Protest At Tysons Tesla Dealership Condemns Musk, Trump Policies

TYSONS, VA — About 80 people demonstrated outside the Tysons Corner Tesla dealership on Saturday morning to condemn billionaire Elon Musk’s attempts to advance President Donald Trump’s agenda by closing federal agencies and firing thousands of government workers.

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.

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.”

Shortly before the start of Saturday's demonstration, a Fairfax County Police officer spoke to Patrice, making sure the protesters stayed off of Tesla property and not cause any vandalism. Two police cruisers remained on a nearby side street where officers from the McLean District Station could watch the protest to ensure nothing illegal happened. Nothing did.

After first protesting in Rockville, Maryland, and Arlington, Patrice remembered there is a dealership on Tyco Road in Tysons, which is where she was the previous two Saturdays.

“There was another group that started doing one in Georgetown,” she told Patch. “I guess right on M Street there's a Tesla dealership. I think it only has like three cars. There's not much room. Obviously, it's not like a huge showroom, but so there's another group, and some of the Third Actors have gone there.”

Not all of the 80 or so protesters outside the Tysons Corner Tesla dealership on Saturday were members of Third Act. Many were current or past federal employees. Some just wanted to lend their voice to the larger discussion about the current state of politics and the impact it is having on the U.S.

“I'm just a U.S. citizen exercising my right to protest,” said a Vienna woman, who was banging on a cowbell as cars passed by. “I'm not a Trump fan. This time around, because he had four years to plot with Project 2025, and now he has the funding of Elon Musk, he's given this unelected bureaucrat private information and access. It's really frightening.”

A McLean man identified himself as taking part in the Tesla Takedown, a nationwide effort to protest outside Tesla dealerships. This was his first time participating in such a protest.

“We’re in the most serious situation of my lifetime,” he said. “I want to do as much as I can.”

Christopher Ambrose of Fairfax County said he was demonstrating outside the Tysons Corner dealership for the second time in three weeks to protest against the “unlawful takeover” of the government.

“What's going on right now in the government is a disgrace,” he said. “This is not just a policy thing. It’s not just a matter of protecting programs. This is protecting our very rule of law. They're doing things completely illegally. It’s not even a legal way to implement policy, because it's also corruption. This is about Trump and Musk trying to enrich themselves and their billionaire friends.”

Tesla is becoming a political symbol of Trump and DOGE, which is hurting the brand, Wedbush Securities financial analyst Dan Ives told AP.

Tesla investors cheered last Tuesday when Trump came to the defense of Musk’s beleaguered carmaker by lavishing the Tesla CEO with praise in a press conference as five Teslas lined up in the White House driveway. The president promised to buy a car, although he told the press he was not allowed to drive.

On the social media platform X 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.’ ”

The Associated Press contributed to the reporting of this story.