration should be suspending laws. That’s the basic issue here,” she said.

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, argued that “the president doesn’t have the power to turn on and turn off various statutes,” pointing out that the antibribery law has been in effect since 1977.

“Enforcement actions under the statute have recovered billions of dollars. He said it makes companies less competitive. No, it has helped raise the bar for the practices of companies from other countries around the world and has helped strengthen America’s reputation as doing business honestly,” he said.

Coons emphasized that the law makes it illegal to bribe foreign government officials.

“It’s a troubling development,” he said.

Other Republicans, however, argued that the law sometimes poses an obstacle to U.S. companies seeking to do business in less developed countries.

“I know that it is a hurdle sometimes, a consequential hurdle for companies trying to do business in other countries. I don’t think President Trump or any of us would encourage a foreign corrupt practice,” said Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), a member of the Foreign Relations panel and a former U.S. ambassador to Japan.

“I do think that the rules are often quite cumbersome and impede our ability to compete,” he said.

Although the State Department indicated Thursday that it has “no current plans” to issue the $400 million contract for armored electric vehicles, Republican senators are warning the administration not to even contemplate it.

“I can tell you I have not been keen on electric vehicles for the military. I was a transportation company commander and I don’t know of many plug-ins available in Iraq. I have very strong thoughts about that,” said Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), a member of the Armed Services Committee.

Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), another member of the Armed Services panel, poured cold water on the idea that electric vehicles, such as Tesla’s Cybertruck, should be outfitted with armor to transport U.S. personnel in dangerous environments.

“I think it could cause issues being in a battlefield situation. You’d have to pause to charge them, possibly,” Fischer said. “You never know where our forces may be deployed.

“If you look at the weight of them — that’s one of my concerns, the way how they pulverize a roadbed because our infrastructure is not designed for that kind of weight because of the battery,” she added.

Republicans also asserted that the Biden administration promoted armored electric vehicles purely because of political motivations.

“It makes no sense. It was a political agenda, and this is a glaring example of no thought being put into it,” she said. “Instead, it was to push ahead with a political agenda.”

Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), another member of the Armed Service panel, called armored electric vehicles “impractical.”

“If they need armored vehicles, get the best ones you can get at the lowest cost,” he said. “Electric vehicles to me don’t seem to be very secure.”

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