This weekend, protests escalated at Tesla showrooms across the nation. Hundreds of people gathered to boycott Elon Musk and his involvement in the Trump administration as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is overseeing a massively disruptive effort to fire thousands of federal workers to slash government spending.
Most of these protests are associated with the Tesla Takedown movement that first emerged in February. It encourages supporters to “sell your Teslas, dump your stock, join the picket lines” as part of efforts to “stop Musk.” But momentum has ramped up significantly in the past week, leading to bigger turnouts and some arrests.
Though most of these protests have been peaceful, there have been separate reports of vandalism and arson directed at Tesla. Last week, Tesla charging stations in Boston were set ablaze, while dozens of vehicles were torched at a dealership in France. Gunshots shattered windows and damaged cars at a Tesla showroom in Oregon, and a Boston man was arrested for slapping stickers of Musk making a Nazi-like salute on Tesla vehicles. And Colorado authorities arrested a woman accused of tossing Molotov cocktails at Tesla cars parked at a dealership and allegedly spray-painting an expletive at the entrance.
Here’s a rundown of the biggest protests that happened this weekend.
More than 350 protestors showed up outside the Tesla showroom in Manhattan’s West Village neighborhood on Saturday, chanting things like, “Nobody voted for Elon Musk” and “Oligarchs out, democracy in,” according to reports from Vanity Fair and The New York Times. Another protestor held up a sign saying, “Send Musk to Mars Now!!” This protest coincided with the International Women’s Day march, making it even bigger.
A heavy police presence was in the area, as shown in a TikTok with officers surrounding a Tesla Cybertruck parked on the side of the road. Five protestors were arrested for disorderly conduct, while another was apprehended for resisting arrest, obstruction, and violation of local law, New York Daily News reports.
This follows the arrest of nine people during a Tesla Takedown protest in Manhattan the previous week.
Around 300 demonstrators rallied outside a Tesla showroom on Boston’s Boylston Street, as reported by local news station WCVB. The group also staged a flash mob in front of the dealership, according to The Boston Globe.
“We are not condoning property damage for sure, but Elon should keep in mind that if he wants to attack the basic rights, the basic well-being of regular people, he shouldn’t be surprised when some people decide to be more direct about it,” Shua Sanchez, a rally organizer, told WCVB.
No arrests were made during the protest.
Hundreds of protestors stood outside the Streeterville Tesla showroom on Saturday, which was joined by marchers from the Women’s Day march, Block Club Chicago and the Chicago Tribune report. Protestors held similar signs, like “Launch Musk to Mars” and “Democracy Dies with DOGE.”
Meanwhile, protestors at the Tesla showroom in Chicago’s Orland Park clashed with supporters of the MAGA movement, according to the Chicago Tribune. There were no reports of arrests at either demonstration.
There were also dozens of Tesla Takedown protestors at Musk’s Delray Beach, Florida dealership, with demonstrators holding signs like “Fight fascism,” “Democracy is not a business plan,” and “No one voted for Elon Musk!!” CBS 12 reports.
“We’re here today rallying against Elon and what he’s done,” one protestor, Jeff Finkelstein, told CBS 12. “Ever since Trump’s been in it’s been more about Musk than Trump and we’re just showing our frustration.”
On the West Coast, hundreds of protestors stood in front of Tesla’s Old Pasadena dealership in California. Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA) made an appearance during the event, where she criticized Musk’s DOGE initiative and President Donald Trump.
“He [Trump] said that firing American federal workers would be making America better,” Chu said, according to Pasadena Now. “No. Instead, he has fired thousands of workers from the National Weather Service, which we rely on to tell us if there’s a dangerous weather event.”
This is the second weekend in a row that demonstrators gathered outside the Pasadena dealership.
Tesla protests are even popping up outside of the US, with dozens of people in Lisbon, Portugal, holding signs that said “Boycott Tesla” outside a Tesla dealership, Reuters reports. This demonstration occurred on Sunday, just before what could be the country’s third parliamentary election in three years.
As noted by Reuters, the protestors raised concerns about Musk’s promotion of right-wing politics in Europe. One protestor told the outlet that Musk “may not be able to have enough influence in the next election in Portugal but with the amount of money he has, step by step, he can do that.”
How has this affected Tesla?
Even before the protests started, Tesla’s sales dropped year over year for the first time. Some drivers have also decided to trade in or sell their Teslas to avoid embarrassment, with one owner telling The New York Times she was called a “Nazi.” Tesla’s stock price has also plummeted more than 50 percent from its record high in December, Forbes reports, while Musk’s net worth sunk from $464 billion in December to $330 billion.
In response to the protests, Musk accused billionaires George Soros, Reid Hoffman, and others of funding the protests through the Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue. However, as noted by Forbes, ActBlue “does not fund groups, but instead is a platform through which donors can give money to campaigns or organizations.”
