Photo: Alamy
President Trump bought a Tesla on Tuesday at the White House with Elon Musk at his side. During the event, President Trump praised both the quality of Tesla and Elon Musk for his contributions to the country.
Trump’s demonstration of support for Musk and Tesla comes amid a boycott against Tesla in protest of Musk’s actions with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The event opened with a reporter joking with President Trump, asking if he was looking to buy or lease his Tesla.
“I’m going to buy,” President Trump said. “And I’m going to buy because number one it’s a great product, as good as it gets, and number two because this man has devoted his energy and his life to doing this and I think he’s been treated very unfairly by a very small group of people.”
Trump continued to defend Musk and his willingness to help the administration do what is best for the country.
“I just want people to know you can’t be penalized for being a patriot, and he’s a great patriot, and he’s also done an incredible job with Tesla,” Trump said.
Trump pointed to the unique position of Tesla as one of the only new car companies founded in decades and credited Musk with its success.
“Has a car company started up in the last 30 years that’s been successful? I don’t think so,” Trump said. “And not only successful but super successful.”
Trump highlighted the achievements of DOGE thanks to Musk’s efforts and pointed to the positive impact they will have on the country’s future.
“He’s able to find billions and billions and billions of dollars of fraud and waste and all of the things,” Trump said. “Our country is going to be very strong very soon, because of a lot of the things that he’s done and a lot of the things that I’m doing.”
Trump criticized the boycotts as unfair and politically motivated.
“I can’t believe it. It should be the opposite. People should be going wild. They love the product but because he’s finding all sorts of terrible things that have taken place against our country they want to penalize him in an economic sense and I just think that’s very unfair.”
Musk thanked President Trump and announced that Tesla would increase output over the next two years.
“As a function of the great policies of President Trump and his administration, and as an act of faith in America, Tesla is going to double vehicle output in the United States within the next two years,” Musk said.
