The visit came after the president posted on TruthSocial on Tuesday morning that he would buy a Tesla to support Musk, the electric vehicle maker's CEO and a "special government employee" who has become the de facto face of Trump's DOGE effort.
Tesla's stock has fallen in recent weeks amid worries about tariffs, slumping sales prices, and the time Musk is spending on DOGE business.
"The Radical Left Lunatics, as they often do, are trying to illegally and collusively boycott Tesla, one of the World's great automakers, and Elon's 'baby,' in order to attack and do harm to Elon, and everything he stands for," the president wrote Tuesday.
"I'm going to buy a brand new Tesla tomorrow morning as a show of confidence and support for Elon Musk, a truly great American," he added.
Trump reportedly opted for the Model S, suggesting that he was successfully seduced by the siren call of computers. (The car is, in fact, full of them, as are most other gadgets these days.) The car retails for more than $70,000. A photo of the president's notes from the event appeared to show a cheatsheet of prices for various models.
Tuesday is the latest chapter in Trump's relationship with technology, which has previously included a suspicion of wind power, a belief that planes are too complex to fly, a predilection for sharpies instead of email, and the question "What is digital?"
The White House told federal workers they could voluntarily resign by February 6 and be paid through September.
The offer follows the Trump Administration's efforts to overhaul the federal workforce.
Many workers BI talked to were defiant, but some are moving on, or taking a wait-and-see approach.
Shock and outrage. Hopelessness, suspicion, and defiance.
Federal workers say they feel a mix of all of the above and more after payout offers landed in their inboxes late Tuesday. The Trump administration says workers can either return to the office full-time and face likely downsizing, or quit now and keep getting paid for the next eight months.
"I voted for Donald Trump twice, and on January 20th, I had hope that he would fulfill his promises," one federal employee told Business Insider. "However, when I received this email at 5:35 pm EST, that hope disappeared."
A Social Security Administration employee said that workers aren't the only ones at risk. "The public will suffer the most and the only group they can blame is the current one."
Or, as a 15-year veteran of the State Department put it: "They can fuck off and we won't be intimidated."
Business Insider spoke with more than a dozen workers at departments across the government in the hours after the email was sent. They requested anonymity to speak openly about their jobs. Their identities are known to BI.
Some are digging in their heels.
"I have no intention of quitting," one employee wrote in a text message.
According to a "deferred resignation offer" email sent by a White House office, workers have until February 6 to say whether they will voluntarily resign.
If they decide to leave, they will be exempt from in-person work, according to the email, and will receive pay and benefits through September unless they decide to leave earlier.
"I certainly won't be accepting a buyout," another employee said, adding that their teammates likely wouldn't either. "It's unpatriotic that he's trying to put people out of work or provide incentives for people to leave their stable jobs."
"I'm so sick of these stupid harassing emails," they added.
Deepening distrust
Others worry the administration won't stick to its word of steady pay and benefits through September — and aren't even sure the offer is actually a buyout, despite the language used in some media coverage.
"Suffice it to say the people I've been talking to don't trust how this will play out," one Department of Justice worker said, adding that they didn't see a budgetary or legal mechanism that would guarantee continued compensation.
The spotlight has encouraged at least one federal to look at the private sector.
"I will be seeking employment outside of government," the worker said, though they caveated they might also look for a job in the Department of Defense or the Department of Homeland Security. "I have no desire to work for an unappreciative organization."
Administration officials previously told CBS they believe up to 10% of federal workers would depart due to the new directives.
Meanwhile, another is in wait-and-see mode. Trump's second term has only just started, the employee told BI, and they want to give the administration the benefit of the doubt.
A lawyer who works for the federal government questioned why it didn't follow the precedent set by previous administrations.
"In the federal government, reductions in force are covered by a litany of laws and regulations," said the lawyer, who specializes in employment issues. "Workers get severance pay, career transition assistance or job search help, and preference for other positions in federal government. This veiled threat about being laid off — it's illegal, indefensible, and incorrect."
