As Musk continues to gut federal government agencies, Tesla has been awarded a $400m contract. Elon Musk was blasted Wednesday following revelations that the Trump administration plans to spend $400 million on "armored” Teslas in what’s reportedly the State Department’s biggest contract of 2025. The contract is due to be finalized in the fourth quarter and is currently in the “planning” phase, according to the document.
![[Critics have called Musk out after learning of the Tesla contract with Marco Rubio’s department]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/02/12/23/31/Donald-Trump-zm9mris3.jpeg)
The news comes as the world’s richest man’s rocket company, SpaceX, is still receiving multi-million dollar contract payouts from the U.S. government as he continues to gut federal funding elsewhere through his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in the administration of his “best buddy” Donald Trump. Critics called Musk out after learning of the Tesla contract with Marco Rubio’s department.
“This is what they call ‘efficiency?’” former White House ethics adviser and law professor Richard Painter asked sarcastically in a post on X. “Musk convinced MAGA he's fighting to save their precious taxpayer dollars. Meanwhile, he's teed up to win a $400 million contract making armored Tesla cars for the State Department. No talk of cutting that one, oddly enough!” wrote Jared Holt, a researcher at London’s Institute for Strategic Dialogue.
The Independent has contacted the State Department and Tesla for comment. Musk was questioned by reporters about conflicts of interest during a bizarre press conference Tuesday evening in the Oval Office with his four-year-old son and Trump. When it comes to conflicts of interest, Musk insisted: “You have to look at the individual contract,” with little added explanation. “I'm not the one, you know, filing the contract,” Musk said, attempting to distance himself from his business with the federal government. “It's people at SpaceX or someone who will be putting the contract,” he added, referring to his other contract with the government.
As Musk is making cuts through DOGE across government, SpaceX has been awarded a $39 million defense contract. “You'll never believe who is still getting new government contracts while all the contracts at the Department of Education and USAID and other agencies are being nuked from orbit” by Musk, attorney and researcher Will Stancil wrote on X. Stancil shared a screenshot that appeared to confirm that Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) was awarded a NASA contract worth just shy of $39 million on Tuesday.
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