“Feeling the urge to keep protesting? Get on down to your local Tesla dealership”, The Boston Globe

A grassroots effort to hold Elon Musk accountable for gutting government offices might actually be working.

By Miles Howard Updated April 15, 2025

Protesters rallied against Elon Musk outside a Tesla dealership in Pasadena, Calif. on March 29 as part of a nationwide “Tesla Takedown” demonstration.  MARIO TAMA/GETTY

Miles Howard is a freelance writer in Boston and the founder of the Walking City Trail. He publishes the weekly hiking newsletter Mind the Moss.

Twice a week, I walk past a Tesla dealership near the Prudential Center in Back Bay on my way to pick up groceries. But these days, instead of passing the dealership by, I often stop and unfurl the protest sign I have stashed in my bag.

Like the many others who attended the recent Hands Off demonstrations in cities and towns across the United States, I’ve grown some early gray hairs worrying about the human impacts of the current administration’s policies. I’ve wondered whether my parents will face cuts to their Social Security benefits — benefits they depend on and that come from a program Elon Musk has called “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.” I watched, appalled, as Musk proudly announced that he had spent a weekend feeding the United States Agency for International Development “into the wood chipper.” 

One group of organizers has decided to fight back. On Feb. 15, they proposed a plan of action for anyone fed up with Musk’s hostile government takeover.

They decided to target local Tesla dealerships. Why not hit Musk where it hurts the most?

These protests have taken off and morphed into a national grass-roots movement called Tesla Takedown. 

Protests at Tesla dealerships have been held from coast to coast, and while it’s impossible to know for sure whether this campaign of retaliation against Musk is having a direct impact on his company, the answer is probably yes. As outrage over Musk’s activities has exploded and his brand turned toxic, Tesla stock has plunged by 50 percent. 

But perhaps the most telling sign of Tesla Takedown’s potency is that Musk has used his massive platform on X to target protest leaders like Valerie Costa, a Seattle-based organizer whom Musk has baselessly accused of committing crimes.

The protests are ongoing, and they’ve been successful for several reasons.

An important feature of the Tesla Takedown protests is that they are recurring events, usually on weekends. Some of the people who gathered at the Prudential showroom on March 8, like me, were first-timers. But others were repeat participants. One of them, Steve, was retired and worried about how Medicare cuts could upend his life. A younger protester, Sandy, was laid off after Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency cut the US Department of Agriculture workforce by 15 percent. She and her partner are expecting a baby in May. As I listened to their stories, I was surprised that the atmosphere didn’t feel more grim. Instead, it felt more like catching up with neighbors at a local coffeehouse.

Maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised. Not only are Americans increasingly stressed and angry these days, but many of us are alone and lonely. What the organizers behind Tesla Takedown recognize is that breaking through our isolation is an opportunity for resistance.

I’ve never organized a protest, but I have spent the last few years orchestrating group walks through parks and urban forests in Boston. Several of these walks have drawn 30 or more people, and every walk has quickly morphed into a big, roving conversation among friends and strangers, as we trek through wetlands and garden paths.

These walks have shown me just how hungry Americans are for opportunities to interact in the “real world.” No, we haven’t seen many of the big demonstrations that characterized the resistance during Trump’s first term, like the Women’s March of 2017. But people are organizing on a smaller scale and more regular basis — in a way that I believe builds community and power more sustainably.

Demonstrations that are broadly accessible and recurrent, like the Tesla Takedown protests, offer people more than an outlet for expressing their feelings. These targeted protests are an exercise in establishing new relationships and solidarity — not unlike the running groups or book clubs that some of us attend each month. 

It was my second Tesla Takedown protest, on the Providence Highway by the Dedham Mall, that illustrated how regular acts of solidarity, great and small, will be vital in the months or years to come.

The sidewalk outside the Dedham dealership was already packed with 100 sign-wielding protesters when I arrived midmorning on a chilly Saturday. Organizers walked along the column of protesters, urging people to avoid stepping onto Tesla property or blocking the sidewalk entirely, as police cars lurked nearby in the dealership parking lot. The intention was peaceful, lawful protest; not vandalizing or obstructing regular business at the dealership (actions that I would not support). Most of the cars and trucks that zoomed by us honked enthusiastically, sending cheers through the ranks.

At one point during the Dedham protest, an older protester stepped on my foot and began tumbling backward toward the road. Two of us quickly caught her. I’d like to think that if we hadn’t reacted in time, or if either of us had been the one who stumbled, somebody else would have swooped in. 

If we’re serious about pushing for accountability from people in power, we need to start with having each other’s backs — sometimes literally.