Thousands of people around the world protested on Elon Musk and his efforts with Donald Trump to dismantle the American federal government on Saturday, with rallies organized in front of almost all Tesla exhibition halls in the United States and many in the world – a concerted effort to go after the deep pocket of the billionaire as CEO of the electric vehicle.
The protest organizers asked people to do three things: do not buy a Tesla, do not sell Tesla’s actions and do not join the “Tesla Takedown” movement.
“The evil in Tesla stops Musk,” says one of the group’s slogan. “Stop Musk will help save lives and our democracy.”
On Saturday, with more than 200 events planned worldwide, the demonstrations started at noon in front of the Tesla exhibition halls in Australia and New Zealand, then crossed Europe in countries such as Finland, Norway, Denmark, Germany, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Each rally was organized locally with original themes. In Ireland, it was “Smash the Fash”, and Switzerland had “Down With Doge”. Photos published on Bluesky by Tesla Takedown have shown demonstrators in San Jose, California, near where Tesla was previously based, and Austin, Texas, where her headquarters are located.
Musk, the richest person in the world, directs the so-called “Department of Effectiveness of the Government” (DOGE), that he has responsible for reducing federal budgets in the United States, in particular dismissed thousands of workers, although he declared Thursday in an interview: “Almost no one has been dismissed.” He left after the Social Security Administration, the Ministry of Education, the National Park Service and several other departments and agencies, provoking a generalized game and criticism. Musk and Tesla did not return to requests for comments.
In San Francisco, a crowd of around 200 people gathered in front of the Tesla exhibition hall. The demonstrators spread in the lively street and on the median, confusing the autonomous waymos trying to bypass the people who take place back and forth.
A Boombox has energized, we do not take it by a twisted sister and enthusiasm cars enthusiastically. Even by going through postal trucks, public buses and firefighters horny in support. People supported the panels with slogans like “Burn your Swastikar before it burns you” and “no Doges bags”. Others stole massive American flags mounted upside down.
The Tesla exhibition hall, long of the block, was emptied of all the cars, and only a few security guards were standing inside, with a San Francisco police outside. At one point, a group of four men wearing hats from Maga Rouges and Doge’s black shirts crossed the crowd, but everything was calm.
“I am here by protesting because what I see is a hostile takeover of our country,” said Myra Levy, who held a sign that said “Pinche Ladrón” (“fucking thief”). “It’s not ok for me. It’s not ok for all of us.”
His friend, Karen Heisler, categorically added: “We did not vote for it.”
In Berkeley, California, the Tesla exhibition hall closed every Saturday last month due to weekly events, according to sellers of neighboring retailers. Only security agents stayed to keep the building. It is the scene of animated demonstrations that included a group of Mariachi and a 10 -foot cardboard cybertruck so that people can spray. Earlier this month, the gateway to the exhibition hall was splashed with red paint. The director of the showroom refused to comment.
In New York, several hundred anti-TESLA demonstrators gathered outside the Manhattan exhibition hall in the EV company on Saturday. Sophie Shepherd, 23, organizer of Planet Over Profit, explained that the rally was not aimed at protesting against electric cars.
“We are here to protest against Musk, which essentially organized a Tesla automotive exhibition on the lawn of the White House,” she said. “We want to disrupt your business as much as possible, which includes all the teslas, not just the cybertruck.”
Marty, 82, said he attended the New York rally “because I’m worried about my country.” In the 1960s, he protested against the Vietnam War. “Now is the overthrow of our country by oligarchs,” he said. The rally, he continued, was a message to “this guy Elon who buys our government”.
Friday, the New York police department said that its police were looking for two suspects who would have cut the word “Nazis” and a swine cross at the gates of a Tesla Cybertruck in Brooklyn this week, part of an increase in attacks against vehicles and Tesla facilities through the United States since Trump took the office.
In Washington DC, the organizers planned a rally in front of a new Tesla exhibition hall in Georgetown, making the theme “Tesla Takedown Dance Party”. “Throw the same stock, join the dance lines,” reads the leaflet. “The stakes could not be higher, but that does not mean that we cannot have fun!”
“Hypocrisy is so deep,” said Manissa Maharawal, assistant professor at the American university who studied anti-technical demonstrations and stresses that Tesla has received billions of public funds. “It is this company that has been subsidized in many respects by the government, but now the CEO is trying to dismantle the government because he thinks he knows better than everyone, because he comes from the technology industry.”
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In the United States, demonstrations have occurred in almost all states, across the northeast, south and midwest to the west coast. States with the most planned rallies included Massachusetts, New York, Florida, Texas, Washington and California, totaling more than 100. Several demonstrations also took place in Canada.
In London, dozens of demonstrators gathered in a Tesla exhibition hall along the A40 to three lanes in western London.
“Musk is extremely odious. He finances the extreme right and means that the Republicans who are expressed end up not being funded in their next elections,” said Nigel Warner, militant of homosexuals.
“It’s too crushing to do nothing,” said Louise Cobbett-Witten, who has family in the United States and protested the Tesla dealership in western London. “There is real comfort by meeting like that. Everyone has to do something. We have no big strategy in addition to standing on the side of the street, holding panels and screaming. ”
The organizers of Tesla reiterated the need for people to continue to express themselves and protest against Musk, Trump and Doge. The issues are raised and “no one comes to save us,” they say on their website.
Maharawal, of the American University, said that it had been struck by this feeling, saying: “For there to be a national and global demonstration saying that” nobody comes to save us “speaks of the level of anger and despair at the moment.”
The organizers also took care to distant themselves from violent vandalism which was carried out against the Tesla exhibition halls. Dozens of Tesla installations were attacked in the middle of the night with Molotov cocktails, shots or graffiti saying things like “Fuck Elon” and “Tesla is fascist”.
Trump promised to designate any violence against Tesla dealers as domestic terrorism.
Tesla’s organizers condemn vandalism. “We are a non -violent basic protest movement,” said the group. “We oppose the violence and destruction of goods. The peaceful protest against public goods is not domestic terrorism. ”
Harry Taylor contributed the reports
