Trump looks to unload red Tesla he bought from Elon Musk in March amid titans' nuclear fallout
President Donald Trump is thinking of getting rid of the red Tesla that he bought from Elon Musk earlier this year as the feud between the two continues, according to reports.
Trump is considering either selling the Model S electric vehicle, priced at around $80,000, or giving it away, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing a senior White House official.
The car was pictured Friday parked outside the West Wing between the White House and the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, a picture taken by Reuters news agency showed.
Trump purchased the Tesla in a show of support to the former 'first buddy' after the cars were being targeted by vandals following sweeping layoffs Musk was making via the Department of Government Efficiency.
He also said that he had bought a Cybertruck for his granddaughter Kai Trump.
The president turned the White House lawn into a Tesla showroom in March when the friendship was blooming. The president wrote on Truth Social at the time that 'the Radical Left Lunatics' were boycotting '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.'
'In any event, I'm going to buy a brand new Tesla tomorrow morning as a show of confidence and support for Elon Musk, a truly great American,' Trump said. 'Why should he be punished for putting his tremendous skills to work in order to help MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN???'
Tesla took a hit during Musk's time at the White House and did so again Thursday when he started publicly feuding with Trump on X.
In April's report, Tesla's quarterly profits of $40 9million contrasted starkly with last year's $1.4 billion figure for the same three months - and the 71 percent drop represents the company's lowest quarterly profits since 2020.
And on Thursday, the argument wiped $138 billion off Tesla's valuation. Shares recovered Friday, rising nearly 5 percent.
Musk lost $34 billion in net worth when the feud ramped up. Some Tesla stock investors had already begun pulling their investments before the fight after Musk insulted Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill' and made a swift exit from his 'special government employee' position.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
25 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump says he thinks the government has a 'very easy case' against Kilmar Abrego Garcia
President Donald Trump on Saturday said that it wasn't his decision to bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, back to the U.S. to face federal charges, saying the 'Department of Justice decided to do it that way, and that's fine.' 'That wasn't my decision,' Trump said of Abrego Garcia's return in a phone call with NBC News on Saturday. 'It should be a very easy case' for federal prosecutors, the president added. Trump added that he did not speak with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele about Abrego Garcia's return, even though the two men spoke about Abrego Garcia during an April meeting in the Oval Office. His remarks came after Abrego Garcia arrived back in the U.S. on Friday and was charged in an indictment alleging he transported people who were not legally in the country. The indictment came amid a protracted legal battle over whether to bring him back from El Salvador that escalated all the way up to the Supreme Court. Abrego Garcia's family and lawyers have called him a family man, while Trump and his administration have alleged that he is a member of the gang MS-13. The case drew national attention amid the Trump administration's broader push for mass deportations. After Abrego Garcia's deportation, lawyers for the Trump administration said he was deported in an 'administrative error,' as Abrego Garcia had previous legal protection from deportation to El Salvador. Still, the Trump administration did not attempt to bring Abrego Garcia back, even as the Supreme Court ruled that it had to 'facilitate' his return to the U.S. Democrats, including Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., had for weeks said that Abrego Garcia was denied due process when he was detained and deported, arguing that he should have been allowed to defend himself from deportation before he was sent to El Salvador. Trump on Saturday called Van Hollen, who went to visit Abrego Garcia in jail in El Salvador in April, a 'loser' for defending the man's right to due process. 'He's a loser. The guy's a loser. They're going to lose because of that same thing. That's not what people want to hear,' the president said about Van Hollen. 'He's trying to defend a man who's got a horrible record of abuse, abuse of women in particular. No, he's a total loser, this guy.' On Friday, Attorney General Pam Bondi alleged that Abrego Garcia 'was a smuggler of humans and children and women. He made over 100 trips, the grand jury found, smuggling people throughout our country.' In a statement Friday, Abrego Garcia's lawyer called Bondi's move 'an abuse of power, not justice.' This article was originally published on
Yahoo
25 minutes ago
- Yahoo
White House aide calls Los Angeles anti-ICE protests an 'insurrection'
