Arlington, VA—Rain, wind, mud, drenched clothes, and soggy shoes at the Arlington, Tesla Takedown boycott line did little to prevent the die-hards from completing their weekly Tesla Takedown community service. On week 13 they danced even better in the rain than they did before skies opened up on them.
Sign lettering and sharpie messages ran and faded with the poring rain, ruining most of the colorful hand-made signs but it didn’t matter to the activists who continued dancing and encouraging passing motorists to blow their horns. Some signs appeared to be bleeding, a metaphorical statement to the state of affairs in the U.S. government at the hands of the Trump regime.
The soaking rain brought out some introspection from activists on why they were there. “Comfort and Revolution don’t go together,” said Nadine Seller, a mainstay known for her colorful cursive spray-painted banners. Soaked and undaunted, she ruminated those who continue to visit the Tesla showrooms. But her rumination may be short-lived as Tesla stock continues to founder.
From the bullhorn, Lawrence MacDonald rallied those assembled with insight on what they were doing and why they were outside the Tesla showroom. “Elon Musk says he’s stepping back from destroying our society and country. Is that what we’re doing?” he asked the protesters. “No!”, they responded.
How about ‘hell no!,” he retorted. “Hell no!” they yelled back. His skills at easily motivating groups was apparent.
He continued spinning them up. “Senator Lisa Murkowski [with] all kinds of power and privilege said she’s afraid. Are we afraid?” “Hell no!”, they responded.
MacDonald easily put into perspective that the courage and presence in the resistance movement was more powerful within the people than it was in the elected leadership. Up to this point the elected have been almost completely muted by the Trump-Musk government takeovers and takedowns of agencies and bureaus. Up to this point the speeches and appearances at agencies and bureaus have resulted in no progress stopping DOGE from taking over agencies, violating security access standards, and pilfering data.
But the Tesla Takedowns have had improbable success in undermining the value of the company in which the world’s richest man has tied most of his wealth, and used it to leverage control of I.S. government from its constitutional purpose.
Elon Musk has been the first to blink during the Tesla Takedown protest saga, telling stockholders in the media he’d be “stepping back” from his so called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) project, a project U.S. District Courts have ruled against with dozens of orders countering its actions. His project is actually a government destruction project. He said he planned to focus on “allocating more of [his] time to Tesla.”
That didn’t matter either because activists vowed to keep returning to Tesla Takedowns anyway to continue pressuring the public to dump Tesla cars and stock and boycott the car company.
It is one of the most successful grassroots organized boycott actions ever taken against a corporate behemoth as evidenced by Teslas first quarter 2025 revenue results. The electric vehicle (EV) car company sales revenue collapsed 71% compared to first quarter 2024 revenue results.
The vaunted Musk and his brand have effectively been run off the road and over a cliff by protests. The EV automaker and world’s riches man suffered damage from the nation-wide Tesla Takedowns by the card-carrying “Soros” fandom. Even Musk himself acknowledged so much so the damage during an interview in March, when he reflected on the damage to his company the Tesla protests were having. However he falsely accused the left with vandalism to his showrooms without offering any evidence to support his claim.
This is a major win for the activists who have inspired each other to keep returning each week with the energy that’s making a major impact on the Tesla corporate values and a major economic objective they first undertook in early February.
They’ll have to fix one thing however, and that’s how their signs hold up under rainy conditions. Several who’ve have been through rain storms several times before, told newcomers they could cover sigs with packing tape or place plastic over them. They’re going to need that for the Summer thunderstorms yet to come.
