Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump.
Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism.
Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan.
Photo: Getty Images via AFP
Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which is dramatically slashing the US federal government.
Amy Neifeld, a 70-year-old psychologist who had not joined a protest since marching against the Vietnam War in the 1970s, said Musk was leading the country toward fascism.
“I’m Jewish, so I grew up with a great awareness of fascism,” she said. “And it has just gotten uglier and uglier” since Trump returned to the White House.
The protest was organized by the environmental activist group Planet Over Profit, which said “stopping Musk will help save lives and protect our democracy.”
In Washington’s posh Georgetown neighborhood, about 150 people gathered in a festive mood on an unseasonably warm day, dancing and cheering as passing cars honked.
Protests also took place in Florida, Massachusetts and California, as well as in European cities such as London, Berlin and Paris.
In Vancouver, where about 100 people protested at a Tesla dealership, one person in a dinosaur costume held a placard that said: “You thought the Nazis were extinct? Don’t buy a Swasticar.”
A small group of Americans held signs outside a Tesla dealership in the French capital, including one that read “Send Musk to Mars now.”
Musk and Trump “are destroying our democracy, not obeying the basic rules of our country and firing people at agencies that do very important work,” said Raf, 59, a Paris protester who did not wish to give his last name.
European sales of Tesla electric cars dropped 49 percent in January to February compared with the same period a year earlier, the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) said on Tuesday last week.
Aging models are one factor behind the plunge so far this year, but electric vehicle clients might also be refusing to buy in protest against Musk since he became a key supporter of Trump.
New Tesla registrations in the EU fell to 19,046 in the first two months of the year, giving the company a market share of just 1.1 percent.
Last month alone, Tesla registrations were down 47 percent at 11,743, the ACEA said.
The sales drop came even as overall electric vehicle sales jumped 28.4 percent over the first two months to 255,489 — for an EU market share of 15.2 percent.
Asked for reaction to the protests, Tesla did not immediately respond.
RUN IT BACK: A succesful first project working with hyperscalers to design chips encouraged MediaTek to start a second project, aiming to hit stride in 2028 MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip supplier, yesterday said it is engaging a second hyperscaler to help design artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators used in data centers following a similar project expected to generate revenue streams soon. The first AI accelerator project is to bring in US$1 billion revenue next year and several billion US dollars more in 2027, MediaTek chief executive officer Rick Tsai (蔡力行) told a virtual investor conference yesterday. The second AI accelerator project is expected to contribute to revenue beginning in 2028, Tsai said. MediaTek yesterday raised its revenue forecast for the global AI accelerator used
TEMPORARY TRUCE: China has made concessions to ease rare earth trade controls, among others, while Washington holds fire on a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods China is effectively suspending implementation of additional export controls on rare earth metals and terminating investigations targeting US companies in the semiconductor supply chain, the White House announced. The White House on Saturday issued a fact sheet outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier in the week by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) that aimed to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Under the deal, China is to issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite “for the benefit of US end users and their suppliers
Dutch chipmaker Nexperia BV’s China unit yesterday said that it had established sufficient inventories of finished goods and works-in-progress, and that its supply chain remained secure and stable after its parent halted wafer supplies. The Dutch company suspended supplies of wafers to its Chinese assembly plant a week ago, calling it “a direct consequence of the local management’s recent failure to comply with the agreed contractual payment terms,” Reuters reported on Friday last week. Its China unit called Nexperia’s suspension “unilateral” and “extremely irresponsible,” adding that the Dutch parent’s claim about contractual payment was “misleading and highly deceptive,” according to a statement
Artificial intelligence (AI) giant Nvidia Corp’s most advanced chips would be reserved for US companies and kept out of China and other countries, US President Donald Trump said. During an interview that aired on Sunday on CBS’ 60 Minutes program and in comments to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said only US customers should have access to the top-end Blackwell chips offered by Nvidia, the world’s most valuable company by market capitalization. “The most advanced, we will not let anybody have them other than the United States,” he told CBS, echoing remarks made earlier to reporters as he returned to Washington
RSS