The fury at Elon Musk’s Tesla has reached an all-time high.
For evidence, look no further than a segment of “The Daily Show” about arsonists setting Cybertrucks on fire, during which the TV studio audience erupted into cheers — highlighting the immense amount of schadenfreude directed at the car company.
Anti-Musk sentiment has soared after the unelected White House official started systematically dismantling the federal government with his so-called Department of Government Efficiency. Those efforts have unsurprisingly turned out to be astronomically unpopular with the American public.
“Some people are not content to just scream about Elon in a high school gym,” the show’s co-host Jordan Klepper said during an episode that aired Wednesday night. “They’re taking to the streets… or the parking lots.”
The subsequent re-airing of TV news segments showing several Tesla vehicles on fire had members of the audience shouting and whooping. A mention of Molotov cocktails being used to set the cars on fire drew an even bigger response.
“Wow,” a seemingly bemused Klepper said. “You guys like petty acts of domestic terrorism, huh?”
Even Musk was caught off guard, tweeting that “this is super messed up” in response.
Apart from widespread and largely peaceful protests outside of Tesla showrooms, a small number of individuals have taken out their frustration by lighting vehicles on fire. Earlier this week, authorities in Missouri investigated a possible arson attack aimed at a dealership that damaged two Cybertrucks. Law enforcement is also still on the lookout for possible suspects following a similar attack in Kansas City.
Vandals have been making their discontent with Musk clear by spraypainting swastikas on Teslas, a clear reference to Musk performing two Hitler salutes during Trump’s inauguration celebration earlier this year.
Meanwhile, the mercurial CEO has claimed he somehow had no idea why the public has it out for him, whining that “my companies make great products that people love and I’ve never physically hurt anyone” in a tweet this week. “So why the hate and violence against me?”
But it really doesn’t take much to figure out why, given Musk’s brash behavior and hurtful commentary.
Musk has previously implied that he thinks Adolf Hitler did nothing wrong, and that the murder of millions of people was the work of public sector workers, a gross misinterpretation of historical facts.
In short, it’s not exactly surprising that the public isn’t taking kindly to the billionaire slashing federal budgets, which is already leading to the deaths of women and children in other parts of the world.
And thanks to Musk’s close association with his EV maker, they’re taking to the streets in front of Tesla dealerships, not Capitol Hill.
“Let me just say: nobody should be breaking the law and blowing up Teslas,” Tapper advised, “especially if you can just wait five minutes, they’ll just do it by themselves.”
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