Chaos hit Tesla showrooms across the United States on Saturday as furious protesters demanded the shutdown of Elon Musk’s car empire. The demonstrations were of course fueled by Elon’s tightening grip on federal government cuts under his controversial Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E.). According to a Financial Times report, crowds flooded Tesla storefronts in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Miami, and dozens of other cities, chanting “Shut it down!” and waving banners accusing Elon of slashing jobs to fund his companies. The protests were also organized online on Bluesky under the hashtags #TeslaTakedown and #TeslaTakeover. Elon, now a key adviser to President Donald Trump, has overseen tens of thousands of job cuts, eliminated entire departments, and gained access to sensitive US Treasury payments. His influence has triggered growing accusations that he is using government power for personal gain, especially after he showed up to the Oval last week and publicly hung out with his son, X, and the president. Tesla targeted as outrage spreads across continents Tesla’s Berlin factory became a symbol of the backlash as activists in Germany and the UK projected an image of Elon making a gesture compared to a N*zi salute onto the building. The UK campaign group Led by Donkeys, alongside Germany’s Centre for Political Beauty, organized the projection as part of a montage of Elon’s recent far-right endorsements. The protests have turned violent in some areas, per the Financial Times. Tesla showrooms in Oregon and Colorado were targeted in arson attempts, and earlier this month, a Tesla showroom in The Hague was defaced with swastikas and anti-fascist slogans, forcing Dutch authorities to launch an investigation. Tesla stock also plummeted amid the controversy, falling 6% on Tuesday to $328.50 before bouncing back to $355.84 by the end of the week. The stock remains down 12% since the start of the year, as investors get even more and more anxious. Fired federal workers lash out at Elon’s D.O.G.E. cuts As the real life protests escalated, former federal employees fired under D.O.G.E. took to X (formerly Twitter) to vent their anger. One user, claiming to be a former Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) worker, tweeted : “Hey Elon! Your D.O.G.E minions just fired me and my colleagues at CMMI. We were working on improving maternal health outcomes AT LOWER COSTS so that less pregnant women would die in this county.” Other users piled on Elon, accusing him of diverting government funds to benefit his businesses. One post read: “Saving every penny he can to fund government subsidies for his companies and Mars fantasies, at the expense of health and lives.” The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), which oversees the US nuclear weapons stockpile, also faced fallout from Elon’s cuts. According to an NBC report on Sunday, officials attempted to reinstate some fired employees but couldn’t reach them because their government email accounts had been disabled. The email reads: “The termination letters for some NNSA probationary employees are being rescinded, but we do not have a good way to get in touch with those personnel.” The message urged supervisors to relay information to former staff members using personal contact emails. Under Elon’s oversight, the federal government has shed 9,500 workers so far, with another 75,000 accepting buyouts to avoid termination. The cuts are one of the most aggressive reductions in government staff in modern US history. Under President Biden, federal employment surged from 2.1 million workers in 2019 to over 3 million by December 2024—a 43% increase in just five years. In 2023 alone, the government added 709,000 jobs, bringing criticism from Americans that bureaucracy had grown out of control. Cryptopolitan Academy: FREE Web3 Resume Cheat Sheet - Download Now