The American Federation of Government Employees, the biggest union for federal workers, published a FAQ on Wednesday telling members to not take the email "at face value." It was "riddled with inconsistencies and uncertainties," the union said, and it was unclear if the office that issued the memo had the legal authority or budget to make good on its promises.
The National Treasury Employees Union President Doreen Greenwald urged federal workers to reject the "request to voluntarily quit their jobs. It is a bad deal for employees and the American people they serve."
The latest in a string of chaotic moves
The Tuesday email — which carries the same "Fork in the road" subject line as an Elon Musk memo sent to employees at X, then Twitter, in 2022 — is the latest in a string of chaos-causing, high-impact directives.
On Monday, the Trump administration announced that it was putting a "temporary pause" on federal grants and loans. A federal judge halted the freeze from taking effect before the administration itself rescinded the memo, BI reported.
"It's kind of like Whac-A-Mole. What do you respond to? Personally, I think I'm a little bit numb to it," said one federal employee who has worked in facilities management for more than a decade.
Federal workers have been a particular focus for the administration. Trump issued a return-to-work order for all federal employees on January 20, and has also put forth an executive order to reclassify certain civil servants, removing legal protections and making it easier to fire them.
According to a FAQ posted Tuesday, several categories of employees are ineligible for deferred resignation, including military personnel, USPS staff, and those working in immigration enforcement and national security roles.
The remaining federal workers will have six working days to weigh their options. If the initial offer had been more generous, the federal government lawyer said they may have taken it.
"If they were offering me a guaranteed check for seven months that I could take to the bank, I might consider it," they said. "But it's difficult to trust promises that aren't legally binding."
Police arrested Mangione in Pennsylvania on December 9. He initially faced local gun and forgery charges. He's expected to be extradited to New York.
New York court documents show that in addition to one count of murder, he also faces two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, one count of second-degree possession of a forged document, and one count of third-degree criminal possession of a firearm.
Here's what to know about Mangione.
Mangione attended elite schools
Mangione graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2020.
He achieved a Bachelor of Science in engineering with a major in computer science and a minor in mathematics. He also received a Master of Science in engineering the same year with a major in computer and information science, a university spokesperson told Business Insider.
Before that, he attended Gilman School, an elite all-boys preparatory school in Baltimore. His yearbook entry, obtained by BI, says he was involved in robotics and Model United Nations.
In his valedictorian speech, Mangione praised classmates for "challenging the world" and thanked parents for sending their children to the fee-paying school, which he described as "far from a small financial investment."
He favorably reviewed the Unabomber Manifesto
On Goodreads, Mangione reviewed Ted Kaczynski's "Industrial Society and Its Future" book, also known as The Unabomber Manifesto, in early 2024. He gave it four out of five stars.
"He was a violent individual — rightfully imprisoned — who maimed innocent people," Mangione wrote. "While these actions tend to be characterized as those of a crazy luddite, however, they are more accurately seen as those of an extreme political revolutionary."
Mangione's review of the manifesto also quoted another online comment about the book, which appears to have originated on Reddit, praising the use of violence "when all other forms of communication fail."
"'Violence never solved anything' is a statement uttered by cowards and predators,'" Mangione quoted.
He founded an app and worked in tech
In 2015, while in high school, Mangione founded a company called AppRoar Studios. AppRoar released an iPhone game called "Pivot Plane" that's no longer available, but a reviewer in 2015 said it was "a fun little arcade game brought to you by 3 high school juniors."
He lived in a co-living space in Hawaii as recently as 2023.
He posed for photos indicating he participated in Greek life at the University of Pennsylvania.
The fraternity chapter represented in his photos couldn't be reached for comment.
A blog post on the University of Pennsylvania's website that was removed on December 9 said he cofounded a video game design club there.
