Protesters against billionaire Elon Musk’s cleansing of the U.S. government under President Donald Trump demonstrated outside Tesla shops around the country and in several European towns on Saturday in the most recent effort to damage the wealth of the world’s richest man.
Opposed to Musk’s leadership of the newly established Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, the demonstrators were attempting to intensify a campaign aimed at Tesla dealerships and cars. Under DOGE, Musk has acquired access to sensitive information and closed down whole agencies in an effort to reduce government spending. Musk’s estimated $340 billion wealth is mostly made up of his shares in the electric car manufacturer still operating under Trump’s influence.
Saturday was the first effort to encircle all 277 of the automaker’s showrooms and service facilities in the United States in hopes of exacerbating a recent drop in the company’s sales following earlier, rather erratic protests.
By early afternoon throngs varying from a few dozen to hundreds of demonstrators had descended upon Tesla sites in New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, Minnesota and the automaker’s home state of Texas. Social media posts showed demonstrators waving banners like “Honk if you hate Elon” and “Fight the billionaire broligarchy.”
Protests outside Tesla sites in major cities including Washington, Chicago, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and Seattle as well as villages in Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Colorado spread across the nation throughout the day. Some locations also saw smaller groups of counterprotesters.
Elon Musk has got to go, hey, hey, ho, ho! While a smaller group of Trump supporters waved American flags across the street, several dozen individuals protested outside a showroom in Dublin, California, some 35 miles (60 kilometers) east of San Francisco.
Chanting slogans to the rhythm of drums, a far bigger throng ringed another store in close-by Berkeley.
“We’re living in a fascist state,” said Dennis Fagaly, a retired high school teacher from adjacent Oakland, “and we need to stop this or we’ll lose our whole country and everything that is good about the United States.”
Anti-Musk feeling goes beyond the United States.
The Tesla Takedown campaign also wanted to gather demonstrators at over 230 sites across the world. Though the turnouts across Europe were smaller, the anti-Musk feeling was comparable.
Outside a London dealership, some two dozen protestors brandished banners criticizing the tycoon as passing vehicles and trucks honked horns in support.
One placard showed Musk next to a picture of Adolf Hitler doing the Nazi salute—a move Musk has been charged of repeating just after Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration. Dressed as a Tyrannosaurus dinosaur, someone carried another banner reading “You thought the Nazis were extinct” with a photo of Musk’s straight-arm motion. Don’t purchase a Swasticar.
Cam Whitten, an American who attended the London demonstration, stated, “We just want to get loud, make noise, make people aware of the problems that we’re facing.”
Organized by a collection of supporters including disgruntled owners of the automaker’s cars, celebrities including actor John Cusack, and at least one Democratic Party legislator, Rep. Jasmine Crockett from Dallas, Tesla Takedown
I will continue to shout in the corridors of Congress. All I need is for you all to guarantee you all stay yelling in the streets, ” Crockett stated during an organizing call this month.
Rep. Pramila Jaypal, another Democratic legislator, came to a Seattle demonstration she represents in Congress.
Some vandalism has accompanied Musk criticism.
Some individuals have crossed protest to burn Tesla cars or engage in other forms of destruction U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has condemned as domestic terrorism. Musk said the vandals should “stop acting psycho” and expressed astonishment at the assaults during a business meeting on March 20.
Crockett and other Tesla Takedown backers have been underlining the need of Saturday’s rallies staying nonviolent.
Police were looking whether a fire that early morning in northwestern Germany damaged seven Teslas. The fire, which firemen put out, was not immediately linked to the demonstrations.
Local police in Watertown, Massachusetts, claimed the side mirror of a black pickup hit two individuals at a demonstration outside a Tesla repair shop, per the Boston Herald. Police on scene quickly recognized the culprit and stated there were no major injuries.
Musk insists the future of the business is still good
While some have put bumper stickers trying to separate themselves from him, others have been attempting to sell or trade in Tesla cars acquired before Musk assumed control.
In the March meeting, when he told the employees that the company’s Model Y will stay “the best-selling car on Earth again this year,” Musk showed no apparent worry about a protracted decline in new sales. From around 7 million now, he also forecasted Tesla will have sold more than 10 million cars globally by next year.
Musk remarked, “There are times when there are rocky moments, where there is stormy weather, but what I am here to tell you is that the future is incredibly bright and exciting.”
Investors first viewed Musk’s partnership with Trump as a good thing for Tesla and its long-standing attempts to create a network of self-driving cars after Trump was elected in November.
Between the election and Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration, that hope increased Tesla’s stock by 70%, hence generating extra $560 billion in shareholder value. But almost all of those profits have vanished under investor concerns about the backlash, declining U.S., European and Chinese sales, and Musk’s time spent supervising DOGE.
Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives remarked in a recent research note, “Musk still has to negotiate this brand tornado crisis moment and move onto the other side of this bleak chapter for Tesla.”