In February 2025, rumors spread online about a purported $400 million U.S. Department of State contract for "armored Teslas" — which Elon Musk, the car company's CEO and adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, would benefit from.
Social media users on X and Facebook said Musk was "on track" to win a $400 million State Department contract for armored Teslas, with one person describing it as "the kind of waste and abuse we wanted to stop."
"Donald Trump's State Department tried to funnel $400 million to Elon Musk's Tesla. They got caught. Then they lied about it. This isn't efficiency -- it's corruption," said Texas-based Democratic U.S. Rep. Greg Casar in an X post with over 80,000 likes as of this writing (a similar post from Casar also received tens of thousands of likes). Musk responded: "Greg Casar is a big fat liar."
Donald Trump's State Department tried to funnel $400 million to Elon Musk's Tesla.
They got caught. Then they lied about it.
This isn't efficiency -- it's corruption. https://t.co/LsXf3GyPFb— Congressman Greg Casar (@RepCasar) February 25, 2025
Some Snopes readers asked whether the State Department had already awarded Tesla a contract, while others asked whether the department's purported contract was for Tesla Cybertrucks, a electric truck with a divisive design.
It is true that the State Department published a plan for fiscal year 2025, which runs from Oct. 1, 2024, to Sept. 30, 2025, that included a potential procurement of $400 million worth of "Armored Tesla" vehicles. H
"Where the $400M came from is still a mystery," NPR's reporter, Bobby Allyn, said via Signal DM.
Musk also said on X — before NPR's reporting published — that he was "pretty sure" Tesla did not have a $400 million contract with the government, and if the company did, "no one mentioned it" to him. The State Department did not respond to a request for updated comment after NPR's story published. Tesla did not respond to a request for comment as of this writing.
It is unclear whether an "armored Tesla" refers to a Cybertruck, and the plan did not specify which Tesla model would be procured. As noted by The New York Times, however, "the electric Cybertruck, which has a body of high-strength stainless steel, would be the most suitable vehicle." Musk has called the Cybertruck "bulletproof" and "the finest in apocalypse technology." Tesla often attempts to demonstrate the Cybertruck's durability, including by shooting bullets at it and throwing a metal ball at it — although that demonstration resulted in shattered glass.
A timeline of events
On Feb. 12, 2025, DropSiteNews first reported that the State Department's procurement forecast for fiscal year 2025 "lists Tesla as the recipient of the largest expected contract, with [Secretary of State] Marco Rubio's department planning to buy $400,000,000 worth of 'Armored Tesla.'" DropSiteNews is an independent news site founded by former reporters at The Intercept, a left-leaning media publication.
(The State Department releases an annual procurement forecast for potential contract opportunities that "small and small disadvantaged firms" may be able to perform under a federal law — the Business Opportunity Development Reform Act of 1988 — which is meant to give small businesses a better shot at government contracts.)
As DropSiteNews reported, the document's title said it was "revised" in December 2024, a month after Trump won the election and as former President Joe Biden's term was coming to an end. However, NPR reported that the document does not appear on the Internet Archive for that month; the archived page as of this writing displayed a "request blocked" error page.
Following the publication of the DropSiteNews story and reports from NPR, The New York Times and other mainstream media outlets, the department replaced the mention of "armored Tesla" vehicles with "armored electric vehicles" in its procurement forecast and later removed any mention of the $400 million contract entirely. The earlier version of the document — which was publicly available before the agency updated its website — had been published by Time magazine and can be seen here, which aligned with a copy provided by DropSiteNews reporter Ryan Grim.
The top horizontal section above, according to the U.S. Department of State, shows the initial plan to procure units of "Armored Tesla," the middle section shows the original North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code, the bottom left section shows the Department of State was planning the procurement and the bottom right section shows the planned cost of the procurement — $400 million.
As of this writing, the spreadsheet referenced above (found by clicking on "**NEW** Department of State Procurement Forecast Year 2025" at this link) no longer contained a reference to any armored Teslas.
As Time noted, the version of the document mentioning "armored Tesla" vehicles listed the planned procurement under NAICS Code 311999 (as seen in the screenshot above), an industry code for miscellaneous food manufacturing. When the document was updated to read "armored electric vehicles," the code was changed to NAICS Code 561613 for "Armored Car Services" before the procurement in question was removed entirely.
Multiple reputable news sites, including NPR and Time, said the document was updated at 9:12 p.m. on Feb. 12; however, it was not possible to independently verify this.
Speaking via email, a State Department official denied the agency had awarded a contract "to Tesla or any other vehicle manufacturer to produce armored electric vehicles" nor did Trump's administration plan on awarding such a contract. The official confirmed that the document did at one point refer to Teslas, but "it should have been entered into the system as a generic entry 'electric vehicle manufacturer.'"
According to the State Department, the Biden administration "asked the Department of State to explore interest from private companies to produce armored electric vehicles." In response, the department released a public request for information on armored electric vehicles "to solicit interest" and "received interest from only one company at that time": Tesla, which responded on May 31, 2024.
The official said the next step in this process would be "an official solicitation," where vehicle manufacturers would bid for a contract. However, Trump's administration put the solicitation on hold, and "there are no current plans to issue it."
Then
The $483,000 was for light-duty — not specifically Tesla — electric vehicles. It did include a request for more information about armored electric vehicles from Tesla, but the request had no dollar figure. Thus, the document suggests it is not true that the proposal to do $400 million dollars worth of business with Tesla began under Biden's administration.
The Biden administration's public request for information on armored electric vehicles, released in April 2024, is available here. The government's description of the request is below (emphasis theirs):
The U.S. Department of State Division of Defensive Equipment and Armored Vehicles (DEAV) is seeking information related to requirements for the armoring of existing commercially available electric vehicles (EVs), the procurement of armored electric vehicles produced by the original equipment manufacturer, and U.S. companies capable of supplying armored electric vehicles.
THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION ONLY. This RFI/SS is issued solely for information and planning purposes – it does not constitute a solicitation or a promise to issue a solicitation in the future. This request for information does not commit the Government to contract for any supply or service whatsoever. Furthermore, the Government is not seeking proposals.
According to the request for information documents, the DEAV had, as of 2024, a fleet of more than 3,000 armored vehicles. It released this request for information in response to a Biden executive order that established sustainability goals for the federal government, including "acquiring Zero-Emission Vehicles (ZEV) for all medium and heavy-duty vehicle acquisitions by 2035.
"While the order applies to an agency's activities located within the United States, the head of an agency may apply the order, to the extent practicable, to the activities located outside the United States," the agency's request for information said. Trump has revoked Biden's executive order.