AUSTIN, Texas — For the second straight week, protesters gathered outside a Tesla showroom in northwest Austin.
The protesters aimed their ire at President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, the multi-billionaire owner of Tesla who has taken on an elevated role in the second Trump administration as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The demonstrations have been part of a growing backlash in North America and Europe to Musk’s disruptive role in Washington. Through DOGE, the Tesla CEO has been aggressively slashing government spending on behalf of President Trump.
Protesters at the rally in Austin on March 15 held signs saying “boycott Tesla,” “Dangerous Oligarchs Gutting Everything” and “no one elected Elon.”
Demonstrators at the March 15 rally also drew attention to the death of Victor Gomez Sr., who died at the Tesla Gigafactory in Austin, leading to an OSHA investigation. “DOGE” is inside OSHA” one protester’s sign said on Saturday. U.S. Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) is urging the federal government to release information regarding the investigation.
The March 15 protest also drew a counter-protest from Austin-based conspiracy theorist Alex Jones of Infowars. Jones did not come to Saturday’s protest.
Critics of Trump and Musk hope to discourage and stigmatize purchases of Tesla, the electric car company that is the world’s most valuable automaker.
Musk is taking direction from Trump to slash federal spending and sharply reduce the workforce, arguing that Trump’s victory gave the president and him a mandate to restructure the U.S. government. DOGE officials have swiftly gained access to sensitive databases, directed thousands of federal job cuts, canceled contracts and shut down sections of the government, including the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Musk’s critics say his actions defy Congress’s power to control the U.S. budget and present a host of ways for him to enrich himself. Musk leads several other companies, notably SpaceX, which conducts launches for NASA and the intelligence community, and the social media platform X.
Musk’s current net worth is an estimated $359 billion, according to Forbes, which calculated his 2024 net worth as $195 billion.