CNN

Protests continue at Tesla showrooms amid talk Elon Musk could soon leave DOGE

By CNN Newsource

Published April 5, 2025 6:43 pm

By Auzinea Bacon, CNN

(CNN) — More than 60 protests were planned for Saturday, and a dozen more for Sunday, at Tesla showrooms across the United States, as backlash continues against CEO Elon Musk for his cost-cutting role at the Department of Government Efficiency.

Just a week after more than 200 demonstrations took place at Tesla locations as part of the grassroots “Tesla Takedown” movement, some locations doubled up on Saturday as “Hands Off!” rally locations — a separately organized mass day of protests nationwide.

The Tesla Takedown campaign encourages Tesla drivers to sell their vehicles and company stakeholders to sell their shares of stock to hurt the world’s richest man, whose wealth is mostly tied to the electric vehicle maker.

Over 50 demonstrators stood outside of a Tesla showroom in Rockville, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, DC, on Saturday.

Susan Barnett, a media professional from New York City, said she came to Maryland for a reunion with two longtime friends and to do advocacy work for safe water and foreign government assistance.

“Congress has to remember that despite what the White House is saying, we do have a stake in the world,” Barnett told CNN.

DOGE has made cuts to a broad swath of federal agencies by slashing contracts and laying off employees or offering them buyouts to leave their roles. The DOGE website claims it has saved taxpayers $140 billion. (CNN could not confirm the accuracy of DOGE’s figure.)

Musk recently claimed that protesters at Tesla locations are being paid, posting last week on his social media platform X, “Who is funding and organizing all of these paid protests?”

Tesla has not responded to CNN’s request for comment.

Madeline Gupta told CNN outside the Tesla location in Rockville that she’s not being paid. While holding a sign reading “Democracy over oligarchy,” Gupta said she is concerned by policy changes under President Donald Trump’s administration.

“This new administration, including Musk, who wasn’t even elected, is trying to destroy our democracy, and we cannot let that happen,” she said.

Tesla Takedown organizers believe the campaign, which is in its eighth week, will continue to grow despite pushback from Musk and the Trump administration.

“Blaming ‘paid protestors’ is a deflection from admitting how unpopular Musk and DOGE has become,” organizers told CNN.

Tesla shares closed at $239.43 on Friday, a more than 50% drop from their December peak. The decline followed Tesla’s announcement Wednesday that sales plunged 13% in the first three months of 2025 — the largest drop in its history. The company said it delivered 336,681 cars, which was 50,000 fewer than the first quarter of 2024.

Hints of Musk’s exit from DOGE

Musk — the world’s richest man and owner of Tesla, SpaceX and the social media platform X — was initially tapped to co-head DOGE with billionaire biotech mogul Vivek Ramaswamy, with the temporary agency finishing up its cost-cutting efforts “no later than July 4, 2026,” according to Trump.

But Ramaswamy’s time was short-lived, and Musk’s role as the face of DOGE may conclude sooner than expected. Trump on Monday told reporters that “at some point, (Musk is) going to be going back. He wants to.”

Musk responded Wednesday on X that it was “fake news” that he would step away from DOGE in the coming weeks.

The administration, however, confirmed on Wednesday that Musk is expected to wrap up his stint as Trump’s hatchet man in late May or June, when his 130 days as a “special government employee” comes to an end.

And on March 20, Musk admitted to Tesla staff in Austin, Texas, that he is “stretched pretty thin. I have like 17 jobs.” Musk has also discussed the toll the backlash has taken on him and his electric car company.

In an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier that aired on March 28, Musk responded to criticism he gets about DOGE and addressed the vandalism against Tesla.

“It’s actually disadvantageous for me to be in the government, not advantageous,” Musk said about his role with DOGE. “My companies are suffering because I’m in the government.”

“Do you think it helps sales if (Tesla) dealerships are being firebombed? Of course not,” Musk said.

Demonstrations at Tesla showrooms have mostly been peaceful, although there have been separate reports of vandalism at Tesla locations.

Axios media correspondent Sara Fischer, who has covered Musk extensively, told CNN’s Jessica Dean on Saturday that he is “somebody who can get bored really easily.” She said he would probably prefer to return to the private sector amid the trade war and after chalking up his time with DOGE as a win.

“I think he ‘came, saw and conquered,’ right?” said Fischer, a CNN media analyst. “He came, he did DOGE, he cut spending. He’ll go back to the private sector and call the whole thing a victory. He also then gets to sort of wipe his hands clean of some of these economic policies if they fall through.”