Rachel Maddow Shreds State Department ‘Plan’ To Buy ‘Armored Teslas’ — Fails to Mention Plan Started Under Biden
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow torched the Trump administration over a government procurement plan to buy “armored electric vehicles” from Tesla, a company owned by Elon Musk. What went unmentioned in the segment is that the proposal was published under former President Joe Biden’s administration, weeks before President Donald Trump even took office.
In a five-minute segment on Wednesday, Maddow presented a copy of the State Department procurement plan for 2025 that contained an item line for a proposed $400 million purchase of “armored Teslas.” While the report named Tesla, it did not specify which vehicle the agency hoped to buy.
The document resurfaced that day after Drop Site News and The New York Times reported that the Trump administration had published a revised version of the document removing any mention of Tesla; the vehicles now described generically as “armored electric vehicles.”
Still, for several straight minutes, Maddow mocked the vehicle as a “paperweight” and mocked the idea as a taxpayer-funded giveaway to Musk and a conflict of interest. Musk, a top MAGA donor who pumped more than $250 million into Trump’s re-election campaign, was tapped by the new president to lead the administration’s cost-cutting initiative, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
But what Maddow failed to mention was that the forecast document she cited was released in December 2024, under Biden. The host, instead, vaguely introduced the document as “the latest procurement forecast.”
Axios reported Thursday that in 2024 the Biden administration explored the idea of private manufacturers producing electric armored vehicles but that the idea didn’t reach official solicitation.
Speaking to the outlet, a State Department official also denied the report: “No government contract has been awarded to Tesla or any other vehicle manufacturer to produce armored electric vehicles for the Department of State.”
Indeed, Musk immediately called out Maddow’s segment as a “hit piece” and accused her of spreading “lies.” On Thursday morning he wrote on X: “I’m pretty sure Tesla isn’t getting $400M. No one mentioned it to me, at least.”
Still, the move to buy electric vehicles, Tesla or otherwise, would represent a curious shift for the Trump administration, which aggressively rolled back Biden-era electric vehicle policies in its early days.
Watch above via MSNBC.
