A Tesla Takedown protest emerged on March 15 outside Fresno’s Tesla dealership.

Tesla Takedown is a nonviolent social movement that has been happening across the globe in countries like the United States, Iceland, the United Kingdom, Denmark and the Netherlands.

“Today we gathered here in front of a Tesla because we wanted to express our distrust with what Elon Musk is doing in firing all these vital federal workers brutally without notice and impacting their lives, tens of thousands of lives, as well as the vital services that they provide to Americans across the country,” said Jill Fields, one of the co-host for the protest.

The movement is urging people to sell their Tesla vehicles, divest from Tesla stock and join picket lines in an effort to weaken the company’s stock price and oppose Elon Musk, President Donald Trump and the Department of Government Efficiencencey (DOGE).

According to Tesla Takedown’s website, Musk is undermining democracy along with DOGE, which Musk heads.

The protest was met with community support. At its peak, there were over 100 people protesting including students, local activists, families, the elderly and veterans. People came with sign-making materials and passed it around and some brought speakers for music.

There were honks from passing cars in support of the protesters and chants from multiple passersby and protesters alike saying “Stand up, fight back” and “Musk is a Nazi.”

Co-hosts of the event Fields and Marian Wilde both organized the event to express their concerns with Elon Musk’s firing of federal workers without notice and DOGE’s overreach.

The protest was also a way for the community to come together and shed light on the actions DOGE has done that affect the local community, whether that be small businesses or even the workers who lost their jobs like individuals who worked for national parks like Yosemite.

“We want to [show] in the real world here, that there are people in Fresno that agree with us and don’t agree with what the ‘Trump-Musk’ administration is doing,” Fields said.

Fields blames the Trump Administration and DOGE for things like cutting funding for the United States Agency of International Development (USAID), removing works for national parks, cutting the workforce of Veterans Affairs and dismantling natural disaster funds and services.

To Wilde, the protest goes beyond the harm that Musk and DOGE; it’s about showing everyone that people aren’t afraid.

“He wasn’t elected…people, rightfully, have anger that they want to protest and let their voices be heard,” Wilde said. “We refuse to be intimidated by the government.”

Danielle Laut heard about the protest online and felt the need to come to “save our country” from Musk taking over the government.
Laut says people are motivated to come out because they are starting to feel Musk’s actions in their wallets and on the dinner tables.

Now that his actions are coming for jobs, protest is necessary for Laut.

“It’s up to the people to come in masses,” Laut said.

Navy Veteran Micheal Barkley, a candidate running for California’s Fifth Congressional District, which includes the Tesla dealership where the protest was happening, emphasized the need to protect social security, Medicare and other essential services; all of which

Musk has threatened to cut or get rid of.

“If he was more like the rest of us, he wouldn’t be doing what he’s doing,” Barkley said.

Barkley believes Musk is helping Trump destroy the United States and the only way to stop him is to bankrupt him as soon as possible. He calls on people to get involved and push back on what Trump, Musk and DOGE have been doing.

“We can either lay down and roll over, or we can fight back,” Barkley said. “This is one way to fight back.”

The protest did face many challenges during it. One of them being Tesla customers coming or going to the dealership; many of them ended in the protesters yelling and chanting at them or with screaming matches.

According to multiple protesters, a fellow protester was hit by a Tesla customer leaving the dealership following a possible verbal altercation.

There were no major injuries or damage and no one wanted to come forward with video or a statement so no police report was filed, according to the officers at the event.

Despite this incident, both Fields and Wilde are confident in the message they and the protesters put out.

“We understand that we’re all connected and we see each other out here today…we can work together and we can move our country in a better direction,” Fields said.

Both Fields and Wilde said that they plan on having more events like this in the future.