President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk are taking their bromance to the next level, with Trump threatening to deport or jail anyone who dares to tarnish the cars at his buddy’s dealerships.
It all started with a post on Truth Social late Thursday evening, when the president mused about jail sentences of up to 20 years for those committing so-called acts of “domestic terrorism” against the billionaire bureaucrat’s electric vehicles.
“People that get caught sabotaging Teslas will stand a very good chance of going to jail for up to twenty years, and that includes the funders,” Trump wrote. “WE ARE LOOKING FOR YOU!!!”
Hours later, on Friday, Trump made a second post, suggesting that Tesla vandals should be sent to “the prisons of El Salvador,” where people are notoriously abused, beaten, and tortured via electric shocks.
“I look forward to watching the sick terrorist thugs get 20-year jail sentences for what they are doing to Elon Musk and Tesla,” he wrote. “Perhaps they could serve them in the prisons of El Salvador, which have become so recently famous for such lovely conditions!”
President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk
It’s worth noting that deporting U.S. citizens is illegal, despite the president’s semi-regular pledges to exact this sort of cruel revenge on his political enemies. Yet Trump seems to reserve these perverse threats for those he personally dislikes. Recall that in January, Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences for everyone criminally charged with storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, allowing violent extremists to walk free.
Notably, it didn’t take long before several of these insurrectionists were back behind bars. One Trump-pardoned criminal, Andrew Taake, who had originally received a six-year sentence for his actions on Jan. 6, was later re-arrested on an outstanding child sex crimes charge. Another convicted rioter, Edward Kelley, was separately charged with conspiring to murder the law enforcement agents who investigated him, forming a “kill list.”
Trump’s latest messages come after his attorney general appointee, Pam Bondi, promised “severe consequences” for anyone responsible for violent incidents targeting Musk’s Tesla cars. On Thursday, three individuals were charged on suspicion of violently destroying Tesla properties. The trio were each accused of using Molotov cocktails to set fire to Tesla cars or charging stations
“Let this be a warning: if you join this wave of domestic terrorism against Tesla properties, the Department of Justice will put you behind bars,” Bondi said in a statement.
In addition to Bondi, some of Trump’s most loyal allies have insisted that even those who participate in peaceful protests against the electric vehicle company were guilty of enabling “terrorism.”
Earlier this week, Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a known right-wing extremist, encouraged Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel to investigate Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas, after the Democrat spoke to nonviolent protesters who are planning a nationwide picket against Tesla.
Meanwhile, Fox News host Harris Faulkner suggested that the death penalty be considered for those charged with destroying Teslas.
Tesla has become a channel through which Americans angry at Musk can direct their frustration. As Musk and his team at DOGE have dismantled several federal agencies and fired hundreds of thousands of government employees, Tesla sales have tanked abroad and the company’s stock has plummeted.
In her statement, Bondi suggested that the attacks on Tesla were coordinated, though the real explanation is likely much simpler: People just don’t like Musk.
Even if the public has turned on him, the world’s richest man has one ally in his corner: Trump. Earlier this month, Trump held an incredibly uncomfortable infomercial in front of the White House, encouraging more Americans to buy Musk’s overpriced and unsafe cars.
Trump may be pressuring other administration members to support Musk, too. Earlier this week, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick pleaded with the public to buy more Tesla stock.
For what it’s worth, it doesn’t seem like these calls are working.
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