Today marked a second weekend of scattered protests at Tesla showrooms, following a “TeslaTakeover” hashtag that has been trending on Twitter alternative Bluesky this week. Protestors’ messages largely focused on the divisive efforts of Tesla CEO Elon Musk as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency since the start of Donald Trump’s Presidency.
The protests don’t appear to be especially large, but they are numerous, ranging from places like New York to lesser-known locales like Minneapolis, Minnesota suburb Golden Valley. A section of Action Network’s site for organizing protests shows rallies planned for cities in Ohio, Florida, Washington, New Mexico, and Alberta, Canada.
Tesla investors have expressed concern that Musk’s activities are negatively impacting the company, which saw its stock price plummet by 21 percent since Trump’s inauguration according to an ABC story this week. Inside the company, employees and senior staff said in a recent meeting that “the company would be better off if Musk resigned,” The Washington Post reported.
One of the larger rallies today was outside of Tesla’s Manhattan showroom, where a previous protest took place on February 9th. In the videos below, people can be heard chanting, “Don’t buy swasticars” and “Elon Musk can go to Mars; we don’t need your Nazi cars,” perhaps referencing Musk’s support for far-right groups like Germany’s AfD party or his suspicious salute on Inauguration Day.
Other posts showed what protests looked like today in Berkeley, California:
San Francisco, California:
And Kansas City, Missouri:
Similar gatherings occurred in Austin, Texas; Seattle, Washington; and Boston, Massachusetts. Meanwhile, few appear to have shown up today in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania:
Or Baltimore, Maryland, where a single person held a sign outside a Tesla showroom:
Actor, director, and progressive activist Alex Winter, who heavily promoted this weekend’s protests over the last few days, posted an image of himself holding a sign urging people to sell their Teslas at a protest in Pasadena, California:
Winter re-shared posts from protests at Tesla showrooms in the California cities Corte Madera, San Jose, and Los Angeles, along with others from people who’d posted about rallies in Rockville, Maryland; Tucscon, Arizona; and Golden Valley, Minnesota.
There are many posts on Bluesky with the #TeslaTakeover hashtag, but far fewer show up when searching X, Instagram, or Threads. Outside of picketing, others protested Musk in different ways. Musician Sheryl Crow posted a video of a Tesla being driven away on a flatbed truck, along with a message saying “There comes a time when you have to decide who you are willing to align with. So long Tesla,” and noting that she had donated the money to NPR, which is currently threatened by an FCC investigation into public media.
More protests are expected, including during the President’s Day holiday on Monday, with one set for Lowell, Maine and at least one other in Richmond, Virginia. Those are in addition to numerous demonstrations planned this weekend that don’t target Tesla showrooms but still relate to the actions of Musk, DOGE, and President Trump more broadly.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
