There's Something Very Sketchy Going on With the Government Trying to Buy $400 Million in Armored Teslas

Last month, US State Department documents came to light showing plans to spend $400 million on "Armored Tesla" vehicles. The optics were bad, to say the least. The planned spending appeared to be one of the most glaring examples yet of Tesla CEO and unelected White House advisor Elon Musk's enormous conflict of interest. Department staffers quickly edited the item to read "armored electric vehicles" instead. Officials also tried to distance the agency from the brewing controversy, saying in a statement that the contract is "on hold and there are no current plans to issue it." Given the date of the document, reports at the time suggested that the line item predated Trump's second term, and was the result of the Biden administration asking the State Department to "explore interest from private companies to produce armored electric vehicles," as a State Department spokesperson told The Hill earlier this month. But now, new reporting by NPR has blown the case wide open. According to a ... Read full article.