The protesters are trying to escalate a movement targeting Tesla dealerships and vehicles in opposition to Musk.
Crowds protesting billionaire Elon Musk’s purge of the US government under President Donald Trump have been congregating outside Tesla dealerships throughout the US, and in some cities in Europe, in the latest attempt to put a dent in the enormous fortune of the world’s richest man.
The protesters are trying to escalate a movement targeting Tesla dealerships and vehicles in opposition to Musk’s role as the head of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, where he’s gained access to sensitive data and shut down entire agencies as he attempts to slash government spending.
Most of Musk’s estimated $340bn fortune consists of the stock he holds in the electric vehicle company that he continues to run while also working alongside Trump.
Tesla Takedown has been organised by a group that includes disillusioned owners of the carmaker’s vehicles, celebrities such as actor John Cusack, and at least one Democratic Party lawmaker, Representative Jasmine Crockett from Dallas.
Earlier protests were somewhat sporadic.
But Saturday’s demonstrations mark the first attempt to surround all 277 of the carmaker’s showrooms and service centres in the US in hopes of deepening a recent decline in the company’s sales.
In front of the New York store in Manhattan, between 500 and 1,000 people gathered, demanding Musk’s resignation from government.
The protesters were gathered at the call of environmentalists from Planet Over Profit, who believe that “stopping Musk will save lives and protect our democracy.”
For Amy Neifeld, a 70-year-old American psychologist who had not taken to the streets since the anti-Vietnam War protests in the 1970s, Elon Musk is leading the United States towards “fascism”.
“I’m Jewish and I grew up with a deep awareness of what fascism is. And it’s only gotten worse since the election” of Donald Trump, she told the AFP news agency.
“We have to do something very quickly, because he’s moving very quickly,” Neifeld added.
In London, about two dozen protesters held signs lambasting Musk outside a Tesla dealership as passing cars and trucks tooted horns in support.
One of the signs displayed at the London protest showed a photo of Musk next to an image of Adolf Hitler making the Nazi salute — a gesture that Musk has been accused of reprising shortly after Trump’s January 20 inauguration.
A person in a tyrannosaurus rex costume held another sign with a picture of Musk’s straight-arm gesture that said, “You thought the Nazis were extinct. Don’t buy a Swasticar.”
“We just want to get loud, make noise, make people aware of the problems that we’re facing,” Cam Whitten, an American who showed up at the London protest told The Associated Press.
Some people opposed to Musk have gone beyond protests and set Tesla vehicles on fire and committed other acts of vandalism that US Attorney General Pam Bondi has decried as “domestic terrorism”. Musk indicated he was dumbfounded by the attacks during a March 20 company meeting and said the vandals should “stop acting psycho”.
Crockett and other Tesla Takedown supporters have been stressing the importance of Saturday’s protests to remain peaceful.
But police were investigating a fire that destroyed seven Tesla vehicles in northwestern Germany early Saturday morning. It was not immediately clear if the blaze, which was extinguished by firefighters, was related to the Tesla Takedown protests.
Meanwhile, a growing number of consumers who bought Tesla vehicles before Musk allied himself with Trump have been looking to sell or trade in their cars, while others have slapped on bumper stickers seeking to distance themselves from the billionaire’s efforts to prune or shut down government agencies.
But Musk did not appear concerned about an extended slump in sales of new Tesla cars in his March 20 address to employees. He reassured the workers that the company’s Model Y, which is undergoing a refresh, would remain “the best-selling car on Earth again this year.”