CYbertrucks set fire. Bomb threats to Tesla exhibition halls. Vandalism in the load stations.
A wave of violent protests targeting Tesla’s installations has broken out across the country in recent weeks on the controversial role of Elon Musk within the Trump administration, with demonstrators seeking to go bankrupt the business and finally forced Musk to leave his government post.
On Saturday March 29, the anti-MUSC movement is preparing for what could be its greatest mobilization to date. The decentralized group Tesla Takedown called for Protests targeting more than 500 locations worldwide in what the organizers describe as a position against the involvement of its billionaire CEO in right -wing policy. Musk, who is the head of the newly established Ministry of Government (DOGE), alienated many customers when he approved Trump in the presidential election last year and spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars to help his campaign, including by taking advantage of his social platform X to rely.
Since January, Musk’s public personality has only become the division, because it supervises Aggressive cuts in federal labor, called to the privatization of popular government programs and have done what was largely interpreted as a Nazi salvation during a celebration gathering on the day of the inauguration of Trump. Many also consider its close ties to the Trump administration as a clear conflict of interest, since its companies have collected $ 38 billion in public funds.
While Tesla Takedown insists that her movement is non -violent, criticism has tried in recent weeks to blame him for acts of vandalism and criminal fire against Tesla exhibition halls, vehicles and charging stations. Incidents have varied from Molotov’s cocktail attacks to Salem, Oregon, cybertrucks painted by spraying with Nazi comparisons in Brooklyn. Federal authorities have already arrested several suspects, Trump and the United States Attorney General, Pam Bondi, mark the destruction of Tesla property as “domestic terrorism” and warning that those involved could incur up to 20 years in prison.
“You didn’t have it on January 6, I can tell you,” said Trump last week, suggesting that Tesla’s attacks were more destructive than the mortal January 6, 2021, Riot at the American Capitol, when hundreds of his supporters stormed the building in order to overthrow the elections and left the Congress rooms with broken windows, vandalized walls and ransacked offices. “No one was killed on January 6, but what happens to Elon Musk and Tesla is a shame.”
Since December, Tesla’s actions have lost more than half of its value. Trump portrayed Musk as a patriot under siege and earlier this month made a purchase of a Tesla Model S on the southern lawn of the White House. “I think [Musk has] was treated very unfairly by a very small group of people. And I just want people to know that he cannot be penalized to be a patriot, “said Trump about the role of Musk in his administration. The president promised that the demonstrators who had attacked the Tesla dealers and the accusation terminals “were going to cross hell”.
“I can’t wait to see the sick terrorist thugs undergo 20 years of prison terms for what they do in Elon Musk and Tesla,” wrote Trump on Trum Social, even suggesting that the vandals condemned should serve their time in the notorious penitentiary system of El Salvador, which has already become a black hole for the accused of the members of the Venezuelan gangs expelled from the United States.
Despite the increased pressure of the Trump administration, the demonstrators still plan their “biggest day of action” in the 277 Tesla exhibition halls on March 29. “Elon Musk destroys our democracy, and he uses the fortune he built in Tesla to do so.”
Once considered to be the embodiment of innovation and progress, Tesla de Musk is now considered a symbol of division. Some disappointed owners responded to calls for the withdrawal from Tesla to sell their vehicles, including the Senator of Arizona, Mark Kelly, Democrat. Others have placed anti-MUSC bumper stickers on their teslas to protest, while certain conservative personalities, such as Fox News host, Sean Hannity, published their recent New Teslas purchases.
Some analysts speculate that the Tesla board of directors could possibly distant Musk if public relations problems continue to reduce the financial performance of the company. A survey of NBC news published this month revealed that more voters (51%) considered Musk negatively than positively (39%), reflecting the depth of the polarized public opinion of the billionaire CEO following his work with Trump.
The Democrats, on the other hand, seized the backlash against Musk to energize their base. Texas Jasmine Crockett representative said in a virtual rally organized for the Tesla Takedown movement, which she hoped to see Musk “withdraw” on March 29, on the day of the planned demonstrations. She clarified during the gathering that her calls for action were not violent. Bondi, the Attorney General, warned Crockett to “walk very carefully” in response.
As tensions intensify, some demonstrators say they are now faced with personal threats and harassment. Joan Donovan, one of the organizers of the Tesla Takedown movement, said in an article on Bluesky that she was “threatened and despised” for participating in public demonstrations, saying that Musk’s supporters had developed “a private network of networking” who marked him a “domestic terrorist” for the protest of Tesla. And in Florida, last Saturday, a man was arrested after driving his car to a group of anti-MUSC demonstrators in front of a Tesla dealer in West Palm Beach. No one was injured.
The FBI has warned the public to monitor the signs of possible attacks against Tesla’s properties before the day of action, including individuals monitoring or trying to enter dealers or threaten the business online.
“Tesla just does electric cars and did nothing to deserve these bad attacks,” Musk wrote on X in response to violent acts for Tesla installations.
