On Saturday, hundreds of protests will take place at Tesla showrooms across the U.S. and internationally. The protests are part of the “Tesla Takedown Global Day of Action,” a major demonstration that started shortly after Donald Trump became president. Organizers expect these protests to occur at over 200 Tesla locations worldwide, including nearly 50 in California.
The main goal of the protests is to send a message to the Trump administration about what Tesla CEO Elon Musk is doing with the U.S. federal government, including laying off thousands of workers, cutting budgets, and eliminating entire agencies.
“Nobody voted for this, and nobody voted for Elon,” said Vickie Mueller Olvera, who has been organizing protests in the Bay Area. “He’s an unelected super-billionaire and he’s a thug.”
Tesla Takedown is a grassroots movement that protests Tesla as long as Musk continues to harm public services. The group claims that Musk is “destroying our democracy with the fortune he built at Tesla” and that’s why they are taking action at Tesla locations. Local groups organize their own protests rather than working with one central group.
Olvera said the protesters are asking people to: don’t buy a Tesla, sell off Tesla stock, and join the Tesla Takedown movement.
Musk has not commented on the protests. On X (the social media platform he owns), he said his work with the federal government, running the “department of government efficiency” (Doge), is “literally improving government efficiency, like the name says.”
Since the protests began, Tesla’s financial situation has worsened. Tesla’s stock has dropped by more than 35%, sales are down, and the resale value of used Teslas is at an all-time low. Musk’s net worth has fallen by 25%, or about $100 billion. Some Tesla owners have sold their cars after Musk gave a speech on inauguration day that included Nazi-style salutes.
Earlier this month, Trump and Musk showed off Tesla cars at the White House. Trump praised the electric vehicles, even saying he would buy one. The two also spoke out against the protests, with Trump promising to label any violence against Tesla showrooms as domestic terrorism.
Jonathan V Last, editor of the conservative website Bulwark, has said the protests have played a big part in Tesla’s decline.
“I would go so far as to say the Tesla takedown protests have been one of the most consequential protest movements in the shortest amount of time ever,” Last said in a recent podcast. “They helped to obliterate one-third of Elon Musk’s net worth, in like 100 days. And when you attack his money stack, you attack his power.”
The protest movement has been growing. Tesla Takedown protests began appearing in U.S. cities in mid-February. People shared photos online of small gatherings in front of Tesla showrooms, with protesters holding signs calling Musk a Nazi and saying things like “Diabolical Oligarchs Gaslighting Everyone” and “No Swastikars,” a new nickname for Teslas.
Olvera said she first learned about a protest near her in the Bay Area and decided to check it out. She joined the group with her anti-Musk sign, joking around with other protesters. Then something unexpected happened.
“People would drive by, you know, just passersby,” Olvera said. “And some of them just stopped and joined in.”
