{"id":3290,"date":"2025-04-07T08:26:11","date_gmt":"2025-04-07T08:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/?p=3290"},"modified":"2025-04-07T08:26:11","modified_gmt":"2025-04-07T08:26:11","slug":"unplugged-the-backlash-against-trump-musk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/?p=3290","title":{"rendered":"Unplugged: The Backlash Against Trump\u2013Musk"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><!-- BLOCK(acast)[0](%7B%22componentName%22%3A%22ACAST%22%2C%22entityType%22%3A%22SHORTCODE%22%2C%22optional%22%3Afalse%7D)(%7B%22id%22%3A%22unplugged-the-backlash-against-trumpmusk%22%2C%22podcast%22%3A%22intercept-presents%22%2C%22subscribe%22%3Atrue%7D) --><\/p>\n<p>\n  <iframe src=\"https:\/\/embed.acast.com\/intercept-presents\/unplugged-the-backlash-against-trumpmusk?accentColor=111111&amp;bgColor=f5f6f7&amp;logo=false\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" class=\"acast-player__embed\"><\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<p><!-- END-BLOCK(acast)[0] --><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"has-underline\">Tesla\u2019s stock plummeted<\/span> more than 30 percent in the first quarter of 2025, losing its post-election gains, as the electric vehicle pioneer grapples with an unexpected challenge: a consumer revolt against CEO Elon Musk\u2019s leadership of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency and his political alliances.<\/p>\n<p>Once celebrated across the political spectrum, Tesla has transformed from an environmental icon into a political flashpoint.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Tesla dealerships have become symbols, explains Lara Starr, who organized a 200-person demonstration in Marin County, California. \u201cYou can\u2019t disentangle Tesla from Musk, and you can\u2019t disentangle Musk from Trump. And the one thing I can say about Musk positively is he has handed us a place in almost every community around the country that is symbolic of everything wrong that is going on in Washington.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The impact of this grassroots rebellion is beginning to show in Tesla\u2019s financial reports. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2025\/04\/02\/business\/tesla-sales\/index.html\">Global sales <\/a>have hit historic lows for the company, with particularly sharp declines in traditionally strong markets.<\/p>\n<p>Despite Tesla\u2019s business challenges, the billionaire poured considerable resources on reshaping America\u2019s political landscape. His political spending \u2014 including with his super PAC spending $25 million in a single Wisconsin Supreme Court race \u2014 has yielded disappointing returns. His preferred candidate was defeated.<\/p>\n<p>In this week\u2019s episode of The Intercept Briefing, reporters <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/staff\/matt-sledge\/\">Matt Sledge <\/a>and Sunjeev Bery examine this grassroots rebellion and what it reveals about Musk\u2019s power and the future of political activism.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s been a lot of talk about how the Democrats are in disarray and not sure how to recover from the election last year. But this [Wisconsin] election \u2014 and the way that Elon Musk got involved and personalized it and made it about himself \u2014 gave Democrats an easy yes-no vote on Elon Musk, and I think that was really significant here,\u201d says Sledge.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He points out how that election is also a rebuke of the Trump\u2013Musk alliance: \u201c\u200aIt is fascinating that it is happening through this electoral mechanism, and that people are being allowed to give a referendum on this relationship, and that the democratic process is potentially having a direct input on this relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Intercept contributor <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/staff\/sunjeev-bery\/\">Sunjeev Bery<\/a> says the Tesla protests are much bigger than just Tesla or Musk. \u201cThe Tesla takedown movement has become this astonishing wave of opposition to Trump, the fascist directions of the Trump regime, everything Elon Musk is pushing with DOGE. It\u2019s a place where lots of people who are angry about all of the different things that the Trump regime is up to \u2014 all of the fires they\u2019re setting \u2014 can come together and focus on Elon Musk, Tesla, and the physical place of his dealerships.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Listen to the full conversation of The Intercept Briefing on<a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/the-intercept-briefing\/id1195206601\"> Apple Podcasts<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/2js8lwDRiK1TB4rUgiYb24?si=e3ce772344ee4170\"> Spotify<\/a>, or wherever you listen.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2025\/04\/04\/briefing-podcast-musk-trump-tesla-protests\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tesla\u2019s stock plummeted more than 30 percent in the first quarter of 2025, losing its post-election gains, as the electric vehicle pioneer grapples with an unexpected challenge: a consumer revolt against CEO Elon Musk\u2019s leadership of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency and his political alliances. Once celebrated across the political spectrum, Tesla has transformed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3291,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3290","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-usa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}