'In Your Face' Tesla Protest In Arlington Targets Trump, Musk Policies

TYSONS, VA — While many of the 60 or so people protesting outside the Arlington Tesla dealership on South Glebe Road held up signs with harsh words and negative messages for the job cuts ordered by President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, only one came dressed as a Nazi.

“It’s just testament that America doesn't learn its lessons,” said D.H. of South Arlington, who was attired in black boots, brown jodhpurs and a tan shirt with an “Elon ‘Heart’ Adolf” button on his chest at Saturday's protest. “That the same thing is happening that happened in 1933 and people were always afraid to go like, ‘Oh, let's not use the word Hitler or fascist too often.’”

Patrice, an organizer with Third Act Virginia, has protested for the last four weeks outside one of Tesla’s dealerships in the DMV. Climate activist Bill McKibben founded Third Act to organize people over 60 for action on climate change and justice.

“It relies on the fact that people over 60, a lot of us are retired, not everybody in the organization, but a lot of us are,” Patrice said. “We have the time, the resources, the free time to devote to various causes, including actions where we get arrested. We have a series of actions that are totally innocuous ones, like the Tesla ones. We’ve done something a little bit more serious, where you're blocking banks and things like that.”

Boycotts and protests at dealerships across the country have caused Tesla’s stock to plummet, with Musk’s electric vehicle company having one of its worst single day sell-offs in history last week. Musk has become the face of the Trump administration’s slash-and-burn government downsizing efforts, known as the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, the Associated Press said.

Holding up a sign with the words in German surrounding a drawing of a Tesla cybertruck, D.H. called attention to the controversy around Musk's straight-armed gestures that resembled Nazi salutes, as reported by the Associated Press.

“This is right out of the playbook,” the protester told Patch. “Bring in the oligarchs, bring in the rich, get them on your side. Convince the populace that they're voting in your interest when they're absolutely not. You know, America falls for that stuff just because Trump is rich. They think he's successful. America is not a business. America is a country, and it's a democracy, and we've got to defend it.”

While D.H. admitted that his outfit was “a little in your face,” he said that protests needed to be a little in your face to be effective.

“My grandfather earned a Purple Heart fighting the Nazis in the Battle of the Bulge” during World War II, he said. “So it's not like I'm somehow romanticizing that by any means. It says, ‘Fight the fascists.’”

Around 11 a.m., Third Act Virginia hosted a training session at a small park nearby before walking to the Tesla dealership around noon.

“One of the things I love about these Tesla demonstrations is how loving and joyful they are,” said Hanna Moore, one of Third Act organizers. “It’s like a gateway for so many people who drive by to feel like they are participating in the pushback and the rebellion. And I find it very encouraging. In fact, nine out of 10 people driving a Tesla, I give them the biggest smile and I get that back from them and sometimes honking their horns. I feel everybody is a possible ally.”

“Every day there's been so many frustrating things,” said Juanita, who was taking part in her first protest on Saturday. “Every single day, something is terrible. I just had been wanting to look for some sort of protest, and I saw this. It became a way to unleash all the craziness and frustration of the last year.”

“Tesla is becoming a political symbol of Trump and DOGE, and that is a bad thing for the brand,” said Wedbush Securities financial analyst Dan Ives, referring to the advisory group in charge of cutting government spending led by Musk.

Tesla investors cheered last Tuesday when Trump came to the defense of Musk’s beleaguered and boycotted carmaker by lavishing the Tesla CEO with praise in a press conference as five Teslas lined up in the White House driveway.

The AP quoted a post on the social media platform X in which Trump claimed that “Radical Left Lunatics” were trying to “illegally and collusively boycott Tesla, one of the World’s great automakers, and Elon’s ’baby.’”

“As a function of the great policies of President Trump and his administration, and as an act of faith in America, Tesla is going to DOUBLE vehicle output in the United States within the next two years,” Musk is quoted as saying in another of Trump’s posts on X.

The Associated Press contributed to the reporting of this story.