The owner of the Tesla Cybertruck that was blown up in front of the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas says the suspected attacker was “pretty calm and chill” when renting the car days earlier in Colorado, and stayed in contact with questions about the vehicle up until the day before the explosion.
In an exclusive interview with The Daily Wire, the owner, whose name is being withheld due to privacy concerns, says he spent an hour with Matthew Livelsberger when the latter picked up the car on Saturday, December 28. The vehicle was rented using Turo, a service that facilitates rentals directly from car owners, and the pair met at a Denver, Colorado hotel, according to text message correspondence reviewed by The Daily Wire.
Livelsberger appeared “normal” during the interaction, and set the car’s navigation for Las Vegas soon after renting the car, the owner says.
“He didn’t know how to use the truck and so I, just like every Turo that I rent out, I walk them through everything,” the owner told The Daily Wire. The owner described Livelsberger as “for all intents and purposes, a normal dude,” saying that “he seemed pretty calm and chill,” the owner said.
The owner, who has cooperated with authorities, says Livelsberger said he intended to drive the Cybertruck to the Grand Canyon, and recalled questioning Livelsberger about having such a long drive on the itinerary for a short three-day rental. But he also recalls noticing that he was navigating to the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas from the start.
“‘That’s a really long drive for three days. How are you going to do that?’&#8221; the owner says he asked Livelsberger. “He said he was going to the Grand Canyon, but I noticed he was mapping to Vegas. He was mapping to the Trump Hotel.”
Livelsberger is alleged to have parked the vehicle in front of the Trump property with a trunk full of explosives and fireworks. Surveillance video at the scene shows the truck exploding into a ball of flames just before 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday, and the incident is being investigated as an act of terror.
The owner says that he talked to Livelsberger the day before the incident, and that just a few hours before the explosion, he had received a message that Livelsberger was extending his rental.
Livelsberger also called the Cybertruck owner on New Year’s Eve to ask how to operate the vehicle’s hazard lights, he says. At 3:00 a.m. on January 1, he says he received a message requesting to extend the rental for two more days.
The Cybertruck owner said that Livelsberger was in regular communication throughout the duration of the rental, and asked a lot of questions. In hindsight, his questions now make “more sense.”
“He asked a bunch of questions that now make a lot more sense, like, how the outlet works in the back. My guess is that he must have used that somehow,” the owner recalled. “He was asking me, like, ‘How do I turn it on? Can I turn it on from outside the car?’”
The owner was able to monitor the vehicle’s location throughout the rental, until he was locked out of the system after the explosion. The Cybertruck owner said that Livelsberger went directly to a sporting goods store in the Denver area, potentially to buy items that could be used as explosives. Photographs sent by Livelsberger of the vehicle, and reviewed by The Daily Wire, confirm the stop at the sporting goods store.
After that, he entered the Las Vegas Trump Hotel into the Tesla’s navigation system, the owner says.
The Cybertruck owner says that Livelsberger turned off the vehicle’s live camera feed at some point the night before the attack. He also said that the “Tesla app went dark right around when the bomb went off.” He said Tesla should have all of the footage of Livelsberger on their cloud, which the owner cannot currently access. Tesla didn’t respond to inquiries.
Law enforcement officials said Thursday that Livelsberger shot himself in the head before the explosives were detonated.
Authorities are still searching for a motive. The Associated Press is<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-hotel-explosion-tesla-cybertruck-5c5a8fd13a50e2bcde46370ae926d427" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> reporting</a> that Livelsberger “may have gotten into a fight with his wife about relationship issues shortly before he rented the Tesla and bought the guns.”
Livelsberger served in the U.S. Army Special Forces, otherwise known as Green Berets, at the time of his death. CBS News has<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-tower-las-vegas-cybertruck-explosion-fire/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> reported</a> that he “was serving in Germany but was on leave in Colorado at the time of the incident.”
Livelsberger’s uncle, Dean Livelsberger,<a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/cybertruck-explosion-suspect-matthew-livelsberger-vegas-b2672940.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> told</a> The Independent that his nephew “loved Trump” and he “was always a very, very patriotic soldier, a patriotic American.”
With Elon Musk teaming up with President Trump in recent months and slated to lead a proposed Department of Government Efficiency, the imagery of a burning Cybertruck parked outside of a Trump property is not being viewed as a coincidence by law enforcement officials
“It’s not lost on us that it’s in front of the Trump building, that it’s a Tesla vehicle,” said Spencer Evans, the Las Vegas FBI agent in charge of the investigation.
The owner of the Cybertruck said that Livelsberger didn’t mention politics, and seemed to love Tesla.
“Tesla and everybody, obviously are asking me all kinds of questions, like ‘Did he say anything about Elon Musk? Did he say anything about Donald Trump? Did he say anything political?’ He didn’t say anything about any of that stuff. He actually seemed kind of like a fan-boy of the car,” he said.
The Denver Gazette<a href="https://denvergazette.com/news/matthew-livelsberger-cybertruck-trump-hotel-las-vegas-attack-explosion-text-messages/article_1ee12c84-c967-11ef-9afb-63dc827cd3c9.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> reported</a> on Thursday that Livelsberger’s ex-girlfriend, Alicia Arritt, says that he texted her Sunday morning praising the Cybertruck and saying that it made him “feel like Batman or halo.”
The same report says Arritt claims his “behavior changed in 2019 after he returned from a tour in the Middle East with a traumatic brain injury.”
The owner said when he first heard of the explosion, he thought it couldn&#8217;t have been Livelsberger, because of how normal their interaction was.
“In my head, I feel like, maybe it wasn’t him,” the owner said. “Maybe someone just took the car. Maybe he bought all that stuff just to go camping. And then somebody just grabbed it and, like, used it.”
Vikki Migoya, a Public Affairs Officer of the FBI’s Denver office, said she was unable to answer specific questions about the “ongoing” investigation.
“FBI Denver; the Denver Field Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and the Colorado Springs Police Department today conducted law enforcement activity at a residential address in Colorado Springs,” the spokeswoman said in a statement. “FBI Denver personnel and specialized teams were on-site for several hours. This activity is related to the explosion in Las Vegas on Wednesday; due to the ongoing nature of the investigation, no further information will be provided out of Denver.”

