White House Prepares High-profile Purchase Of Tesla Auto

The White House announced a plan Tuesday to promote President Donald Trump’s potential purchase of a Tesla, the car produced by Elon Musk, a major campaign donor who now wields significant power over the federal government.

“He’s definitely going to buy one,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, adding that aides were arranging to have a Tesla on site at the White House within the next few hours. “A Tesla is on its way here now, and we’ll see if the president likes it.”

Leavitt demurred when asked whether he planned to purchase the vehicle on the spot, but promised he would pay “full market price” when he does.

The pledge comes as Musk faces increasing scrutiny over efforts to slash the federal workforce that lawmakers and even some of Trump’s own Cabinet secretaries have criticized as indiscriminate and damaging. Musk’s high-profile role has also weighed on Tesla, which has seen its stock plummet in recent weeks amid backlash to the dramatic jobs cuts.

Musk spent close to $300 million to help Trump get elected.

Trump late on Monday defended Musk in a Truth Social post as “doing a FANTASTIC JOB” and said he planned to buy a “brand new Tesla tomorrow morning as a show of confidence.”

Leavitt did not say whether Trump would buy the car with his own money, or use taxpayer funds.

But should Trump follow through, it would represent an extraordinary effort by a president to prop up a company led by one of his top advisers and donors, potentially prompting conflict-of-interest issues. Musk’s role as a special government employee has already raised a slew of ethical concerns, allowing him to continue running several private-sector businesses while overseeing deep cuts across the federal government.

Some of those companies, including Tesla and his satellite internet company Starlink, compete for billions of dollars in contracts managed by federal agencies that Musk has sought to overhaul.