Republicans Want to Make Hating Elon Musk a Crime

Discontent with Elon Musk has spurred a nationwide protest movement that aims to cut off the profits for the billionaire’s lucrative car business, EV maker Tesla. Now, Trump-aligned lawmakers are lobbying for the Justice Department to go after protesters in what seems like a blatantly oligarchic weaponization of the nation’s justice system.

On Wednesday, MAGA nutcase Marjorie Taylor Greene and seven other GOP House members called upon the newly appointed DOJ head, Pam Bondi, to open a domestic terrorism investigation into attacks on Musk and Tesla. Greene and the others are part of the House subcommittee for DOGE, Musk’s initiative to attack and shrink the federal government.

Greene claimed there might be evidence that Democrats were behind the criminal attacks on car dealerships selling Musk’s vehicles. “Who is behind it? Who is funding it? Is there a link with Democrat-leaning NGOs?” Greene asked, in a post made to Musk’s platform, X. “We look forward to exposing these terrorists and bringing them to justice.”

Trump recently claimed he would designate attacks on Tesla dealerships and vehicles as “domestic terrorism.” At the time, it was unclear whether Trump was serious or not. Now, it appears that he was.

The letter from Greene doesn’t mention the #TeslaTakedown protest movement by name, focusing instead on the vandalism activity that has targeted Tesla vehicles and dealerships. However, the letter does mention several Democrat-linked activist groups, some of which have organized protests against Musk, insinuating that these groups may be behind the vandalism.

A statement recently put out by the Takedown activists decries Trump’s rhetoric as an attempt to criminalize popular protest. “The right to peaceful protest is a fundamental part of American democracy,” the note reads. “We are a nonviolent grassroots protest movement. We oppose violence and destruction of property. Peaceful protest is not domestic terrorism. They are trying to intimidate us. We will not let them succeed.”

The #TeslaTakedown movement has been mostly peaceful, and the spat of violent attacks aimed at Tesla dealerships is—as far as we know—unconnected to activist activities. That said, the urge to smash anything with a Tesla logo is clearly growing, and Americans continue to find unique and interesting ways to take out their Musk-related anger on the car brand.

Futurism recently reported on one Tesla owner, Joanne Wilson, who says she has sold one of her cars and is toying with plans to publicly destroy the other one. Wilson wrote about the idea on her blog, Gotham Girl, saying that she was interested in livestreaming the destruction of the vehicle, which could be accomplished with sledgehammers.

“We could give out sledgehammers, let people smash the car, and film it for Instagram,” Wilson writes. “It may go viral.”

“We are not the only Tesla owners who want to get rid of their cars,” she said. “Was it Elon’s complete disregard for human beings as he attempts to completely disrupt the federal government like a classic tech dude without a proper understanding of how government works, or was it that awful new cyber truck that looks like something out of Mad Max and looks angry? It is a toss-up.”