LAS VEGAS, NV – January 01: A Cybertruck covered with a tarp is

EXCLUSIVE: Owner Of Tesla Cybertruck Used In Vegas Bombing Recalls Hour Spent With Suspect

Bombings

Las Vegas

Terrorism

Tesla

Trump Hotel

Border wall materials are actively being transported away from the border this week despite calls from President-elect Donald Trump and other prominent lawmakers for it to stop, according to footage obtained by The Daily Wire. 
The video, recorded this Tuesday, shows trucks fully loaded with border wall panels departing the border. The steel bollard wall sections in the videos appear to be the same “32.91’ X 7.91’ Steel Bollard Wall Sections w/Grout” that were being sold on GovPlanet’s online auction site, until they were removed from the website following <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-biden-races-to-sell-off-border-wall-parts-before-trump-takes-office">The Daily Wire’s investigative report published last week.</a>
A source in the Border Patrol says that government contractors in Arizona are now picking up the wall early in the morning before the sun rises, an apparent attempt to avoid scrutiny for what Trump and others have characterized as a last-minute fire sale to undermine any future attempt to secure the border. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
EXCLUSIVE: Video recorded this week shows truck after truck hauling border wall away from the border, despite calls from Trump for an immediate stop.
Footage obtained by <a href="https://twitter.com/JamesLalino?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JamesLalino</a> shows them leaving the border loaded up with steel panels, and arriving at the auction site: <a href="https://t.co/1FEXfUBhcn">pic.twitter.com/1FEXfUBhcn</a>
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1870207074770055653?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 20, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
“The Biden administration is now moving the wall in the dead of night,” the source told The Daily Wire. “But we are always watching.”
This new development comes after Trump on Monday publicly called on President Joe Biden “to please stop selling the wall.” 
On Thursday, Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-files-amicus-brief-to-stop-bidens-border-wall-fire-sale?topStoryPosition=1">filed an amicus brief</a> in support of an injunction to stop the Biden administration from continuing the practice, as well as an investigation into the legality of its conduct. Trump said earlier this week that it’s “almost a criminal act” what is being done in the weeks before he’s set to take back the presidency. 
“It’s very expensive, and now it’s about double the price of what it would have been six years ago, and the administration is trying to sell it for five cents on the dollar, knowing that we’re getting ready to put it up,” Trump said earlier this week.
Videos show two separate companies, DP Trucking LLC and DL Delivery, transporting the border wall material. The material leaves the Arizona border en route to Pinal Airpark, where it is gathered to be sold off in auction. 
DP Trucking is the same contractor that admitted earlier this month it was transporting the border wall materials as part of a government contract. DL Delivery is the DBA of PK Ranch LLC. It did not return The Daily Wire’s requests for comment.
It is unclear the status of the auctions. In the days following The Daily Wire’s initial report, the items up for auction vanished from the <a href="https://www.govplanet.com/jsp/s/search.ips?sm=0&amp;l2=USA-AZ&amp;k=Steel%20Bollard%20Wall%20Sections&amp;mf=1">website of GovPlanet</a>, which was holding the auction. In a phone conversation, a GovPlanet employee told The Daily Wire that the items were still up for sale, but that the listings were being updated. As of Friday afternoon, the listings were still absent from the website. 
Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ), whose district borders the Pinal Airpark, told The Daily Wire that the new video shows the Biden administration is “persisting with its betrayal.”
“Even now as this sabotage has been brought to light, the Biden administration is persisting with its betrayal,” Crane said. “Undermining President Trump will not save Biden’s shameful legacy — it will only serve to devastate American families by making it harder to secure the border.”
Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) said he’s committed to uncovering all the details about how the sale of border wall material is being carried out, but complained that it won’t fix the problem.
“We’ll be able to expose the truth in the days ahead and to be able to hold agencies accountable by getting those documents and those details,” Lankford told The Daily Wire. “But, you know, they’re still gone, and that’s the challenge. Once he sells this off, we’re going to have to buy this fencing twice.”
“Buy it the first time to be installed, where Biden then just stuck it in the desert, held it as long as he could, and then sold it off,” he said. “Then we’ll have to buy it again to do real border security.”
The Pentagon, which has not responded to inquiries about the border wall sale, has told liberal outlets such as NPR that the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act gave it the authority from Congress to sell unused border construction materials. 
But the provision the Pentagon is referring to originated with Senate Republicans, who actually wrote the legislation to stop the administration from actions such as what’s happening this month. The legislation requires the federal government to deploy the materials or transfer them to state governments who will use them for wall construction, not sell them off, according to the Senate Armed Services Committee. 
Lawyers for Trump agree. In his amicus brief calling for an injunction, Trump argues that the Pentagon has no authority to auction off wall parts to private parties. 
“That language does not mandate or authorize DoD to sell the excess border wall material at a steep discount to private parties,” the brief states.
According to a Border Patrol source who spoke with The Daily Wire, an estimated half-mile worth of wall is being transported each day, with a Christmas deadline to offload the whole supply.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has made it clear that there will be legal consequences for those involved in the sale of unused border wall sections, which he described as “a brazen abuse of power” and “theft of government resources.”
“To every official at the Department of Homeland Security, or anywhere else, who approves selling off incredibly expensive portions of the border wall for $5 a piece, you are engaged in theft of government property and you should expect the Department of Justice to investigate you and prosecute you,” Cruz said. 
On the other side of Capitol Hill, the House Freedom Caucus is <a href="https://x.com/freedomcaucus/status/1869190715651043622">pushing</a> for a rule that ensures “an amendment to stop Biden’s ongoing fire sale of border wall construction materials.”
Lankford says he has a plan to obtain all the relevant records to “expose the truth in the days ahead and to be able to hold agencies accountable.&#8221;
“What can be done is to be able to pull all the records that right now are being held by DoD, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and by DHS, to get all the records of how this happened, what happened, and to be able to expose the actors there that were trying to prevent the construction of the border wall,” Lankford said. “We’ll be able to expose the truth in the days ahead and to be able to hold agencies accountable by getting those documents and those details.”

