By Rich Lowry
Syndicated Columnist
Teslas aren’t fascist vehicles
It’s a trope to say that Donald Trump’s opposition has been shell-shocked and rudderless in the wake of his election victory and his fast start out of the gate.
Not to fear, though. The Left has hit on its next big project — an intifada against the country’s largest maker of electric cars.
The progressive fear and loathing of Elon Musk now may be greater than that directed at Donald Trump. Since protestors don’t have ready access to SpaceX’s rockets or to Starlink’s satellites — absent finding a way to launch their own rival satellite network into space — they’re waging war on Tesla.
The heretofore trendsetting, eco-conscious vehicle for the affluent is now a hate object, a so-called “swasticar,” the equivalent of a Volkswagen in 1930’s Germany.
Everyone has a right to peacefully protest, of course, and to refuse to buy whatever products they wish. But when the Left engages in direct action, it’s always a sign you should take steps to protect your property and person.
Teslas have been set on fire, spray-painted and otherwise damaged. Charging stations have been burned and dealerships vandalized. Shots were fired at a Tesla showroom in Portland, Oregon. A woman in Colorado who attacked a Tesla dealership, including with a Molotov cocktail, was subsequently arrested near the location with more makeshift bombs in her car.
A Tesla charging station in South Carolina was also Molotov-cocktailed. The vandal spraypainted “LONG LIVE UKRAINE” on the ground. In Ukraine, they prepared Molotov cocktails to blunt the advance of Russian tanks closing in on Kyiv; in America, progressive activists use them to stick it to an entrepreneur whose politics they don’t like.
Of course, Teslas have been painted with swastikas, as if a streamlined federal government is an indicator of incipient fascism. As always, the Left is bizarrely incapable of distinguishing between libertarianism — Musk wants more freedom and less government — and totalitarianism.
On the merits, the contrast between Musk and his enemies is a good one for him: He is the creator; they are the destroyers. That doesn’t mean that the protests and mayhem aren’t having an effect; Tesla sales had already been dropping, and the “Tesla Takedown” is likely to accelerate the trend.
Part of the point is intimidation. The agitation is meant to exact a price on Musk for DOGE and get him to abandon the effort, as well as to make Tesla’s workers and the company’s consumers afraid. No one wants to buy an expensive vehicle and then become a political target or have their car vandalized.
Much mockery was directed at President Trump for touting the wonders of Teslas at a White House event, but the president was trying to counteract a campaign of harassment and vengeance directed at one of his top advisers, whom he believes is doing good and necessary work. Asked by a reporter if he’d consider the anti-Tesla violence domestic terrorism, Trump said, “Yes,” and rightly so.
The Code of Federal Regulations defines terrorism as “the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.” Part of the definition of domestic terrorism according to the Patriot Act is acts “dangerous to human life” intended “to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion.”
Musk enjoys being a provocateur. Yet, when he or his supporters talk of burning things down, they mean it metaphorically. His witless and inflamed enemies, on the other hand, are willing to literally burn things down. It is darkly amusing to see people for whom electric cars are necessary to saving the planet attack the most successful EV brand in the country and take out the kind of charging stations that President Biden labored so mightily and futilely to build.
The Left still doesn’t have an answer to Donald Trump, but they’ve sure found a cudgel against one of American industry’s most innovative products.
Rich Lowry is editor of the National Review.
(c) 2025 by King Features Synd., Inc.