Summary

Matthew Livelsberger, the suspect behind the Tesla Cybertruck explosion outside Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, was described as a “big” Trump supporter and a highly trained Green Beret with 19 years of military service.

Livelsberger, who died in the blast, rented the Cybertruck in Colorado and filled it with explosives, injuring seven.

Authorities are investigating the incident’s symbolism, speculating it may have been a political statement due to its location and links to Trump and Elon Musk.

No clear motive has been established.

      • Bakkoda@sh.itjust.works
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        3 months ago

        Remember when people burned effigies of Obama when he got elected? Pastors around the country hung dark colored dummies with nooses? Do you remember that?

        Nah you don’t otherwise you wouldn’t have made up evidence to try and support your claim.

      • lilcs420@lemm.ee
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        3 months ago

        Where have you seen calls for violence against trump. People don’t like him but I haven’t seen anything. Do you have any articles or proof?

    • LimeZest@discuss.tchncs.de
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      3 months ago

      The odds are pretty much nonexistent. You don’t accidentally load up an electric vehicle with a bunch of gasoline and fireworks, park it in front of a building with the incoming president’s name, rig the flammable material to ignite, and finally shoot yourself before it ignites. Supposedly his wife just broke up with him after Christmas, so perhaps he was feeling extra hopeless and wanted to do something extreme to get everyone’s attention.

      • atzanteol@sh.itjust.works
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        3 months ago

        I hadn’t seen the bit about the gunshot wound yet. Yeah, it likely wasn’t an accident.

        I was thinking maybe he was planning some fireworks event and some camping and accidentally set something off.

    • Nougat@fedia.io
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      3 months ago

      “Highly trained Green Beret” who doesn’t know how to make a proper bomb.

        • __nobodynowhere@startrek.website
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          3 months ago

          I would have at least tried to ram the hotel doors before killing myself and setting everything off. Even with the limited blast, it would have done more damage in an enclosed space.

          The whole thing is confusing

        • Nougat@fedia.io
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          3 months ago

          What would be the point of that? He shot himself in the truck prior to the explosion. If you’re just going to do yourself in, what’s the point of having a half-ass explosion in front of a hotel, too? He’s been described as a “Trump-loving supersoldier patriot.” It wouldn’t be some false flag shit, because he was in the truck, that would have obviously not worked.

          • Canonical_Warlock@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            3 months ago

            My best guess is that this “trump loving super patriot” didn’t like elon and was trying to make a point on what elon was doing to trump. The best way they saw to do so was a flashy explosion out of a cyber truck infront of a trump property. Of course if they loved trump then they wouldn’t actually care about maximizing damage to trumps building so they prioritized showiness over destruction. People also light themselves on fire in protest all the time. This was someone who wanted the same without the pain of burning to death so he shot himself before everything went up. If you were planning on killing yourself anyways why wouldn’t you do it in the truck.

      • NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip
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        3 months ago

        As others have said: This was likely more about making a statement and getting attention than causing damage.

        That said, it is well worth looking into the training of even “tier 1 operator” special forces. Unless their job is bomb defusal they aren’t actually learning all that much. Here is some det cord and some plastic explosives. Here is a bunch of math to figure out how much you use of each and for liability purposes you’ll need to get a passing grade on the written test. But the reality is that here are the common doors and walls you’ll encounter and how much to use and in what shape. And if you are using this in a situation where you don’t intend to murder everything on the other side? Get a professional to do it.

        So it is very much possible that someone who was “an expert” on blowing out locks and even knocking holes in walls would have absolutely no idea how to make a proper car IED without having access to artillery shells and the like.


        One way to think of it is that somebody could be the best F1 driver on the planet and even be able to articulate that they need the camber on their left front wing changed or whatever. But if you gave them a beat up 98 Camry that was misaligned and veered to the left? They would be just as lost as a kid who barely passed driver’s ed.

  • Rentlar@lemmy.ca
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    3 months ago

    I will still wait for more concrete details before I cast judgement, but in the meantime I can say this much:

    Many leftist haters of Trump wouldn’t go in a Cybertruck to make a statement. They’d probably even refuse to be paid to get in one.

    • SapphironZA@sh.itjust.works
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      3 months ago

      When I look at his background. 19 years of military service at the sharp end, does not leave a person “fully whole”. The US also has a history of neglecting the mental health of its service members.

      This suicide might have more to do with those factors, than politics. The apparent political statement might just have been a final cry for attention.

      • MehBlah@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        The US neglects mental health in general. Cluster B’s end up in charge because they lack basic empathy. When they get there the first thing they do is try to make sure they never get outed as a cluster B. After all they know what they do is wrong but think they can just tell enough lies to fool people. They gut any mental health system they can. Just look at that traitor reagan. He gutted the national system and forty years later we have a homeless population full of untreated mentally Ill.

      • 2piradians@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Further, nobody willingly leaves the military at 19 years. 20 years and you get retirement pay for the rest of your life–19 gets you nothing.

