The man who shot and blew himself up inside a Tesla Cybertruck on New Year's Day may have been motivated by purely personal and not political reasons. The New York Post reported that Matthew Livelsberger had a huge fight with his wife on Christmas, six days before his dramatic bombing.
Authorities have been working under the assumption that the bombing was an act of terrorism given its location right outside the Trump Hotel and use of a vehicle from a company owned by Trump ally Elon Musk. However, Livelsberger was known to be a Trump supporter.
Sources told the Post that Livelsberger, a US military veteran, was accused of infidelity by his wife on December 25. Following the fight, he left his home in Colorado Springs, rented the Cybertruck, and then made his way to Las Vegas.
Once parked in front of the Trump Hotel, Livelsberger set the explosives in the truck to detonate and shot himself in the head before the explosion.
Authorities are now considering the possibility that Livelsberger chose a Cybertruck specifically to avoid causing casualties. Using another vehicle would have caused greater damage to the hotel and risk to the civilians inside. The frame of the Cybertruck largely contained the blast, and only Livelsberger was killed, though several other people were injured.
“The evil knuckleheads picked the wrong vehicle for a terrorist attack. Cybertruck actually contained the explosion and directed the blast upwards,” Musk wrote on X following the explosion. “Not even the glass doors of the lobby were broken.”
The timing of the explosion, hours after another US veteran, ISIS supporter Shamsud-Din Jabbar, murdered 15 people and wounded dozens more in a terrorist ramming attack in New Orleans, contributed to the suspicion that the Las Vegas bombing was also an act of political terrorism.