President Donald Trump suggested that convicted Tesla arsonists serve out their expected decades-long sentences in El Salvador prisons.
“I look forward to watching the sick terrorist thugs get 20 year jail sentences for what they are doing to Elon Musk and Tesla,” Trump wrote Friday on TRUTH Social.
“Perhaps they could serve them in the prisons of El Salvador, which have become so recently famous for such lovely conditions!” the president added.
TRUMP WARNS OF JAIL TIME FOR TESLA VANDALS, ANYONE FUNDING THE ATTACKS: ‘WE ARE LOOKING FOR YOU!!!’
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters before boarding Marine One at the White House on March 21, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
The message comes as the FBI is investigating an uptick in attacks against Tesla vehicles and facilities nationwide of domestic terrorism, as top Trump adviser Elon Musk’s company has become a target of protesters and arsonists.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is also facing pushback in federal court over deportation flights to El Salvador. Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele announced last week that the first 238 alleged members of the Venezuelan criminal organization, Tren de Aragua, a U.S. designated terror group, had arrived, releasing video of Salvadorian troops transferring men from planes to his Terrorism Confinement Center, known as CECOT. He said they’d stay for one year, though that was “renewable.”
U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi on Thursday announced charges against three individuals accused of using Molotov cocktails to set fire to Tesla cars and charging stations.
“The days of committing crimes without consequence have ended,” Bondi said in a statement. “Let this be a warning: if you join this wave of domestic terrorism against Tesla properties, the Department of Justice will put you behind bars.”
The Justice Department said one defendant, also armed with a suppressed AR-15 rifle, was arrested after allegedly throwing approximately eight Molotov cocktails at a Tesla dealership located in Salem, Oregon. Another was arrested in Loveland, Colorado after allegedly attempting to light Teslas on fire with Molotov cocktails. Authorities said that defendant was later found in possession of materials used to produce additional incendiary weapons.
A member of the Seattle Fire Department inspects a burned Tesla Cybertruck at a Tesla lot in Seattle, Monday, March 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson, File)
In Charleston, South Carolina, a third defendant wrote “profane messages” against Trump around Tesla charging stations before lighting the charging stations on fire with Molotov cocktails, the Justice Department said.
TESLA VEHICLES, DEALERSHIPS TARGETED WITH ARSON, GUNFIRE AND VANDALISM IN AT LEAST 9 STATES: FBI
The DOJ said each defendant faces serious charges carrying a minimum penalty of five years and up to 20 years in prison.
“People that get caught sabotaging Teslas will stand a very good chance of going to jail for up to twenty years, and that includes the finders,” Trump wrote on TRUTH Social Thursday, adding: “WE ARE LOOKING FOR YOU!!!”
Tesla vehicles and dealerships have been subjected to arson, vandalism and gunfire in at least nine states, and some of the most prominent cases were reported in left-leaning cities in the Pacific Northwest, like Portland, Oregon, and Seattle.
An Oregon man faces charges after allegedly throwing several Molotov cocktails at a Tesla store in Salem, then returning another day and shooting out windows. In the Portland suburb of Tigard, more than a dozen bullets were fired at a Tesla showroom last week, damaging vehicles and windows, the second time in a week that the store was targeted.
Salvadoran guards escort inmates allegedly linked to criminal organizations at CECOT on March 16, 2025, in Tecoluca, El Salvador. (Salvadoran Government via Getty Images)
Four Cybertrucks were set on fire in a Tesla lot in Seattle earlier this month. On Friday, witnesses reported a man poured gasoline on an unoccupied Tesla Model S and started a fire on a Seattle street.
In Las Vegas, several Tesla vehicles were set ablaze early Tuesday outside a Tesla service center where the word “resist” was also painted in red across the building’s front doors. Authorities said at least one person threw Molotov cocktails — crude bombs filled with gasoline or another flammable liquid — and fired several rounds from a weapon into the vehicles.
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“Was this terrorism? Was it something else? It certainly has some of the hallmarks that we might think – the writing on the wall, potential political agenda, an act of violence,” Spencer Evans, the special agent in charge of the Las Vegas FBI office, said at a press conference. “None of those factors are lost on us.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
