Back in Chicago, Ed, who asked us not to use his last name, was parked on Lakeshore Drive last month when he said his blue Tesla was vandalized with a clear message to Tesla's co-founder Elon Musk.

Several protests have popped up outside a Chicago Tesla dealership, and one Cybertruck owner says he's flipped off regularly. Those looking to ditch the vehicles are out of luck as well — car sellers say they can't offload them.

This weekend, protests escalated at Tesla showrooms across the nation. Hundreds of people gathered to boycott Elon Musk and his involvement in the Trump administration as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is overseeing a massively disruptive effort to fire thousands of federal workers to slash government spending.