Trump says billionaire Elon Musk has been 'treated very unfairly' - and it went down as well as you'd expect

President Donald Trump has declared that Elon Musk - the world's richest man - has been "treated unfairly" as the president said he promoted Tesla from the White House’s south lawn and promised to buy one of the vehicles displayed.

“I’m going to buy because number one, it’s a great product. As good as it gets. Number two, because this man [points to Musk] has devoted his energy and his life to doing this, and I think he has been treated unfairly,” Trump told reporters on the White House driveway on Tuesday afternoon (March 11).

Musk's four-year-old son X Æ A-Xii, whom he shares with Canadian singer Grimes, was also there.

U.S. President Donald Trump, joined by White House Senior Advisor, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and his son X Æ A-Xii,Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Trump continued: “I just want people to know that you can’t be penalized for being a patriot, and he’s a great patriot, and he’s also done an incredible job with Tesla.

“I mean, nobody else has a car company started up in the last 30 years that’s been successful. I don’t think so."

“But because he’s finding all sorts of terrible things that have taken place against our country, we want to penalize him in an economic sense. And I just think that’s very unfair."

Musk's involvement with the Trump administration through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has led to protests outside his Tesla showrooms (known as "Tesla Takeowns"), and in some cases, people's Tesla vehicles have been vandalised.

To try and avoid this, AP reported that some Tesla owners have added bumper stickers on their vehicle with messages like, “I bought it before Elon went nuts."

People participate in a "Tesla Takedown" protest against Elon Musk outside a Tesla dealership in Pasadena, CaliforniaFrederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images

In a recent interview with Fox Business, Musk admitted the "great difficulty" of juggling what he's doing with DOGE (the Department of Government Efficiency) as well as being CEO of Tesla and Space X, with some investors reportedly not being happy with the amount of time he's spending working on DOGE in Washington DC, as per The Hill .

Despite Tesla's stock falling more than 15 per cent in a single day, which saw him lose a whopping $29 billion on Monday, Musk remains the richest man in the world with a net worth of $324.3B, as of March 12, according to Forbes.

Trump's comment about Musk being "treated unfair" didn't go down too well on social media.

"Life unfair economically for Elon Musk? Is that the argument here?" one person wrote.

Another person said: "Another haNews just in: the world's richest man has been treated very unfairly."

Someone else added: "Treated unfairly?! the way Musk is being treated matches what he decides to get himself involved with ..."

Elsewhere, Trump's Tesla 'infomercial' slammed as 'dystopian levels of corruption', and Donald Trump throws a strop over Canada's latest move.

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