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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
‘This is not over’: Tesla Takedown protesters keep pressure on Elon
Musk despite DOGE exit
By Auzinea Bacon, CNN
Updated:
4:33 PM EDT, Sat June 7, 2025
Source: CNN
Demonstrations against tech billionaire Elon Musk are continuing, even
after the Tesla CEO leading the Department of Government Efficiency and
engaged in an this week with Donald Trump over the president’s
massive tax and domestic policy bill known as the “big, beautiful
bill.”
Musk, who contributed $288 million to Trump’s 2024 presidential
campaign, called the bill a “” just days after announcing he would
leave DOGE, his federal cost-cutting project. As the two traded jabs,
Trump threatened to cut government contracts for Musk’s companies and
Musk claimed that “Trump would have lost the election” without him.
Anti-Musk sentiment spilled onto sidewalks outside of Tesla showrooms
with 60 demonstrations scheduled Saturday in cities such as Delray
Beach, Florida; Louisville, Kentucky; and Decatur, Georgia, as part of
the Tesla Takedown movement, which began in mid-February amid Musk’s
role with DOGE.
At 11:30 a.m. ET, a crowd of about 30 demonstrators had gathered
outside of a Tesla showroom on a rainy morning in the Georgetown
neighborhood of Washington, DC.
Attendance for the Tesla Takedown event was well short of the roughly
200 who showed up last week in Rockville, Maryland, according to local
co-organizers Melissa Knutson and Sara Steffens, who cited the weather
and Pride Month events for the lower turnout.
“This is not over because (Musk) decided to go home with his tail
between his legs,” Knutson told CNN.
The Tesla Takedown movement, according to its website, calls on people
to “sell your Teslas, dump your stock and join the picket lines”
and believes that “stopping Musk will help save lives and protect our
democracy.”
Tesla sales plunged 13% in the first three months of this year, the
largest drop in deliveries in its history. Shares of Tesla () dropped
roughly 14% this week and are down nearly 47% from the high of
$488.54 on December 18.
Steffens said she “was really encouraged” to see Tesla’s stock
plunge this week. “It just shows none of this is normal,” she said.
Musk, the world’s richest man, has blamed a drop in sales on overall
economic weakness and consumer uncertainty, though and other car
companies rose.
Neither Tesla nor Alex Winter, one of the initial lead organizers for
Tesla Takedown, responded to CNN’s requests for comment.
Tesla Takedown efforts to continue
Musk’s exit from DOGE, his now-strained relationship with Trump,
slumping Tesla sales and the drop in the company’s share price do not
mean the Tesla Takedown movement is ending anytime soon, according to
attendees and organizers.
After Musk announced he was leaving DOGE, the Bluesky account for Tesla
Takedown on Saturday, June 28 (Musk’s birthday), as a way of
“recommitting to the fight.”
“We are tired of the billionaire takeover and we are not letting
up,” Knutson said.
Steffens noted some protesters have called on pension funds to divest
from Tesla. The public backlash is part of the reason that long-term
institutional investors sent a in late May raising concerns about the
company.
Many of the protesters in Georgetown on Saturday attended previous
demonstrations and said they have no plans to stop protesting despite
Musk’s departure from DOGE.
Jeanne Ferris told CNN that this was her fifth Tesla protest and that
she agrees with organizers that “Musk’s tendrils” are still
involved with the government.
James Decherd said he attends protests almost every week because
“it’s nice to be out with other people.” He added that he hopes
to “get people motivated” and “mobilized.”
Donna Powell says she and her husband have attended between 50 and 60
rallies against the Trump administration. She described Musk and Trump
as “billionaire brats having a tiff.”
She does not expect Trump supporters to join the demonstrations as an
act of solidarity with the president after Musk’s attacks on X. She
said Trump’s base isn’t “the type to go ‘anti-Musk.’”
“In the long run, (Trump and Musk) rely on each other, so they’ll
work something out,” said her husband, Don Powell.
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