- The Tesla CEO on Sunday claimed Democrats were paying people to protest his company in an effort to artificially spark outrage over his efforts to rein in government spending. Hoffman denied it as another smear from a delusional man searching for a scapegoat: "I never funded anyone for Tesla protests."
The image shared on social media spoke volumes: nearly two dozen taxpayer-funded Chicago police officers standing shoulder to shoulder in a line of force guarding the target of protesters’ ire on Saturday: a local Tesla showroom.
In just the latest example of a broader “Tesla Takedown” movement, the scenes this weekend highlight how the carmaker has morphed into a lightning rod crystallizing opposition against Elon Musk. Now the Tesla CEO revealed he not only believes they are manufactured protests staffed with paid actors, he believes he's found the true culprits behind the demonstrations cropping up across the country: Democrat megadonors George Soros and Reid Hoffman.
“An investigation has found 5 ActBlue-funded groups responsible for Tesla ‘protests,’” he wrote, before listing the former hedge fund manager and LinkedIn founder as two top funders.
Not only did Musk not provide any evidence to back up his claims, he actually asked users on X to reply to his post with information "if you know anything about this."
Hoffman denied the claim on X, saying Musk had no one to blame but himself for Americans being angry at him. "Just one more of Elon's false claims about me: I never funded anyone for Tesla protests," he wrote, adding, "it's easier to explain away their anger, than to accept that actions have consequences."
Neither Soros's Open Society nonprofit nor ActBlue, an online platform set up to raise small dollar donations from grassroots supporters, responded to a request from Fortune for comment.
Musk's DOGE cost-cutting efforts in the crossfire
Musk is effectively accusing the duo of astroturfing protests in an attempt to artificially spark national outrage over his efforts to rein in federal spending. Musk’s government efficiency office, DOGE, is tasked with eliminating waste and fraud in a bid to lop off $1 trillion from Uncle Sam’s budget.
Critics counter there are already numerous appointed officials rooting out waste and fraud, including both the Government Accountability Office (GAO) as well as the inspectors general at each department—before Trump fired almost all of them.
DOGE has been engulfed in controversy, however, centering on such issues as his hiring teens with questionable credentials to the mass firing of veterans, a key Republican constituency, from the civil service.
In the midst of this clash of viewpoints, the Tesla brand has wound up as collateral damage. Since Musk is not only CEO but also its largest individual investor, opponents of the entrepreneur have projected their vitriol at the company, with numerous documented cases of vandalization of Tesla cars, charging infrastructure, and showrooms.
Saturday’s show of force by police in front of the Tesla Gold Coast dealership in downtown Chicago sought to discourage protesters from smashing windows or destroying property in the heat of the moment.
Tesla more than halves from record peak, now at lowest since Q3 earnings
The constant controversy around Musk has not been helping his investors. On Monday, Tesla stock fell by 15% to $222.15 a share amid broader market losses with the Nasdaq dropping 4% in the session. Not only has it plunged by half from its December peak, it's retraced every cent of its gains from election week and then some, trading at its lowest level since the company impressed with strong third-quarter earnings on Oct. 23.
Part of this is due to weakening fundamentals. Sales in Germany plunged 76% in February, a figure partly weighed down by a lack of supply. Last month, Tesla factories around the world shut down on schedule in order to prepare their assembly lines to produce a newer version of the Model Y.
Sentiment for high-risk, high-return assets overall has furthermore suffered amid concerns over a potential “Trumpcession” in the United States. Cryptocurrencies, a favorite among Tesla’s retail shareholders, sold off this weekend, which can often force investors to liquidate some Tesla holdings to cover losses elsewhere.
Yet the antics of its CEO have not helped. This weekend, Musk endorsed the U.S. withdrawing from NATO and later told the foreign minister of Poland—a country President Trump recently singled out for praise—to learn his place. It was the latest sign of trouble brewing in the transatlantic alliance.
“Be quiet, small man,” Musk, a self-described free speech absolutist, told Radek Sikorski. The Pole had suggested Warsaw could push for Ukraine to shift from Musk’s SpaceX to another satellite-based communications network provider. “There is no substitute for Starlink,” he added.
