Latest news with #TeslaTakedown
Boston Globe
5 hours ago
- Business
- Boston Globe
Tesla protesters claim a victory as Elon Musk leaves Trump's side
Advertisement 'That first one on Feb. 15 was me and like 50 people,' Donovan said. 'And then the next week it was a hundred more people and then a hundred more after that, and it's just grown.' Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Tesla Takedown has since expanded into an international movement, staging demonstrations at Tesla factories, showrooms and other locations in countries including Australia, Britain, France and Germany as well as across the United States. The campaign's U.S. growth has been fueled in large part by anger over Musk's leadership of the Department of Government Efficiency, which has slashed government spending and dismissed tens of thousands of federal workers while gaining access to sensitive personal data. Musk departed the administration after his involvement in politics hurt his companies, especially Tesla. Sales of the company's cars have tumbled since Trump took office and the start of protests against the company. Advertisement David S. Meyer, a sociology professor at the University of California, Irvine, who studies corporate protest movements, said the anti-Tesla movement had been surprisingly effective. 'Most corporate boycotts and corporate actions don't work and don't last,' he said. 'They're a blip and fade away.' The Tesla protests, however, 'gave people something to do to express their dissatisfaction with Trump in general and DOGE in particular, and made Musk's participation in those a liability for Tesla.' Tesla and Musk did not respond to requests for comment. A White House spokesperson said the protests were not the reason Musk had stepped away from his government role. 'He had to go back to his companies,' the spokesperson said. The challenge for Donovan, whose academic research focuses on misinformation, and the other activists is keeping their movement going now that Musk appears to be pulling back from politics. Alice Hu, a political activist who has organized protests at Tesla locations in New York, said organizers were determined to continue, drawing on people's distress over Trump's policies and Musk's support of right-wing causes. 'We want to apply as much pressure as possible to Elon Musk himself,' Hu said. 'We want to send a message to the Trump regime that there is a mass movement and that people are watching, and there will be consequences for what they are doing to our government.' The group is planning around 50 protests for June 28 -- Musk's birthday -- according to its website. Donovan said she hoped the protests would expand beyond picketing in front of Tesla locations. On a recent conference call that drew several hundred participants, organizers laid out plans to begin urging city and state governments to sell their Tesla stock and to stop doing business with Musk's other businesses including Starlink, the satellite communications service. Advertisement Donovan has firsthand experience with heated policy and political debates. Before joining Boston University, she was the research director at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University. After leaving the center in 2023, she filed a complaint to Harvard's president contending that she was let go because of pressure from Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, which was a subject of her research and has financial ties to the university. In a statement, a spokesperson for Harvard said Donovan's allegations of unfair treatment and donor interference were 'false.' Meta declined to comment. Hu has political experience as well. A graduate of Columbia University, she founded a climate activist group, Planet Over Profit, that held demonstrations targeting Citi last year. A handful of celebrities have supported the Tesla Takedown protests. Actors Alex Winter and John Cusack have participated in organizing calls. Winter contacted Donovan early on and offered to create a Tesla Takedown website. He declined to comment for this article. In April, Tesla reported that its profit fell 71% in the first three months of the year after it sold 15% fewer cars compared with a year earlier. Many Tesla owners are selling or trading their cars in, and prices of used Teslas have fallen sharply. In early April, Tesla's stock price was down by around 54% from a December high, although it has regained much of that ground in recent weeks and is now down 29%. Advertisement In an April conference call to discuss Tesla earnings, Musk addressed the demonstrations, saying, without evidence, that the protesters were paid. 'They're obviously not going to admit that the reason that they're protesting is because they're receiving fraudulent money or that they're the recipients of wasteful largess,' he said. Hu and Donovan said they were not paid or funded by anyone to protest against Tesla. In March, Trump defended Musk and Tesla at a White House event in which he looked over a display of five different Tesla models and said he would buy one of them, a Model S luxury sedan. 'I think he's been treated very unfairly by a very small group of people,' Trump said. 