Stephen Lane, a professor of video game design at the Ivy League university who didn't advise the club, told BI that "the fact he took the initiative and started something from nothing, that means at least in the context of Penn, that's a pretty good thing." He added, however, that Thompson's shooting was "obviously not a good thing."
Mangione's LinkedIn page says he worked as a data engineer at the vehicle shopping company TrueCar starting in 2020.
A TrueCar spokesperson told BI that Mangione hadn't worked for the company since 2023.
Online breadcrumbs and roommate say he dealt with back pain
At the top of Mangione's profile on X — formerly Twitter — is a triptych of three images: a photo of himself, smiling, shirtless on a mountain ridge; a Pokémon; and an X-ray with four pins or screws visible in the lower back.
The Pokémon featured in his cover image is Breloom, which has special healing abilities in the games.
Some of the books reviewed on Mangione's Goodreads account are related to health and healing back pain, including "Back Mechanic: The Secrets to a Healthy Spine Your Doctor Isn't Telling You" and "Crooked: Outwitting the Back Pain Industry and Getting on the Road to Recovery."
R.J. Martin, the founder of the co-living space in Hawaii, told the Honolulu Civil Beat that Mangione had suffered back pain from a misaligned vertebra that was pinching his spinal cord.
Martin told CNN that after leaving Hawaii, Mangione texted him to say he'd undergone surgery and sent him X-rays.
"It looked heinous, with just, giant screws going into his spine," Martin told the outlet.
It's not immediately clear whether the surgery was related to UnitedHealthcare.
Josiah Ryan, a spokesperson for the co-living space founder, told The Wall Street Journal that Mangione stopped replying to texts about six months ago and "sort of disappeared."
A YouTube spokesperson said that the platform had terminated Mangione's three accounts, adding that they had not been active for about seven months.
A senior police official told NBC New York on December 12 that Magione was never a UnitedHealthcare client and may have targeted Thompson because of the insurer's large size and outsize power. That same day, The Wall Street Journal reported that a company spokesperson said Magione was not a client.
Mangione was interested in AI
On his X account, Mangione posted and amplified posts about technological advances such as artificial intelligence. He also posted about fitness and healthy living.
He frequently reposted posts by the writer Tim Urban and the commentator Jonathan Haidt about the promise and perils of technology.
He also appeared to be a fan of Michael Pollan, known for his writing about food, ethics, and lab-grown meat.
On Goodreads, he praised Urban's book "What's Our Problem?: A Self-Help Book for Societies," describing it as "one of the most important philosophical texts of the early 21st century."
Urban posted to X on December 9: "Very much not the point of the book."
He was previously accused of trespassing
Before his arrest, Mangione had at least one encounter with the legal system. Hawaiian court records indicate that in 2023, he was accused of entering a forbidden area of a state park.
Mangione appears to have paid a $100 fine to resolve the matter.
Mangione comes from a wealthy and influential Baltimore family
Mangione is one of 37 grandchildren of the late Nick Mangione Sr., a prominent multimillionaire real-estate developer in Baltimore who died in 2008, The Baltimore Banner reported. Nick Mangione Sr. had 10 children, including Louis Mangione, Luigi Mangione's father.
Members of the Mangione family own the Turf Valley Resort in Ellicott City, Maryland, and Hayfields Country Club in Hunt Valley, Maryland.
One of Luigi Mangione's cousins is the Republican Maryland state legislator Nino Mangione, the Associated Press reported.
Representatives for Nino Mangione's office, in a statement to BI, declined to comment on the news of Luigi Mangione's arrest.
"Unfortunately, we cannot comment on news reports regarding Luigi Mangione," the statement read. "We only know what we have read in the media. Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi's arrest. We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and we ask people to pray for all involved. We are devastated by this news."
The Mangione family has donated more than $1 million to the Greater Baltimore Medical Center, where all of Nick Mangione Sr.'s grandkids, including Luigi Mangione, were born, the Banner reported.
