How #TeslaTakedown is bringing the fight to Musk
"Part of the reason people are coming out is because they feel it’s having a real impact on Elon’s pocketbook."
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While the Trump administration and DOGE recklessly dismantle the federal government, millions of Americans are outraged and looking for ways to hold the Trump administration accountable. Considering Elon Musk is the CEO and largest shareholder of a major car company — Tesla — resistance is increasingly focused on how to disrupt his marquee business.
Going by the moniker of #TeslaTakedown, activists and regular citizens around the nation (and world) have been showing up to Tesla showrooms to protest Musk’s actions and DOGE generally. What started as small protests have grown to well-attended demonstrations in many different states. These protests, as well as random acts of vandalism that Tesla car owners and dealerships have experienced, have clearly ruffled the feathers of Trump and Musk.
Trump and Musk have both taken to social media to denounce the protests — including by spreading conspiracy theories — and Trump even turned the White House driveway into an outdoor Tesla showroom to show support for Musk.
Trump said this week that he views attacks on Tesla as domestic terrorism, and went as far yesterday as to threaten anti-Tesla demonstrators with rendition to El Salvador and confinement in a slave prison.
Meanwhile, Tesla’s stock has been going down.
To hear about how Tesla Takedown began and where it’s going, Public Notice contributor Thor Benson connected with Alice Hu, a climate activist who’s organizing demonstrations for the group.
“This is an authoritarian administration that wants to silence free speech, that wants to take away people’s First Amendment rights, that wants to squash any political dissent,” Hu said.
“Because of that, I joined the movement. I felt Tesla Takedown was an effective strategy and could impact Musk’s wealth and status by putting a dent in Tesla’s stock value. It’s already helped tank his net worth.”
A full transcript of Benson’s conversation with Hu, lightly edited for length and clarity, follows.
Thor Benson
You’ve done a lot of climate activism in the past. Is it weird to be organizing against an electric car company?
Alice Hu
It’s funny, because people will be like, “Why do climate activists care about an EV company? Shouldn’t they be celebrating it?” While I do think it’s amusing that all of this has effectively gotten Donald Trump to buy an EV on live television, we’re not protesting EVs. We’re protesting Tesla. We’re protesting Tesla, specifically, because Tesla is owned by Elon Musk.