Elon Musk has commended his Tesla Cybertruck for containing the explosion that occurred outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on January 1, killing the driver and injuring seven others. The FBI is investigating whether the blast was an act of terrorism, officials confirmed.
Witness videos from both inside and outside the hotel showed the vehicle engulfed in flames as it sat near the entrance. The explosion occurred just hours after a truck attack in New Orleans, where a man drove into a crowd of New Year’s Day revelers, killing 15.
The suspect in the New Orleans attack, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, a US citizen from Texas who had served in Afghanistan, was killed in a shootout with police after ramming the crowd.
The Trump International Hotel, part of the Trump Organization, is owned by President-elect Donald Trump, who will return to the White House on January 20. Tesla CEO Elon Musk, a key supporter of Trump’s 2024 campaign, also serves as an adviser to the incoming president.
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill acknowledged the many questions surrounding the incident during a press conference. FBI Special Agent Jeremy Schwartz later confirmed that while the possibility of terrorism is being explored, it remains unclear whether the explosion was an act of terrorism.
“We are working to identify the person involved,” Schwartz said, adding that the driver of the rented Cybertruck had been identified, though their name had not been released.
Musk clarified that the explosion was unrelated to the Cybertruck itself. “We’ve confirmed that the explosion was caused by large fireworks and/or a bomb in the truck’s bed, not by the vehicle itself,” Musk wrote on X. “All vehicle telemetry was positive at the time of the explosion.”
The 2024 Cybertruck had one fatality inside, with the driver’s death confirmed, while seven others suffered minor injuries. Both the Cybertruck and the vehicle involved in the New Orleans attack were rented through the car-sharing service Turo. A spokesperson for Turo said that neither renter had a criminal background that would have flagged them as security risks and that the company is cooperating with law enforcement.
In a tweet early Thursday, Musk praised the Cybertruck’s performance, stating, “Evil knuckleheads picked the wrong vehicle for a terrorist attack. Cybertruck contained the explosion and directed the blast upwards. Not even the glass doors of the lobby were broken.”
The FBI confirmed that the Cybertruck arrived at the Trump Hotel at 8:40 a.m. local time. Firefighters arrived four minutes after the fire was reported and quickly extinguished the flames. The Trump Hotel was evacuated, with most visitors moved to another location.
Eric Trump, executive vice president of the Trump Organization and son of the president-elect, commented on the incident on X, referring to it as a “reported electric vehicle fire” that occurred in the hotel’s porte cochère.
