The protest is part of the #TeslaTakedown movement aimed at Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
Kathy Jones, one of the protest organizers, said she got the idea online after other people in the country started protesting.
“I want to get Elon Musk out of the government. He was not elected; he needs to go,” she said. “I want people all over the country to be doing this every single weekend until the message gets through. (The message) to get Musk out … because this is our country, and I don’t want anyone to take it from us.”
Carl Geisler, who attended with his wife Suzanne, said, “We’re worried about our country becoming a dictatorship. We’re worried about us being part of the axis of evil. Trump wants us to align ourselves with Russia, North Korea, China … that’s not who we are.”
Rich Cohen said he was protesting, despite the wind and the cold, because of what’s going on in the government.
“There is a way to do things efficiently, but you don’t just go in there and fire everybody. That is not the way its done ... That hurts us, and some of the organizations he’s doing this to is going to threaten our health and the health of the world,” he said. “It’s been done the whole wrong way by someone who doesn’t know what they their doing and is not appointed by Congress and he’s operating illegally as far as I’m concerned.”
Protests like this one have been happening across the nation. Tesla has become a rallying point for protestors outraged with how Musk has participated in President Donald Trump’s administration and led efforts to slash government agencies, according to Axios.
”There’s a lot of outrage that we’re hearing from a lot of concerned voters about what’s happened at the federal government and specifically today we all know Elon Musk’s role in this DOGE department, as you can see by the huge crowd,” said Kim McCarthy with the Greene County Democratic Party, who also helped organize the protest.
“What they’re doing is reckless, it’s endangering our economy, and we are out here today to hopefully put some pressure on to show the Trump administration and Mr. Musk that we are not going to sit around and just let an unelected billionaire literally dismantle our federal government.”
Colleen Murphy said she was protesting to protect the democracy and get people’s attention.
“If we don’t take this into our own hands and get rid of this administration that’s absolutely tearing it down, we’re going to be in trouble. We’re going to be past the tipping point and it’s frightening,” she said.
The protests are the first showing backlash to Musk’s role. Tesla is his flagship company.
Another protest is planned for Saturday, March 8, at the Dayton Courthouse Square.
McCarthy said they are also organizing two more protests March 7 and 14 outside the main gates of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
There did not appear to be Musk or Trump supporters in attendance at the protest.
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