Seattle protesters target Elon Musk, Trump Administration at Tesla Showroom
Feb 16, 2025, 9:36 AM
Seattle wasn't the only city with anti-Musk protesters. Demonstrators gathered outside of the offices of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in Washington, D.C. on February 14, 2025 to protest against Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) budget cuts and employee terminations, and to support federal workers. (Photo by Bryan Dozier / Middle East Images / Middle East Images via AFP) (Photo by BRYAN DOZIER/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
(Photo by BRYAN DOZIER/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
About 80 protesters gathered outside the Tesla showroom in Seattle鈥檚 South Lake Union on Saturday afternoon, decrying Tesla CEO Elon Musk鈥檚 new role in the Trump administration. They blanketed the neighborhood with anti-Musk flyers, including “Stop the Broligarchy.”
The protesters condemned what they described as the dismantling of vital government institutions and the so-called erosion of democracy. The Seattle Tesla protesters carried signs demanding Tesla owners to 鈥渟ell your Tesla, dump your stock鈥� and chanted 鈥淪ell it! Sell it!鈥� at passing vehicles.
鈥淎s a disabled veteran, watching our democracy fall apart is excruciating,鈥� Shannon Spencer, a former U.S. Air Force service member told . 鈥淰eterans don鈥檛 forget our oath to protect the country. Just because I鈥檓 too broken to be in the military right now 鈥� that doesn鈥檛 go away.鈥�
The rally was part of a coordinated nationwide protest effort, with similar demonstrations taking place outside Tesla showrooms in California, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
What were the Seattle Tesla protesters condemning?
Seattle Tesla protesters condemned federal funding freezes and agency overhauls impacting agencies like the Department of Education, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the National Institutes of Health. Among them was Raj Kapur, a physician at Seattle Children鈥檚 and professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine, who said this was his first protest.
鈥淚鈥檓 so worried about the way things are going in our government,鈥� Kapur said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 hyperbole to say I see parallels with pre-World War II Germany: the scapegoating of vulnerable groups (immigrants today, and Jews in Germany); preying on people鈥檚 fears of those groups to unite them; and the attack on intellectualism, particularly science and science-based policy, as well as medical research.鈥�
The Trump administration has engaged in targeted arrests and deportations of criminal illegal immigrants, including felons or suspects involved in sex crimes involving children.
Passing cars and Metro buses honked to show support for the anti-Musk Seattle protesters waving signs reading 鈥淭esla Funds Fascists,鈥� 鈥淪top Musk鈥檚 Coup,鈥� and 鈥淪mash the Broligarchy.鈥�
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