Nine people were taken into custody on Saturday during a heated protest outside a Tesla dealership in New York City. The demonstration, part of a nationwide wave of “Tesla Takedown” protests, targeted Tesla CEO Elon Musk over his role in mass federal workforce reductions under President Donald Trump’s administration.
Police reported that hundreds of demonstrators gathered, chanting and holding signs such as “Burn a Tesla: Save Democracy” and “No Dictators in the USA.” Similar protests took place in cities like Jacksonville, Florida, and Tucson, Arizona, where activists blocked traffic and disrupted Tesla showrooms.
Musk, the world’s richest person, is leading the Trump administration’s controversial Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative, which has resulted in the firing of thousands of federal employees, the cancellation of aid contracts, and the termination of federal leases.
Neither Tesla nor the White House responded to requests for comment on Saturday night.
The sweeping layoffs have already caused significant disruptions, with some federal agencies scrambling to rehire key personnel—including nuclear weapons specialists, scientists tackling a bird flu outbreak, and officials managing national electricity supplies.
Since Trump’s inauguration on January 20, at least 100,000 out of 2.3 million federal employees have been either fired or have accepted buyouts.
Protest organizers, through the website Action Network, urged people to divest from Tesla stock and join picket lines.
“Detaching Musk from Tesla would be a meaningful blow against this administration and its prerogatives,” actor and filmmaker Alex Winter wrote in Rolling Stone. Winter, a vocal critic of Musk, has claimed on social media that he played a key role in organizing the protests.
