History

The following section is an excerpt from Wikipedia's Tesla Takedown page on 2 April 2025, text available via the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

"Tesla Takedown" is a grassroots protest movement that arose in early 2025 targeting Tesla, Inc. and its CEO, Elon Musk. Protesters have organized nonviolent demonstrations at Tesla stores across the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australasia and urged the public to divest from Tesla by selling their vehicles and shares of Tesla stock. The decentralized movement's goal is to economically impact Musk and challenge his political influence peacefully.

Activist Valerie Costa stated the movement's "intention is to make a strong public stand against the tech oligarchy behind the Trump administration’s cruel and illegal actions, and to encourage Americans to sell their Teslas and dump the company’s stock." Actor and filmmaker Alex Winter characterized Tesla Takedown as anti-Elon Musk instead of the company itself, with Musk being its “toxic figurehead”.

The movement arose in response to Musk's involvement in US president Donald Trump's administration, which includes Musk's role in the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and in the 2025 United States federal mass layoffs. Musk serves as a senior advisor to the president and is the leader of DOGE. DOGE's purpose is to carry out Trump's agenda of federal spending cuts and deregulation, and, according to the order that established it, to "modernize federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity".

Musk responded to the protests with an X post on March 9 accusing Valerie Costa of "committing crimes", which led to harassment of the activist. On March 11 Donald Trump arranged a promotional press briefing in front of the White House, featuring a number of Tesla vehicles and Musk, stating he would buy a Tesla. Trump also said he would classify people who vandalize Tesla cars or trucks as domestic terrorists. Trump has previous strong opposition to electric vehicles; in September 2023, speaking at Drake Enterprises in Michigan, Trump had claimed EVs would "spell the death of the U.S. auto industry" and stated "I'm not a person that wants to go all electric, I think it's going to be very bad for the country."

Musk and far-right supporters alleged Tesla Takedown protesters were paid to participate, though no evidence has been provided in support of the claims. Meanwhile, Public Radio Tulsa reported that a local man offered to "compensate people who showed up as counter-protesters", although no one reported being paid.

Photographs

	Photographer:  Bill Crittenden Location:   Westmont, Illinois Date:  15 March 2025 View image of Tesla Takedown in Westmont, Illinois · 3.7MB
	Photographer:  Bill Crittenden Location:   Westmont, Illinois Date:  15 March 2025 View image of Tesla Takedown in Westmont, Illinois · 7.3MB
	Photographer:  Bill Crittenden Location:   Westmont, Illinois Date:  15 March 2025 View image of Tesla Takedown in Westmont, Illinois · 4.9MB
	Photographer:  Bill Crittenden Location:   Westmont, Illinois Date:  15 March 2025 View image of Tesla Takedown in Westmont, Illinois · 6.6MB
	Photographer:  Bill Crittenden Location:   Westmont, Illinois Date:  15 March 2025 View image of Tesla Takedown in Westmont, Illinois · 3.0MB
	Photographer:  Bill Crittenden Location:   Westmont, Illinois Date:  15 March 2025 View image of Tesla Takedown in Westmont, Illinois · 3.4MB
	Photographer:  Bill Crittenden Location:   Westmont, Illinois Date:  15 March 2025 View image of Tesla Takedown in Westmont, Illinois · 2.8MB
	Photographer:  Bill Crittenden Location:   Westmont, Illinois Date:  15 March 2025 View image of Tesla Takedown in Westmont, Illinois · 2.2MB
	Photographer:  Bill Crittenden Location:   Westmont, Illinois Date:  15 March 2025 View image of Tesla Takedown in Westmont, Illinois · 4.2MB
	Photographer:  Bill Crittenden Location:   Westmont, Illinois Date:  15 March 2025 View image of Tesla Takedown in Westmont, Illinois · 4.0MB
	Photographer:  Bill Crittenden Location:   Westmont, Illinois Date:  15 March 2025 View image of Tesla Takedown in Westmont, Illinois · 2.9MB
	Photographer:  Bill Crittenden Location:   Westmont, Illinois Date:  15 March 2025 View image of Tesla Takedown in Westmont, Illinois · 3.6MB
	Photographer:  Bill Crittenden Location:   Westmont, Illinois Date:  15 March 2025 View image of Tesla Takedown in Westmont, Illinois · 4.4MB
	Photographer:  Bill Crittenden Location:   Westmont, Illinois Date:  15 March 2025 View image of Tesla Takedown in Westmont, Illinois · 3.4MB
	Photographer:  Bill Crittenden Location:   Westmont, Illinois Date:  15 March 2025 View image of Tesla Takedown in Westmont, Illinois · 2.6MB