A public filing from 2022 for the nonprofit Mangione Family Foundation lists Louis Mangione as vice president.
He was arrested while on his laptop at a McDonald's, the police said
When the police in Altoona, Pennsylvania, responded to a McDonald's after a call about a suspicious person, they found Mangione sitting at a table looking at a silver laptop and wearing a blue medical mask, a criminal complaint said.
The complaint said that when asked for identification, Mangione gave police officers a New Jersey driver's license with the name "Mark Rosario."
When an officer asked Mangione whether he'd been to New York recently, he "became quiet and started to shake," the complaint said.
It added that Mangione correctly identified himself after officers told him he could be arrested for lying about his identity.
When asked why he lied, Mangione replied, "I clearly shouldn't have," the complaint said.
His motive is still not known, but police are analyzing his so-called manifesto
An internal NYPD report obtained by The New York Times said Mangione "likely views himself as a hero of sorts who has finally decided to act upon such injustices."
Mangione "appeared to view the targeted killing of the company's highest-ranking representative as a symbolic takedown and a direct challenge to its alleged corruption and 'power games,' asserting in his note he is the 'first to face it with such brutal honesty,'" according to the NYPD report by the department's Intelligence and Counterterrorism Bureau, the Times reported.
Moments before the December 10extradition hearing began, Mangione, handcuffed and wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, shouted out to the press as Pennsylvania police escorted him into the courthouse.
Mangione yelled out something partially unintelligible, saying something was "completely out of touch" and "an insult to the American people." He also shouted that something was a "lived experience" as a group of officers led him into the courthouse.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told NBC New York that Mangione had prior knowledge that UnitedHealthcare would be having its annual conference in New York City.
Mangione has retained a high-profile New York attorney
Thomas Dickey emerged as Mangione's attorney in Pennsylvania after his arrest in Altoona on December 9.
During a December 10 hearing at Pennsylvania's Blair County Courthouse, Dickey told the judge that Mangione was contesting his extradition to New York City.
Dickey later told reporters that Mangione would plead not guilty to all the charges in Pennsylvania. During an interview with CNN, Dickey said he expected Mangione to plead not guilty to the second-degree murder charge in New York and that he hadn't seen evidence that authorities "have the right guy."
Karen Friedman Agnifilo will represent Mangione in New York, a representative for Agnifilo Intrater LLP confirmed to Business Insider on Sunday.
Friedman Agnifilo worked as the chief assistant district attorney at the Manhattan District Attorney's Office from 2014 to 2021. She pivoted to private practice in 2021.
Do you know Luigi Mangione? Have a tip? Reach out to [email protected].
Friedman Agnifilo is married to Marc Agnifilo, lead lawyer defending Sean "Diddy" Combs against federal sex-trafficking charges.
The Combs and Mangione cases will be handled by the same Manhattan law firm, Agnifilo Intrater LLP, and can be expected to dominate legal news headlines in the coming year.
In getting retained, Friedman Agnifilo bested some half-dozen other prominent attorneys who had been interviewed by the Mangione family last week, according to multiple sources who asked not to be named due to their connection with the case.
Friedman Agnifilo last week left her previous law firm, Perry Law, to join her husband's firm as counsel, representatives for both firms told Business Insider.
Friedman Agnifilo had been a CNN commentator as recently as Wednesday, when she suggested that an insanity defense would be Mangione's best bet.
She told journalist Kaitlan Collins, "It looks like to me there might be a 'not guilty by reason of insanity' defense that they're going to be thinking about because the evidence is going to be so overwhelming that he did what he did."
On Friday night, Collins broke the news that Friedman Agnifilo had been hired by the Mangione family.
Friedman Agnifilo worked as the chief assistant district attorney at the Manhattan District Attorney's Office for seven years before pivoting to private practice in 2021.
Mangione faces a second-degree murder charge in New York for the fatal December 4 shooting of Thompson, a 50-year-old father of two from Minnesota. That charge carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.
