Tesla canceled a grand opening event for its latest New Hampshire dealership scheduled on Thursday, March 13, ahead of a planned protest outside the new location.
The local protest is the latest in a nationwide and international-reaching movement known as”Tesla Takedown,” aimed at hindering co-founder Elon Musk’s business in retaliation to his actions as Trump-appointed leader of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The movement ranges from picketing outside Tesla showrooms, vandalizing charging stations and other physical properties to divesting in the car company altogether.
The TeslaTakedown page on ActionNetwork encourages the public to “sell your Teslas, dump your stock (and) join the picket lines.” Despite the grand opening cancellation, demonstrators gathered outside the Portsmouth, N.H., Tesla dealership throughout the day, at one point being asked to move from the store’s entrance by police.
“We are out in mad force right now because we are not going to let them take away our democracy,” protestor Diane Kolifrath told Yahoo News.
Actions taken against Tesla have turned criminal, with an uptick in reports of people vandalizing the cars and opening fire outside dealerships in recent months. No injuries have been reported.
The targeted attacks are in protest of Musk’s government involvement—which is responsible for mass federal worker layoffs this year—rather than his car company. In Washington, D.C., protestors gathered outside the U.S. Treasury Building for a “Nobody Elected Elon” rally in February. But those far from the nation’s capital have decided to target his business instead.
Experts say this conflation stems from how indiscernible Musk and Tesla are from each other and how Tesla property is a physical manifestation of something closely identifiable to the billionaire.
“Tesla is an easy target,” Randy Blazak, a sociologist who studies political violence, told CBS. “They’re rolling down our streets. They have dealerships in our neighborhoods.”
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