Bizarre appearance

“Car salesman” Trump buys a Tesla from Musk

Musk and Trump inspect a Tesla.(Bild: AP/Weißes Haus)

Tesla and Elon Musk have received presidential support following massive losses on the stock market. Donald Trump acted as a lobbyist for the billionaire on Tuesday and bought one of his cars from the South African outside the White House. A unique event in US history.

Trump had several Teslas pulled up in front of the White House and chose one of them to buy. "I love Tesla," announced the US President on the South Lawn of the White House. The cars are available to buy for as little as 35,000 dollars, "which is pretty low", he explained - sounding like a car salesman. Musk, who was standing next to him, also emphasized that the Teslas were not that expensive.

The manufacturer, which was a pioneer in electrically powered vehicles, has recently been struggling with declining deliveries. Musk's appearance as a Trump admirer, his right-wing political views and his role as an account sinker in the US government are also polarizing. Teslas and charging stations have been smeared with swastikas in recent weeks, partly in protest, and several cars from the electric pickup "Cybertruck" have burned down in the parking lots of dealerships.

Trump demoted to car salesman
Photographers present captured Trump reading off a piece of paper on which all the prices of the various models were handwritten during his fiery sales speech. The fact that a US president is so openly promoting a billionaire in the White House is probably unprecedented in the history of the United States of America.

In response to a journalist's question about proposals to prosecute violence against Tesla as domestic terrorism, Trump said: "I will do it. I will stop them." But that also applies to attacks on other American companies, he added. "Elon" had been treated "very unfairly".

"All computers, that's nice. Wow."
Trump has long not been a fan of e-cars. Now the President got into a red Tesla Model S in front of the White House and was amazed that everything looked completely different: "It's all computers, it's beautiful. Wow."

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Trump then wanted to buy this car. As he doesn't drive it himself, the White House staff are supposed to drive it. He had already bought his granddaughter Kai Trump a "Cybertruck" last year, said the President.

Musk had invested more than 250 million dollars in Trump's election campaign last year. He then became a close confidant and plays an important role in Trump's Washington. After Trump's election victory in November, the Tesla share price initially doubled. Investors expected Tesla to benefit from Musk's closeness to Trump. However, the share price is now lower than before the election. Weak Tesla sales figures in Europe and China were recently announced.