After reports of numerous attacks on Tesla vehicles and dealerships, President Donald Trump indicated on Tuesday that he might label the vandals as domestic terrorists.
On Tuesday, police responded to a call reporting three vehicles were damaged at a Tesla dealership in Dedham, Massachusetts. The same dealership was vandalized on February 26. Last week, a man was arrested after sticking decals on Tesla vehicles in Brookline, and a Tesla charging station in Littleton was set on fire, NBC Boston reported. On Saturday, NBC News noted, “There have been at least a dozen [acts] of vandalism against Tesla vehicles, dealerships or charging stations in recent weeks, according to police and local reports.”
When a reporter asked Trump — who had Tesla vehicles lined up on the White House driveway on Tuesday as he was accompanied by Tesla CEO Elon Musk — about the issue, saying, “Some say they should be labeled domestic terrorists,” Trump responded. “I will do that. I’ll do it. I’m gonna stop ‘em (if) we catch anybody doing it. Because they’re harming a great American company.”
“Let me tell you, you do it to Tesla, and you do it to any company, we’re going to catch you, and … you’re going to go through hell,” he added. “White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said “ongoing and heinous acts of violence against Tesla by radical Leftist activists are nothing short of domestic terror,” Reuters reported.
Although Trump stated he was not allowed to drive while he was president, he bought a Tesla S, saying he purchased it for his staff.
The Action Network, a site “fighting for progressive change,” has a campaign entitled, “TeslaTakedown,” that states, “Take action at Tesla showrooms everywhere. Sell your Teslas, dump your stock, join the picket lines. Hurting Tesla is stopping Musk. Stopping Musk will help save lives and our democracy.” The website calls for actions in states as far apart as Hawaii, Washington and California in the West to Maine, New Jersey, and Virginia in the East.
At a mid-February demonstration in Manhattan, anti-Musk demonstrators chanted, “We don’t need your Nazi cars. Elon Musk can go to Mars.”
