In March 2025, Las Vegas police arrested Paul Hyon Kim for allegedly attacking a Tesla service center with Molotov cocktails and firearms. He currently faces multiple charges, including arson and destruction of property. The incident is part of a series of attacks on Tesla facilities across the U.S. linked to the Tesla Takedown Movement. A review of Kim’s social media by law enforcement suggests pro-Hamas and communist sympathies.
The titular actress in Disney’s live-action adaptation of Snow White, in 2020 Zegler posted on X: “Please remember to be jUst aNd loving when it Comes to your fellow HumAn. Think and act with Respect ANd love for thoSe around you. Please always Have cOmpassion and forget Bias. sprEad love.” The capital letters form the phrase “Punch a transphobe.”
The 24-year-old Frederick was arrested for allegedly firebombing a Tesla dealership in Loveland, Colorado on March 7, 2025. Frederick reportedly threw an incendiary device between two vehicles at the dealership, starting a fire that caused property damage and endangered several employees inside the building. The building and several vehicles were also damaged by rocks, according to police. Frederick was arrested in Plano, Texas and is facing 20 years in prison.
A 63-year-old Pennsylvanian, in March 2025 Dalberg was arrested for allegedly scattering nails and screws around the tires of vehicles belonging to supposed Trump supporters as well as pro-Trump material such as Trump-Vance signs and an inflatable Trump figure. An NBC report termed Dalberg’s actions as “crimes of opportunity.” He faces charges of harassment, disorderly conduct, and related offenses.
On April 3, 2025, KTTH radio host Jason Rantz shared a message on X in which Romero told him to “get f***ed you idiotic backwards piece of shit. Why is your babbling moronic bullshit on my feed. You’re disgusting and people like you should be eradicated. You’re the abortion incentive.”
An organization committed to supporting uprisings and resistance against “racial capitalism,” “heteropatriarchy,” “white supremacy,” and “settler colonialism,” the Disruption Project offers various resources to aid activists and organizers including guides on “jail support,” “finding a target’s home” and “what to do in an uprising,” to evade arrest. The Disruption Project allegedly draws inspiration from past BLM riots and has been an organizing force in the violent Tesla Takedown Movement.
Launched to generate grassroots action in opposition to Elon Musk and his actions as part of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the Tesla Takedown Movement encourages supporters to “take action at Tesla showrooms everywhere,” asserting that “hurting Tesla is stopping Musk,” and that “stopping Musk will help save lives and our democracy.” Several demonstrations at Tesla dealerships that began as civil protests later erupted in violence and/or vandalism. A protest at a Tesla dealership in New York City on March 8, 2025, resulted in six arrests — five for disorderly conduct and one for resisting arrest, obstructing government administration and a violation for a local law. Police investigating gunshots fired at a Tesla dealership in Tigard, Oregon on March 7, 2025, said in a statement that “Tesla dealerships have been targeted across Oregon and the nation for political reasons.” Police in Salem, Oregon arrested Adam Matthew Lansky in March 2025 for several instances of violence perpetrated at a Tesla Service Station, including throwing Molotov cocktails that resulted in “multiple fires at the dealership, including a Tesla vehicle ablaze.” In an interview, Valerie Costa, one of the movement’s founders, agreed that the Tesla Takedown is inspired by Luigi Mangione, who assassinated United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December 2024. On March 18, 2025, several Tesla vehicles were engulfed in flames at a dealership in Las Vegas, Nevada, “by an individual,” according to police. At the end of March 2025, hundreds gathered outside a Tesla Showroom in NYC reportedly holding “signs urging for Elon Musk to be shot and for more Tesla property to be firebombed.” Protesters at the same rally held a banner that stated “Burn a Tesla, Save Democracy.” The U.S. Department of Justice has declared the series of Tesla-related attacks “domestic terrorism.”
A resident of South Carolina, Clarke-Pounder was arrested in March 2025 for allegedly setting fire to Tesla charging stations near the Tanger Outlets mall in North Charleston. During the incident, Clarke-Pounder reportedly spray-painted messages such as “F*ck Trump” and “Long Live Ukraine,” near the chargers, then used Molotov cocktails to ignite the fires. He was apprehended by local police and faces 20 years in federal prison.
A progressive activist organization founded by former congressional staffers in 2016 in response to the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States, Indivisible provides financial and technological resources, as well as organizational support for local activist groups to “build and wield power” to “stand together and […] fight” against the Trump Administration. The organization website states that it is mobilizing groups and “taking to the streets nationwide to fight back with a clear message: hands off!” An organizing force in the Tesla Takedown Movement, in March 2025 Indivisible hosted a video conference to plan a day of action at 500 Tesla Takedown protests across the country during which actor John Cusack stated: “We are in an oligarchic country that’s fascist and becoming more fascist every day, and that means that people are going to die and it’s going to get as ugly as we can think. And the only way to stop that is if the people who have the money are afraid of us.”
The Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) “believes that the only solution to the deepening crisis of capitalism is the socialist transformation of society.” They have consistently engaged in electoral politics, fielding presidential candidates in the 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020 elections. Beyond its political campaigns, PSL extends its influence through various media platforms. Liberation News, an online newspaper, serves as a conduit for their perspectives and analyses. Breaking the Chains, a print magazine; and Liberation School, operating as an educational website that promotes radical leftist ideologies. The Los Angeles chapter of the organization was responsible for a pair of anti-deportation protests that took place in downtown Los Angeles, California from February 2 to February 7, 2025 which resulted in the vandalism of multiple buildings, police vehicles, and a bus. A man was assaulted by a throng of demonstrators gathered outside City Hall. He was punched, kicked, and beaten while some bystanders attempted to help and others sought to stoke the violence. Reports indicate that many protesters were high school students who had participated in school walkouts to join the movement. On February 7, as part of the multi-day protests, a stabbing occurred resulting in the arrest of a 14-year-old and hospitalization of his 17-year-old victim. Seven police officers were injured in altercations relating to these events.
