TL;DR: Government-issue Cybertrucks appeared on the streets of Qatar within 32 days of Elon Musk joining the Trump administration.
In case you didn’t see it, the US President and a gaggle of CEOs visited the Gulf state of Qatar on the President’s first foreign trip of his second administration. Of course, Elon Musk was there… either in his role as CEO of Tesla, the maybe-administrator of DOGE, or perhaps as First Buddy.
If you saw the footage, you couldn’t have missed this part: their motorcade was escorted by the Qatari government’s internal security service in their bright red, heavily customized Cybertrucks.
What an odd choice of vehicles! Here’s a photo, with absolutely savage commentary from Audi fans.
Audi leading the garbage trucks
byu/jonsnowthenoobmaster inAudi
When Did the Qatari Security Forces Buy Cybertrucks? Right After Elon Musk Joined DOGE
Now, seeing these angular dumpsters rigged for counter-terrorism work, given their limited range and less than sterling record of not exploding… it made me wonder.
I wondered if maybe, just MAYBE, the trucks could have been selected to curry favor with a certain someone in the incoming administration.
Qatari Government Cybertrucks Appear 32 Days After Elon Musk Joins the Administration
Sure enough, looking back into recent history, the dates sure do look suspicious.
November 14th, 2024: Elon Musk is announced as the co-executive of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
And then, oddly, 32 days later…
December 16th, 2024: Cybertrucks are spotted on the streets of Doha in Qatar with custom wraps of the Lekhwiya, a Qatari governmental paramilitary force.
Here’s the clip. Angular, electric, sort of tactical but in an anti-camouflage sort of way. The timing is strange, because the vehicle has been for sale for more than a year at this point, and it hasn’t had a whole ton of takers.
Fast forward about six months, and Qatar’s paramilitary Cybertrucks are escorting the US President and his DOGE chair around in parade formation.
Huh! What a coincidence.
Context: This Is All Pretty Standard for Local Diplomacy
To be fair, this isn’t totally out of left field. If you want some fascinating insights into how Gulf diplomacy works, listen to this episode of Crooked. I’ll link it at the right time so you hear the story without needing to sit through the whole episode.
Long story short: the host visits Saudi Arabia on a diplomatic mission. In the middle of the night, a golf cart shows up at his guesthouse to deliver gifts. And by gifts, I mean literal jewels, gold, watches… an actual treasure chest full of obscenely expensive stuff.
Is that a bribe? Yeah, honestly, sort of. The US State Department thought so, too. They didn’t let him keep the bag full of jewels.
So is it a bribe to buy a visiting dignitary’s dumb truck for your palace guards to curry favor? Yeah, honestly, sort of. But, it fits the pattern for how things get done on the Gulf.
What’s a Lekhwiya, Anyhow?
If you have eagle eyes, you’ll see that these aren’t just any police Cybertrucks, they have “Lekhwiya” and a handy-dandy URL written on them. That sent me down this whole blue-link rabbit hole, let me tell you all about them.
Lekhwiya is often translated into English as the “Internal Security Forces” of Qatar, but that antiseptic name isn’t really telling the whole story.
Yes, they provide internal security, guarding VIPs with armed escorts and the like… but there’s a bit more to it than that.
Lekhwiya means “brothers,” and historically the lekhwiya are are literal kinsmen of the Emir, other royalty, or their vassals. It’s basically a palace guard made of cousins and uncles. Which, you gotta admit, is sort of metal.
Their job is largely the same as a modern paramilitary or gendarme, but with the twist of existing in one of the last hereditary monarchies on earth. They secure VIPs (including the Emir), conduct counterterrorism, and now apparently roll deep in Cybertrucks.
I don’t know, thought that was interesting. Cyberpunk electric trucks for the Emir’s palace guard. It’s cyberpunk and dystopian, but only half the way I expected.
Dirty Deeds, Done Super-Expensively (Doesn’t Have the Same Ring to It, We’ll Workshop That)
So let’s take stock (I hear $TSLA is doing alright!).
Since Elon Musk joined the federal government, Cybertrucks have become parade vehicles for Qatari royal bodyguards, not to mention a $400 million pet project of the U.S. State Department.
Not bad for a truck voted the Worst Pickup Truck Ever Made.
What’s next, I wonder? Will the IRS start accepting Dogecoin? Will the DEA get those goofy Tesla-brand flamethrowers? Will NASA be replaced entirely by SpaceX? (I really hope that last joke ages well.)
Stay tuned… We’re used to seeing governments nationalize private companies, but we might just see the opposite happen for Tesla.
*Title image courtesy of Reddit user Total_Sea!