'And I just want people to know that he can't be penalized for being a patriot.' One challenge for the protest movement is preventing it from becoming linked to recent acts of vandalism against Tesla. The company's cars, dealerships and chargers have been spray-painted, set on fire and damaged in other ways around the world. Musk and Trump have described these incidents as the work of 'terrorists.' The White House spokesperson said the Justice Department was investigating the vandalism. Donovan and Hu say they urge protesters to refrain from violence and demonstrate peacefully. But the posters and signs some demonstrators have displayed at Tesla Takedown events often take an aggressive tone. At one March demonstration in lower Manhattan, a line of protesters strode down the street toward a Tesla dealership, holding a large banner with the words, 'Burn a Tesla, Save Democracy,' painted against flames on a white background. In Germany protesters recently projected images and videos on the walls of Tesla's plant outside Berlin. They showed Musk making a Nazi-like, stiff-armed salute along with slogans like 'Heil Tesla.' Advertisement While the protests were originally aimed at Musk and Tesla, many events have started attracting people who see them as a way to demonstrate their opposition to other administration initiatives. At a recent demonstration at the Tesla store in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Beth Ann Thorrez was dressed in a penguin suit -- a poke at the Trump tariffs levied against countries around the world, including one uninhabited island populated largely by penguins. Several protesters said they would speak only on the condition of anonymity, saying they feared attacks from supporters of Trump and Musk, or punitive actions by the federal government. Donovan said death threats arrive in her email inbox and social media accounts almost every day. But she finds encouragement and resolve, she said, in how the demonstrations have grown. The events in Boston where Donovan is often present typically draw hundreds of participants and have taken on a carnival atmosphere. A marching band provided entertainment at one recent gathering; a chorus sang at another. 'A lot of people who are not incredibly political in their daily lives are coming out and joining,' she said. 'You see a lot of adults, grandparents, kids. I'm energized by it.' This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
New York Times
9 hours ago
- Automotive
- New York Times
Tesla Protesters Claim a Victory as Elon Musk Leaves Trump's Side
Elon Musk left the Trump administration with a White House send-off on Friday. That was a victory of sorts for a group of activists who have spent much of the last four months organizing protests against Mr. Musk's right-wing politics by targeting his electric car company, Tesla. A day later, on Saturday, hundreds of people showed up at more than 50 Tesla showrooms and other company locations to continue their protests. The campaign at Tesla sites began in February after Joan Donovan, a sociology professor at Boston University, gathered friends to hold a demonstration at a Tesla showroom in Boston, and posted a notice about her plan on Bluesky using the hashtag #TeslaTakedown. She said she had been inspired by a small protest at Tesla's electric vehicle chargers in Maine soon after President Trump's inauguration. 'That first one on Feb. 15 was me and like 50 people,' Ms. Donovan said. 'And then the next week it was a hundred more people, and then a hundred more after that, and it's just grown.' Tesla Takedown has since expanded into an international movement, staging demonstrations at Tesla factories, showrooms and other locations in countries including Australia, Britain, France and Germany as well as across the United States. The campaign's U.S. growth has been fueled in large part by anger over Mr. Musk's leadership of the Department of Government Efficiency, which has slashed government spending and dismissed tens of thousands of federal workers while gaining access to sensitive personal data. Mr. Musk departed the administration after his involvement in politics hurt his companies, especially Tesla. Sales of the company's cars have tumbled since Mr. Trump took office and the start of protests against the company. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Post
23-05-2025
- Automotive
- New York Post
Tesla shares could rally 40% on 'golden age' of robotaxis, says Wedbush analyst Dan Ives
Tesla's rollout of its robotaxi will usher in a 'golden age of autonomous' and could send the EV maker's beaten-down soaring by 40%, WedBush analyst Dan Ives predicted Friday. 'We believe the golden age of autonomous is now on the doorstep for Tesla with the Austin launch next month kicking off this key next chapter of growth for Musk & Co. and we are raising our price target from $350 to $500 reflecting this massive stage of valuation creation ahead,' Ives wrote in a note. He estimated that autonomous driving is a $1 trillion opportunity for Tesla and could push the EV maker's market cap to $2 trillion by the end of 2026. 3 Tesla CEO Elon Musk and President Trump speak ahead of a state dinner hosted by Qatar in May. REUTERS Uber and Waymo will also benefit largely from autonomous driving opportunities, Ives added. Backlash over Musk's role as DOGE cost-cutter have weighed on Tesla stock, with shares down about 10% far this year. The President Trump-backing mogul announced he is stepping back from his White House involvement this week and committed to leading the company for five more years. Musk earlier this week confirmed that Tesla plans to have autonomous robotaxis driving on the streets of Austin, Texas, by the end of June, with future plans for rollouts in Los Angeles and San Francisco. If the launch goes smoothly, Tesla will rapidly expand the number of robotaxis in service in Austin, the world's richest person said. It's a long time coming, as Musk has been telling Tesla investors that self-driving taxis are just a year away since 2016. While Tesla currently sells vehicles with self-driving capabilities, they require human supervision. The robotaxi would mark the automaker's first fully autonomous car. Ives said his optimism on Tesla is also linked to Musk's reduced role in the White House. 