(A charge of first-degree murder is reserved for those accused of killing a law enforcement official or witness of a crime, or for when a murder is committed during the commission of another high-level crime, including robbery, rape, or kidnapping.)
Mangione is fighting extradition to New York City. The 26-year-old Ivy League graduate appeared for a hearing on December 10 at Pennsylvania's Blair County Courthouse, where a lawyer, Thomas Dickey, told the judge that Mangione was contesting his extradition. Police arrested Mangione in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on December 9 on local charges and later arraigned. Mangione made a bail request, which the judge denied during the hearing.
The suspect will remain at Pennsylvania's Huntingdon State Correctional Institution during the extradition proceedings. Dickey told reporters on December 10 that Mangione would plead not guilty to all the charges in Pennsylvania.
In an interview with CNN that evening, Dickey also said that he anticipates Mangione would plead not guilty to the murder charge in New York and that he hadn't seen any evidence that officials in New York "have the right guy."
Mangione also faces four other charges related to the killing of the insurance CEO: two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the second-degree, one count of second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument, and one count of criminal possession of a weapon in the third-degree.
A gun found on Mangione matched the three shell casings found at the site of the shooting, New York Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch said during a December 11 press conference.
Tisch added that the suspect's fingerprints also matched those found on a water bottle and snack bar wrapper discarded near the crime scene.
During Mangione's arrest, officers found a three-page handwritten document "that speaks to both his motivation and mindset," Tisch said at a separate press conference on December 9.
An internal NYPD report obtained by The New York Times gave the clearest view of the potential motive yet. Based on the so-called manifesto discovered, Mangione "likely views himself as a hero of sorts who has finally decided to act upon such injustices," the NYPD report said, as reported by the Times.
Mangione "appeared to view the targeted killing of the company's highest-ranking representative as a symbolic takedown and a direct challenge to its alleged corruption and 'power games,' asserting in his note he is the 'first to face it with such brutal honesty,'" according to the NYPD report by the department's Intelligence and Counterterrorism Bureau, the Times reported.
In a statement to Business Insider, representatives for Nino Mangione — a Maryland state legislator and a cousin of Mangione's — declined to comment on the news of Mangione's arrest.
"Unfortunately, we cannot comment on news reports regarding Luigi Mangione," the statement read. "We only know what we have read in the media. Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi's arrest."
Recognized at a McDonald's
Mangione was eating in an Altoona McDonald's when an employee recognized him from the several surveillance images that authorities released in the aftermath of Thompson's killing and called the police, New York police said at the December 9 press conference.
Altoona police found Mangione in the McDonald's with multiple fake IDs and a US passport, as well as a firearm and a suppressor "both consistent with the weapon used" in the shooting of Thompson in the heart of Manhattan, Tisch, the NYPD commissioner, said.
The gun appeared to be a "ghost gun" that may have been made on a 3-D printer. NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said at the press conference that such a gun could fire a 9-millimeter round.
A Pennsylvania criminal complaint filed against Mangione said officers found a black 3-D-printed pistol and 3-D-printed silencer inside the suspect's backpack.
When Altoona officers asked Mangione if he had been to New York recently, he "became quiet and started to shake," the criminal complaint said.
Clothing, including a mask, was also recovered "consistent with those worn" by the suspect wanted for Thompson's killing, along with a fake New Jersey ID matching the ID that the murder suspect used to check into a Manhattan hostel before the attack, Tisch said.
Based on the handwritten document that police found on Mangione, according to Kenny, "it does seem that he has some ill will toward corporate America."
During a December 10 interview on NBC's "Today" show, Tisch said the "manifesto" revealed "anti-corporatist sentiment" and "a lot of issues with the healthcare industry."
"But as to like particular, specific motive that'll come out as this investigation continues to unfold over the next weeks and month," the NYPD commissioner said.
