“Tesla Takedown” organizers have promised their biggest day of global action today, encouraging thousands to protest outside Tesla showrooms, dealerships, and even charging stations to peacefully object to Elon Musk’s role in slashing government spending.
As Tesla protests have spread, so has the backlash. Activists holding up signs are being conflated with masked vandals throwing Molotov cocktails. On social media, and in Washington, the distinction is fading fast.
President Donald Trump has called attacks on Tesla “domestic terrorism” and threatened to send “terrorist thugs” to prisons in El Salvador. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has pledged to prosecute “those operating behind the scenes to coordinate and fund these crimes,” even though evidence suggests the attacks were carried out by “lone offenders.” And Musk’s decision to accuse at least one peaceful protester of “committing crimes” on X has fueled a public discourse that equates protest with vandalism, and vandalism with terrorism.
If the government or law enforcement starts treating all anti-Tesla actions as criminal, peaceful protesters could find themselves facing consequences meant for extremists.
“Terrorism is a problematic concept in law enforcement because it is by definition differentiated from other violence by its political nature,” Mike German, a former FBI special agent and fellow at the Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security Program, told TechCrunch. “That’s why we’ve seen counterterrorism measures so often result in problematic outcomes targeting the civil rights of people engaged in First Amendment-protected activity, rather than the people who are committing acts of violence.”
The Tesla Takedown protesters have consistently preached nonviolence at rallies and on their website. The movement’s stated goal is not to physically harm Tesla or Musk, but rather to encourage people to sell their Teslas, sell their stock, and stop buying new Teslas.
“The reason that [Musk] is in the position that he is in is because of his wealth, and we feel that if we can continue to drive that Tesla stock price down, we will hit him in the spot that it matters,” Natasha Purdum, a New Jersey-based organizer, told TechCrunch. “Ultimately, we see that as a key to taking down some of the major destruction that is happening in our federal government, courtesy of DOGE and Elon Musk.”
Musk is the world’s richest person in large part due to his Tesla stock. He owns roughly 13% of the company, which today is valued at around $829 billion, making Musk’s share worth around $107.8 billion. That wealth has allowed Musk to spend $44 billion to buy Twitter, the primary platform he uses to communicate to his 219 million followers. Musk has also dipped into his own funds to donate more than $260 million to the America PAC that helped Trump clinch the election.
As someone who spent 16 years as an FBI special agent focused on domestic terrorism, German says he wouldn’t be surprised to see local police working hand in glove with terrorism taskforces — like the one the FBI just formed — to monitor Tesla Takedown protests. Per the Attorney General’s Guidelines, the FBI doesn’t require a factual basis for a suspicion of terrorism to begin conducting physical surveillance, which includes taking photos of people, cars, and license plates, deploying informants to infiltrate a group, accessing private databases, and more.
“It’s also important to understand that law enforcement in the United States is primarily intended to protect the property of the wealthy,” German said. “Corporations in the United States are politically powerful and have access to elected officials and top law enforcement officials. And when their interests are challenged, particularly by protest, they want to present that as a law enforcement issue, rather than as legitimate public concerns about their corporate activities.”
The FBI declined to comment on TechCrunch’s question about whether the agency is taking any special action this weekend.
Musk and the Trump administration have ramped up their rhetoric in the lead up to March 29, when at least 213 Tesla Takedown protests are scheduled around the world, from Colorado and Kentucky to Germany, Minnesota, France, and Texas.
On Thursday, Musk appeared on Fox News’ “Special Report” to say that he and Trump are going to “go after…the ones providing the money, the ones pushing the lies and propaganda.”
Trump has suggested that the attacks on Tesla property were coordinated to intimidate Musk, despite internal assessments finding otherwise. Musk has also claimed, without showing proof, that certain Tesla Takedown organizers were funded by ActBlue, a nonprofit that funds progressive causes and Democratic candidates.
And Bondi has accused Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) of “calling for further insurrection” after Crockett said that Musk needed to be “taken down” at a virtual Tesla Takedown rally last week. Crockett couched that statement with calls for nonviolence and peaceful demonstrations, but regardless, Bondi said she needs to “tread very carefully.”
German says this rhetoric, too, is an old government trick to try to discredit and suppress protest movements by claiming “a handful of acts of violence are the result of the spread of bad ideas, radical ideas.”
Purdum, one of the Tesla organizers, advised protesters to put their wellbeing first. Leave if you feel unsafe, adhere to your local protest regulations, don’t trespass, follow police orders, and have a lawyer’s number in your back pocket just in case, she said.
“Authoritarian regimes have a long history of equating peaceful protest with violence,” Stephanie Frizzell, a Tesla Takedown organizer from Dallas, said. “The Tesla Takedown movement has always been and will remain nonviolent. Their goal is to intimidate us into silence as we stand against Musk’s destructive actions — but defending free speech is fundamental to democracy. We will not be deterred.”
