At one end, Elon Musk is gathering global praise for bringing Sunita Williams back to Earth, and at the other, the tech titan's Tesla cars are being torched in the United States.
Multiple Tesla cars were burned in the early hours of Tuesday at a Las Vegas service center, where the word “resist” was also painted in red across the building's front doors.
The Tesla CEO called the attacks “insane and deeply wrong.” In an exclusive interview with Fox News, he was more direct: “I always thought that Democrats were supposed to be the party of empathy and caring, and yet they are burning down cars, firebombing dealerships.” He later retweeted posts labelling the incidents “terrorism”.
Trump's opinion on the ongoing arson is in Musk's favour.
Trump: “I Think So”
Asked by Fox News if he considered the attacks on Teslas an act of domestic terrorism, Trump responded, “I think so.” He added that his administration was considering stronger measures to prosecute those involved.
Last week, Trump publicly purchased a Tesla from Musk. “Elon is doing incredible things,” Trump said at a White House event. “We are going to classify these violent protesters targeting Tesla as domestic terrorists.”
Experts say Tesla has become an easy target because of its visibility. “They’re rolling down our streets. They have dealerships in our neighborhoods,” said Randy Blazak, a sociologist who studies political violence, speaking to the Associated Press.
Theresa Ramsdell, president of the 'Tesla Owners of Washington' club, said that while she understands political frustrations, she rejects violent action.
“Hate on Elon and Trump all you want—that’s fine and dandy, it’s your choice,” she said. “It doesn’t justify ruining somebody’s property, vandalizing it, destroying it, setting it on fire.”
Someone recently slapped a “No Elon” sticker on the tailgate of her Cybertruck.
“I love my car. It’s the safest car,” she said. “I’m not going to let somebody else judge me for the car I drive.”
A growing pattern
The Las Vegas fire isn’t an isolated incident. Last week, two Cybertrucks were torched in Kansas City. According to Associated Press, a number of the most prominent incidents have been reported in left-leaning cities in the Pacific Northwest, like Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, where anti-Trump and anti-Musk sentiment runs high.
A man in Salem allegedly threw Molotov cocktails at a Tesla store before returning another day to shoot out windows. In Tigard, a showroom was sprayed with bullets, twice in one week.
In Seattle, four Cybertrucks were set on fire in a Tesla lot earlier this month, while a Model S was torched on a city street.
The FBI is investigating these cases, and Special Agent in Charge Spencer Evans acknowledged that the attacks bear some markers of terrorism. “Was this terrorism? Was it something else? It certainly has some of the hallmarks that we might think—the writing on the wall, potential political agenda, an act of violence,” Evans said at a press conference. “None of those factors are lost on us.”
