‘Tesla Takedown’ underscores the importance of withdrawing consent

Last weekend, a swarm of pickets converged on Tesla showrooms in dozens of cities across the U.S. I joined one on Saturday in San Francisco, and then a larger one on Monday. Since then, many more pickets have sprung up, with more being planned. It’s all under the loosely organized banner of “#TeslaTakedown.” And since there are no leaders or spokespeople, I can only say what drew me to join: the desire to declare, as my protest sign read, that “Musk is a Nazi.”

We are struggling against an authoritarian coup mounted by the Trump administration. We are not alone in this global struggle, or in facing the two existential threats it poses of nuclear omnicide and climate change.

An essential element of nonviolent resistance — particularly in cases of coups and authoritarian power grabs — is the withdrawal of cooperation. Coup-plotters, coup-makers and coup-profiteers are vulnerable to people power, and right now the unelected Musk is the most vulnerable.


Trump and Musk may deny it, but their actions and values are fascist. Trump delegated power to Musk to carry out the ongoing bureaucratic coup, and relied on Project 2025 to script it and put the orders in front of him to sign. But it’s Musk and his team who have done most of the dirty work, and Musk who owns this in all its increasingly gory details. Musk needs to be held accountable — but first, he needs to be stopped.

Many of Trump’s votes were generated not so much by his policies (not that he acts on the basis of a coherent policy platform) as by his cult of personality. Similarly, much of the inflated valuation of Tesla stock comes from Musk’s cult of personality, not from financial fundamentals. Puncturing Musk’s public-image bubble and crashing the price of Tesla stock will leave him still a multi-billionaire, but could alienate other less wealthy but nonetheless powerful investors in Tesla who have to date acquiesced to the coup, and whose acquiescence if not complicity enhances its chances of success.

Tesla Takedown isn’t asking Congress to change the laws that Trump and Musk are already ignoring and will continue to ignore, or asking courts to send federal marshals to enforce the orders they have already issued finding many of the actions taken by the putschists to be illegal. Instead, Tesla Takedown is an effort to directly undermine the wealth, power and popular appeal of Musk and his collaborators.


Tesla Takedown is direct action. As such, it’s a key step from protest — or expressions of opposition — to resistance, or acts of opposition. It’s important to speak out, to complain, to say that the emperor has no clothes, but that’s not enough to maximize our chances of survival. The lesson of revolutionary nonviolence is that we have, as David Dellinger famously said, “More Power Than We Know.” People power can dethrone dictators, but only if we materially impede the operation of the regime. Our appeal should be less to politicians and more to members of the public to join us in active resistance. 


Trump and the Republicans don’t need our votes or those of Democrats in Congress. They don’t care how much we protest or complain. They don’t care what we, or even our Democratic representatives in Congress, say. The fundamental historical lesson of fascism is that all the fascists need is for us to show up to work, obey orders, pay our taxes, and not get in the way of their juggernaut. Our power is the power not to show up for work, not to obey orders, not to pay our taxes, and to get in their way.

Democrats in Congress could withdraw their cooperation and obstruct the coup, but they haven’t yet. They are normalizing it by treating the regime as though it were still a normal administration proceeding in a generally legitimate manner. At a minimum, anti-authoritarians in Congress could and should refuse their consent for anything the regime proposes, unless and until Musk and his team are stopped from pretending to exercise lawful authority, and Trump recognizes his Constitutional duty to effectuate the laws enacted by Congress and comply with the decisions of the courts. Members of Congress could and should filibuster every nomination, insist on a quorum, insist that every motion be read aloud in full, and insist that every vote be a roll call. Whenever the chair asks for “unanimous consent,” that consent should be withheld. Any one member of Congress has the power to be a hero by significantly slowing the national descent into fascism — but none has actually done so. They have only threatened it and, as such, are still protesting (while submitting), not yet resisting.

Boycott and divestment from Tesla isn’t enough to stop Musk or Trump, but it’s a first step in withdrawing our cooperation and de-normalizing collaboration with the Trump-Musk regime.

Many Tesla drivers honked and waved in support of our Tesla Takedown picket. Many people bought Teslas before it became apparent that Musk was a fascist and a white Christian nationalist. They shouldn’t be ashamed to have bought what seemed a “greener” car. But we should encourage them to feel as good about selling their “swasticars” now that Musk has shown his true colors as they were to have bought them in the first place. The same goes for holders of Tesla stock. Have you checked whether any mutual funds in your retirement account hold Tesla stock — and if so, written to the fund’s managers to tell them Musk’s toxicity makes Tesla stock an improper and overly risky investment?

Musk’s peremptory orders and hasty deployment of untested, insecure, buggy software on critical government systems should be cause for alarm on the part of Tesla owners. Is Musk as careless about the risks he imposes on drivers, passengers and other road users when Tesla pushes remote software updates to Tesla vehicles? Do you want a car that Musk can disable remotely at any time?

Federal government workers have a particular opportunity to expose and obstruct the progress of the coup. They also face particular risks in doing so. Solidarity with federal employees, such as staff of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was a theme on many of the signs on the Tesla Takedown picket line in San Francisco.

Trump and Musk can give orders, but they need helping hands to carry them out. Our survival may depend on how their subordinates at every level, and those on whose work they depend, respond to illegal orders. If Trump orders a nuclear attack, will the soldiers in the silos and submarines turn the keys to launch the missiles — or will they say, “No”? We need to get the word out — and be prepared to back it up — that we support whistleblowing, insubordination, strikes, desertion, mutiny, and sabotage. That holds for members of the military, civilian government employees, employees of Tesla and Musk’s other ventures, and workers for other contractors, suppliers and enablers of the coup and its leaders.

Theoreticians of nonviolent action have often said that nonviolent resistance — noncooperation, counter-propaganda, obstruction, general strikes, nonviolent sabotage — is the most effective way to fight fascism. Now is the time to remember that lesson and practice what we’ve been preaching.