# Cybertruck explodes outside Trump hotel in vegas, one dead \[2025-01-01\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Tags:** breaking-news, trump\ **Created:** [January 1, 2025, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cybertruck-explodes-outside-trump-hotel-in-vegas-one-dead-2025-01-01/1012464 "2025-01-01T22:44:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2025, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cybertruck-explodes-outside-trump-hotel-in-vegas-one-dead-2025-01-01/1012464/101 "2025-01-03T23:55:43Z")
Yep, but less painful. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2025, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cybertruck-explodes-outside-trump-hotel-in-vegas-one-dead-2025-01-01/1012464/102 "2025-01-04T00:56:56Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > One cause can be having been in the vicinity of too many explosions. Well, he’s definitely been in the vicinity of at least one too many. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2025, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cybertruck-explodes-outside-trump-hotel-in-vegas-one-dead-2025-01-01/1012464/103 "2025-01-04T01:14:31Z")
He apparently also managed to get his head in the way of a speeding bullet once too often also. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2025, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cybertruck-explodes-outside-trump-hotel-in-vegas-one-dead-2025-01-01/1012464/104 "2025-01-04T01:53:08Z")
Yeah, it sounds like he was already dead before this explosion, so it didn’t do him much harm. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2025, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cybertruck-explodes-outside-trump-hotel-in-vegas-one-dead-2025-01-01/1012464/105 "2025-01-04T15:39:35Z")
His ex-girlfriend (an Army nurse) thought he had TBI (traumatic brain injury)–from bombs and explosions from his service in Afghanistan… > **[Soldier who died by suicide in Las Vegas told ex-girlfriend of pain and...](https://apnews.com/article/trump-hotel-fire-soldier-brain-trauma-afghanistan-4c5a20b500bc2131a7ef324878938034)** > > The 37-year-old opened up about not being able to sleep at night and reliving the violence from his deployment in Afghanistan. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2025, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cybertruck-explodes-outside-trump-hotel-in-vegas-one-dead-2025-01-01/1012464/106 "2025-01-04T16:45:42Z")
Poor guy. ---
**Author:** ![SunUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SunUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunUp)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2025, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cybertruck-explodes-outside-trump-hotel-in-vegas-one-dead-2025-01-01/1012464/107 "2025-01-04T16:52:05Z")
He should probably be regarded as a hidden casualty of war, even if he never gets counted as one. There are probably thousands more like him. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2025, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cybertruck-explodes-outside-trump-hotel-in-vegas-one-dead-2025-01-01/1012464/108 "2025-01-04T17:00:13Z")
I wonder what sort of detonator he used? If he shot himself first, it apparently wasn’t “push button, go boom”. Was it a timer, or a remote? And if a remote, then that would imply that someone else was involved. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2025, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cybertruck-explodes-outside-trump-hotel-in-vegas-one-dead-2025-01-01/1012464/109 "2025-01-04T17:01:38Z")
He could have hit the button simultaneously with the gun ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2025, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cybertruck-explodes-outside-trump-hotel-in-vegas-one-dead-2025-01-01/1012464/110 "2025-01-04T17:02:52Z")
> [@SunUp](#): > > There are probably thousands more like him. The late husband of a friend of mine is one such. Was a SEAL over there in the Sandbox. Once back home & out of the service became increasingly wacky & dangerous-seeming then killed himself. In a much less dramatic or public way. But still dead and from my POV every bit a war casualty. I’m just grateful he didn’t murder-suicide his wife too. That sure seemed the way to bet as he was spiralling in. Ref the bomb+gun part, easy enough for the SF guy to have rigged his bomb(s) with a short timer, or heck even conventional burning string fuze. Then shot himself sometime during his planned delay, be that 10 seconds or 3 minutes. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2025, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cybertruck-explodes-outside-trump-hotel-in-vegas-one-dead-2025-01-01/1012464/111 "2025-01-04T17:13:56Z")
Certainly there are ways he could have done it. But I’d really like to see them definitively rule out a remote detonator. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2025, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cybertruck-explodes-outside-trump-hotel-in-vegas-one-dead-2025-01-01/1012464/112 "2025-01-04T17:19:15Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Temporary Breast Implosion? Total Binocular Infravision? Technical Bariatric Intelligence? Tyrolean Brotherhood International? > > Help me out here. A web search using Google, DuckDuckGo, or (I assume Bing!) on “TBI” immediately returns a sheaf of results for “traumatic brain injury” (and consistently one result for Tennessee Bureau of Investigation”) and no results for any of the obviously hyperbolic terms you list. This incessant whinging by certain posters that even commonly used and easily searched jargon and acronyms must be explicitly spelled out in every single usage is tiresome and exasperating, especially on a topic so widely covered in the context of combat veterans. > [@LSLGuy](#): > > Ref the bomb+gun part, easy enough for the SF guy to have rigged his bomb(s) with a short timer, or heck even conventional burning string fuze. Then shot himself sometime during his planned delay, be that 10 seconds or 3 minutes. Yeah, this isn’t a [“Walter White building an articulating machine gun mount”](https://youtu.be/QKwPCvHohw8?si=zxynzddZ6WkrMPxf) level of difficulty. There are any number of ways to easily set up a time delay or remotely fired device, and as this appears to be all commercial pyrotechnics and common fuels as accelerants, it isn’t as if there was any need for high voltage source to initiate a commercial detonator or staged charges. Although news sources persist in characterizing this as an “explosion” (and that the open bed of the Cybertruck somehow “contained” the blast field) it is clear that these ‘journalists’ are ignorant on this topic and have not done the basic diligence of consulting an actual expert, and are just repeating the same each other. The actual event was a deflagration (fire) that might have looked impressive and even produced an audible acoustic pulse but didn’t even do as much damage as a small pipe bomb would have. