--- title: Tesla Removed From $400M Federal Contract Amid Scrutiny description: The State Department updated its 2025 procurement forecast after the line item was publicly questioned about potential conflict of interest. canonical: https://time.com/7221880/state-department-2025-procurement-forecast-tesla-armored-electric-vehicles-musk/ author: Chad de Guzman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-02-13T06:55:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-01-19T19:11:11.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Tesla Removed From $400M Federal Contract Amid Musk Scrutiny og:description: The State Department updated its 2025 procurement forecast after the line item was publicly questioned about potential conflict of interest. og:url: https://time.com/7221880/state-department-2025-procurement-forecast-tesla-armored-electric-vehicles-musk/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0446149ab102385d/6998b657e1ba005f2c98bbd4/elon-musk_20bfa9.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Elon Musk og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Tesla Removed From $400M Federal Contract Amid Musk Scrutiny twitter:description: The State Department updated its 2025 procurement forecast after the line item was publicly questioned about potential conflict of interest. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0446149ab102385d/6998b657e1ba005f2c98bbd4/elon-musk_20bfa9.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # State Department Removes Tesla’s Name From Planned $400M Contract Amid Musk Scrutiny > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=de5f49db-522f-4693-a1de-d44d037b01e8&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Inside Elon Musk’s War on Washington [Watch (HLS stream): Inside Elon Musk’s War on Washington](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/m1fUXU7Q.m3u8) (4:51)  _Published 2025-02-07. The standoff at 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue was not much of a spectacle. On the first day of February, a handful of men working for Elon Musk had come to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), a few blocks from the White House, demanding full access to its headquarters. The agency’s staff refused. No guns were drawn. No punches thrown. Nobody involved the police. But in these early days of the Trump Administration, perhaps no other scene revealed more clearly the forces reshaping America’s government._  by [Chad de Guzman](https://time.com/author/chad-de-guzman/)  ## Chad de Guzman Reporter Updated: Jan 19, 2026 7:11 PM UTCPublished: Feb 13, 2025 6:55 AM UTC  Elon Musk, chief executive of Tesla and head of DOGE, in the Oval Office on Feb. 11, 2025. Elon Musk, chief executive of Tesla and head of DOGE, in the Oval Office on Feb. 11, 2025. Aaron Schwartz—CNP/Bloomberg/Getty Images  by [Chad de Guzman](https://time.com/author/chad-de-guzman/)  ## Chad de Guzman Reporter Updated: Jan 19, 2026 7:11 PM UTCPublished: Feb 13, 2025 6:55 AM UTC The State Department was planning to buy $400 million worth of “Armored Tesla” later this year, according to its 2025 procurement forecast, a document outlining projections of anticipated contracts, which was published in December. But after reports emerged on Wednesday of the potential for conflict of interest given Tesla CEO [Elon Musk’s prominent role in the Trump Administration](https://time.com/7213409/elon-musk-us-government-trump/), the document was updated, removing mention of Tesla and changing the line item to “Armored Electric Vehicles” instead. As of late Wednesday, both versions of the 2025 procurement forecast remained available on different State Department webpages. The [earlier version](https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/FY25-Procurement-Forecast.xlsx) that mentions Tesla also lists the planned procurement under NAICS Code 311999, an industry code for miscellaneous food manufacturing, while the [newer version](https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/FY25-Procurement-Forecast-1.xlsx), which says it was modified at 9:12 p.m., Feb. 12, lists the revised “Armored Electric Vehicles” procurement under NAICS Code 561613 for “Armored Car Services.” No other changes were made in the document, which contains 319 other line items. The State Department [website](https://www.state.gov/procurement-forecast) says it issues annual procurement forecasts pursuant to the Business Opportunity Development Reform Act of 1988, which “requires agencies to compile and make available projections of contracting opportunities small and small disadvantaged firms may be able to perform.” It is meant to give “small businesses, small disadvantaged businesses, women-owned small businesses, HUBZone small businesses, and service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses” opportunities to compete for direct contracts with the government or subcontracting opportunities. In response to questions about the change and whether Tesla remains the intended awardee for a contract that is anticipated, according to the procurement forecast, to be awarded on Sept. 30, a State Department official tells TIME that no government contract has been awarded to Tesla or any other vehicle manufacturer to produce armored electric vehicles for the Department, but the previous administration did ask the Department to explore interest from private companies to produce armored electric vehicles. The Department then did a public Request for Information, the official said, for an armored electric vehicle to solicit interest and received interest from only one company at that time. As a next step in that process, an official solicitation would be sent out to vehicle manufacturers to bid, the official said, but the solicitation is on hold and there are no current plans to issue it. Tesla has not responded to a request for comment. “I’m pretty sure Tesla isn’t getting $400M. No one mentioned it to me, at least,” Musk [posted on X](https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1889925100918677690), the social media platform he also owns, early Thursday. Musk, who leads the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that has begun to wield influence across a number of agencies’ budgets and who also owns and runs multiple companies that have significant interests in federal regulations and government contracts, including Tesla and SpaceX, responded to questions about potential for conflicts of interest on Tuesday during an appearance at the White House, insisting that DOGE is transparent about its actions. “Transparency is what builds trust,” he said, citing DOGE’s account on X. “You can see: Am I doing something that benefits one of my companies or not? … I fully expect to be scrutinized.” Trump suggested there would be some oversight of Musk: “If we thought there was a lack of transparency or a conflict of interest,” he said Tuesday in the Oval Office beside Musk, “we would not let him do that segment or look in that area.” However, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt