Fact Check: Did Trump Create a $400 Million Contract to Buy Armored Teslas from Elon Musk?

CLAIM: MSNBC television host Rachel Maddow on Wednesday accused President Donald Trump and Elon Musk of “corrupt” self-dealing to purchase worth of $400 million of armored Tesla vehicles through a State Department contract.

VERDICT: False. The Biden administration orchestrated the armored EV contract, the State Department has put the contract on hold, and there was only one bidder on the contract during the Biden administration — Elon Musk’s Tesla.

The State Department’s procurement forecast, revised as of late December 2024, listed Tesla as the recipient of the largest expected contract, allotting $400 million worth of “Armored Tesla.”

Reports had highlighted how Musk, how leads Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) efforts to slash spending, may end up being a large recipient of government contracts.

Maddow said on Wednesday:

The rest of the government and the rest of the country continue to contend with Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s claims that, ‘Boy, we sure have found a lot of waste in the government and it’s great what they’re doing, isn’t it great, and not at all illegal and or profoundly corrupt for the president to put someone with billions of dollars in government contracts personally in charge of deciding what happens to government contracts.

Maddow sarcastically referred to this alleged self-dealing as a “kosher” use of government funds and “not at all $400 million worth of self-dealing.”

Musk quickly responded to Maddow’s accusation, accusing the leftist television host of lying.

Other outlets such as the Rolling Stone and NPR had implied that it was the Trump administration that was planning to purchase worth of $400 million of Tesla EVs.

However, the contract came as the result of the then-Biden administration’s green policies and the State Department said that the contract is now on hold.

DropSite explained that the plan is now on hold:

The acquisition plan was set in motion by the Biden administration last year as part of a move to convert the Bureau of Diplomatic Security’s fleet of roughly 3,000 armored vehicles into zero-emission electric vehicles by 2035. As the primary security arm of the U.S. State Department, the Bureau of Diplomatic Security is responsible for the safety of personnel posted to U.S. embassies around the world, and its Division of Defensive Equipment and Armored Vehicles (DEAV) was seeking green alternatives to its current fleet. The original request for information, from April, is available here.

According to the State Department, only a single company responded to last year’s request for information—presumably Tesla—and there are currently no plans for the award to continue. The State Department stated that the next step in the process would involve “an official solicitation [being] sent out to vehicle manufacturers to bid,” adding that “However, the solicitation is on hold and there are no current plans to issue it.”‘ [Emphasis added]

Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on X @SeanMoran3.