US President Donald Trump has taken delivery of a shiny red Tesla to show support for the car maker’s chief and his ally Elon Musk amid recent anti-Tesla protests and an alarming slump in the company’s stock price.

“I’m going to buy because No.1, it’s a great product, as good as it gets. No.2, because this man [Elon Musk] has devoted his energy and his life to doing this, and I think he has been treated unfairly,” Trump said.

He and a beaming Musk, accompanied by his young son X, took delivery of the car at the White House on Monday (local time).

“That’s beautiful,” Trump said of the car.

It was one of a fleet of Teslas and a Cybertruck parked outside the US President’s official residence.

“I just want people to know that you can’t be penalised for being a patriot, and [Musk is] a great patriot, and he’s also done an incredible job with Tesla,” Trump said.

The stunt follows an escalating wave of protests in the US and abroad at Musk’s role in sweeping cuts to the federal workforce at Trump’s behest.

About 350 demonstrators protested outside a Tesla electric vehicle dealership in Portland, Oregon, last week, while nine people were arrested during a raucous demonstration outside a New York City Tesla dealership earlier in March.

Tesla vehicles have also been vandalised on the streets, while some Tesla owners have put bumper stickers displaying sentiments such as “I bought it before Elon went nuts”.

At the White House on Monday, Trump responded to suggestions that some of the protesters should be labeled domestic terrorists with: “I will do that, I’ll do it. I’m going to stop them.”

“They’re harming a great American company,” he said.

“Let me tell you, you do it to Tesla, and you do it to any company, we’re going to catch you, and … you’re going to go through hell.”

In more problems for the electric car marker, its market capitalisation has more than halved since a record high of $1.5 trillion on December 17, erasing most of the gains it made after Musk-backed Trump won the US election in November.

The stock’s decline stems from falling vehicle sales and profits, protests against Musk’s political activity and investor worries that politics is distracting the world’s richest man from tending to his cash cow.

Musk has taken a lead role in the new US administration, spearheading Trump’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

Just hours earlier, in a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump defended Musk, saying he was “putting it on the line” to help the country and was doing a “fantastic” job.

“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,” Trump said.

Musk thanked Trump for his support on his own social media platform X.

In January, Trump took aim at electric vehicles, revoking a 2021 executive order signed by his predecessor Joe Biden that sought to ensure half of all new vehicles sold in the US by 2030 were electric.

-with AAP