3 Musk and Trump stand near a Tesla vehicle on display in the White House driveway in March. REUTERS Most recently, the billionaire tech founder said he will drop in on the White House 'for a couple days every few weeks,' a major pullback from his current proximity to the president. His role in the government agency 'created brand damage and a black cloud' over Tesla, Ives said. Protests have broken out at Tesla dealerships across the nation as demonstrators decry his intense government cuts, like slashing federal jobs and spending at the Department of Education, US Agency for International Development and National Institutes of Health. There have been arson attacks at Tesla showrooms, with Molotov cocktails tossed at cars. Investors have also grown frustrated with Musk's involvement in DOGE, viewing it as a time-suck away from his attention on Tesla. Musk also owns several other companies, including The Boring Company, SpaceX and social media platform X. 3 Demonstrators protest Musk's proximity to the White House during a 'Tesla Takedown' event in March. AFP via Getty Images While the robotaxi launch is promising, Tesla still faces several challenges, including a slump in overseas sales. Chinese rival BYD sold more electric vehicles in Europe than Tesla for the first time ever last month. Tesla reported yet another monthly drop in Europe sales, with volumes plunging 49% in April from the year before, according to a report from JATO Dynamics.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Elon Musk says he'll do a 'lot less' political spending in the future
Elon Musk said he'll cut back on political spending and that he's "done enough." During an interview on Tuesday, Musk said he didn't see a reason to spend right now. Musk is seen by some as a political liability for Republicans after spending enormous sums in 2024. Elon Musk said his era of enormous political spending is over — at least for the time being. The world's richest man said during a video interview at the Qatar Economic forum that he thinks he's "done enough" when it comes to political contributions. "In terms of political spending, I'm going to do a lot less in the future," Musk said. He didn't directly answer when asked if he was making the change because of blowback. "Well, if I see a reason to do political spending in the future, I will do it," Musk said in response. "I do not currently see a reason." He's previously said that his super PAC planned to spend on the 2026 midterms. Musk spent at least $277 million backing President Donald Trump and the GOP during the 2024 election, making him the single biggest donor of the cycle. He's become a prominent political figure as the face of the White House DOGE Office, though he's said stepping back from his government work to focus more on Tesla. In the months since Trump took office, Musk has become something of a political liability. His popularity has sunk, according to recent polling. His super PAC spent at least $15.5 million on a Wisconsin Supreme Court race, only to have his preferred candidate lose. Tesla has also faced significant political reactions, with a widespread Tesla Takedown movement leading to protests and vandalism across the country. In Tuesday's interview, Musk said that he has taken all that's happened with Tesla recently — falling shares compared to last year, the public backlash — personally. He did not answer, though, whether it made him regret his political involvement, instead bemoaning that "massive violence was committed against my companies, massive violence was threatened against me." Representatives for Musk and the White House did not immediately respond to Business a request for comment from Business Insider. Read the original article on Business Insider
Business Insider
20-05-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Elon Musk says he'll do a 'lot less' political spending in the future
Elon Musk said his era of enormous political spending is over — at least for the time being. The world's richest man said during a video interview at the Qatar Economic forum that he thinks he's "done enough" when it comes to political contributions. "In terms of political spending, I'm going to do a lot less in the future," Musk said. He didn't directly answer when asked if he was making the change because of blowback. "Well, if I see a reason to do political spending in the future, I will do it," Musk said in response. "I do not currently see a reason." He's previously said that his super PAC planned to spend on the 2026 midterms. NEW: Elon Musk says he's cutting back on political spending in the future. 'I think I've done enough.' 'I don't currently see a reason.' — bryan metzger (@metzgov) May 20, 2025 Musk spent at least $277 million backing President Donald Trump and the GOP during the 2024 election, making him the single biggest donor of the cycle. He's become a prominent political figure as the face of the White House DOGE Office, though he's said stepping back from his government work to focus more on Tesla. In the months since Trump took office, Musk has become something of a political liability. His popularity has sunk, according to recent polling. His super PAC spent at least $15.5 million on a Wisconsin Supreme Court race, only to have his preferred candidate lose. Tesla has also faced significant political reactions, with a widespread Tesla Takedown movement leading to protests and vandalism across the country. In Tuesday's interview, Musk said that he has taken all that's happened with Tesla recently — falling shares compared to last year, the public backlash — personally. He did not answer, though, whether it made him regret his political involvement, instead bemoaning that "massive violence was committed against my companies, massive violence was threatened against me."
