With a defiant musical ensemble leading the way, demonstrators in Boston’s weekly Tesla Takedown rally sang, chanted and protested Elon Musks’ unelected role in the federal government March 9.
The Back Bay protests, which started Feb. 15, have since gained momentum week by week. Signs reading “Musk to Mars” and “Stop the Coup” filled the crowd of more than 300 outside the Boylston Street Tesla showroom.
Similar protests have taken place across the nation throughout February and March in response to Musk’s growing role within President Donald Trump’s administration and his leadership of the controversial Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
“I’ve been really alarmed and disturbed by the slash-and-burn firings by Elon Musk. I was just completely disturbed by his role in the new administration,” said Gabriel Robinson, an illustrator from Cambridge. “He’s an unelected, unrepresentative person and I’ve just been trying to figure out a way to act.”
Though frustrated with Musk and DOGE, Robinson embraced the hopeful nature of the protest and wished for demonstrators’ shared anger to be channeled into change.
“If [Tesla’s] stock price goes down, then some of Elon’s huge wealth could also be jeopardized. It could start a cascade that would take away some of his wealth and if you take away some of his wealth, you take away some of his power,” Robinson said. “I’ve just been looking for a way that ordinary citizens can break his power.”
Protesters booed Tesla vehicles as they drove past the protest and chanted “No nazis, no kings,” alluding to Musk’s unelected role in the government leading DOGE.
In contrast to similar anti-Trump protests throughout the city of Boston since Trump’s re-election, the regular Tesla Takedown rallies aim to attack Musk’s bottom line: his business. Using the Back Bay Tesla storefront as the backdrop to their weekly protests, demonstrators rallied for a nationwide boycott of Tesla products and stocks.
The series of national Tesla protests are found on the left-wing organizing website Action Network, with anti-Musk demonstrations happening not just in the United States, but at worldwide storefronts in the United Kingdom and Portugal as well.
Shua Sanchez, organizer for the weekly Boston Tesla Takedown rally and Massachusetts Institute of Technology physicist, handed his megaphone to fellow organizers, giving them the platform to talk about the boycott, the “slash-and-burn” of federal employees and Musk’s ever-growing political power in front of the crowd.
One of the protest’s leaders, Xaulanda Thorpe, gave a speech about the power of collective action against the government layoffs. By spearheading layoffs from federal agencies like the Department of Defense, the Department of Education and the Internal Revenue Service, the administration’s actions have left thousands without stable employment, she said. She suggested tangible acts of kindness for government workers, like cooking or other means of support.
“When the government is based on hate, acts of kindness become persistent,” Thorpe said. “We have a responsibility to make everyday acts resistance.”
For Jessica Dombroski, a human outreach worker in Worcester, participating in the Tesla Takedown rally gave her hope for the future.
“I paid attention in history class when I was a kid, and all signs point to fascism,” she said. “[The protest] makes me feel super optimistic that there might be hope for this country and we might be able to get out of this again.”
Since Trump’s inauguration and the development of DOGE, many Musk-specific demonstrations have emerged around the Greater Boston area.
Over the last month, there were similar Tesla Takedown demonstrations in Watertown and Dedham in front of Tesla dealerships and charging stations, but some acts have escalated beyond peaceful protest.
In Brookline, a man was arrested March 5 for placing stickers on parked Tesla vehicles, and in Littleton, authorities are searching for an individual who allegedly set a Tesla charging station on fire.
“It is not about violence. That’s not what this is about,” Thorpe said about the weekly Back Bay protests. “This is about making small changes right now to make it harder for their expectations to come true.”
Thorpe and Sanchez plan to protest every weekend in an effort to show Musk their strength as the protest grows in size over time.
“If each of you can bring one more person and we can double this and then double it again the next week after that, we can show that we are the movement,” Thorpe said.
