Washington (AFP) – Donald Trump may now offload a Tesla he said he bought earlier this year in a show of support for Elon Musk, a White House official said Friday, following a blazing row between the US president and his billionaire former advisor. The red electric vehicle, which retails for around $80,000, was still in a parking lot on the White House grounds on Friday, an AFP reporter said, a day after the very public meltdown between Trump and the South African-born tech tycoon.
“He’s thinking about it, yes,” a senior White House official told AFP when asked if the Republican would sell or give away the Tesla. Tesla stocks had tanked more than 14 percent on Thursday amid the row, losing some $100 billion of the company’s market value, but leapt back in early trading Friday.
Trump, who does not drive as a president, said he was buying the Tesla in March to boost support for his mega-donor, whose brand — and bottom line — has been hit hard by public outrage over his role in slashing US government jobs. At a choreographed publicity stunt that turned the White House into a pop-up Tesla showroom, Trump praised the EV as a “great product” and lashed out on social media at “Radical Left” attacks against the world’s richest person and his company.
Trump’s Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and another senior aide posed in the car as recently as last week, in a photograph posted on Musk’s social media network X. “Taking President Trump’s Tesla out for a ride,” Trump’s communications advisor Margo Martin posted.
But the shiny red vehicle has now become an awkward symbol of the fiery political divorce between Trump, 78, and former Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) chief Musk, 53. Trump said he was “very disappointed” by Musk and threatened to end his government contracts after his ex-aide criticized the president’s flagship budget and policy mega-bill as an “abomination.”
© 2024 AFP
