People called for a boycott of Tesla at the electric car company's dealerships across the country on Saturday, to protest the actions of billionaire CEO Elon Musk, now an official with a newly created agency in the Trump administration.
In Ann Arbor, more than 50 people with signs, some with crude epithets, protested outside the Tesla dealership on Jackson Avenue in the late morning sleet, while a single salesperson watched from inside the store.
Protesters said Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) head Elon Musk is single-handedly destroying the federal government, with large-scale and indiscriminate layoffs of federal employees, violations of long-standing civil service labor protections, and illegally freezing billions in federal funds for research, education, and climate change.
Susan Fecteau said Musk doesn't care that he's hurting people or the country, but he does care about his money.
"So let's hurt him in the pocketbook," she said defiantly. "People should boycott everything Tesla. Boycott the solar batteries. We need to make sure he can't profit off of what they're doing to destroy our democracy."
Two weeks ago, Fecteau began showing up on the sidewalk across from the store during rush hour, holding a sign protesting Musk's actions. This was the first time she had other people join her, she said, and she hoped to see more join the boycott and the protests.
"Do it. Do it at Tesla charging stations and at every Tesla showroom across the country."
Peter Haderlein was also at the protest. He said he was just fired from his job at a carbon sequestration company, after Musk's DOGE froze a DOE grant.
"The grant was supposed to help us make payroll, and when the funding freeze happened, they fired a third of the company," Haderlein said. "My wife, she works in education research, and they have Department of Education grants, projects they've worked on for years. Projects that were six months away from publishing - that were supposed to help with America's kids and adult education in schools that weren't even DEI related - just canceled."
State Representative Carrie Rheingans also attended, and said she finds it a strange sign of the times that ordinarily, citizens unhappy with their government hold protests in front of government buildings. But these days, people protest across from a private business, owned by an unelected billionaire, who sells cars.
The Tesla salesperson inside the store declined to respond to the protest.
An email requesting a response to the protest to Tesla's press communications department went unanswered.
