Activists use ‘Tesla Takedown’ protests to fight job cuts by Musk, Trump

Chanting “Elon Musk has got to go” into a bullhorn, Carolanne Fry led about 350 demonstrators in a noisy march outside a Tesla electric vehicle dealership in Portland, Oregon, this week.

Fry, 38, a public employee and registered Democrat, is among hundreds of organisers in an emerging grassroots movement to protest against Musk’s role in sweeping cuts to the federal workforce at the behest of US President Donald Trump.

The target of their "Tesla Takedown" protests is the brand at the heart of the business empire controlled by Musk, Tesla's CEO.

“Take action at Tesla showrooms everywhere. Sell your Teslas, dump your stock, join the picket lines,” its website urges.

“We need to make Tesla a toxic brand,” said Fry, who has called on her state’s retirement system to divest its Tesla stock. Every economic angle that we can attack Elon is for the best.”

The protests are relatively small-scale but  significant as one of the first signs of activism in early weeks of the second Trump administration. Some Democratic voters have complained about an ineffectual response from party leaders to dramatic cutbacks Musk and Trump have made at federal agencies.

In addition to overseeing the firing of thousands of federal workers, Musk has orchestrated the cancellation of contracts at the US Agency for International Development, which funds humanitarian programs around the world.

The share of Americans who give Trump positive marks overall remained steady at 44%, according to a recent Reuters/Ipsos survey.

Through his leadership of the department of government efficiency (DOGE) Musk and his team have gained access to some agency systems. Critics decried this as overreach by an unelected individual, and worry about possible conflicts of interest if Musk uses his post to try steering lucrative contracts to his own companies. Musk's supporters said he needs to be aggressive to overhaul a bloated federal government.

As of December, Musk owned a 12.8% share of Tesla's outstanding stock, worth about $114.7bn (R2.08-trillion) at Wednesday's closing stock price.

The world's richest man also owns the X social media platform, the space exploration company SpaceX and brain implant company Neuralink, among others. Tesla's innovative electric vehicles have long been loved by liberal-minded Americans as an environmentally friendly alternative to petrol-powered cars. However, for some, the brand has morphed into a symbol of Trump's aggressive remaking of US domestic and foreign policy, making Tesla a natural target of the incipient protest movement.

“The idea is to tarnish the Tesla brand, bring down the stock price of Tesla and have a real impact on Musk’s pocketbook,” said Carlo Voli, 59, an interpreter in Washington state who has helped organise one of the six recent protests at Tesla dealerships in the Seattle area.

“It’s something ordinary people can do.”

Musk did not respond to a Reuters request for comment about the protests, and neither did a representative for Tesla.

An anti-Tesla campaign is also underway on platforms such as Instagram and X under the hashtags #teslatakedown and #swasticars, a nod to a hand gesture made by Musk that drew scrutiny for its similarity to the Nazi salute. Musk has dismissed criticism of his hand gesture as a “tired attack.”

Some Tesla drivers are facing the ire of anti-Musk strangers as they prepare to sell their vehicles. Rainer Eckert, a 69-year-old forensic engineer in Wallingford, Washington, who voted for Democrat Kamala Harris, is planning to sell his six-year-old Tesla and donate the proceeds to charity.

Until then, he has affixed a “Bought Before We All Knew He Was a Jerk” sticker on the car,  which he says has not deterred a stranger from taping a “Nazi car” sign to it as frequently as three times a day.

Action versus restraint

Other DOGE-related protest efforts are starting to gather steam. On March 1, thousands of people gathered at national parks across the country to protest the Trump administration’s firing of 1,000 full-time national park service staff. Two days later, more than 1,000 protesters gathered outside a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration building in Boulder, Colorado, decrying Trump administration layoffs at the agency.

At least one high-profile Democrat is urging restraint. In a New York Times column, political strategist James Carville called for "the most daring political manoeuvre in the history of our party: roll over and play dead".

It is difficult to determine how much Musk's political activities are factoring into Tesla’s vehicle sales, which last year declined on an annual basis for the first time.

Analysts pointed to other factors in the global EV market, including increased competition from Chinese brands and legacy carmakers such as General Motors.

Tesla shares nearly doubled between late October and mid-December, which coincided with Trump's re-election. Since peaking on December 17, however, the stock has lost more than 40% of its value. The company is nonetheless valued at roughly $900bn (R16.34-trillion), far surpassing the world's other carmakers.

A growing body of polling evidence suggests Musk's vocal role in politics is alienating potential customers.

A poll conducted after the November election for the advocacy group EV Politics Project showed far more voters who supported Harris had an unfavourable opinion of Tesla compared to those who supported Trump. Among Harris voters, 59% said they had an unfavourable opinion of Tesla, compared to 36% of Trump voters surveyed.