Elon Musk appeared to threaten legal action against the media on Thursday, suggesting that he might sue outlets if their coverage of a Cybertruck explosion outside the Trump International Hotel and Tower Las Vegas wasn’t to his liking. The incident, which took place on New Year’s Day, prompted Musk’s reaction after conservative activist Robby Starbuck posted on X, urging Musk to consider suing news outlets whose headlines, he claimed, were “sabotaging” the Tesla brand by misleadingly reporting that the Cybertruck had “caught on fire.” Musk responded ominously: “Maybe it is time to do so.”
The explosion occurred early on Wednesday when the Cybertruck, which had been rigged with fireworks mortars, gasoline, and camping gas canisters, detonated in front of the hotel. The driver, Matthew Livelsberger, an active duty Green Beret, tragically shot himself before the explosion and died inside the vehicle. Seven bystanders were reported injured.
Musk, whose contempt for mainstream media is well-documented, has previously voiced his displeasure with news outlets. He has also advocated for defunding public service media and suspended journalists from his social media platform, X. His frustrations were evident in his response to the media coverage of the Las Vegas explosion. He even went so far as to defend the Cybertruck’s safety features, crediting the vehicle for limiting the damage caused by the blast.
Musk and Las Vegas officials both agreed that the Cybertruck’s robust design had contained much of the explosion’s force. Sheriff Kevin McMahill of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department explained, “The fact that this was a Cybertruck really limited the damage that occurred inside the valet because it had most of the blast go up through the truck and out.”
In a post on X, Musk went further, writing, “The evil knuckleheads picked the wrong vehicle for a terrorist attack. Cybertruck actually contained the explosion and directed the blast upwards. Not even the glass doors of the lobby were broken.”
Musk later clarified that the explosion had been caused by “very large fireworks” in the bed of the rented Cybertruck, stating that the incident was “unrelated to the vehicle itself.” Despite these statements, police have yet to confirm whether the blast was indeed a terrorist attack.
