Backlash continues against Elon Musk’s role with DOGE as demonstrations at Tesla showrooms enter fifth week

The demonstrations want people to “sell your Teslas” and “dump your stock,” as a way of reprimanding Musk, who owns a sizable stake in the electric vehicle maker.

Elon Musk’s role in slashing federal government staffing and budgets as the head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency continues to draw backlash, as nearly 90 Tesla showrooms across the United States face demonstrations Saturday in the fifth week of the “Tesla Takedown” movement. The demonstrations, according to the Tesla Takedown website, want people to “sell your Teslas” and “dump your stock,” as a way of reprimanding Musk, who owns a sizable stake in the electric vehicle maker. The Tesla Takedown movement was kickstarted by Hollywood actor and filmmaker Alex Winter and Joan Donovan, an assistant professor of journalism and emerging studies at Boston University. There are now local organizers in about 28 states and Washington, DC, and the Tesla showrooms have drawn a growing number of demonstrators, who have carried signs like “Honk if you hate Elon” and “Sell your swasticar.” Tesla did not respond to CNN’s request for comment. DOGE has not slowed down in its sweeping efforts to dismantle or overhaul federal agencies. On Monday, the department attempted to shut down the United States Institute of Peace, an independent nonprofit agency, and CNN reported on March 13 that DOGE had proposed cutting 20% of the staff at the Internal Revenue Service by May 15. “There’s no walk of life that DOGE doesn’t touch,” Donovan told CNN. “That’s reflected in the diversity of people that come to these protests.”