Tesla's Got Trust Issues

As protests against Elon Musk target his electric car company's showrooms, how will progressive buyers respond to feeling that the firm's founder has done them dirty?

- JEFF YOUNG

ON A BRISK, SUNNY SATURDAY, Pam Gersh approached the Tesla service and sales center on the outskirts of Louisville, Kentucky. The smartly dressed, retired professional looked every bit a potential Tesla buyer, but Gersh wasn't there for a test drive.

She clutched a handful of flyers bearing Tesla CEO Elon Musk's likeness and the phrase, “I am stealing from you.” Gersh had come to join about three dozen other demonstrators on the sidewalk as part of a Tesla Takedown protest.

“I’m hoping that we can destroy his entire brand,” Gersh told Newsweek.

Similar demonstrations have taken place at Tesla properties in more than 100 cities worldwide, according to organizers, as part of a coordinated effort to apply economic pressure against Elon Musk, the world's richest man.

Some demonstrators said they were protesting Musk's support for authoritarianism nd far-right groups, and his apparent Nazi salute at an inauguration event for President Donald Trump.

Some expressed concern that Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, was violating constitutional checks and balances by supplanting the role of Congress in spending decisions. Others called Musk a hypocrite for cutting federal services and jobs while his companies benefit from lucrative government contracts.

Gersh voiced many of those complaints and added in a more personal one. Her son, Mason Gersh, was an employee of the U.S. Agency for International Development for five years and was fired when USAID was eliminated—on Musk’s recommendation.

“We're pretty devastated as a family,” Gersh said, describing the years of savings for higher education that went into her son’s career delivering humanitarian aid. “It’s all gone because some DOGE teenager pushed a button and deleted his life.”

USAID’s work included programs to help less-developed countries adapt to impacts from climate change and adopt clean energy.