US President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Friday, March 21, 2025.

Speaking on Friday from the Oval Office, US President Donald Trump suggested the Capitol rioters were tame compared with the people responsible for setting Tesla vehicles ablaze in protest of billionaire Elon Musk’s meddling in the federal government.

“I view these people as terrorists just like others,” Trump said of the Tesla vandals.

“When I looked at those showrooms burning, and those cars — not one or two, like seven, eight, 10 burning, exploding all over the place — these are terrorists,” he said.

“You didn’t have that on Jan 6, I can tell you. You didn’t have anything like that Jan 6,” Trump went on, referring to the 2021 riot that left several people dead.

A police officer was among those who died either during the riot or directly afterward. Trump notably issued a mass pardon for hundreds of Jan 6 rioters in the first days of his new term, regardless of whether their crimes involved physical violence.

The president suggested earlier on Friday that people who attack Teslas should be sent to prison in El Salvador, where his administration........

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