How Elon Musk made the Las Vegas bombing about his ‘badass truck’
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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The blaring New Year’s Day headlines would be panic-inducing for any CEO: Your signature product, in this case Tesla’s Cybertruck, caught fire and exploded outside Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas. And for Tesla and Elon Musk, few topics are touchier than vehicle fires.
The automaker has spent years assuring customers that its electric vehicles, which are loaded with thousands of highly volatile battery cells, are safe. In the hours that followed, Musk used his social-media platform X to muscle his way into the investigation, shape its coverage and portray his newest product in a positive light. Musk blasted out key facts about the explosion to his followers, often revealing crucial information before it had been confirmed by law-enforcement authorities.
His voice carried added weight given he had spent the New Year’s evening alongside Donald Trump at the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida. By day’s end Wednesday, Musk was framing the Cybertruck as the story’s hero: It was built so tough that it might have actually saved bystanders from the apparent attack. “The evil knuckleheads picked the wrong vehicle for a terrorist attack.
Cybertruck actually contained the explosion and directed the blast upwards," the Tesla chief executive posted late Wednesday. “Not even the glass doors of the lobby were broken." Musk celebrated the New Year with his family and Trump at a swanky party at Mar-a-Lago. “I have a good feeling about 2025," Musk posted at 1:31 a.m.
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