Day one: Tesla will supply armoured cybertrucks to the US State Department in a deal worth USD400 m.

Day five: no it won't.

The sound of furious back peddling is deafening.

Even Bing Image creator won't produce a "Tesla Cybertruck" and removing Tesla from the prompt produces an image but not what is expected.

It all started with an entry in a US government procurement document - rapidly amended - that mentioned Tesla. The name was quickly removed. Some are assuming that the original author used the brand as a generic description in the style of hoover.

The New York Times produced a headline: "State Dept. Plans $400 Million Purchase of Armored Tesla Cybertrucks"

Uproar and outrage followed. Musk himself tweeted (which is what people do on X, apparently) "I'm pretty sure Tesla isn't getting $400m. No one mentioned it to me, at least."

The Associated Press then had the headline: "State Department halts plan to buy $400M worth of armored vehicles from Musk’s Tesla" and it gave details that undermine the thrust from the Left.

First, this was a Biden administration initiative; secondly when proposals were sought Tesla was the only manufacturer that made a submission; third, no order was ever placed; fourth the plan has been scotched by the Trump administration.

However, the need for vehicles remains and the US Gov is insistent on pursuing its electric vehicle strategy, however misplaced an EV strategy is. And so it is likely that another announcement will be made and other manufacturers invited to bid.

But Tesla is in a strong position. Its Cybertruck is an ideal platform and its design - already half-way to a Humvee - can be converted to armour relatively easily. Also, according to Car.com, Tesla concentrates on being American Made with its Model Y being the most American car on the market

Time's headline was "State Department Removes Tesla’s Name From Planned $400M Contract Amid Musk Scrutiny" and its article found another discrepancy: the code in the original version of the document related to "NAICS Code 311999, an industry code for miscellaneous food manufacturing."

That article makes it clear that a request for interest had been issued, Tesla was the only company that expressed interest and, materially, no further steps had been taken and "As a next step in that process, an official solicitation would be sent out to vehicle manufacturers to bid, the official said, but the solicitation is on hold and there are no current plans to issue it."

With different media using words like "pauses" and "abandons" the story demonstrates the power of language and its ability to distort understanding while not actually telling falsehoods. There never was a contract, nor even a start to a bidding process.