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Tesla charging stations were set ablaze near Boston on Monday. Shots were fired at a Tesla dealership in Oregon after midnight on Thursday. Arrests were made at a nonviolent protest at a Tesla dealership in Lower Manhattan on Saturday.
The electric car company Tesla increasingly found itself in police blotters across the country this week, more than seven weeks after President Trump’s second inauguration swept Tesla’s chief executive, Elon Musk, into the administration as a senior adviser to the president.
Mr. Musk, 53, is drawing increasing backlash for his sweeping cuts to federal agencies, a result of the newly formed cost-cutting initiative Mr. Musk has labeled the Department of Government Efficiency.
During a demonstration on Saturday at a gleaming Tesla showroom in the West Village neighborhood of Manhattan, protesters joined in chants of “Nobody voted for Elon Musk” and “Oligarchs out, democracy in.” One held a sign saying, “Send Musk to Mars Now!!” (Mr. Musk also owns SpaceX.)
Several hundred protesters remained there for two hours, organizers said, blocking entrances and shutting down the dealership.
Some protesters entered the building, and six were arrested, said Alice Hu, an organizer. The New York Police Department said that five people had been issued summonses for disorderly conduct, while one faced a charge of resisting arrest.
The demonstration came at the end of a week in which employees at a Tesla dealership in Tigard, Ore., near Portland, arrived at work on Thursday and found gunshot damage.
The police said they believed that at least seven shots had been fired, damaging three cars and shattering windows. One bullet went through a wall and into a computer monitor, the police said.
And on Monday, seven Tesla charging stations were intentionally set on fire at a shopping center outside Boston, the police said. In another Boston suburb, the police arrested a man on Wednesday who had tagged six Tesla vehicles with decals of Mr. Musk in a raised-arm pose.
The police in Brookline, Mass. released a video of the man saying that he had the right to deface the cars because it was his “free speech.” When Mr. Musk saw the video, he responded, “Damaging the property of others, aka vandalism, is not free speech!”
Tesla did not respond to a request for comment on Saturday about the protest and vandalism.
In Colorado on Thursday, federal prosecutors charged a person with malicious destruction of property. She is accused of spray-painting “Nazi” onto the side of a Tesla dealership and planting a Molotov cocktail near a vehicle, according to a news release from the United States attorney in Colorado.
At Mr. Trump’s inauguration, Mr. Musk slapped his right hand on his chest before shooting his arm diagonally upward, palm facing down, a gesture that resembled a salute used in Nazi Germany and fascist Italy. But Mr. Musk responded in a post on X: “The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired.”
On Tuesday in Salem, Ore., a man was arrested and charged with setting fires in front of a Tesla dealership and to a Tesla car in the lot on the day of the inauguration, causing at least $500,000 worth of damage, the authorities said. He was also charged with firing shots at the same dealership one month later.
The protest at the showroom in Manhattan was in one of the city’s most liberal neighborhoods. Protesters have gathered there for weeks, with each weekend’s protest larger than the previous one, according to State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, a Democrat who represents the district.
He said that it was “cathartic for New Yorkers to go to the streets” and that it was important for Mr. Musk and Mr. Trump to “see that cutting the federal government off at its knees is going to hurt a lot of people.”
Tesla itself has been the subject of the backlash, with some vehicle owners now selling their cars and trucks to distance themselves from Mr. Musk and his political activities.
“I’m sort of embarrassed to be seen in that car now,” one owner told The New York Times before trading in the car.
The anger against Mr. Musk this week also crossed borders.
In Berlin on Tuesday, several fires broke out at a construction site for the expansion of a Tesla factory. The police in Germany said that they were investigating it as an arson.
And in France, a dozen Tesla cars were set on fire near the southern city of Toulouse on Sunday night. The blaze was “not at all accidental,” the prosecutor’s office said.
Instead of mainstreaming equal rights, we are seeing the mainstreaming of misogyny.
Together, let’s stand firm in making rights, equality, and empowerment a reality for all women and girls, for everyone, everywhere.
Almost 100 years ago, Levi’s® introduced the first jeans made specifically for women, the Lady Levi's®. This was back when women were expected to wear only dresses and skirts, but times were changing. Some working women needed pants that could withstand the toll of ranching and farming. Others would soon be working in what had been men’s roles, during World War II, stepping into spaces that had long been off-limits and supporting the country in the process. As is so often the case with Levi’s® products, it was about the clothing, yes, but it was also about much more – self-expression, self-empowerment, choice, and freedom.
