Tesla Becomes Lightning Rod for Political Protests

Hundreds of people descended on San Francisco’s Tesla dealership Monday to peacefully protest recent actions by President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk to downsize the federal workforce under the auspices of the Department of Government Efficiency, Musk’s extra-governmental organization, aka DOGE.

Protesters expressed outrage on Presidents Day over recent mass layoffs of federal workers and Musk’s ongoing efforts to gain access to sensitive taxpayer data. They carried homemade signs bearing slogans such as “government for people not billionaires,” “no one voted for Elon Musk,” “resist the oligarchy,” “I lost my job serving your public lands,” “defund Musk,” “no kings, no tyranny,” and “boycott Tesla.”

The protest, billed as “No Kings on Presidents Day,” staged in front of the Tesla dealership on Van Ness Avenue at O’Farrell Street, was one of many across the country coordinated with the grassroots organization 50501, which has a name derived from its stated goal: to hold 50 protests in 50 states on one day. According the 50501, the idea of staging synchronized protests found its roots on Reddit and rapidly spread to social media platforms, including Instagram and BlueSky — but not X. Negative public sentiment about Musk’s recent actions via DOGE is finding targets among the prominent companies in which he has large ownership stakes, including Tesla, X and SpaceX.

San Francisco Public Press photojournalist Jason Winshell attended the two-hour protest event, documenting the emotions of the crowd, the messages of outrage depicted on protest signs toward Trump, Musk and DOGE’s attempts to antidemocratically dismantle government institutions and repurpose the power of the federal government for personal gain.

The protest unfolded peacefully. Drivers of passing cars honked their horns in support of the protesters. Police briefly blocked traffic for the safety of the large crowd, which overflowed sidewalks and medians onto Van Ness.