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AMERICANS OPPOSED TO Elon Musk’s gutting of federal agencies and overt support for far-right politics have been taking out their frustration on his electric vehicle company, Tesla.
The last few weeks have seen a wave of protests at Tesla dealerships across the United States, while Tesla drivers – especially Cybertruck owners – have reported receiving regular abuse on the road and, in some cases, having their vehicles vandalised.
The protests come as Democrats in Washington have been widely criticised for their ineffectual response to the Trump administration’s full-scale assault on the administrative state.
The Trump administration, primarily through the Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has laid off tens of thousands of federal employees since January, although the exact number is unknown because of DOGE’s lack of transparency. Funding for government agencies has also been paused or cut altogether.
Almost all federal workers were offered “deferred resignation”, which gave them the option to resign coupled with financial incentives, like months of paid leave. According to the US Office of Personnel Management, roughly 75,000 workers had availed of the offer as of 12 February.
Probationary employees have been laid off en masse across government departments and agencies, including health workers, veterans affairs workers and people employed at the country’s aviation administration, among many others.
TESLA CHARGERS VANDALIZED | Several Tesla supercharger stations were vandalized with swastikas in El Dorado County. Learn more here: https://t.co/vRqLFpxlB4 pic.twitter.com/zJl7ksHlhd
— kcranews (@kcranews) March 6, 2025
“We can get back at Elon,” Nathan Phillips, a 58-year-old ecologist from Massachusetts, who was protesting in Boston last Saturday told the Associated Press.
“We can impose direct economic damage on Tesla by showing up at showrooms everywhere and boycotting Tesla and telling everyone else to get out, sell your stocks, sell your Teslas.”
The movement has been spearheaded by a group called Tesla Takedown, whose web page lists more than 100 demonstrations scheduled to take place this month at showrooms across the country.
The group’s web page carries the message:
“Sell your Teslas, dump your stock, join the picket lines. Hurting Tesla is stopping Musk. Stopping Musk will help save lives and our democracy.
“The stakes couldn’t be higher. No one is coming to save us—not politicians, not the media.”
Musk is the richest person in the world but much of his wealth is tied to Tesla’s market value, which has dropped by more than a third since mid-December.
These demonstrations have featured signs bearing messages like “Burn a Tesla: Save Democracy” and “No Dictators in the USA.”
In late February, a woman in Colorado was charged in connection with a string of vandalism incidents at a Tesla dealership there. The vandalism included Molotov cocktails being thrown at vehicles and the words “Nazi cars” being spray painted on the building.
During an event celebrating the inauguration of President Donald Trump, Musk – who is leading the new administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) – gestured towards the crowd with what has been condemned by Jewish groups as “a facist salute”.
“Elon Musk knows precisely what he was doing with his fascist Roman salute at today’s Trump rally – which follows his explicit embrace of far-right parties and policies. If you’re surprised, you haven’t been paying attention,” said the Jewish Council for Public Affairs at the time.
Images of Musk’s salute have also featured prominently at the protests outside Tesla dealerships.
Earlier this week in Boston, Massachusetts, seven Tesla charging stations went up in flames and local police believe the fires were lit intentionally.
Last Saturday, nine people were arrested at a demonstration outside a Tesla dealership in New York City that police said involved hundreds of people.
“Protests will not deter President Trump and Elon Musk from delivering on the promise to establish DOGE and make our federal government more efficient and more accountable to the hardworking American taxpayers across the country,” said White House spokesperson Harrison Fields earlier this week.
Much of the abuse directed at individual Tesla owners has been documented in a Facebook group called Cybertruck Owners Only, which has almost 35,000 members.
The Cybertruck is a battery-powered pickup truck manufactured by Tesla since 2023. They are not road legal in Europe because of their size and the sharp edges of their angular design.
Members of the group have been posting regularly in recent weeks recounting their experiences of being shown the middle finger by passing drivers, being shouted at by passersby and having derisive messages written in the dirt on their cars.
“I’m amazed by the number of middle fingers, aggressive driving, and even a hurtful message left on our tailgate,” wrote one group member beneath photos they shared of their car with the words “cyber cuck” written in the dust on the boot.
“Cuck”, short for cuckold, is an insult commonly aimed at people on the left by those on the right in the US.
One group member reported having tomatoes thrown at their Cybertruck while another said they had written to their local congress member about “all the hate going on against Teslas now”.
Other members of the group seem to be embracing the negative attention, posting photos showing off their vehicles sporting DOGE stickers.
The anti-Tesla movement is not confined to the United States though.
On Monday, a dozen Teslas were set alight in Toulouse, France. Prosecutors there said the fires were “not at all accidental”.
At the same time, Tesla sales have plummeted in Europe, except in Ireland and the United Kingdom. Irish Tesla sales have risen by 31% this year, while going up 21% in the UK in February, compared to the same month last year.
But across the rest of the continent, the picture is stark for the world’s most valuable car company. Tesla sales in Europe almost halved in January.
In Germany, Tesla sales dropped by 76% in February after Musk endorsed the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party ahead of federal elections. That slump came after sales had already dropped by 60% the month before.
German police have designated the AfD as a suspected extremist group and the party has ties with Neo-Nazis. Some of its politicians have also been prosecuted for using Nazi-era slogans, which are banned in Germany.
Following Musk’s appearance via video call at an AfD rally before the election, during which Musk encouraged Germans to move beyond “past guilt”, thousands of people across Germany took part in protests, some of which featured images of Musk.
In late February, after the election, a Tesla factory in Berlin was the target of an arson attack that police said was politically motivated.
Germany is Europe’s largest car market and the poor Tesla sales have coincided with an increase in the number of newly registered electric cars there this year.
With reporting from AFP
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