Republican leaders on Wednesday quickly lined up behind President Donald Trump’s defense of Tesla as the electric automaker becomes the center of a new and category-scrambling political battlefront.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said on X that he would open a probe into recent attacks on Tesla showrooms and charging stations, while a group of Republican members, including Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene called on the Justice Department and FBI to examine the attacks and any linkages to “Democrat-leaning NGOs.”
The messages came one day after Trump’s event at the White House where he said he would buy a new Tesla — not to drive it, but to support the man standing beside him, his cost-cutting czar Elon Musk, who also happens to be Tesla’s CEO.
It was a disorienting turn for Tesla, which has in a short time turned from an icon of eco-conscious liberals to a cause of the Republican president’s loyalists.
Trump and the GOP are reacting to a string of attacks on Tesla’s outposts in recent weeks.
Last Sunday, four Cybertrucks were set on fire at a storage yard in Seattle. Days earlier, shots were fired through the windows of a dealership in Oregon, an arsonist destroyed Supercharger stations near Boston, and a woman in Denver was charged with federal crimes for throwing Molotov cocktails and spraying “Nazi cars” at a Tesla showroom.
The attacks are an outgrowth of a snowballing protest movement against Musk because of his leadership of the Department of Government Efficiency.
Musk, the world’s wealthiest man, has become a lightning rod for controversy as he has led DOGE’s campaign to lay off thousands of federal workers and gut federal agencies in the name of rooting out fraud, waste and abuse.
New battles lines
The latest battle over Tesla echoes some conflicts of the first Trump presidency — but with an electric vehicle at its center.
The left’s anger about Trump’s agenda is increasingly focused on Tesla, with Tesla as a proxy for Musk, and Musk as a proxy for the president.
Scattered protests at Tesla showrooms are proliferating. A loosely organized network called TeslaTakedown lists more than 150 protests scheduled for the next few weeks around the country and world, most of them at Tesla showrooms and service centers.
The movement urges people to sell their Teslas and shed Tesla stock. “Hurting Tesla is stopping Musk. Stopping Musk will help save lives and our democracy,” its website says.
Rage at Tesla is a 180-degree turnabout for Democrats, who have been the automakers’ biggest fans — and customer base — since Musk took over the company two decades ago with the goal of creating an economy weaned off fossil fuels.
On Tuesday, Trump initiated a new take on Tesla, with Musk at his side.
In response to a question from a reporter, he said he would label those who attack Tesla’s outposts as domestic terrorists.
He called the perpetrators of attacks “the insane guys that screw around with our schools and universities, the same garbage, and we’re going to catch them.”
On Wednesday, a group of House Republicans widened that attack in ways that echoed conservative stances on urban unrest that occurred during Trump’s first term.
In a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel, they said, “Reports suggest that groups like Antifa, known for their history of domestic terrorism, including during the summer of 2020 following the death of George Floyd, may be involved in the recent Tesla attacks.”
The letter provided no evidence of such reports.
Johnson said Tuesday in a post on X that the House would investigate, without providing details.
“Congress will investigate the sources of these attacks and help the DOJ & FBI ensure those responsible are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Johnson said.
For his part, Musk amplified Trump’s call to label Tesla offenders as domestic terrorists and characterized their acts as a “dirty tricks campaign.” He also endorsed a message saying that there’s no problem with public protests or boycotts.
Will partisan anger bring customers?
It is unclear whether Trump’s endorsement of the company’s EV — and demonization of its attackers — will change the fortunes of Tesla.
The company’s sales are falling around the globe, contributing to a plunge in the automaker’s stock that has almost erased the bump it received when Trump won the presidency.
A February poll by the EV Politics Project, a nonprofit that seeks to find common electoral ground on EVs, found that 74 percent of Republican voters had high regard for Musk but that 48 percent of them had unfavorable views of electric vehicle brands.
At the White House event Tuesday, Trump spoke briefly about the vehicle’s qualities — “a great product, as good as it gets,” he said — but spent much more time focused on Musk as a company builder and his role at DOGE.
“This man has dedicated his energy and his life to do this,” Trump said of Musk’s role at Tesla. “I think he’s been treated very unfairly by a very small group of people.”
On X, the social media platform that Musk owns, and Truth Social, the one owned by the president, replies to the two men’s posts about the event glowed with praise for Musk.
But only a handful said they intended to buy a Tesla.
Most expressed the same kind of reservations that Republicans have long had about electric vehicles, such as insufficient range and high prices.
“Build something with a gas engine all wheel drive and fast as hell and I might buy one!” said one commenter on Truth Social.
