A Tesla cybertruck explosion outside one of Donald Trump’s US hotels is being investigated as a potential terror attack.
The driver, who was inside the rented vehicle when it caught fire, died in the incident on New Year’s Day and seven other people suffered minor injuries.
Work is still under way to remove the driver’s body from the vehicle.
The blast happened as the truck was just outside the president-elect’s hotel in Las Vegas, police and fire officials said.
Tesla is owned by tech billionaire Elon Musk who has been a close ally of Mr Trump – donating millions to his successful 2024 US election campaign. He was also tasked with leading Mr Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency.
The blast in Las Vegas is being looked at as a possible terror attack, three senior law enforcement officials told NBC News, Sky News’ US partner.
As yet, officials have not provided a cause for the explosion.
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Sheriff Kevin McMahill from Las Vegas police said the force knows who rented the truck but it will not be revealing their name at this stage.
In a news conference in Las Vegas, Mr McMahill said the truck was rented in Colorado and arrived in Las Vegas at 7:30am local time (3:30pm UK time).
“It went immediately up and down Las Vegas Boulevard before immediately pulling into the Trump Towers,” he added.
The three law enforcement officers who spoke to NBC had earlier said they did not believe the two incidents were connected.
Meanwhile, Mr McMahill said there is “no indication” the Las Vegas explosion was connected to the Islamic State (ISIS) terror group. It comes after the FBI found an ISIS flag on the back of the truck used in the New Orleans attack.
The Las Vegas sheriff also said police have not found any devices that could have been used to set off the explosives in the vehicle outside the Trump hotel.
Mr McMahill continued: “I have to thank Elon Musk specifically, he gave us quite a lot of additional information in regards to how the vehicle was locked after it exploded… as well as being able to capture all of the video from the Tesla charging stations across the country.
“He sent that directly to us, so I appreciate his help on that.”
It had earlier emerged that the Tesla used in Las Vegas and the Ford used in New Orleans were rented from the same company.
Mr McMahill said this is something his officers will “continue to look into”.
The sheriff also shared an image of the pick-up truck after the blast which showed gas cannisters, camp fuel cannisters and large firework mortars in the back.
He continued: “It looks like the exterior of that truck is completely intact as it sits there and it really limited the damage that occurred inside of the valet, because it (caused) most of the blast to go up through the truck and out.”
Image: Las Vegas police released this image of the pick-up truck after the blast
Mr Mahill also pointed out that the front glass doors of the hotel, which were just metres from the blast, were not broken.
Meanwhile, Clark County deputy fire chief Billy Samuels said the seven people who suffered minor injuries were all stable, with two of them taken to hospital and later released.
It came before FBI special agent Jeremy Schwartz said the agency is trying to determine whether the blast was an act of terrorism or not.
He added: “We believe this is an isolated incident, we do not believe there is a bunch of folks out there supporting this or helping this.”
Musk’s response to blast
Earlier, Mr Musk wrote on X: “We have now confirmed that the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented cybertruck and is unrelated to the vehicle itself.
“All vehicle telemetry was positive at the time of the explosion.”
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He had previously written: “The whole Tesla senior team is investigating this matter right now. Will post more information as soon as we learn anything. We’ve never seen anything like this.”
A Clark County spokeswoman said the blaze in the valet area of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas was reported at 8.40am local time (4.40pm UK time).
Image: President-elect Donald Trump and Tesla boss Elon Musk. File pic: AP
Eric Trump, Mr Trump’s son and executive vice president of the Trump Organization, posted about the fire on social media.
He acknowledged that “a reported electric vehicle fire occurred in the porte cochere of Trump Las Vegas”.
And he praised fire crews and local police “for their swift response and professionalism”.
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Mary Lescano Paguada, 43, who was on holiday in Las Vegas from San Antonio, Texas, to celebrate the new year at the hotel, told Sky’s US partner network NBC News she heard an explosion in the early morning.
At first, she did not worry until she started seeing officers responding to the scene.
Ms Paguada said once she and her husband reached the reception area, they heard screaming and were told by hotel staff to get out and “don’t breathe the smoke, don’t stay”.
She said they were not allowed to return to their rooms after they went downstairs in an attempt to get them to evacuate the area.
The 64-storey hotel is just behind the famous Las Vegas Strip and opposite the Fashion Show Las Vegas shopping mall.
National Guard troops have begun arriving on the streets of Washington DC in a controversial move by Donald Trump to “rescue our nation’s capital from crime”.
The deployment of some of the planned 800 troops comes despite the Washington mayor revealing crime in the capital was at its “lowest level in 30 years” – and with official data also showing a steep decline.
The army has indicated there were no specific locations for the deployment, according to the Associated Press, citing a White House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
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1:43
Trump: National Guard deployment will ‘take capital back’
At the beginning of the week, Mr Trump said he was sending in 800 National Guard troops to “re-establish law, order, and public safety”.
He announced a “historic action to rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse”.
But according to preliminary figures from Washington DC’s Metropolitan Police, violent crime is down 26% in 2025 – after dropping 35% in 2024 compared with 2023.
Image: Pic: Reuters
Washington mayor Muriel Bowser said crime was at historic lows in the capital and called the move “unsettling and unprecedented” – but would use the extra personnel to reduce crime further.
And in a post on social media, she wrote: “Violent crime in DC is at its lowest level in 30 years. We had an unacceptable spike in 2023, so we changed our laws and strategies.”