When we say Levi’s® is “always in pursuit of progress,” this is exactly what we mean. It was true then. It’s true today. And it’s especially true as we observe Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day. To all the women who blazed the trails and showed us the way, we thank you and celebrate you! And to all the women who are leading us forward now, we’ll be with you every step of the way.
I've seen it time and again: when women work, the world works better.
When women can expand their businesses without anyone's approval.
When women can own the land they've farmed for decades.
When women can get around the city without fearing for their safety.
When women can freely choose their careers and pursue their dreams.
Around the world, policies are opening the gates to greater economic empowerment for women—for the benefit of all.
This IWD2025, I’m highlighting 5 policies that create opportunities for all and drive societies forward.
In recognition of International Women’s Day, let’s remember that we all play a role in encouraging children to step into their personal power—to share their ideas, show their strength, and live fully.
Kids pick up on the messages we send, even the ones we don’t realize we’re sending. Our assumptions shape how they see themselves, and those perceptions can either expand or limit their sense of agency and their potential. This isn’t just about individual parenting; it’s a broader cultural pattern. And we have the power to shift it.
Thousands of Angelenos marched through downtown Los Angeles in this year's Women's March.
Eight years ago, the inaugural Women’s March drew hundreds of thousands of Angelenos with hand-knitted "pussyhats" to speak up against the election of President Donald Trump.
With Trump back in office, organizers are hoping today's march — the first to take place on International Women's Day — will bring renewed energy to L.A.'s Pershing Square.
"Diversity, equity, and inclusion are in danger and that is something that has positively affected women," said Emiliana Guereca, president of Women’s March Foundation in Pershing Square on Saturday. "So when they talk about dismantling diversity, equity,y and inclusion, they're talking about silencing women."
Many participants have come bearing all manners of protest signs. For Ruby Villa, it's also a family affair. The teen is here with her mom and grandmother.
"My sign says, 'If you don't fight for all women, you fight for no women," Villa said.
Lauren Walker said she and her friend are at the march because they are against what the White House has been doing.
"I was feeling like I wasn't able to do anything. A peaceful protest is a good way to channel the energy that we all feel about the wrongs that are happening right now in our government," Walker said. "It's something we can do together to feel better."
Part of her sign reads: "Elon, stop firing and starving American people."
Nona and Michael Randois joined the march today to make their voices heard. They surveyed the crowd of thousands around them.
"It feels good to see people stand up and take action," Nona said. But she noted today's turnout was far from that of 2017.
"All the people who came out then need to come back out because that's the only way we're going to fix this," she said.
Thousands of demonstrators marched Saturday from the State House to a Tesla showroom in the Back Bay in an International Women’s Day protest targeting President Trump and his powerful ally Elon Musk, the tech billionaire who has overseen major cuts to the federal government in the opening weeks of the new administration.
The procession to the Boston outpost of the electric vehicle company helmed by Musk began earlier in the afternoon on Boston Common. Marchers cut a path down the Commonwealth Avenue boulevard, leading police to briefly close cross streets. The demonstrators circled past Tesla on Boylston Street before shutting down the road as they returned to the Common via Boylston. The march did not appear to encounter any counterprotesters.
At the start of the march, organizer Ashley Parys said people need to fight back against what she described as government intrusion on the rights of women and people of color.
“Today is the start of the next revolution,” Parys told the cheering crowd of people near the State House. But, she said, “It’s what we do tomorrow and the next day that matters.”
Parys and her mother passed out fliers telling people to contact elected officials, sign online petitions, attend upcoming protests, and boycott companies whose executives have supported Trump.
Trump’s second term hasn’t seen the huge protests that greeted his first election eight years ago. Many of his opponents have spoken of exhaustion stemming from the fire hose of news from the past several years. But there have been several, locally and nationally, along the lines of Saturday’s demonstration, which appears to have been among the largest in Boston since Trump retook the office.
Marcher Shannon Parolisi held a pink poster board sign with pictures of female Democratic politicians including Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and former Vice President Kamala Harris.
“We’re watching how women are leading the way forward,” the 51-year-old North Shore resident said. She said she’s concerned about abortion access and other women’s rights. But she’s also concerned about a broader range of issues amid government cuts: Social Security for her parents, veterans’ resources for her dad, and LGBTQ protections for her daughter.
“What they’re doing touches everything,” she said.
Many others said much the same. While several signs referenced abortion or made feminist-styled puns like “Girls just want to have fundamental rights,” speakers and interviewees more often mentioned broader fears about the role of government. Chants referenced issues like immigration, racism, tax policy, trans rights, and the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine. Often, the fears demonstrators voiced fell into two main categories: that the government would take away rights, and that the Musk-driven government cuts would take away services.
