“The suspect approached the business wearing completely black clothes and used what seemed to be Molotov cocktails and a firearm to carry out his attack. At least five tesla vehicles were damaged, including two that were wrapped in flames. As I mentioned before, we are still in the process of collecting tests, but it seems that the suspect shot at least three times against different vehicles. firearm ”.
It is a fragment of the press conference that the Sheriff of Las Vegas offered the afternoon of this Tuesday, in which it gave the first details of the nth attack on a Tesla dealer that occurs in the US in recent weeks. The facilities of the electric car manufacturer have become a usual objective of the violent protests for the actions of its CEO, Elon Musk, at the head of the Government Efficiency Department (Doge).
According to Documents of the Department of JusticeDonald Trump’s government has fired about 25,000 public employees in the first 100 days of his mandate at the request of Musk, most of them in the trial period. Although a judge has questioned the constitutionality of these cuts; These figures, together with the Nazi greeting of the billionaire (which never denied having done or apologized after millions of people interpret the gesture in this regard) have caused even more extreme polarization of Musk’s image. Tesla is the one who is experiencing the consequences.
“This level of violence is demential and deeply wrong. Tesla only manufactures electric cars and has done nothing to deserve these evil attacks,” the magnate reacted on X when the first videos of cars in flames began to circulate. Then, he framed the actions in an ideological framework. “I am deeply surprised by the level of hatred and violence from the left. I thought that the Democrats were the Empathy Party and the concern for others, but they are burning cars, attacking concessionaires with incendiary bombs, shooting and destroying teslas,” he said in Fox News.
“Tesla is a peaceful company, we have never done anything harmful. I have never done anything harmful, I have only done productive things,” he continued in an interview on the occasion of the rescue of the two astronauts stranded in the International Space Station, which They returned to Earth aboard a Spacex ship. “I think we are facing a kind of … there is some kind of mental health problem here, because this makes no sense. And I think there are also bigger forces at stake. I don’t know who is financing it and who is coordinating it, because this is crazy. I have never seen anything like that.”
The Tesla CEO also took advantage of other comments on X to ask that attacks against the company’s facilities and cars be considered “terrorism.” Donald Trump has supported him on Wednesday. “I think, when they catch those responsible, and I hope they do it, and they have already arrested some, it will be discovered that they are being paid by people with a strong left -wing political motivation,” said Trump.
Both the president and the American attorney general, Pam Bondi, have opened to consider attacks as “domestic terrorism.” For now, the FBI will put the Tesla dealers located in areas where attacks have produced under special vigilance.
“I want to highlight something and make it absolutely clear, especially considering the reports that have emerged throughout the country on similar incidents and attacks aimed at Tesla facilities: violent acts such as this are unacceptable, regardless of where they happen,” said a head of the FBI present in the press conference of Las Vegas: “In particular, for those who may think that something is justifiable or even admirably Federal.
Trump’s intervention does not stop incidents
What at first seemed isolated protests has become a chain of violence against Tesla in these first months of 2025. Before the attack on the Las Vegas dealer this week, a store in Salem (Oregon) suffered a fire caused at the end of January, followed by shooting against its windows on February 19. Subsequently, another concessionaire in Tigard was target of more than a dozen shots in March. In Colorado, a woman was arrested for launching Molotov cocktails and painting “Nazi Cars” at a Loveland dealership, after multiple incidents between January and February.
Violence against Tesla has continued this month with two cybertrucks burned in Kansas City and the Las Vegas fire. To these we must add the allegations of less serious vandates who have denounced Tesla owners throughout the country. In social networks, the contents to be mocked by the brand’s vehicle owners are becoming more common, especially the Cybertruck truck, the most representative of Musk’s last stage. “Do I wonder if everyone who passes by my side thinks that I am Nazi?” They project some Tiktokers In the cybertruck of a stranger in a publication that adds more than one million ‘like’.
Trump tried to stop this anti-tesla current last week with an act of support in the White House, something unpublished for any other private company. The president got on one of the brand’s models and assured that one was going to buy one, despite the fact that US presidents cannot drive on public roads. “This man has put all his energy and life to complete this work and it is not fair to be penalized for it,” Trump said about Musk: “I think he has been treated very unfairly by a very small group of people. And I just want people to know that he cannot be penalized for being a patriot.”
However, although the act has been able to improve the image of Tesla among the Republicans, it does not seem to have served to stop the attacks. “Tesla is becoming the official Trumpist government car for good and for worse,” explained Fernando de Córdoba to Eldiario.es: “More official than a presentation with the president in the White House there is nothing. But of course, it is that it is not any president, but an absolutely polarized and that it is not that he has supporters and detractors, is that he has fans and enemies.”
There is no data on the economic impact that these attacks are having against the manufacturer. However, the campaign occurs in a context of strong fall in sales worldwide, also due to the increase in competition and the next exit for sale of a renewal of its best selling model, the Y. This could be causing some buyers to delay the acquisition until the new version is available, according to some experts.
Protests in the rest of the world
Violence against Tesla has transcended US borders, with a serious incendiary attack on a concessionaire near Toulouse, France, where 12 vehicles valued at approximately 700,000 euros were razed on March 3. French authorities suspect that the attack is motivated by Anti-Musk feeling due to its interference in European politics where, for example, it has supported the German outracer.
In Europe, incidents have multiplied. In Belfast (Northern Ireland) about 20 Tesla vehicles parked in a concessionaire suffered vandalism on March 16, with broken rearviews, shattered windows and abolled bodies, documented the local press. Meanwhile, in Berlin, several Tesla were burned in the neighborhoods of Plänterwald and Steglitz, with the German police confirming four burned vehicles and without ruling out political motivations.
In this case, the German authorities also open the door that the acts can be considered terrorist acts, framing them in a Mayos campaign against Tesla that takes place in the country. These include dozens of teslas burned since 2023, but also an attack against the manufacturer’s gigafactoría in Berlin last year, which forced to stop their work for several days and cost more than one million euros in losses.
The wave of shares against Tesla has spread to the southern hemisphere. In Tasmania, Australia, a concessionaire was vandalized with graffiti that qualified Musk from Nazi, while in Auckland, New Zealand, a 52 -year -old man was arrested for vandalizing several Tesla. In Canada, the “Tesla Takedown” movement organized peaceful protests in Ottawa and Vancouver during this weekend, denouncing the influence of Musk and his role as Trump advisor. The protesters, carrying posters with messages like “Elon Be-Gone” and “Democracy Dies in Apathy” (Democra dies in apathy).
#Attacks #Tesla #Trump #intensified #domestic #terrorism #considered
