Hundreds of protesters decrying Elon Musk’s role in the Trump administration and his Department of Government Efficiency and a few dozen pro-Musk and pro-Trump counter protesters gathered Saturday at the Tesla dealership in the Easton Town Center, occasionally trading verbal blows.
On one side of the sidewalks outside the dealership were around 500 anti-Musk protesters who carried signs with slogans like “Deport Musk” and “Tesla funds fascists.” The protesters came out because they want Musk out of government and their lives, organizer Rick Neal said.
“The reason that we’re here, specifically, is because the funny thing about Tesla is that it’s not a franchise. This isn’t owned and run by a local businessman. They are his employees, like he owns this directly. So, what better way to try to express ourselves to an invisible, inaccessible, unelected guy who is the richest man in the world?” Neal said.
And on the other side of the sidewalk were around 30 pro-Trump, pro-Musk counter protesters who touted signs with slogans like “Patriots against domestic and economic terrorism” and chanted, “We love Elon.” The counterprotest was organized by a right-wing social media influencer who only identified himself as “Patriot Dad.” He said their demonstration was a symbolic shield for the Tesla dealership.
“People need to know that the folks who put Donald Trump into office are not asleep; we haven’t checked out. (The protesters) are going to do what they’re going to do; that’s fine, but we’re going to come out here and just remind people that, hey, there actually are people who care about American companies and American workers, and they care about protecting the property of a company like Tesla, which is a really important company in this country,” he said.
The anti-Musk protesters and the pro-Musk protesters stayed on separate areas of the sidewalk outside the Tesla dealership after both sides’ organizers agreed to do so earlier in the week. Members of the Columbus Division of Police’s dialogue unit kept the groups separate and out of the roads.
While the groups were physically separated, it did not stop them from lobbing insults at each other. A man on the pro-Musk side frequently used a bullhorn to insult the anti-Musk protesters, sometimes calling them pedophiles, while the anti-Musk protesters responded with barbs of their own, calling them Nazis and fascists. Middle fingers and expletives were also frequently traded between the groups.
Protesters stand outside the Tesla dealership at Easton Town Center on Saturday, March 29, 2025 in Columbus, Ohio. The protest was against Elon Musk, who leads Tesla and the Department of Government Efficiency.
Saturday’s protest was the latest in a series of weekly demonstrations organized by the Indivisible movement, a progressive organization that emerged during Trump’s first term. While it was the eighth weekly protest, Saturday’s gathering was the first time the anti-Musk protesters had encountered organized counter protesters, Neal said.
Not obviously present at the protest were The Proud Boys, a far-right militant organization, that previously said it would infiltrate the protest to gather information on protesters. The counter-protest’s organizer said he had nothing to do with the group and had no interest in coordinating with them.
(This story was updated to add a video.)
Breaking and trending news reporter Nathan Hart can be reached at [email protected] and at @NathanRHart on X and at nathanhart.dispatch.com on Bluesky.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Elon Musk, DOGE protest held at Tesla dealership in Columbus, Ohio
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