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As investigators worked to piece together clues about New Year’s Day explosion of a cyber truck outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, Tesla CEO Elon Musk kept busy extolling the virtues of one of his company’s prized vehicles on social media.
Musk on the social platform X, which he also owns, posted security information about the Cybertruck, which law enforcement officials he said exploded within 17 seconds after the suspect, Matthew Livelsberger, parked the vehicle in front of the hotel on Wednesday. Fireworks mortars and camping fuel were found in the back of the vehicle, investigators said.
The coroner in Clark County, Nev., said Livelsberger, who was identified as an active duty memberdied of a self-inflicted bullet wound before the explosion.
“The evil chosen chose the wrong vehicle for a terrorist attack.” Musk wrote to Xwhere he has more than 210 million followers. “Cybertruck contained the blast and directed the blast upwards. Not even the glass doors of the (hotel) lobby were broken.”
Seven people were injured in the explosion.
Police announced the explosion at 12:43 p.m. PST on New Year’s Day, writing in a social media post that the department was investigating a vehicle fire at the entrance to the Trump Hotel.
In the hours after the explosion, Musk wrote that the the entire senior team at Tesla was investigating the explosion and said the company would release information as it became available.
“We’ve never seen anything like this,” Musk wrote.
The The Wall Street Journal reported that Tesla has rejected claims that because its vehicles include thousands of lithium-ion battery cells connected together in battery packs, they are more susceptible to high fire risks.
In 2020, Musk wrote that Tesla vehicles, like most electric vehicles, are more than 500 percent less likely to catch fire than cars with a combustion engine. He also noted at the time that more than a million combustion engine car fires occur each year, causing thousands of deaths, but complained that a vehicle fire involving a Tesla car drew more attention to the means
A Tesla Cybertruck caught fire at the entrance to Trump Int’l Tower in Las Vegas on January 1, 2025. (Credit: Alcides Antunes)
Two hours after his post saying that Tesla officials were investigating the Las Vegas explosion, Musk wrote that the company had confirmed that the The explosion was unrelated to the vehicle and that blame should be placed on the explosives inside the Cybertruck.
At 7:00 p.m. local time on Wednesday, local law enforcement officials held a press conference announcing that investigators had found fuel cans and fireworks mortars.
“The fact that it was a Cybertruck really limited the damage that occurred inside the apartment because most of the blast went up through the truck and out,” said Sheriff’s Dept. of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police, Kevin McMahill, at the press conference.
He then Musk thanked to provide “some additional information”.
Throughout the day and into the days that followed, the billionaire and key ally of President-elect Trump continued to post and share information, praising the truck’s durability. As conspiracy theories gathered steam around the blast, Musk stood by the brand, as did others connected to the automaker.
As a way to debunk some social media claims, Musk posted online that the Cybertruck’s self-driving feature won’t work if the driver is dead. He added that after the explosion, the truck’s battery never caught fire, adding that the vehicle’s tires were still inflated.
“Once we get this Cybertruck back to Tesla, we’ll erase the scratches and get it back on the road,” he wrote.
In an X post on Wednesday, Sawyer Merritt, Tesla investor he has referred to the vehicle as “the toughest, baddest truck ever made”.