previously suggested that the President is OK with Musk self-policing, saying: “If Elon Musk comes across a conflict of interest with the contracts and the funding that DOGE is overseeing, then Elon will excuse himself from those contracts.” [Drop Site](https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/elon-musk-armored-tesla-forecast-400-million-state-department-contracts) first reported on Tesla appearing in the State Department’s 2025 procurement forecast, while [Bloomberg](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-02-13/plans-to-buy-armored-teslas-disappear-from-us-procurement-list) first reported on the updated forecast. ### More from TIME ## Transcript Time magazine features once again, Elon Musk, this time sitting at the Resolute Desk normally reserved for the president of the United States. This time, we felt that the actions that Elon Musk has been taking and the kind of power he's been wielding, the ability to shut down entire federal agencies, the ability to strike fear in the hearts of millions of government workers in the federal bureaucracy. It shows that he's gone beyond just an advisor to President Trump. He's wielding power almost on the level of the president himself. The last time that we had Elon Musk on the cover of time, it was soon after the presidential elections. And by then, it was already clear that Musk would play a significant and probably dramatic role in the administration of Donald Trump. And at the time, we compared Elon Musk's influence to that of the newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst back in the 1930s, who helped shepherd FDR to power. Back then, um, they have some interesting parallels. But what we're seeing with Musk today really eclipses anyone that we could think of in the newsroom as a historical precedent, really never in the history of the United States, as far as we could tell, has a private citizen wielded so much power over the US government. The ability to change it. Root and branch. The ability to snatch away the power of the purse from Congress and make decisions that directly influence the way that money is spent, the way that resources are allocated within the federal government. Musk has shown an ability, just in the first weeks and days of the Trump administration, to do those things, to really impact the way that the federal government functions, the agencies that survive or don't survive in the US government. And that is a really remarkable shift in, in the the way American democracy works. One of the people we quoted in the story was Representative Jamie Raskin, who noted, outside of the offices of of the US agency for International Development, we do not have a fourth branch of government called Elon Musk. But more and more, I think, as the days have gone on in the second Trump administration, many Americans have gotten the feeling that Elon Musk is approaching the influence of something like a fourth branch of government. Certainly, he doesn't fit neatly into any of the other three. Uh, some of the, uh, other branches of government, specifically the courts, have started to block and hinder some of his actions. Um, many Democrats, certainly on Capitol Hill, have really started speaking up. Uh, and, and quite aggressively trying to push back on some of the things that Elon Musk is doing. Um, we'll see if they have success. I think the courts have a much better chance of, uh, really making a difference in terms of controlling or providing some checks and balances to what Musk is doing. But that remains to be seen. Um, one of the things that was really striking in the reporting for this story was talking to the people directly affected by Musk's, uh, effort to cut and cull the federal bureaucracy. These are former civil servants, now former, who lost their jobs because of Musk's efforts to cut, uh, workers to cut the cut the headcount. Um, and, you know, there were some really dramatic stories, people who had their, uh, email accounts abruptly shut off, who were locked out of the agencies where they had worked for many years, and they were really at a loss. Uh, some of them, you know, didn't know whether they would have a job the next day. Some of them had just been informed, um, very crudely, that that they were out, that they were put on administrative leave indefinitely. Uh, and, you know, we talked to some of these people. We met them. They are coming forward. Some of them were too afraid to talk on the record and give their names. But I think the sheer number of people who are affected by by Musk's actions, uh, suggest that we could see a groundswell of opposition to what he's doing. The people that he is affecting, federal workers, uh, people who have worked in the bureaucracy for many years, they know how the government works. They know their rights. And they are beginning now to organize against what Musk is doing. So I do think that in the coming days, weeks, months, we're going to see quite some pushback in the courts and potentially also in the streets to Elon Musk's actions and ambitions. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7221880/state-department-2025-procurement-forecast-tesla-armored-electric-vehicles-musk/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7221880/state-department-2025-procurement-forecast-tesla-armored-electric-vehicles-musk/"},"headline":"State Department Removes Tesla’s Name From Planned $400M Contract Amid Musk Scrutiny","datePublished":"2025-02-13T06:55:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-01-19T19:11:11.000Z","description":"The State Department updated its 2025 procurement forecast after the line item was publicly questioned about potential conflict of interest.","url":"https://time.com/7221880/state-department-2025-procurement-forecast-tesla-armored-electric-vehicles-musk/","keywords":["Trump Administration","Donald Trump","overnight","News Desk"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0446149ab102385d/6998b657e1ba005f2c98bbd4/elon-musk_20bfa9.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Chad de Guzman","jobTitle":"Reporter","url":"https://time.com/author/chad-de-guzman/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0446149ab102385d/6998b657e1ba005f2c98bbd4/elon-musk_20bfa9.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Elon Musk","caption":"Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, U.S. on Feb. 11, 2025.","creditText":"Aaron Schwartz—CNP/Bloomberg/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/trump-administration/","name":"Trump Administration"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/7221880/state-department-2025-procurement-forecast-tesla-armored-electric-vehicles-musk/","name":"State Department Removes Tesla’s Name From Planned $400M Contract Amid Musk Scrutiny"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Inside Elon Musk’s War on Washington","description":"The standoff at 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue was not much of a spectacle. 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