Chaos erupted outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on Wednesday after a Cybertruck, Tesla’s popular but reviled electric pickup truck model, burst into flames. According to authorities, one person died and another seven were injured in the event on New Year’s Day.

CEO Elon Musk responded on Wednesday that “it has nothing to do with the vehicle itself.”

“All telemetry data from the vehicle was positive at the time of the explosion,” he said.

And while there is obviously cause for concern about the event, the tragedy also sparked a lot of ridicule and ridicule on X, the social media platform that Musk runs.

Many users commented that it was a “perfect metaphor” for what lies ahead in 2025 under President-elect Donald Trump and Musk at the helm of his DOGE advisory board.

“A real photo and a perfect metaphor for 2025,” wrote Ron Filipkowski, editor-in-chief of MeidasTouch News.

“Have you seen the footage? “Looks like it was blown up on purpose,” another replied. “If so, you’re probably exactly right, just not in the way you thought.”

In a press conference Wednesday morning, Sheriff Kevin McMahill of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said police were notified of an apparent explosion at 8:40 a.m. local time and explained that a 2024 Tesla Cybertruck was “pulled” at the time of the event. be to the last front door of the hotel,” before it exploded, killing one person inside.

“We saw smoke coming from the vehicle and then a large explosion coming from the truck,” McMahill said.

McMahill also drew comparisons to Wednesday morning’s car terror attack in New Orleans, saying investigators “know exactly what happened there.”

“As you can imagine, in the face of an explosion here on an iconic Las Vegas boulevard, we are taking every precaution we need to take to ensure the safety of our community,” he said. At this point, police had also determined that there did not appear to be any additional threats to public safety.

“An electric vehicle fire occurred today in the porte cochère of Trump Las Vegas,” Eric Trump, a leader of the Trump Organization and son of the president-elect, wrote on X, a message that was later confirmed in the hotel’s official report. “The safety and well-being of our guests and employees remains our top priority.”

And as the news spread into Wednesday afternoon, as more details emerged about the cause and nature of the explosion – along with surveillance video that appears to show the vehicle exploding (see below) – many took to social media to confess that, no matter the cause, the optics of a Trump and Musk world literally burning did not bode well for the upcoming presidency.

More to come…

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