Last month, US State Department documents came to light showing plans to spend $400 million on "Armored Tesla" vehicles.The optics were bad, to say the least. The planned spending appeared to be one of the most glaring examples yet of Tesla CEO and unelected White House advisor Elon Musk's enormous conflict of interest.Department staffers quickly edited the item to read "armored electric vehicles" instead. Officials also tried to distance the agency from the brewing controversy, saying in a statement that the contract is "on hold and there are no current plans to issue it."Given the date of the document, reports at the time suggested that the line item predated Trump's second term, and was the result of the Biden administration asking the State Department to "explore interest from private companies to produce armored electric vehicles," as a State Department spokesperson told The Hill earlier this month.But now, new reporting by NPR has blown the case wide open. According to a State Department document obtained by the broadcaster, Biden's State Department planned to spend just $483,000 in 2025 to buy electric vehicles, on top of $3 million for other equipment, including chargers.That's less than one percent of the $400 million figure that originally appeared in the previously reported-on version of the procurement forecast.The document also claims it was published in December, but doesn't appear in the Internet Archive, suggesting it was published later.The latest revelations raise urgent questions: was the State Department trying to hide Musk's naked conflict of interest by hastily editing the document? Was it a massive error by a State Department staffer? Who was actually behind the procurement and who originally suggested it should be Teslas?Considering Musk has already massively enriched himself on the dime of American taxpayers, it certainly wouldn't be a stretch to suggest it was an intentional move to hand his EV maker a cushy government contract."I don't think this is a clerical error,"a former Biden State Department official told NPR. "It was likely someone who is new in [the] State [Department] who decided, 'OK, we're gonna do this with Tesla.'"The official confirmed that the Biden administration had looked into armoring EVs, but hadn't set aside a budget. However, just under half a million dollars had been approved to buy "light-duty EVs as possible State Department vehicles," according to NPR.A current spokesperson reaffirmed to the broadcaster in a statement that the "Department of State has no intention to move forward with the solicitation."Considering Musk has long portrayed the Cybertruck as an "armored personnel carrier from the future," it's likely the original line item was referring to the divisive pickups.However, experts have since pointed out they'd be an extremely bad fit compared to other conventional armored vehicles.Not only would "up-armoring" Cybertrucks be extremely expensive replacing the State Department's fleet of 3,000 vehicles with beefed-up Cybertrcucks would indeed cost around $400 million, according to NPR's estimates they'd also end up being extremely heavy.Cybertrucks already weigh around 6,600 pounds. With an additional 1,000 pounds of armor, their already abysmal range could drop even further.In other words, important government officials could risk getting stuck on the road which isn't great when your number one priority is to safely get them from point A to point B.More on the line item: State Department Says Contract for $400 Million of "Armored Teslas" on Hold After Explosive OutcryShare This Article