She said the National Guard would not have the power to arrest people.
Troops will carry no weapons but will have their standard issue firearms, usually rifles, close at hand, an official said.
The Democrats and other critics have called Mr Trump’s deployment “political theatre” – but the president has threatened to repeat the move in other big cities.
Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney for the capital, dismissed a question from a reporter about how violence in Washington compared to other cities.
She said: “All I know is we rank in death. I don’t need any more statistics.”
In Washington, the DC National Guard reports directly to the president.
In the states, the troops answer to the governor except when called into federal service.
The Trump-Putin summit is pitched as “transparent” but it’s difficult to find any path to peace right now.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has reduced it to a “listening exercise” where Donald Trump will seek a “better understanding” of the situation.
There isn’t much to understand – Russia wants territory, Ukraine isn’t ceding it – but Ms Levitt rejects talk of them “tempering expectations”.
It’s possible to be both hopeful and measured, she says, because Mr Trump wants peace but is only meeting one side on Friday.
It’s the fact that he’s only meeting Vladimir Putin that concerns European leaders, who fear Ukraine could be side-lined by any Trump-Putin pact.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy claims Mr Putin wants the rest of Donetsk and, in effect, the entire Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.
He’s ruled out surrendering that because it would rob him of key defence lines and leave Kyiv vulnerable to future offensives.
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‘Steps have been taken to remedy the situation’ in Pokrovsk
European leaders – including Sir Keir Starmer – will hold online talks with Mr Zelenskyy twice on Wednesday, on either side of a virtual call with Mr Trump and US Vice President JD Vance.
Their concerns may be getting through, hence the White House now framing the summit as a cautious fact-finding exercise and nothing more.
The only thing we really learned from the latest news conference is that the first Trump-Putin meeting in six years will be in Anchorage.
Alaska itself, with its history and geography, is a layered metaphor: a place the Russians sold to the US in the 1800s.
Donald Trump has said he would try to return territory to Ukraine as he prepares to meet Vladimir Putin and lay the groundwork for a deal to bring an end to the war.
“Russia has occupied a big portion of Ukraine. They’ve occupied some very prime territory. We’re going to try and get some of that territory back for Ukraine,” the US president said at a White House news conference ahead of Friday’s summit in Alaska.
Mr Trump also said: “There’ll be some land swapping going on. I know that through Russia and through conversations with everybody, to the good of Ukraine.”
He said he’s going to see what Mr Putin “has in mind” to end the three-and-a-half-year full-scale invasion.
Image: Donald Trump speaks to reporters at the White House. Pic: Reuters
And he said if it’s a “fair deal,” he will share it with European and NATO leaders, as well as Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who have been liaising closely with Washington ahead of the meeting.
Asked if Mr Zelenskyy was invited to the summit with Mr Putin in Alaska, Mr Trump said the Ukrainian leader “wasn’t a part of it”.
“I would say he could go, but he’s gone to a lot of meetings. You know, he’s been there for three and a half years – nothing happened,” Mr Trump added.
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The US president said Mr Putin wants to get the war “over with” and “get involved” in possible talks but acknowledged Moscow’s attacks haven’t stopped.
“I’ve said that a few times and I’ve been disappointed because I’d have a great call with him and then missiles would be lobbed into Kyiv or some other place,” he said.
Mr Trump said he will tell Mr Putin “you’ve got to end this war, you’ve got to end it,” but that “it’s not up to me” to make a deal between Russia and Ukraine.
Image: Vladimir Putin is set to meet Donald Trump in Alaska. Pic: Reuters
Zelenskyy says Russia ‘wants to buy time’
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Russia “wants to buy time, not end the war”.
“It is obvious that the Russians simply want to buy time, not end the war,” he wrote in a post on X, after a phone call with Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Image: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Pic: Reuters
“The situation on the battlefield and Russia’s wicked strikes on civilian infrastructure and ordinary people prove this clearly.”
Mr Zelenskyy said the two “agreed that no decisions concerning Ukraine’s future and the security of our people can be made without Ukraine’s participation”, just as “there can be no decisions without clear security guarantees”.
Sanctions against Russia must remain in force and be “constantly strengthened,” he added.
European leaders meet ahead of call with Trump
Meanwhile, European officials have been holding meetings ahead of a phone call with Mr Trump on Wednesday.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, has been speaking to foreign ministers virtually, saying on X that work “on more sanctions against Russia, more military support for Ukraine and more support for Ukraine’s budgetary needs and accession process to join the EU” is under way.
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3:23
‘Russians want to carry on fighting’
Over the weekend, European leaders released a joint statement, welcoming Mr Trump’s “work to stop the killing in Ukraine”.
“We are convinced that only an approach that combines active diplomacy, support to Ukraine and pressure on the Russian Federation to end their illegal war can succeed,” read the statement.
It was signed by UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Finland’s President Alexander Stubb, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
“We underline our unwavering commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity,” they said.
Despite Donald Trump’s efforts to convince Vladimir Putin to commit to a ceasefire and negotiations, Russian attacks on Ukraine have only intensified in the past few months.
Ukraine’s president has said that, in the past week, Russia launched more than 1,000 air bombs, nearly 1,400 drones and multiple missile strikes on Ukraine.
On 9 July, Russia carried out its largest aerial attack on Ukraine since the start of the war, launching more than 740 drones and missiles, breaking its records from previous weeks.
Furthermore, Mr Zelenskyy has said Russia is preparing for new offensives.