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2025, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cybertruck-explodes-outside-trump-hotel-in-vegas-one-dead-2025-01-01/1012464/113 "2025-01-04T17:34:26Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > He apparently also managed to get his head in the way of a speeding bullet once too often also. At least we know the last thing to go through his mind. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2025, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cybertruck-explodes-outside-trump-hotel-in-vegas-one-dead-2025-01-01/1012464/114 "2025-01-04T18:22:06Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Although news sources persist in characterizing this as an “explosion” (and that the open bed of the Cybertruck somehow “contained” the blast field) it is clear that these ‘journalists’ are ignorant on this topic and have not done the basic diligence of consulting an actual expert, and are just repeating the same each other. Stop blaming the media for using the same term officials use in describing the event. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/c03FxtCakDo/maxresdefault.jpg "Officials give update on Cybertruck explosion outside Trump Hotel in Las Vegas") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c03FxtCakDo&t=391) [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/c03FxtCakDo/maxresdefault.jpg "Officials give update on Cybertruck explosion outside Trump Hotel in Las Vegas") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c03FxtCakDo&t=852) ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2025, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cybertruck-explodes-outside-trump-hotel-in-vegas-one-dead-2025-01-01/1012464/115 "2025-01-04T18:25:03Z")
Maybe it is just me but I think that it is the job of journalists to _question_ the claims of authorities and _independently verify_ that they make sense. Nevada is actually home for a lot of demolition companies that have copious experience with explosives, and I can attest by experience how willing those guys are to expounding at painful length and excruciating detail about different types of explosives and the means of initiating them. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2025, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cybertruck-explodes-outside-trump-hotel-in-vegas-one-dead-2025-01-01/1012464/116 "2025-01-04T18:31:03Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Maybe it is just me but I think that it is the job of journalists to _question_ the claims of authorities and _independently verify_ that that make sense. It’s not just you, but it’s a role that has certainly become less prominent. And, in this case, I’d imagine that getting the breaking news details into a story, and getting it posted, is taking precedent over close examination (and questioning) of what’s being said by the authorities – which not only takes time, but requires that inquisitiveness, as well as being given rein by one’s editors and publishers to actually do that. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2025, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cybertruck-explodes-outside-trump-hotel-in-vegas-one-dead-2025-01-01/1012464/117 "2025-01-04T18:59:08Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I wonder what sort of detonator he used? Fireworks have fuses. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2025, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cybertruck-explodes-outside-trump-hotel-in-vegas-one-dead-2025-01-01/1012464/118 "2025-01-04T19:27:37Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > And, in this case, I’d imagine that getting the breaking news details into a story, and getting it posted, is taking precedent over close examination (and questioning) of what’s being said by the authorities – which not only takes time, but requires that inquisitiveness, as well as being given rein by one’s editors and publishers to actually do that. And that makes sense in the context of a breaking news story (in which case it should be frames as “authorities have reported an explosion at Trump International Hotel…” or somesuch), but even as of today I see stories reporting an “explosion”, “detonation”, “high explosives”, and still claiming that the open bed of the truck somehow contained and directed the blast upward even though there is relatively little damage to even the baldachin and no blast damage to the entire windowed front of the building. So, they’ve had several days to do some minimal research and get the details at least marginally correct, and yet I’ve only seen a couple of stories actually correcting the misapprehension that the Cybertruck ‘contained’ the ‘explosion’ (which from the video of the event it quite obviously did not). Facts—even perhaps seemingly minor facts about technical issues—are important, as is not just parroting what authorities have said without question. > [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Fireworks have fuses. Yeah, all that is really needed is a flame or intense heat source. Inexpertly assembled pyrotechnic displays and fireworks stored together without appropriate separation are notorious for creating a propagating chain of initiation, which while not technically an explosion (and certainly not a detonation unless detonable explosives or compounds are present) [can do a lot of damage](https://apnews.com/article/fireworks-accident-two-dead-honolulu-1075a875d2f881516dde4e412d21fd7d). I’m reluctant to describe any particular methods about which the suspect could have initiated the pyrotechnics and accelerants remotely (not because that information isn’t freely available on the internet but because of board rules), but I’ll note that a standard 9V battery that you put in your fire alarm is sufficient to ignite any number of commonly available conductive materials. It doesn’t take a Tony Stark to rig up something capable of this kind of event. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2025, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cybertruck-explodes-outside-trump-hotel-in-vegas-one-dead-2025-01-01/1012464/119 "2025-01-04T19:29:01Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Facts—even perhaps seemingly minor facts about technical issues—are important, as is not just parroting what authorities have said without question. I don’t disagree. But, as I imagine you’re well aware, actual investigation and true “journalism,” in the traditional sense, has largely been pushed out of many news organizations. ---
**Author:** ![steronz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steronz/32/11765_2.png) [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2025, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cybertruck-explodes-outside-trump-hotel-in-vegas-one-dead-2025-01-01/1012464/120 "2025-01-04T19:34:14Z")
A deflagration is a subset of an explosion, making calling this an explosion perfectly cromulent. [Cite](https://www.nfpa.org/news-blogs-and-articles/blogs/2023/03/27/explosions-vs-deflagrations-vs-detonations). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cybertruck-explodes-outside-trump-hotel-in-vegas-one-dead-2025-01-01/1012464.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cybertruck-explodes-outside-trump-hotel-in-vegas-one-dead-2025-01-01/1012464.md?page=7)