Tesla turmoil: Musk decries violence as domestic terrorism
Elon Musk expressed surprise at the extent of damage to his Tesla vehicles. He suggested this is due to findings by the government unit DOGE, led by his appointment following Donald Trump's decision.
Elon Musk, who serves as the head of DOGE, expressed surprise on Tuesday at the "hatred and violence from the left". According to him, attacks on Tesla vehicles are a reaction to his efforts to cut government costs.
The owner of the brand argued that his company has always been "peaceful," and he himself has never done anything "harmful" or "awful" that could provoke such a negative reaction. "I’ve only done productive things," Musk said in an interview with Sean Hannity from Fox News. "So, I think we just have a deranged – there’s some kind of mental illness thing going on here because this doesn’t make any sense."
It really comes as quite a shock to me that there was this level of, really, hatred and violence from the left. I always thought the left, the Democrats, were supposed to be the party of empathy, the party of caring and yet they’re burning down cars, they’re firebombing dealerships, they’re firing bullets into dealerships, they’re just, you know, smashing up Teslas," he commented.
Musk attributed the violence to his success in eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government through his work in the Department of Government Efficiency, which theoretically aims to reduce government spending by CAD 2.86 trillion.
"It turns out when you take away people’s – you know, the money they’re receiving fraudulently, they get very upset," he said. "They basically want to kill me because I’m stopping their fraud. And they want to hurt Tesla because we’re stopping this terrible waste and corruption in the government."
Attorney General Pam Bondi described the recent attacks on Tesla vehicles as "nothing short of domestic terrorism". Bondi issued this statement after five Tesla vehicles were damaged in a fire at a Tesla collision centre in Las Vegas. Local authorities blamed an arsonist who was throwing Molotov cocktails, and the word "RESIST" was spray-painted on the facility's doors.
"I think there are larger forces at work here as well," Musk said. "I mean, I don’t know, who’s funding this and who’s coordinating this?"
