Long Islanders who are unhappy with Elon Musk’s role in the Trump administration have joined thousands across the country in channeling their anger at Tesla, Musk’s electric vehicle company.
Over 200 people gathered and chanted in front of Westbury’s Tesla dealership around 4 p.m. on Tuesday, March 4, holding signs with slogans like “Stop Musk,” “Defend democracy,” and “Hands off our government.” They were met with frequent supportive honks and cheers from drivers passing by throughout the hour and half they stood along Corporate Drive.
Protestors and organizers said they were focused on the Tesla dealership because of Musk’s heavy association with the company and out of a desire to financially hurt him enough that he takes notice of their dissatisfaction with his role in the government, which has become synonymous with aggressive cuts to government jobs and welfare programs.
“One way you can vote in this country that’s meaningful is with your dollar,” said Bobby, a Farmingdale resident in his thirties at the protest who declined to give his last name. “This is something that’s going to hurt his pocketbooks,” he added, referring to Musk.
“We don’t want this man who’s a billionaire ruining our government,” said Larry LaMendola, a 67-year-old from Wantagh at the protest. “I thought I was going into my golden years with something good. Now, I see the stock market’s down today. What else is going to happen tomorrow? I have a grandchild. I have another grandchild on the way. I don’t want this for my country. ”
Neither representatives for Tesla nor employees at Tesla’s Westbury dealership responded to a request for comment.
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Engage Long Island and Show Up Long Island, two primarily Nassau and Suffolk County-based groups organized under Indivisible, a nationwide progressive non-profit, co-organized the protest.
“On Long Island, it’s newsworthy just the fact that all these people are showing up,” Halle Brenner-Perles, co-founder of Show Up Long Island, said of the hundreds of people standing along Corporate Drive joining in protest chants against Musk and government cuts under the Trump administration. “What that says to me is there are a lot of Long Islanders who are feeling isolated and feeling very upset about what’s happening,” she added.
Their Westbury protest is one in a growing movement of demonstrations led by progressive organizations at and outside of Tesla dealerships nationwide and across Europe, which have been occurring with increasing frequency since mid-February.
“This rally and the rallies taking place all over the nation are so important because the crisis we’re facing is much bigger than just Democratic and Republican politics,” said Robert Zimmerman, a Democratic National Committee member, who was at the rally. “It’s about people coming together, standing up for our national security and our economic future.”
“The Trump-Musk administration is engaging in a strategy that disregards our laws in Congress, which will result in serious economic cutbacks for working families, for educational opportunities, for healthcare, in our country,” Zimmerman added. “They’re engaging in the kind of rhetoric that has all the credibility of professional wrestlers, but the damage they’re doing to our national security and the financial future of American families is not fictional. It’s real, and it’s dangerous.”
Speakers at Tuesday’s protest focused on cuts to government staffing the Trump administration has made over the past few weeks, characterizing them as irresponsible, dangerous, and cruel.
A chair of the biomedical sciences department of a local university, who was not scheduled to speak, came up to the microphone to add that previously approved federal research grants for his institution have yet to be dispersed to his scientists. The grants would have funded childhood cancer and autism research.
“He’s a billionaire operating as an unelected government official, making national decisions behind closed doors,” said Rachel Klein, founder of Engage Long Island, referring to Musk. “These are just regular people who care very much about what’s happening to our democracy. If it’s enough to get them to show up, we’re hoping that our elected officials will start to take things more seriously as well.”
Long Island will see another anti-Musk protest at its Smithtown Tesla dealerships at 9 a.m. on Sat., March 8, hosted by the Suffolk County Democratic Committee, a date that progressive groups across the country have planned to organize at Tesla dealerships nationwide.