        Maybe he had a medical retirement, which is fully possible for any number of reasons, but…

        Probably he did something egregious to get kicked out at 19 years. Leaders will often let servicemembers near 20 years retire when they’re guilty of wrongdoing (in consideration of the many years served beforehand). To cut short a retirement career is to make an example of a person for doing something awful.

        • Freefall@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Quick article skim, but I didn’t see where it said he was ex-military. I see a lot of past tense that could be interpreted as that, or as “the guy is dead and entirely past tense now”. I may have missed it.

    • Tiefling IRL@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      3 months ago

      The stupid things have had over a half dozen recalls in the last year. You couldn’t pay me enough to get in one.

      I already feel unsafe when I call a Lyft or Uber and get a Tesla. That alone removes a star.

    • Brodysseus@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      3 months ago

      Maybe he is trying to say something about the president elect’s relationship with teslas owner.

      I can imagine that relationship could seem troubling if you were a fan

    • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.zip
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      3 months ago

      So… there may be a motive.

      https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/crime/cybertruck-bomber-matthew-livelsberger-wife-b2673319.html

      The wife of the Cybertruck bomber Matthew Livelsberger left him just days before he detonated the vehicle outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, according to a report.

      With a bit more context from some of the texts he made here from here:

      https://www.newsweek.com/cybertruck-explosion-matthew-livelsberger-texts-ex-girlfriend-2009064

      My entirely premature, editorialized take is that this guy cheated on his wife, or his wife left him due to suspecting as much, he believed his life was ruined, and decided to go out with a bang.

      He was a big Trump guy, was a Green Beret for multiple tours of duty, until 2019 when he suffered a traumatic brain injury, he kept working in the Army, most recently as remote and autonomous systems manager stationed in Germany.

      Then he went home on leave, his wife leaves him, and 3 days before his death, several days after his wife left him, he texted his previous ex (not his very recently ex wife):

      “I rented a Tesla Cybertruck. It’s the s**t,” read a text to Arritt, obtained by the Denver Gazette.

      “I feel like Batman or halo,”

      He apparently shot himself in the head whilst inside the CyberTruck, parked outside of the Trump hotel… which then caught on fire, and the fireworks and fuel cannisters inside the CyberTruck eventually went off as well:

      https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c86wnx174q8o

      “I’m comfortable calling it a suicide with a bombing that occurred immediately after,” Sheriff McMahill said during Thursday’s press conference.

      As far as I can tell so far… the actual, specific mechanism that caused of the ignition of the CyberTruck does not appear to have been determined so far, but it was probably by design of Livelsberger.

      While the car having fireworks inside of it is possibly coincidentally explained by New Years, fuel cans inside a rented CyberTruck probably signal an intention to go out with a bang.

      So, yeah, summed up, my take is that this notably brain damaged individual, who was a big Trump fan and probably Elon fan as well, who felt like Batman driving around in a Halo warthog in a CyberTruck…

      …basically just became suicidal after his wife left him and went on a joyride in a CyberTruck, then game overed himself in spectacular fashion.

  • I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    I don’t understand how 7 people got injured. I saw the video, there was no one nearby and the hotel windows didn’t break.

  • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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    3 months ago

    Such a big fan he decided to give one of his hotels an impromptu fireworks display?

  • Zier@fedia.io
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    3 months ago

    More proof that magas are just violent psychopaths. Open more insane asylums!

    • Freefall@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      He was likely making a statement and wanted fire and noise more than demolition and death (granted he also probably didn’t care if some people around it got hurt). It’s pathetic.

      • comfy@lemmy.ml
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        3 months ago

        What did they blow up? Their own vehicle and a piece of the road? Some random bystanders? A few thousands of damage to the hotel maybe? I don’t know their goals, but I don’t think that’s successful if they wanted anything more than attention seeking. (edit: which honestly seems like it could be the goal, why else have fireworks instead of fertilizer?)

        Compare with the Oklahoma City bombing.

        • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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          3 months ago

          Turns out if you want to use a cybertruck as an explosive weapon you need to put it on its side due to the way the walls of the vehicle contain the explosion.

          Classic cybertruck-as-weapon noob mistake.

          “This side toward enemy”. Built so strong it directs the blast out the open face of the bed.

          • negativeyoda@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            I’m spitballing here, but it was just a bunch of fireworks used as the actual bomb, correct?

            I’m sure if they did the fertilizer/ OKC thing that it would have blown up a lot better instead of just catching on fire, but the stupid thing also probably doesn’t have good enough cargo capacity to carry enough accelerant

  • recreationalcatheter@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    ‘big’ Trump supporter

    I mean… let’s be honest here, he did drive 12 hours through the night to serve Trump some freshly barbecued pig.

    You don’t cater like that unless you’re a truly big fan.

  • njm1314@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    I mean you can’t help but think it is something to do with Elon Musk and the h1b1 Visa issue.

    • meco03211@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      A veteran that supported him thinking he was “for the troops” getting fucked over by the military for something (like the VA not treating PTSD) could be a reason.