Elon Musk protestors clash with cops in chaotic scenes after occupying Tesla showroom

A Tesla dealership has been mobbed by protesters in Manhattan following a number of demonstrations against Elon Musk and US President Donald Trump.

It follows demonstrators gathering outside Tesla stores across the US earlier this month in protest against Musk and his push to slash government spending on behalf of Trump. Critics of Trump and Musk hope to discourage and stigmatise purchases of Tesla, the electric car company that is the world's most valuable automaker and have taken issue with Musk's disruptive role in Washington.

We can get back at Elon," said Nathan Phillips, a 58-year-old ecologist from Newton, Massachusetts, who was protesting in Boston on March 1. "We can impose direct economic damage on Tesla by showing up at showrooms everywhere and boycotting Tesla and telling everyone else to get out, sell your stocks, sell your Teslas."

Musk is head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), tasked with slashing federal spending. The role has been controversial and DOGE's work during the early stages of the Trump administration has drawn nearly two dozen lawsuits.

Musk, Trump and allies argue that victory in the presidential election gave Trump a mandate to restructure the US government. But DOGE officials have swiftly gained access to sensitive databases, directed thousands of federal job cuts, cancelled contracts and shut down sections of the government, including the US Agency for International Development.

Judges have raised questions in several cases about DOGE's sweeping cost-cutting efforts, conducted with little public information about its staffing and operations. But judges have not always agreed that the risks are imminent enough to block DOGE from government systems.

"Protests will not deter President Trump and Elon Musk from delivering on the promise to establish Doge and make our federal government more efficient and more accountable to the hardworking American taxpayers across the country," White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said previously.

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