Hundreds of protesters gathered at a New York City Tesla showroom on Saturday as part of sprawling demonstrations against Elon Musk‘s high-level involvement with the Trump administration.
Footage captured during protests at a Manhattan dealership shows police removing a number of demonstrators from inside the premises, where glass doors had been shattered.
Meanwhile, people gathered outside the facility could be heard chanting, “We need clean air, not another billionaire.”
NYPD officers arrest protesters during the ‘TeslaTakedown’ protest against Elon Musk outside a Tesla car dealership in New York City on March 8, 2025.
Mostafa Bassim/Getty Images
A woman, who identified herself on camera as “Frankie” while officers detained her, said she was “getting arrested today for protesting Elon Musk.”
“He bought his way into office, he bought his way into heading a government agency, he bought his power at the expense of the American people, at the expense of our environment, at the expense of our world and all of the people in it,” the woman said.
Six people were arrested in total, five for disorderly conduct and one for resisting arrest, according to media reports.
Musk was put in charge of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) by U.S. President Donald Trump shortly after he took office. Since then, the cost-cutting body has fired more than 60,000 government employees, with more set to follow.
People take part in a ‘TeslaTakedown’ protest against Elon Musk outside a Tesla car dealership in New York City on March 8, 2025.
Mostafa Bassim/Getty Images)
Another video posted on Musk-owned social media platform X on Saturday appears to show nine NYPD officers protecting a single Cybertruck.
“Nine cops to protect one Cybertruck, amazing,” the person filming the video says.
Saturday’s protests in Manhattan are the latest in a slew of targeted acts against Tesla in recent months.
In January, following a post-inaugural speech where Musk made multiple Nazi salute-like motions, U.K.- and Germany-based activist groups projected a still image of the billionaire tech mogul mid-gesture alongside the words “Heil Tesla” onto the outside of the company’s Gigafactory in Berlin.
The projection was accompanied by a social media post outlining Musk’s ties to several extreme right activists and politicians, including Germany’s AfD, a political party known for using Nazi imagery to push racist rhetoric and anti-democratic messaging.
It also noted Musk’s support for the founder of the far-right anti-Muslim and antisemitic organization the English Defence League, whose founder, Tommy Robinson, is currently in prison for contempt of court.
In the last week, arsonists have started fires at two separate Tesla facilities, one in the U.S. and one in France.
According to U.K. publication The Independent, 12 Tesla vehicles were set on fire outside a dealership in Toulouse, France, on March 5, destroying eight and severely damaging four. Authorities have since opened a criminal investigation.
The same day, seven Tesla charging stations at a mall in Littleton, Mass., about 60 kilometres outside of Boston, were burned, causing heavy damage and sending up plumes of thick smoke.
Nobody was injured in either incident.
Last week, Thomas Nelson, 42 of Lyons, Colo., was arrested after a local dealership was vandalized.
According to police, a Molotov cocktail was found next to a car, as well as graffiti of the word “NAZI” and a number of explosive devices.
Musk has not publicly responded to the growing resistance against his company.