BOSTON (AP) — Demonstrators gathered exterior Tesla shops throughout the U.S. Saturday to protest the automaker’s billionaire CEO, Elon Musk, and his push to slash authorities spending on behalf of President Donald Trump.
The demonstrations are a part of a rising backlash in North America and Europe to Musk’s disruptive position in Washington.
Critics of Trump and Musk hope to discourage and stigmatize purchases of Tesla, the electrical automobile firm that’s the world’s most respected automaker. Liberal teams for weeks have organized anti-Tesla protests in hopes of galvanizing opposition to Musk’s Division of Authorities Effectivity and energizing Democrats nonetheless demoralized by Trump’s November victory.
“We can get back at Elon,” mentioned Nathan Phillips, a 58-year-old ecologist from Newton, Massachusetts, who was protesting in Boston on Saturday. “We can impose direct economic damage on Tesla by showing up at showrooms everywhere and boycotting Tesla and telling everyone else to get out, sell your stocks, sell your Teslas.”
Musk is taking course from Trump to slash federal spending and sharply scale back the workforce, arguing that Trump’s victory gave the president and him a mandate to restructure the U.S. authorities. DOGE officers have swiftly gained entry to delicate databases, directed hundreds of federal job cuts, canceled contracts and shut down sections of the federal government, together with the U.S. Company for Worldwide Improvement.
Musk’s critics say his actions defy Congress’s energy to manage the U.S. funds and current a number of how for him to enrich himself. Musk leads a number of different corporations, notably SpaceX, which conducts launches for NASA and the intelligence neighborhood, and the social media platform X.
“Protests will not deter President Trump and Elon Musk from delivering on the promise to establish DOGE and make our federal government more efficient and more accountable to the hardworking American taxpayers across the country,” mentioned White Home spokesperson Harrison Fields.
Tesla didn’t reply to an emailed request for remark.
Greater than 50 demonstrations have been listed Saturday on the web site Tesla Takedown, with extra deliberate later in March from coast to coast in the USA together with England, Spain and Portugal. Information reviews confirmed demonstrations in latest days in U.S. cities together with Tucson, Arizona; St. Louis; New York Metropolis; Dayton, Ohio; Charlotte; and Palo Alto, California.
Some Tesla homeowners have additionally reported their automobiles vandalized with spray painted swastikas amid what Jewish teams and observers worry is an increase in antisemitism.
Federal prosecutors charged a girl in reference to a string of vandalism in opposition to a Colorado Tesla dealership, which included Molotov cocktails being thrown at automobiles and the phrases “Nazi cars” spray painted on the constructing.
Saturday’s demonstration in Boston had a festive environment, with a brass band enjoying music as protesters carried indicators and chanted. A number of of the indicators mocked Musk and DOGE, with one studying: “Stop Elon and his despicable Muskrats.”
“This government led by Trump and Musk, it’s gone completely off the rails and we are here to stop that,” mentioned Carina Campovasso, a retired federal employee. “And I hope they listen.”
About 300 demonstrators protested at a Tesla dealership in New York Metropolis on Saturday. Police mentioned 9 individuals have been taken into custody however didn’t elaborate on the costs they confronted.
Tesla’s share value has fallen by almost a 3rd since Trump took workplace, although it’s nonetheless larger than it was a 12 months in the past. Musk’s present internet value is an estimated $359 billion, in response to Forbes, which calculated his 2024 internet value as $195 billion.
Cooper reported from Phoenix. Related Press author Patrick Whittle in Scarborough, Maine, contributed to this report.
