Northbrook, Ill. — Over 200 people gathered in high spirits on both sides of a busy street outside a Tesla dealership in this Chicago suburb. This was part of an international day of “Tesla Takedown” actions on March 29. Lots and lots of passing cars and trucks blasted their horns and waved to show support. Most people brought homemade signs with many varied messages, all aimed against the ways Elon Musk and his dishonestly named “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) is helping Donald Trump devastate the U.S., and in some cases the rest of the world.

Signs denounced Musk as a fascist, with his Nazi salutes still on everyone’s mind; “oligarchic bullies”; the federal workforce layoffs; abuse of veterans; shutting down science labs and damaging public health; threats to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid; book banning; oppression of women, Transgender people, and immigrants; and the general disruption of ordinary people’s lives.

CALL TO ACTION

A new group, Tesla Takedown, put out a call for actions, and protests were planned at over 500 locations in the world. They were organized locally, in almost every state of the U.S., reportedly at nearly every Tesla showroom in the country. More were held in other countries, including Australia, New Zealand, and at least nine European countries. Protests took place in at least nine cities in Canada, where an online petition asking the government to strip Musk of his Canadian citizenship has garnered more than 375,000 signatures so far.

Many who pulled actions together were first-time organizers, reflecting the upsurge of anger about the destruction Musk and Trump are inflicting. The call for action had a simple message:

“Elon Musk is destroying our democracy, and he’s using the fortune he built at Tesla to do it. We are taking action at Tesla to stop Musk’s illegal coup. Sell your Teslas, dump your stock, join the picket lines. We’re tanking Tesla’s stock price to stop Musk. Stopping Musk will help save lives and protect our democracy. The stakes couldn’t be higher. No one is coming to save us. Not politicians, not the media, not the courts.”

ANGER STIRS REVOLT

We aim to intensify the recent decline in the company’s sales. The expectation that Trump’s corrupt favors would enrich Musk caused Tesla stock to rise by 70% between the election and Inauguration Day, then almost all of that was lost amid the backlash against DOGE, with Tesla sales falling in the U.S., China, and Europe. In Europe sales fell by 45% between January 2024 and January 2025.

A lot of people who had met for the first time had conversations about how shocked and upset they were, and several told me how this gathering, and the support from passing drivers, had lifted their spirits. One told me it was his first protest ever, and I’m sure he was not alone.

So deep is the anger at Musk that a number of Tesla lots and cars have been sabotaged. The FBI said that “anti-Tesla incidents” have happened in at least nine states. But they lumped in everything from graffiti to firebombing, as if they are all the same. Although Tesla Takedown organizers distanced themselves from vandalism, the right wing has predictably conflated them. Fox News, in typical form, headlined their story: “Feds on alert for Tesla ‘Global Day of Action’ after nationwide violence leads to arrests.” Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi label all acts of sabotage “domestic terrorism,” aiming to smear and intimidate the entire resistance and threaten it with violent repression.

Tesla dealerships were also vandalized in Canada and Germany. Meanwhile, a driver jumped the curb and drove his SUV toward protesters in Palm Beach County, Fla., almost hitting them. Then he walked into the showroom to announce that he “stands with Tesla.”

PROTESTS AROUND THE COUNTRY

Also on March 29, 250-300 gathered in Chicago, protesting at the Tesla dealership in the wealthy Gold Coast neighborhood, and in four other suburbs.

In Manhattan, 500 to 1,000 people called for Musk to resign from DOGE. In Washington, D.C., a “Tesla Takedown Dance Party” of more than 100 confronted a new Tesla showroom.

In Berkeley, Calif., weekly protests shamed the Tesla showroom into shutting down every Saturday for the last month. About 750 protesters were reported in Rockville, Md. More than 300 people gathered in the town of Manlius, N.Y., near Syracuse, despite cold, wet weather. Rain also did not stop hundreds from coming out in Boston.

Protesters in Western Massachusetts blocked a Tesla charging station, while several hundred others lined Route 9 nearby in Hadley. In San Francisco, about 200 people came out and many spilled into the busy street and onto the median. More than 100 people lined both sides of West Dorothy Lane at the Tesla Service Center in Moraine, Ohio.

In London, UK, dozens turned up, while the new group Americans For Action brought out 20 Americans and Brits in the town of Bristol in South West England.

Tesla Takedown actions, and the “resistance” as a whole, are growing and are sure to spread even further, as the destructive acts of Trump-Musk take an increasing toll and as more people are exposed to the anti-Trump movement and experience its indispensability.

–Participant