e042219a-eaea-4614-972e-2851c6b9d3d7

EXCLUSIVE: Footage Shows Border Wall Still Being Hauled Off Border

Border Wall

Donald Trump

Joe Biden

The Biden administration is using its final weeks to haul a massive amount of border wall materials away from the southern border to be sold off in a government auction, an apparent effort to hinder President-elect Donald Trump’s effort to secure the border, The Daily Wire has learned.
Videos obtained exclusively by The Daily Wire from a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agent show unused sections of the wall being hauled away on the back of flatbed trucks from a section of the border just south of Tucson, a hotspot for illegal crossings during the Biden administration. The agent estimates that up to half a mile per day of unused border wall is being moved.
“They are taking it from three stations: Nogales, Tucson, and Three Points,” the border patrol agent, who was granted anonymity to speak freely, told The Daily Wire. “The goal is to move all of it off the border before Christmas.”
Trump made clear during his campaign that he intends to finish construction of the border wall, making use of the materials that have <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/investigations/trump-harris-border-wall-arizona-rusting-2021-rcna173094" target="_blank" rel="noopener">remained untouched at the border</a> since President Joe Biden took office in 2021. If the material brought to the border during his first term is sold off, it will significantly delay any progress on one of Trump’s flagship campaign promises at the border.
WATCH: Trucks Take Massive Amount Of Unused Border Wall Off The Border To Sit In Government Auction Site
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
EXCLUSIVE: Weeks before Trump takes office, Biden is racing to auction off unused border wall materials.
Video shows trucks hauling wall materials off the border to a government auction site, where a massive amount of wall is waiting to be sold. <a href="https://t.co/ogaQMBHw7R" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pic.twitter.com/ogaQMBHw7R</a>
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1867257767641174408?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">December 12, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
The government contractor, DP Trucking LLC, is transporting the pieces of the wall north on Interstate 19 to Pinal Airpark in Marana, Arizona, where it is being auctioned through GovPlanet, a surplus government equipment auction marketplace.
“They just started taking all the wall that was not used, which is still totally good and usable, and they started taking it northbound,” the agent said. “They’re pulling it all off the border.”
Harold Lambeth, the owner of the trucking company, confirmed to The Daily Wire in a phone call that his company is transporting the unused border wall sections north away from the construction sites. He said he is unable to disclose further information about the work.
Video of the GovPlanet auction site where the material is being taken shows seemingly endless piles of unused border wall material. Another video, taken from one of the construction sites on the border, shows DP Trucking LLC trucks passing through with the same style of unused border wall stacked up the back of their flatbeds.
The <a href="https://www.govplanet.com/jsp/s/search.ips?sm=0&amp;l2=USA-AZ&amp;k=Steel%20Bollard%20Wall%20Sections&amp;mf=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">auction website</a> shows that sales occurred as recently as December 4 for precisely the types of materials being pulled off the border. GovPlanet has online auctions set for Dec. 11 and Dec. 18 for more of the border wall material, which is listed on the company’s website as “32.91’ X 7.91’ Steel Bollard Wall Sections w/Grout.”
The bidding for each section of wall panels is set to begin at only $5.00, according to the website.