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senior White House aide Stephen Miller on Saturday condemned protests in downtown Los Angeles against federal immigration raids as an "insurrection" against the United States. Helmeted police in riot gear engaged in a tense confrontation with protesters on Friday night after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents conducted enforcement operations in the city and arrested at least 44 people on immigration violations. "An insurrection against the laws and sovereignty of the United States," Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, wrote on X. Miller, an immigration hardliner, was responding to video footage on X showing a large number of people protesting in downtown Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) said it had not made any arrests related to the demonstration. FBI deputy director Dan Bongino posted on X that they were reviewing evidence from the protests. "We are working with the U.S. Attorney's Office to ensure the perpetrators are brought to justice," Bongino said. "The Right to assemble and protest does not include a license to attack law enforcement officers, or to impede and obstruct our lawful immigration operations." President Donald Trump has pledged to deport record numbers of people in the country illegally and lock down the U.S.-Mexico border, with the White House setting a goal for ICE to arrest at least 3,000 migrants per day. But the sweeping immigration crackdown has also included people legally residing in the country, including some with permanent residence, and has led to legal challenges. Television news footage earlier on Friday showed caravans of unmarked military-style vehicles and vans loaded with uniformed federal agents streaming through Los Angeles streets as part of the immigration enforcement operation. "Forty-four people (were arrested) on immigration charges," Yasmeen Pitts O'Keefe, a spokesperson for Homeland Security Investigations told Reuters on Saturday. The LAPD did not take part in the immigration enforcement. It was deployed to quell civil unrest after crowds protesting the deportation raids spray-painted anti-ICE slogans on the walls of a federal court building and gathered outside a nearby jail where some of the detainees were reportedly being held. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass in a statement condemned the immigration raids. "I am deeply angered by what has taken place," Bass said. "These tactics sow terror in our communities and disrupt basic principles of safety in our city. We will not stand for this." (Reporting By Lucia Mutikani; editing by Diane Craft)
Yahoo
26 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Elon Musk Deletes His Explosive Donald Trump Claim Tied to Jeffrey Epstein amid Their Public Feud
Elon Musk has deleted his X post claiming that President Donald Trump's name is mentioned in the Jeffrey Epstein files Musk's claim came after the two men clashed about a new budget bill backed by the president The tech billionaire's decision to take down the post may be a sign of de-escalation in their highly publicized feudElon Musk has taken down his explosive claim that President Donald Trump's name is in the Jeffrey Epstein files — a move which may be a step toward de-escalation in the public feud between the two men. In the since-deleted post, which Musk shared on X on Thursday, June 5, the tech billionaire claimed that Trump appears in the high-profile case files, writing that it was the 'real reason' the files had not been made public. "Have a nice day, DJT!" he added sarcastically. Trump responded to the claim on Friday, June 6, by reposting a statement on Truth Social that was originally written by Epstein's former lawyer, David Schoen, on X. In the statement, Schoen claimed that his client 'had no information to hurt President Trump.' "I was hired to lead Jeffrey Epstein's defense as his criminal lawyer 9 days before he died,' the statement began. 'He sought my advice for months before that. I can say authoritatively, unequivocally, and definitively that he had no information to hurt President Trump. I specifically asked him!" Trump's name has previously been publicly linked with Epstein. His name was mentioned in flight logs released earlier this year by Attorney General Pam Bondi a total of seven times. However, the appearance of Trump's name in the flight logs does not necessarily indicate wrongdoing, as many of the individuals named could have been on Epstein's plane for legitimate reasons. The president was friends with the disgraced financier and pedophile for many years, but the two had a falling out in the mid-2000s, Trump told reporters shortly before Epstein died by suicide in 2019. Musk's deleted claim came on the heels of a number of verbal jabs with the president following the release of a controversial new budget bill. "I'm sorry, but I just can't stand it anymore," Musk posted to X — which he owns — on Tuesday, June 3. "This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it." During an Oval Office press conference on Thursday, June 4, Trump responded to Musk's criticisms. "Elon knew the inner workings of this bill better than almost anyone sitting here," Trump told reporters. "He had no problem with it. All of a sudden he had a problem, and he only developed the problem when he found out that we're going to have to cut the [electric vehicle] mandate, because that's billions and billions of dollars." Trump also predicted Musk's attacks would get personal after saying he was "very disappointed in Elon." The war of words also came just days after it was announced Musk would be leaving the Trump administration. Read the original article on People
