Arlington, Va—As the weekly Saturday boycott line began winding down, Lawrence MacDonald read a list of issues over a bullhorn to about 50 who were compelled to return to week 17 of the Arlington Tesla Takedown. “Medicaid! he shouted, “Hands Off!” the group responded. “Social Security!” “Hands off!” they repeated. “Due process!…” He continued down his mental list of the many government agencies, services, and rights already hacked to pieces by Musk’s so called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and after each one they respond as if dutifully bound, “Hands off!” When he ran out of issues others shouted their reasons for being there. This went on for a while.
In the street behind them, passing motorists continued honking and partially drowning out their replies. A truck blasted its airhorn drowning them out altogether for a few moments. Someone cheered back, “Woooo Hoooo!” This delayed MacDonald’s closing comments further but gave an opening for others to speak.
With the passing months, the motorists have gotten much more into the mix of people dancing with joy, waving and cheering, reading the signs and their weekly Tesla Takedown boycott message outside the showroom on South Glebe Road. Many motorists seem to expect them to be there and have laid the sauce on thick with honking and thumbs up, sometimes disturbing the residents nearby.
Recently a resident came out to ask them to keep the noise down because he had guests to visit and lived right across from the Tesla. Someone from the boycott line threaded their response between polite and rude that the country was facing an authoritarian takeover and a little disruption while they were fighting it in the streets wasn’t going to do him or his guests any longterm harm such as this regime would do him. He left flustered. The Tesla Takedowns have continued.
Another tall muscular man they call Gus, took the bullhorn next and had something important to tell them. He had been watching youtube videos of Serbia protests. He compared the Tesla Takedowns to the actions long-standing protests in Serbia where its citizens are fighting the populist government of President Aleksandar Vucic and its crackdown on students and university professors opposing his strong arm dismantle of democratic freedoms. “Those folks out there are just relentless. They’re making a difference by getting out there every day. They’re persevering and that’s what its all about,” he said.
He also said this Telsa Takedown had the most honks of any location he had been to. He urged them to keep coming and get more to join by passing out flyers inviting others to join.
Others were doing more than their part aside from showing up. They brought friends with them. One lady in her 70s brought two friends in her age group, their long grey hair belying their age. Others much younger stood just up the line from them. It was their first time at a Tesla Takedown.
A man who runs a fulfillment business brought eight bags of his pin-up buttons which he said makes by hand, offering them free to anyone who wanted them. They cost him 50 cents a piece but he brings hundreds which are given to motorists who stop to say thanks. Bob, as they refer to him, wears his baseball cap with the buttons neatly displayed around its brim. “Have you tried my newest button edition?” he asked. It depicts a cartoon image of clown-like Trump dressed in an orange crown and a red X over his face.
Others have printed hand flyers and bumper stickers for anyone who stoped and opened their window to accept them. One of the stickers depicted a coiled snake and reads, ‘They’re Already Treading on You, Sweetie’ a poke to the Libertarians who pass by to join the line.
Tesla Takedowns Met Their Objectives
Much has come as a result of the Tesla Takedown boycott lines. They are continuing far longer than anyone imagined they would and they have been far more influential on the downfall of Tesla brand and its corporate reputation than anyone imagined they would be.
A published report in Electrek, a news and site that tracks and analyzes the transition from fossil-fuel transport to electric transport, reported a large Danish Construction Company Tschening, is returning its entire fleet of Tesla electric vehicles over Musk’s political association with Trump. The company CEO stated his company did not want to be “associated with the values and political direction that currently accompany the Tesla brand,” according to the report.
Tesla sales are down sharply globally even though the global demand and market for electric vehicles is growing as many begin to transition from fossil fuels to electric sources for their transportation.
A published report in Carscoops said Tesla sales for the month of February dropped 76% in Germany, 72% in Australia, and 66% in the European Union. China reported a 50% drop in sales during this period.
ElecTrek reported Tesla sales in the U.S. were down sharply even by its own standards; a drop of 15%, with a “record of inventory not seen in years.” The report further indicated that the reason sales were off so much was due to “brand damage” during the first quarter .
A story in TC said that Tesla’s attorneys had filed a warning with the Securities and Exchange Exchange Commission in April that “negative perceptions resulting from the protests, along with the broader criticism of the company, “may harm our brand and our business (including sales) and make it more difficult to raise additional funds if needed.”
And a story published in Truthout, told of how Tesla EV company saw a 71% drop in profit since the beginning of 2025 in part due to the onset of Tesla Takedown protests outside its showrooms.
In the Bulwark on Substack, Johnathan V. Mask wrote, “The anti-Tesla movement is one of the most successful cases of social coordination in American history. In the span of six months the Tesla brand has been made radioactive.“
Tesla Takedown Purpose is Evolving
But many are coming to realize a key fact about the Tesla Takedowns which has slowly come into focus over the past two months. They are about much more than attempting to damage Elon Musk’s reputation and separate him from his money. It was easy in the early days for boycotters to say that when all this began. When Musk’s DOGE government interlopers forced themselves past security protocols, accessed the information held in the Federal arm of government, and removed Federal workers, the issues spurring the boycott lines were straightforward. Now things are different. They’re more complicated.
In the balance of this failing democracy hangs the liberty and rights of individuals weighed against the increasing wealth of the ultra rich like Musk. Taking down Tesla’s brand by handfuls of citizens resisting Musk and his DOGE team was their initial response. But now their purpose has morphed.
This Doge intrusion into and removal of government data, and illegal shutdown of many government services, terrible as it was, seems diminished in many ways compared to what is happening now.
The Tesla Takedowns are in fact evolving and their purpose is becoming even more important. This is because the last liberal guardrail of checks and balances of power standing is the Judiciary branch itself and it is imperiled as it is beginning to fail to hold the Trump regime to account.
Bedrock constitutional rights such as Habeas Corpus, the rights of U.S. Citizens to have public due process—to appear in court—to know their charges, to understand why they are being detained, and to be provided legal defense, are being denied to migrants and citizens alike. These are bedrock principles of the U.S. Constitution. This is happening to migrants workers and students as well who have green cards and are well on their way to citizenship.
Birthright citizenship rights are also being swept aside by the Trump regime with its growing hunger for power. And the regime is now ignoring or gaslighting many rulings of U.S. District Court Judges and even the Supreme Court on these issues. This threatens to sweep aside Judicial power altogether.
The bedrock ruling of the 1803 SCOTUS ruling in Marbury v. Madison, established that the Supreme Court was vested with the power and the final say of interpreting the constitutionality of law. Trump said he did not know if he was required to uphold the constitution, even though he twice took such an oath to do so on January 20, 2017 and on January 20, 2025.
The talk at the Tesla Takedown boycott line reflects a growing sense of unease that there’s much more at stake at the boycott lines than just Musk, his EV sales, and Tesla stock values. The boycott line is beginning to accept that they will be among those in the last guardrail checking the Trump regime power takeover in the U.S. government
The people are the last guardrail of power balance in any democratic government. What they decide to do about it will be the next chapter written in this country’s history.