<div id="attachment_843015" style="width: 650px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-843015" class="wp-image-843015" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/Screenshot-2024-12-11-at-10.07.02-PM-438x576.png" alt="" width="640" height="841" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/Screenshot-2024-12-11-at-10.07.02-PM-438x576.png 438w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/Screenshot-2024-12-11-at-10.07.02-PM-228x300.png 228w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/Screenshot-2024-12-11-at-10.07.02-PM-768x1009.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/Screenshot-2024-12-11-at-10.07.02-PM.png 1076w" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" />Screenshot of GovPlanet.com, a government surplus auction site</div>
Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ), whose congressional district borders the Pinal Airpark where the material is being sold, said the Biden administration is “purposefully hamstringing” Trump before he takes office.
“The Biden Administration is well aware they shouldn’t have reversed the construction of the border wall. If it’s true, they’re purposefully hamstringing an incoming president, it wouldn’t be shocking,” Crane told The Daily Wire. “Why would they want to see President Trump succeed with policies they aggressively sabotaged?”
The long-time border patrol agent has seen political fights play out over the border before, and believes that the Biden administration is trying to stymie Trump’s ability to quickly secure the border as soon as he returns to office.
“When Trump comes back, and he wants to start the border wall all over again, the whole entire funding fight is gonna happen again,” the agent said. “That’s their play. He’s gonna have to fight for this — again.”
<div id="attachment_843025" style="width: 650px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-843025" class="wp-image-843025 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/e042219a-eaea-4614-972e-2851c6b9d3d7.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="480" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/e042219a-eaea-4614-972e-2851c6b9d3d7.jpg 640w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/e042219a-eaea-4614-972e-2851c6b9d3d7-300x225.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" />Segment of border wall up for sale in Arizona by GovPlanet</div>
The Customs and Border Protection Agency referred The Daily Wire to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, saying the latter had jurisdiction over the materials until they are erected. From there, The Daily Wire was referred to the Defense Logistics Agency, where an official said the standing policy is to refer all media requests on this to the public affairs team at the Office of the Secretary of Defense. A member of the public affairs team declined to respond to inquiries.
Trump is <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trumps-day-one-deportations-border-wall-scrapping-biden-humanitarian-programs-2024-11-12/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">expected to use an executive order</a> to unlock funds to restart construction of the border wall that was halted under Biden, with anticipation that it could be one of his day-one actions.
Crane, the Arizona congressman, says the last-minute fire sale by the Biden administration is “a direct affront to the will of the people.”
“The American people gave President Trump a mandate in November, which included the fulfillment of his plans to secure the border,” Crane said. “Any last-ditch attempt to obstruct this mandate by the Biden Administration would be a direct affront to the will of the people.”
James Lalino is a freelance writer, investigative journalist, and television news producer based in Washington, D.C.

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James Lalino

EXCLUSIVE: Owner Of Tesla Cybertruck Used In Vegas Bombing Recalls Hour Spent With Suspect

EXCLUSIVE: Footage Shows Border Wall Still Being Hauled Off Border

EXCLUSIVE: Biden Races To Sell Off Border Wall Parts Before Trump Takes Office