NBC News and The New York Times, each citing an unnamed senior law enforcement official, reported that the handwritten document read in part: "These parasites had it coming."
"I do apologize for any strife and trauma, but it had to be done," it added, according to the reports.
Police believe that Mangione acted alone.
NYPD investigators traveled to Altoona last week to interview Mangione after Altoona officers took him into custody.
Blair County District Attorney Peter Weeks said at Mangione's Pennsylvania arraignment that Mangione was carrying $10,000 in cash, including foreign currency, according to the Associated Press.
Mangione disputed the amount in court.
NYPD released images of the person of interest in Brian Thompson's killing.
DCPI/NYPD
Mangione was active on social media
Mangione posted and amplified posts about technological advances like artificial intelligence on X. He also posted about fitness and healthy living.
He frequently retweeted posts by the writer Tim Urban and commentator Jonathan Haidt about the promise and perils of technology. He also appeared to be a fan of Michael Pollan, known for his writing about food and ethics.
Other deleted social media posts showed support for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and expressed skepticism toward both President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump.
At the top of his profile was a header image with three images: a photo of himself, smiling, shirtless on a mountain ridge, a Pokemon, and an x-ray with four pins or screws visible in the lower back.
Mangione founded a company called AppRoar Studios in 2015 while still in high school. AppRoar released an iPhone game called Pivot Plane that is no longer available.
The two other cofounders of AppRoar could not be reached for comment.
Mangione's X account has been deactivated. A spokesperson for YouTube said his three accounts on the platform were also terminated, but that they had not been active for about seven months.
According to police, Manigone was born and raised in Maryland, and has ties to San Francisco, California. His last known address was in Honolulu, Hawaii.
The New York Post, citing law-enforcement sources, reported that Mangione's mother reported him missing in mid-November.
Law-enforcement sources told ABC News that FBI agents and members of the NYPD spoke to the mother a day before Mangione's arrest, following a tip, and that in the conversation she indicated that the person in the surveillance photos could be her son.
Kenny, the NYPD's chief of detectives, said that Manigone has no prior arrest history in New York and no known arrests in the US.
A Luigi Mangione with a matching birthday and address received a citation for simple trespass for entering a forbidden area of a state park in Hawaii in November 2023. He pleaded no contest and paid a $100 fine.
"For just over five days, our NYPD investigators combed through thousands of hours of video, followed up on hundreds of tips, and processed every bit of forensic evidence — DNA, fingerprints, IP addresses and so much to tighten the net," Tisch said at Monday's press conference announcing the arrest of Manigone.
Thompson was shot multiple times on a Midtown sidewalk as he was walking toward the Hilton hotel. He was steps away from a side entrance to the hotel — where he was set to speak at UnitedHealth Group's investor conference — when a hooded gunman opened fire on him from behind.
The chief executive of the nation's largest health insurer was struck at least once in the back and at least once in the right calf, police said.
Surveillance footage showed the gunman firing his weapon as Thompson, wearing a blue suit jacket, walked several feet in front of him.
Surveillance images show the suspected shooter in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
NYPD via AP
The gunman fled the scene, first on foot and then on an electric bike, which he rode into Central Park before ultimately escaping from New York City, police said.
Shell casings and bullets found at the scene had the words "deny," "defend," and "depose" written on them, according to multiple reports citing unnamed sources. BI couldn't independently confirm these details.
In the aftermath of the attack, the NYPD offered a $10,000 reward for tips leading to the gunman's arrest, with the FBI offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to his arrest and conviction.
A spokesperson for UnitedHealth Group, the parent company of UnitedHealthcare, reacted to news of Manigone's arrest in a statement to BI, saying: "Our hope is that today's apprehension brings some relief to Brian's family, friends, colleagues and the many others affected by this unspeakable tragedy. We thank law enforcement and will continue to work with them on this investigation. We ask that everyone respect the family's privacy as they mourn."
