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https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/elon-musk/trump-musk-tesla-white-house-showroom-buys-car-rcna195905
President Donald Trump on Tuesday turned the South Lawn of the White House into a temporary Tesla showroom in a conspicuous favor to his adviser Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of the car company.
Tesla delivered five of its vehicles to the White House and parked them on a driveway for Trump to personally inspect, hours after he said in a post on his app Truth Social that he planned to buy a Tesla to demonstrate his support for Musk and for the slumping car company.
With Musk beside him, Trump declared the vehicles “beautiful” and in particular praised the company’s unusually designed Cybertruck.
“As soon as I saw it, I said, ‘That is the coolest design,’” Trump said.
Though Trump frequently attacked electric vehicles during last year’s campaign, he told reporters that he’d heard good things about Teslas from his friends. He sat in the driver’s seat of a sedan, with Musk seated beside him, and said he planned to buy one.
“The one I like is that one, and I want the same color,” he said, pointing to a red Model S. The vehicle is listed on the Tesla website for $73,490, or $88,490 for the all-wheel-drive Model S Plaid.
He did not take a test drive but said he might “another time.”
Because of ethical restraints it is extremely rare for a senior government official, let alone a sitting president, to endorse a consumer product so explicitly. In 2017, when then-Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway told Americans to buy from Ivanka Trump’s clothing line, she received a warning from a government ethics office and promised never to do it again.
By reviewing the Teslas in public before cameras, Trump ensured that his purchase would receive wide attention. Dan Scavino, a White House deputy chief of staff, livestreamed the event on X, the social media app owned by Musk.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday turned the South Lawn of the White House into a temporary Tesla showroom in a conspicuous favor to his adviser Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of the car company.
Tesla delivered five of its vehicles to the White House and parked them on a driveway for Trump to personally inspect, hours after he said in a post on his app Truth Social that he planned to buy a Tesla to demonstrate his support for Musk and for the slumping car company.
With Musk beside him, Trump declared the vehicles “beautiful” and in particular praised the company’s unusually designed Cybertruck.
“As soon as I saw it, I said, ‘That is the coolest design,’” Trump said.
Though Trump frequently attacked electric vehicles during last year’s campaign, he told reporters that he’d heard good things about Teslas from his friends. He sat in the driver’s seat of a sedan, with Musk seated beside him, and said he planned to buy one.
“The one I like is that one, and I want the same color,” he said, pointing to a red Model S. The vehicle is listed on the Tesla website for $73,490, or $88,490 for the all-wheel-drive Model S Plaid.
He did not take a test drive but said he might “another time.”
Because of ethical restraints it is extremely rare for a senior government official, let alone a sitting president, to endorse a consumer product so explicitly. In 2017, when then-Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway told Americans to buy from Ivanka Trump’s clothing line, she received a warning from a government ethics office and promised never to do it again.
By reviewing the Teslas in public before cameras, Trump ensured that his purchase would receive wide attention. Dan Scavino, a White House deputy chief of staff, livestreamed the event on X, the social media app owned by Musk.
