Around the world, folks angry at Elon Musk’s new turn as an unelected White House wrecker are taking it out on Tesla.
From Nazi allusions spraypainted on a Tesla showroom in The Hague and the word “Heil” projected onto the German Gigafactory to busted windshields and a failed arson attempt at a dealership in Colorado, those opposed to Musk’s increasingly far right politics are taking it out on his electric vehicle company.
Over the weekend, protesters organizing under the social media hashtags “#TeslaTakedown” and “#TeslaTakeover” have begun planning — and enacting — demonstrations against the billionaire head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) as he continues to massively disrupt the American government.
At a San Francisco Tesla showroom, for instance, employees were unable to leave while hundreds of people surrounded it in protest over President’s Day weekend. While people outside chanted slogans like “Resist the oligarchy” and “Deport Musk,” the San Francisco Standard reports, someone in the second-floor office above the dealership held up a sign in the window that said “We Hate Him Too” — and it remains unclear whether that person worked for Tesla, or for another company renting the space above the showroom.
Jeff Grubler, a longtime activist who has been crusading against Donald Trump for years, wore a Musk mask and repeatedly performed a “Sieg Heil” salute at the SF Tesla protest while wearing a red armband with the “X” logo — a reference not only to Nazi symbolism, but also to Musk’s own “Roman salute” last month.
“Calling Elon Musk a Nazi is not a stretch,” Grubler told the SF Standard. “He made two Nazi salutes, and there’s a coup going on.”
Though groups like the progressive coalition Indivisible are imploring protesters to remain peaceful, others aren’t above damaging some property.
Further north, for instance, a bold vandal spray-painted the word “Nazi” on a man’s Tesla in Portland while the owner and his son were watching the Super Bowl, local broadcaster KGW8 reported.
“That happened in broad daylight,” that man, Tim Tees, told the news outlet. “I mean, he was brazen.”
Like the unidentified hater above that San Francisco Tesla showroom, Tees said that he, too, is not a fan of the billionaire.
“I get the people are upset about Elon,” the Portlander told the local news outlet. “I’m upset about Elon, you know.”
After shelling out to get the Nazi vandalism scrubbed, Tees took on his own small act of protest — purchasing a bumper sticker that says “I bought this before Elon went crazy,” which he plans to apply later.
More on anti-Musk aktion: State Department Insider on Elon Musk Accessing Nuclear Weapons: “If You Make Something Idiot-Proof, the World Will Build a Better Idiot”