Donald Trump says he ‘can’t drive’ the Tesla he bought to support Elon Musk
Donald Trump has made an unexpected admission after buying a Tesla from tech billionaire and his right-hand man Elon Musk.
Donald Trump bought a Tesla in support of his right-hand man Elon Musk after the tech billionaire’s company faced boycotts and protests from those angry over his involvement with the White House.
But the US president admitted he wouldn’t drive the electric vehicle because he’s “not allowed to drive”.
“I haven’t driven a car for a long time and I love to drive cars,” Mr Trump said.
Mr Trump said he would make the Tesla available to White House staff, including communications adviser Margo Martin.
“My whole staff is so excited because I told them they’re going to safely use them, and they can’t believe it,” Mr Trump said.
“Margo, she’s going to use it. They’re all going to be using it and they’re going to have a good time using it.”
Speaking in front of reporters, the president told Musk that he would write him a cheque to buy the Tesla Model S in full.
“I like a cheque better than this modern system of, all of a sudden, there’s money in your account,” Mr Trump said. “I like signing a cheque!”
“I know he’d give me a discount, but honestly, I don’t want to ask for one,” Mr Trump also told the waiting media. “You know, I’m president, and so I want to pay full price.”
The White House event was clearly aimed at supporting the president’s tech billionaire pal and Tesla CEO whose company faces boycotts and protests over his role in the Trump administration.
Mr Trump stated that his top reason for buying the vehicle was because the Tesla was “a great product, as good as it gets,” before saying his second reason was “because this man [Elon Musk] has devoted his energy and his life to doing this.”
The Republican went on to praise Musk, saying that he’s “been treated very unfairly by a very small group of people.”
“And I just want people to know that he can’t be penalised for being a patriot,” Mr Trump said.
“And he’s a great patriot. And he’s also done an incredible job with Tesla.”
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 11, 2025
The backlash against Tesla has caused its founder and CEO to take a financial hit with stock dropping by 28 per cent in the last month.
Musk, who is heading up the Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has cut hundreds of government jobs in recent weeks.
“To Republicans, Conservatives, and all great Americans, Elon Musk is ‘putting it on the line’ in order to help our Nation, and he is doing a FANTASTIC JOB!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“But the Radical Left Lunatics, as they often do, are trying to illegally and collusively boycott 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. Why should he be punished for putting his tremendous skills to work in order to help MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN???”
MUSK CLAIMS X TARGET OF ‘MASSIVE CYBER ATTACK’ – BLAMES UKRAINE
It comes as Musk claimed that his social media platform X was downed by a “massive cyber attack” that originated in Ukraine.
Global outages plagued users of the platform, once known as Twitter, on Tuesday.
“We’re not sure exactly what happened,” Mr Musk told Fox Business Network host Larry Kudlow.
“But there was a massive cyber attack to try to bring down the X system, with IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area,” Mr Musk said.
“It’s up,” Mr Musk said when asked by the Fox News host about the current state of the platform.
Earlier, Mr Musk posted on X about the outage, saying “there was (still is) a massive cyber attack against X”.
In his post, Mr Musk included an X post from a DogeDesigner account that some on Reddit speculated could be a puppet of the tycoon himself.
The post noted protests against the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that Mr Trump entrusted to Mr Musk, along with Tesla shops being vandalised, suggesting a cyber attack could signal another burst of animosity towards Mr Musk.
“It would take a lot of (money) to do an attack of this magnitude,” read a post in the exchange by the account of Jammies.
“Who has the resources to fund this?”
Mr Musk also maintained such an attack would take tremendous resources, speculating it was the work of a country or large co-ordinated group.
Outages on the X social media platform left tens of thousands of users unable to access the site, according to monitors.
Reports of problems with X started in the early hours of Tuesday, with users in Australia, Asia, Europe, and North America affected.
At the peak, more than 40,000 people reported outages, the Downdetector tracking site said.
The bulk of the reports were from people trying to use X on smartphones, but people on web browsers also reported the service down.
“Twitter keeps breaking?” asked a post by @Lalaslovely in the Downdetector chat section.
After Mr Musk bought Twitter in late 2022, the majority of employees left or were fired, raising concerns about whether staffing was in place to keep the platform safe and stable.
— with AFP
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Originally published as Donald Trump says he ‘can’t drive’ the Tesla he bought to support Elon Musk