Trump Says Jan. 6 Rioters Were Not Like ‘Terrorist’ Tesla Vandals | EUROtoday

Speaking Friday from the Oval Office, President Donald Trump steered the Capitol rioters have been tame in contrast with the folks answerable for setting Tesla automobiles ablaze in protest of billionaire Elon Musk’s meddling within the federal authorities.

“I view these people as terrorists just like others,” Trump stated of the Tesla vandals.

“When I looked at those showrooms burning, and those cars — not one or two, like seven, eight, 10 burning, exploding all over the place — these are terrorists,” he stated.

“You didn’t have that on Jan. 6, I can tell you. You didn’t have anything like that Jan. 6,” Trump went on, referring to the 2021 riot that left a number of folks lifeless.

A police officer was amongst those that died both in the course of the riot or immediately afterward. Trump notably issued a mass pardon for tons of of Jan. 6 rioters within the first days of his new time period, no matter whether or not their crimes concerned bodily violence.

The president steered earlier on Friday that individuals who assault Teslas ought to be despatched to jail in El Salvador, the place his administration lately transported over 250 migrants.

Attacks on Teslas ramped up throughout the nation and around the globe after Musk made an arm gesture at Trump’s inauguration rally that resembled a Nazi-era “Sieg heil” salute. (Musk denies the comparability.) The world’s richest man has since taken on a distinguished White House position guiding the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which has pressured company leads into making sweeping, unpopular cuts to the federal workforce and authorities companies.

Trump and his administration officers have been heaping reward on Musk in response to the backlash, with Trump even briefly reworking the driveway of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue right into a Tesla showroom final week. In a made-for-TV second, the president stated he was buying one in every of Musk’s automobiles.

This week, Attorney General Pam Bondi promised “serious charges” and harsh punishments for the people behind a current high-profile string of arson assaults on Tesla dealerships, calling their actions “domestic terrorism.”

Bondi stated Thursday that three people had already been charged in reference to numerous Tesla assaults, though her workplace didn’t specify what these costs have been.

Trump’s commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, has additionally been urging Americans to help Musk by shopping for Tesla inventory, showing to ignore federal ethics regulation in doing so.