— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 1, 2025 Musk said Wednesday afternoon on X that “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.” In an earlier post on the platform Musk said that his entire senior term was investigating the explosion, adding, “We’ve never seen anything like this.” Musk has recently become a member of Trump’s inner circle. Neither Trump nor Musk were in Las Vegas early Wednesday. Both had attended Trump’s New Year’s Eve party at Trump’s estate in South Florida. Advertisement Musk spent an estimated $250 million during the presidential campaign to support the former president. He was at Trump’s resort on election night and has been a frequent guest there. Trump has named Musk, the world’s richest man, to co-lead a new effort to find ways to cut the government’s size and spending. “This is a Tesla truck, and we know that Elon Musk is working with President-elect Trump, and it’s the Trump Tower,” McMahill said when reporters asked about possible political connections. “So there’s obviously things to be concerned about and it’s something we continue to look at.” The truck explosion came hours after a driver rammed a truck into a crowd in New Orleans’ famed French Quarter early on New Year’s Day, killing at least 15 people before being shot to death by police. That crash was being investigated as a terrorist attack and police believe the driver was not acting alone. “We are absolutely investigating any connectivity to what happened in New Orleans as well as other attacks that have been occurring around the world,” McMahill said. “We aren’t ruling anything out.” In a statement, Turo said it was working with authorities. “We do not believe that either renter involved in the Las Vegas and New Orleans attacks had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat,” the statement said. In Las Vegas, witness Ana Bruce, visiting from Brazil, said she heard three explosions. “The first one where we saw the fire, the second one, I guess, was the battery or something like that, and the third was the big one that smoked the entire area and was the moment when everyone was told to evacuate and stay away,” Bruce said. Advertisement Her travel companion, Alcides Antunes, showed video he took of flames lapping the sides of the silver-colored vehicle. The 64-story hotel is just off the Las Vegas Strip and across the street from the Fashion Show Las Vegas shopping mall. Eric Trump, a son of the president-elect and executive vice president of the Trump Organization, posted about the fire on the social media platform X. He praised the fire department and local law enforcement “for their swift response and professionalism.” Associated Press writers Colleen Long and Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report. Snow reported from Phoenix.