It was available online at that price for 43 days February 28, 2019 to April 12, 2019. So, sure they sold a handful of cars at that price point, but only as a face saving measure not actually in bulk.

Todays 39k cough 40k if you don’t want black, is viable due to battery prices falling dramatically over the 6 years since they started selling the car not them actually hitting the stated goal.

They sold it for a few days at that price a few years after the car launched. I tried to buy one for that price. They said no.

Of course they can raise prices, but they can also lie about what price the car will be sold at in the future.

I later bought one for more than 35k.

There are no mental gymnastics. Musk said I could buy one at a specific price. Tesla would not sell it to me at that price.