UPDATED: "Armored Tesla" (was) forecast to win $400 million State Department contract after Trump's election

Elon Musk in front of the newly unveiled Tesla Cybertruck with broken glass on windows following a demonstation that did not go as planned on November 21, 2019. Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images

The State Department’s procurement forecast, revised as of late December 2024, lists Tesla as the recipient of the largest expected contract, with Marco Rubio’s department planning to buy $400,000,000 worth of “Armored Tesla.”

The award is targeted for Q4, and is forecast to last for five years.

The procurement forecast is listed as having been modified on December 13, 2024, a month after Donald Trump’s election. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Under the heading, "extent competed," the document reads merely "TBD."

Elon Musk is both the head of Tesla and a senior government official who has been relentlessly halting government contracts.

The acquisition plan was set in motion by the Biden administration last year as part of a move to convert the Bureau of Diplomatic Security’s fleet of roughly 3,000 armored vehicles into zero-emission electric vehicles by 2035. As the primary security arm of the U.S. State Department, the Bureau of Diplomatic Security is responsible for the safety of personnel posted to U.S. embassies around the world, and its Division of Defensive Equipment and Armored Vehicles (DEAV) was seeking green alternatives to its current fleet. The original request for information, from April, is available here.

RFI - Armored Electric Vehicles

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A request for information authored by the Division of Defensive Equipment and Armored Vehicles (DEAV) of the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security on April 23, 2024, regarding the conversion of DEAV's fleet of roughly 3,000 armored vehicles to zero-emission by 2035.

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According to the State Department, only a single company responded to last year’s request for information—Tesla—and there are currently no plans for the award to continue. The State Department stated that the next step in the process would involve “an official solicitation [being] sent out to vehicle manufacturers to bid,” adding that “However, the solicitation is on hold and there are no current plans to issue it.”

After publication of the possible award Wednesday, State silently edited the public description to remove reference to “Tesla,” with metadata showing it was altered after our article was published. It is not clear if the planned award was halted due to the Trump administration’s opposition to electric vehicles, concerns for a potential conflict of interest regarding Musk’s roles at Tesla and DOGE, or for more opaque bureaucratic reasons. The State Department did not respond to a request for comment on the reasoning.

After Rachel Maddow covered the revelation on MSNBC, Musk responded to her, “why the lie?” He did not specify the alleged lie, but Maddow neglected to mention that the procurement document was produced in December 2024, after Trump’s election but before he took office.

This story was updated on February 13, 2025 with the request for information.