The suspect in Wednesday’s Tesla Cybertruck bombing that occurred outside a Trump hotel in Las Vegas has been identified as 37-year-old Matthew Alan Livelsberger, an active duty US Army Green Beret.
Livelsberger was identified as the person who rented the Cybertruck, and his IDs and credit cards were found in the vehicle, but the body was burned beyond recognition, and authorities say they’re still waiting on a DNA test to confirm his identity.
The Cybertruck was blown up using firework mortars and gas canisters, a crude explosive for someone with Livelsberger’s military experience to use. The body had a gunshot wound to the head, which authorities say was self-inflicted. Since Cybertrucks can be self-driving, some have speculated he could have been dead before arriving at the Trump hotel if the bomb was detonated using a timer.
Las Vegas Sheriff Kevin McMahill said he was “comfortable calling it a suicide with a bombing that occurred immediately after.” No one else was killed in the blast, and seven people nearby sustained minor injuries.
The bombing occurred just a few hours after Shamsud-Din Jabbar, another US Army veteran, plowed a truck into a crowd in New Orleans, killing 15. The FBI has said there’s no “definitive link” between the two incidents, though there are some similarities.
Both Livelsberger and Jabbar used the app Turo to rent the vehicles they used, and both men had previously served at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, but the fort is one of the largest military bases in the world by population size.
The FBI said Jabbar declared his loyalty to ISIS before the New Orleans attack, but there’s no indication Livelsberger was motivated by anything ISIS-related.
Livelsberger was a decorated combat veteran who had been in the Army for 20 years. The US Army said he had been deployed to Afghanistan twice and also served in Ukraine, Tajikistan, Georgia, and Congo.
The motive for the Cybertruck bombing is unclear. Using a Tesla vehicle in front of a Trump hotel suggests it could have been meant to be symbolic since Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been a major supporter of the president-elect, but a family member of Livelsberger said he was very pro-Trump.
“He loved Trump, and he was always a very, very patriotic soldier, a patriotic American. It’s one of the reasons he was in Special Forces for so many years. It wasn’t just one tour of duty,” his uncle, Dean Livelsberger, told The Independent.
Posts from social media suggest Livelsberger was pro-Ukraine and may have been involved in helping recruit military contractors for the conflict. On his LinkedIn account, Livelsberger commented on a post advertising a 30-day contract in Ukraine for a tactical combat casualty care instructor.
“I’ve got a top 18D [Special Forces medical sergeant] recently ETSd who is looking for just this opportunity, sent him your way,” Livelsberger.
A Facebook photo believed to be from 2016 appears to show Livelsberger wearing a shirt that says, “Slava Ukraini,” which translates to “Glory to Ukraine” in English.
Ryan Routh, who was arrested in September 2024 for allegedly trying to assassinate Trump, was staunchly pro-Ukraine and helped recruit for Ukraine’s foreign legion, suggesting his motive was Trump’s calls to end the war in Ukraine.
It appears Livelsberger motive was similar with the difference of CT explosion coming from Musk complicity…!
sHUSH
Train up a squad of elite killers, and of course someday
one of 'em will pop off somewhere.
What did you expect?
Considering all the carnage Genocide Joe and the rest of the D.C. posse has been creating in the Middle-East, the Ukraine, and the rest of the world, it was only a matter of time before the splatter starts finding its way Stateside.
Americans don't seem to realize that we are participating in a Middle Eastern war right now.I think we will see a steady increase in this type of activity as long as our government continues to supply and finance genocide in Palestine.
And they will under Trump as well.
The chickens come home to roost?
If they were only chickens. They are fierce attacking roosters.
I meant to say chicks but you get the point.
Congratulations Matthew Alan Livelsberger!! He is the first Darwin Awad winner of 2025.
May he burn in hell along with Joey Biden!
Shamsud-Din Jabbar wins the Dubius Achievement award for being the number 2 Darwin Award winner.
I suspect you will be among the first to sign up for Donalds tattoo on the wrist to prove you are a US Citizen, so you will not have to carry your citizenship papers with you. Now that really would be a Darwin award winning activity.
Word salad. All it needs is some dressing.
Are you a Dutch persin or just a dutch name
Sad little man, not all free thinkers are MAGA supporters.
apropos of not much…
Soldiers, sometimes, live what they learn…
Those soldiers you refer to have also been used as "patsies" over the years. Lee Harvey Oswald and Tim McVeigh are two glaring examples! US servicemen are "serving" a government that would eliminate them without hesitation to serve an illegal agenda!
In New Orleans and in Las Vegas, both terrorist attacks were committed by military veterans.
Excessive militarism is like a boomerang for the US. Not only it is bankrupting the country. Now former soldiers are turning their arms against American citizens.
The Department of Defense should be for 'defense', not for wars of aggression around the world.
Agreed. It's corrosive in every way for the society, but it's very profitable; and that's what matters in the US of I.
When you produce killing machines they will kill.
There really is a difference between defense department and war department. We have become a war department only, seeking out places to mess with, conquer or rule nd for that they make sure that our cannon fodder is properly trained to murder with hate.
I call them the Donut of Destruction! A donut is a circle, that has no beginning and has no end!
Like the Particle Accelerator Collider located in a tunnel under the French-Swiss border near Geneva, Switzerland…?!
The Department of War existed before Pentagon changed the name to Department of Defense to Save Face…!
I don’t know how antiwar will feel about this, this kind of stuff is demonic possession. With all the stupid wars America and the world has taken part in, and with no rehabilitation for any of these soldiers – the things they do, the things they see, the constant stress – it’s no surprise men come back home like this. This how they enter into a man’s heart, fill him with despair, and eventually suicide seems the only option. Lord have mercy
Blaming Russia for this one will require new heights of pretzel twisting.