“These cuts will hurt vulnerable people the most,” said Samantha, a 33-year-old Bostonian who did not want to give her last name because she said she feared repercussions at work.
Musk, who poured more than a quarter of a billion dollars into Trump’s reelection campaign, is a senior adviser to the president and leader of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
Musk and Trump have sought to remake what they characterize as a bloated and corrupt federal bureaucracy that wastes taxpayer money and only benefits liberals. The department’s efforts to reduce government spending by laying off federal workers in various departments and freezing grants have prompted controversy and legal challenges. Several signs at Saturday’s demonstration took issue with Musk calling Social Security a “Ponzi scheme” and suggesting changes, though none have happened yet.
At the demonstration on Saturday, chants and signs targeted Musk at least as often as they did Trump.
“He’s horrific,” said Ellen Hamilton, who was wearing a pink unicorn onesie. The 53-year-old Dartmouth resident referenced the Social Security comments and cuts to health research, saying, “He’s just cutting everything.”
After four years out of power, Trump, the controversial Republican president, won November’s election for a second term. This time, with Musk at his side, the administration has moved more aggressively, leading to frequent public protests, though they generally have not been as large as during Trump’s first term.
On Friday, demonstrators gathered on Boston Common to show their opposition to cuts to scientific research and layoffs at federal science agencies.
Participants at that rally, dubbed Stand Up for Science, chanted criticisms of Trump, Musk, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the vaccine skeptic now heading the US Department of Health and Human Services.
On Saturday, demonstrators mobilized under the leadership of the group Women’s March, which staged massive demonstrations across the US the day after Trump took office for his first term in 2017. The theme for this year’s actions is “Unite and Resist,” with demonstrators also rallying in Natick and Ipswich.
In Boston, the demonstration began around noon on the Common near the State House. After a brief speaking program, organizers played the Dropkick Murphys’ song “I’m Shipping Up to Boston” through a megaphone, and then the crowd erupted in chants targeting Musk.
“Hey, hey! Ho ho! Elon Musk has got to go!” they yelled.
When the marchers reached Tesla on Boylston, they encountered a friendly crowd already there — a red-clad flash mob dancing their opposition on the sidewalk.
The march remained upbeat throughout. As has become common at progressive rallies in Boston, a band with drums, brass, and woodwinds played throughout the walk, tunes including The Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star” and American standard “This Little Light of Mine.” At one point, the organizers stopped in the middle of Boylston Street and sang Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club.”
At each road closure, people at the front of the march waved to the police officers stopping traffic and shouted their thanks.
“It’s about standing when we need to be heard,” said Camille Levasseur-Hartgrove, a 21-year-old student at Suffolk University who waved a “Boston Women Strong” sign. “And it’s about doing it through it all with a smile on your face.”
Women have been conditioned to believe that we need to have it all figured out before we step forward.
That we must be perfect before we take up space.
That we shouldn’t charge too much because we don’t want to be “difficult.”
That we need one more certification, one more testimonial, one more perfect post before we can sell, show up, and lead.
I see it all the time inside my programs:
👉Women who pour their entire heart into their work but feel guilty charging what they’re truly worth.
👉Women who hesitate to launch their offers because they’re afraid it’s not quite perfect yet.
👉Women who keep second-guessing themselves, waiting for permission to take up space, to sell boldly, to own their success.
But here’s the truth: YOU DON’T NEED TO BE PERFECT TO BE POWERFUL.
And you certainly don’t need to be perfect to get paid at the highest level.
The world needs more women standing in their power.
Owning their expertise.
Speaking up, unapologetically.
Charging what they deserve.
So on this International Women’s Day, this is my challenge to you:
✅ Stop waiting for permission.
✅ Stop shrinking yourself to fit someone else’s expectations.
✅ Stop thinking you have to be flawless before you deserve success.
Take up space.
Use your voice.
Claim what’s yours.
If this resonates, drop a comment and tell me what part hit home for you. And share this with another female entrepreneur who needs to hear it.
On March 8, members of famous activist group Femen participated in a bold demonstration to denounce "the rise of fascism in Europe and in the world" at the International Women's Day march in Paris. The protest targeted multiple prominent figures in today's political landscape,… pic.twitter.com/aOYz1M6rIJ
— Brut America (@brutamerica) March 8, 2025
Thousands of people took to the streets of downtown Los Angeles for this year's International Women's Day march. #InternationalWomensDay https://t.co/ekxSrbOtNK pic.twitter.com/duAhqwewFD
— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) March 8, 2025