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March 12, 2025 | 04:45 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Violence against Tesla dealerships will be labeled domestic terrorism and perpetrators will "go through hell," U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday in a show of support for the electric carmaker's chief, his ally Elon Musk.
Shares of the automaker closed nearly 4% higher on Tuesday, rebounding from the biggest one-day fall in four-and-a-half years the previous day, after the president appeared with Musk at the White House to select a new Tesla for his staff to use.
Activists have lately staged so-called Tesla Takedown protests to voice displeasure over Musk's role in sweeping cuts to the federal workforce at the behest of Trump and cancellation of contracts that fund humanitarian programs around the world. Musk, the world's richest person, is spearheading the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
"They're harming a great American company," Trump said at the White House, referring to the demonstrators, alongside Musk who was wearing a black "Make America Great Again" baseball cap. Nearby, a number of Tesla vehicles were lined up on the driveway between the mansion and the south lawn.
"Let me tell you, you do it to Tesla, and you do it to any company, we're going to catch you, and ... you're going to go through hell."
White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said "ongoing and heinous acts of violence against Tesla by radical Leftist activists are nothing short of domestic terror."
About 350 demonstrators protested outside a Tesla electric vehicle dealership in Portland, Oregon, last week, while nine people were arrested during a raucous demonstration outside a New York City Tesla dealership earlier in March.
There have also been media reports of vandalism on Tesla vehicles and showrooms that are under investigation.
A group that said it was an organizer of the Tesla Takedown protests responded in a statement on social media platform Bluesky that it was peaceful and opposed violence.
"Peaceful protest on public property is not domestic terrorism. They are trying to intimidate us. We will not let them succeed," the group said, calling for people to join the protests.
Trump could direct the U.S. Justice Department to charge Tesla dealership vandals under terrorism statutes, though it is unclear if those charges would hold up in court, according to legal experts.
REUTERS | Jeff Mason and Abhirup Roy
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