WASHINGTON, March 11 (Reuters) – 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 (TSLA.O)
, opens new tab 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.
Item 1 of 5 U.S. President Donald Trump talks to the media, next to Tesla CEO Elon Musk with his son X Æ A-12, at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 11, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
[1/5]U.S. President Donald Trump talks to the media, next to Tesla CEO Elon Musk with his son X Æ A-12, at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 11, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque Purchase Licensing Rights
Defendants would likely argue that vandalizing a car dealership does not meet the federal government’s definition of terrorism: violence aimed at intimidating or coercing a government or civilian population to advance political or social objectives.
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Trump’s decision to buy a Tesla electric vehicle – he chose a Model S – was a significant show of support for Musk, who has come under criticism for his work in Washington. Model S pricing starts at about $80,000.
Trump, in the driver’s seat of the shiny red car, said he is not allowed to drive anymore but would keep the vehicle at the White House for his staff. He said he did not want a discount from Musk.
Trump in January took aim at electric vehicles, revoking a 2021 executive order signed by his predecessor Joe Biden that sought to ensure half of all new vehicles sold in the U.S. by 2030 were electric.
Tesla’s market capitalization has more than halved since hitting an all-time high of $1.5 trillion on December 17, erasing most of the gains the stock made after Musk-backed Trump won the U.S. election in November.
The stock’s decline since December stems from falling vehicle sales and profit, protests against Musk’s political activity and investor worries that politics was distracting the billionaire from tending to his cash cow.
Tesla shares tumble after hitting record high post U.S. election
But at the White House event with Trump, Musk said he would double production in the next two years.
“As a function of the great policies of President Trump and his administration and an act of faith in America, Tesla is going to double vehicle output in the United States within the next two years,” he said.
Musk said in January that Tesla was working hard to increase annual volumes this year, after posting its first drop in annual deliveries in 2024. He did not reiterate an earlier promise of 20%-30% growth in vehicle sales this year.
Musk told reporters on Tuesday he would stay in Washington as long as he was useful, but said he would remain Tesla’s CEO.
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Reporting by Jeff Mason in Washington and Abhirup Roy in San Francisco; additional reporting by Jack Queen in New York, Shubham Kalia and Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Stephen Coates
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Jeff Mason is a White House Correspondent for Reuters. He has covered the presidencies of Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden and the presidential campaigns of Biden, Trump, Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain. He served as president of the White House Correspondents’ Association in 2016-2017, leading the press corps in advocating for press freedom in the early days of the Trump administration. His and the WHCA’s work was recognized with Deutsche Welle’s “Freedom of Speech Award.” Jeff has asked pointed questions of domestic and foreign leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. He is a winner of the WHCA’s “Excellence in Presidential News Coverage Under Deadline Pressure” award and co-winner of the Association for Business Journalists’ “Breaking News” award. Jeff began his career in Frankfurt, Germany as a business reporter before being posted to Brussels, Belgium, where he covered the European Union. Jeff appears regularly on television and radio and teaches political journalism at Georgetown University. He is a graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and a former Fulbright scholar.
