Trump evaluates getting rid of his Tesla after controversy with Musk, White House official says
Despite the dispute between the president and the carmaker's owner, the red car remains in a parking lot on the White House lawn, according to an AFP report.
President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk deliver a drive-by conference.
Donald Trump may get rid of the Tesla he bought in support of Elon Musk, an official close to the administration said Friday, following the spat between the president and his former advisor, the world's richest man.
However, the red vehicle remains in a parking lot on the White House lawn, according to an AFP report. This could be ascertained a day after the public dispute between the Republican tycoon and the head of SpaceX, Tesla and X.
"He's thinking about it, yes," a source close to the matter told the news agency when asked if Trump will sell or give away Tesla, following the confrontations online between the president and the entrepreneur.
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Tesla shares plunged more than 17% on Thursday amid the rift, and in total Musk's company lost about $100 billion in market cap on Wall Street in a matter of minutes.
Trump announced that he had bought a Tesla and posed in it with Musk last March, in a sign of the good relationship that existed then between the two.
The president also turned the White House into a Tesla showroom. He did so after the automaker's stock price plummeted and vandals burned several vehicles in protest against Musk's controversial role in U.S. government spending cuts.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and another advisor posed in the car last week, in a photo posted on X. "Taking President Trump's Tesla for a ride," posted Margo Martin, Trump's communications advisor, amidst rumors of a rift between Elon and the president already swirling.
But all indications are that now the gleaming red vehicle has become an awkward symbol of the political divorce between Trump, 78, and Musk, the 53-year-old former head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
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Trump said he was "very disappointed" in Musk and threatened to end his contracts with the government after the billionaire called the president's mega-budget bill an "abomination."
"No plans" for a call
"There are no plans for that today," White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles told NBC News when asked about the report that claimed White House aides scheduled a call with the Tesla CEO to try to patch things up between the two.
Karoline Leavitt also claimed that Trump is focused on the "Big, Beautiful Bill," the policy that Musk disapproves of and over which the dispute reportedly began.
The president told CNN that he won't be talking to Elon Musk anytime soon. "I’m not even thinking about Elon. He’s got a problem. The poor guy’s got a problem," Trump said in a brief phone call, the media outlet reported.
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