Tons of of protesters gathered at a Recent York City Tesla showroom on Saturday as a 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 various demonstrators from contained in the premises, where glass doors had been shattered.
Meanwhile, people gathered outside the ability might be heard chanting, “We want clean air, not one other billionaire.”
NYPD officers arrest protesters throughout the ‘TeslaTakedown’ protest against Elon Musk outside a Tesla automotive dealership in Recent York City on March 8, 2025.
Mostafa Bassim/Getty Images
A girl, 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 on the expense of the American people, on the expense of the environment, on the expense of our world and the entire people in it,” the lady said.
Six people were arrested in total, five for disorderly conduct and one for resisting arrest, in response to media reports.
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Musk was put in command 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 greater than 60,000 government employees, with more set to follow.
People participate in a ‘TeslaTakedown’ protest against Elon Musk outside a Tesla automotive dealership in Recent York City on March 8, 2025.
Mostafa Bassim/Getty Images)
One other video posted on Musk-owned social media platform X on Saturday appears to indicate nine NYPD officers protecting a single Cybertruck.
“Nine cops to guard one Cybertruck, amazing,” the person filming the video says.
Saturday’s protests in Manhattan are the most recent 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 surface of the corporate’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 founding father 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.
Within the last week, arsonists have began fires at two separate Tesla facilities, one within the U.S. and one in France.
In keeping with 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 4. Authorities have since opened a criminal investigation.
The identical 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.
No one was injured in either incident.
Last week, Thomas Nelson, 42 of Lyons, Colo., was arrested after an area dealership was vandalized.
In keeping with police, a Molotov cocktail was found next to a automotive, in addition to graffiti of the word “NAZI” and various explosive devices.
Musk has not publicly responded to the growing resistance against his company.
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