Trump floats idea of convicted Tesla arsonists serving sentences in El Salvador prisons: 'Lovely conditions'

"I look forward to watching the sick terrorist thugs get 20 year jail sentences for what they are doing to Elon Musk and Tesla," Trump wrote Friday on TRUTH Social. 

"Perhaps they could serve them in the prisons of El Salvador, which have become so recently famous for such lovely conditions!" the president added. 

"The days of committing crimes without consequence have ended," Bondi said in a statement. "Let this be a warning: if you join this wave of domestic terrorism against Tesla properties, the Department of Justice will put you behind bars."

The Justice Department said one defendant, also armed with a suppressed AR-15 rifle, was arrested after allegedly throwing approximately eight Molotov cocktails at a Tesla dealership located in Salem, Oregon. Another was arrested in Loveland, Colorado after allegedly attempting to light Teslas on fire with Molotov cocktails. Authorities said that defendant was later found in possession of materials used to produce additional incendiary weapons.

In Charleston, South Carolina, a third defendant wrote "profane messages" against Trump around Tesla charging stations before lighting the charging stations on fire with Molotov cocktails, the Justice Department said. 

The DOJ said each defendant faces serious charges carrying a minimum penalty of five years and up to 20 years in prison.

"People that get caught sabotaging Teslas will stand a very good chance of going to jail for up to twenty years, and that includes the finders," Trump wrote on TRUTH Social Thursday, adding: "WE ARE LOOKING FOR YOU!!!"

Tesla vehicles and dealerships have been subjected to arson, vandalism and gunfire in at least nine states, and some of the most prominent cases were reported in left-leaning cities in the Pacific Northwest, like Portland, Oregon, and Seattle. 

An Oregon man faces charges after allegedly throwing several Molotov cocktails at a Tesla store in Salem, then returning another day and shooting out windows. In the Portland suburb of Tigard, more than a dozen bullets were fired at a Tesla showroom last week, damaging vehicles and windows, the second time in a week that the store was targeted.

Four Cybertrucks were set on fire in a Tesla lot in Seattle earlier this month. On Friday, witnesses reported a man poured gasoline on an unoccupied Tesla Model S and started a fire on a Seattle street.

In Las Vegas, several Tesla vehicles were set ablaze early Tuesday outside a Tesla service center where the word "resist" was also painted in red across the building's front doors. Authorities said at least one person threw Molotov cocktails - crude bombs filled with gasoline or another flammable liquid - and fired several rounds from a weapon into the vehicles.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.