The Definitive Story of Tesla Takedown


On a sunny April afternoon in Seattle, round 40 activists gathered on the Pine Field, a beer and pizza bar within the typically scruffy Capitol Hill neighborhood. The group had reserved a aspect room hooked up to the surface patio; earlier than remarks started, attendees flowed out and in, having fun with the nice and cozy day. Somebody arrange a sound system. Then the activists settled in, straining their ears because the streamed name crackled by way of less-than-perfect audio system.

In additional than a decade of local weather organizing, it was the primary time Emily Johnston, one of many group’s leaders, had attended a cheerful hour to hearken to an organization’s quarterly earnings name. Additionally the primary time an area TV station confirmed as much as cowl such a cheerful hour. “This entire marketing campaign has been only a magnet for consideration,” she says.

The group, formally referred to as the Troublemakers, was rewarded immediately. Tesla CEO Elon Musk began the buyers’ name for the primary quarter of 2025 with a sideways acknowledgement of precisely the work the group had been doing for the previous two months. He referred to as out the nationwide backlash to the so-called Division of Authorities Effectivity, or DOGE, an effort to chop authorities spending staffed by younger tech lovers and Musk firm alumni, named—with typical Muskian internet-brained flourish—for an early 2010s meme.

“Now, the protests you’ll see on the market, they’re very organized, they’re paid for,” Musk instructed listeners. For weeks, hundreds of individuals—together with the Troublemakers—had camped outdoors Tesla showrooms, service facilities, and charging stations. Musk steered that not solely have been they paid for his or her time, they have been solely occupied with his work as a result of they’d as soon as obtained “wasteful largesse” from the federal authorities. Musk had presented the idea and sharpened it on his social media platform X for weeks. Now, he argued, the protesters have been off the dole—and livid.

Musk supplied no proof of his assertions; to an individual, each protester who spoke to WIRED insisted that they aren’t being paid and are precisely what they look like: people who find themselves indignant at Elon Musk. They name their motion the “Tesla Takedown.”

Earlier than Musk acquired on the decision to talk to buyers, Tesla, which arguably kicked off a now multitrillion-dollar effort to transition world autos to electrical energy, had introduced them with one of many firm’s worst quarterly monetary reviews in years. Web revenue was down 71 % 12 months over 12 months; income fell greater than $2 billion in need of Wall Avenue’s expectations.

Now, in Seattle, simply the primary jiffy of Musk’s remarks left the partygoers, many veterans of the local weather motion, giddy. Somebody near the staticky audio system repeated the very best elements to the small crowd: “I believe beginning most likely subsequent month, Might, my time allocation to DOGE will drop considerably,” Musk mentioned. Beneath a spinning disco ball, individuals whooped and clapped. Somebody held up a snapshot of Tesla’s inventory efficiency over the previous 12 months, a jagged however falling black line.

“When you ever wished to know that protest issues, right here’s your proof,” Johnston recalled weeks later.

The Tesla Takedown, an effort to hit again at Musk and his wealth the place it hurts, appears to have appeared at simply the fitting time. Tesla skeptics have argued for years that the corporate, which has the very best market capitalization of any automaker, is overvalued. They contend that the corporate’s CEO has been in a position to distract from flawed fundamentals—an getting older car lineup, a Cybertruck gross sales flop, the much-delayed introduction of self-driving expertise—with bluster and showmanship.

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