This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman.
“Elon Musk targeted me over Tesla protests. That proves our movement is working.” That’s a new article — a headline of a new article in The Guardian by our next guest, who’s been helping to organize the Tesla Takedown protests at Tesla showrooms to protest Elon Musk, President Trump’s billionaire adviser, the richest man in the world and his top campaign donor.
While Musk has been helping to dismantle numerous government agencies, or leading the charge to dismantle them, stock prices for his company Tesla have fallen so much that President Trump felt compelled this week to announce he’ll personally buy a Tesla. On Tuesday, Trump and Musk held what’s compared to an informercial for Tesla outside the White House. During the event, Trump told a reporter that he considers attacks on Tesla dealerships to be “domestic terrorism.”
REPORTER: Mr. President, you talked about some of the violence that’s been going on around the country at dealerships. Some say they should be labeled domestic terrorists because —
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I will do that. We’ve got a lot of cameras up. We already know who some of them are. We’re going to catch them. And they’re bad guys. Let me tell you, you do it to Tesla and you do it to any company, we’re going to catch you, and you’re going to — you’re going to go through hell.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re joined now by Valerie Costa, a Seattle-based activist who’s helping to organize the Tesla Takedown movement with the local group Troublemakers and others.
Valerie, can you talk about Elon Musk singling you out? And what are you doing in organizing — what is your goal — these protests around the country, from Washington state, Seattle, where you are, to here in New York, the Tesla dealership here?
VALERIE COSTA: Yeah. Hi.
So, this past weekend, I woke up first Saturday to a tweet where Elon Musk had tweeted that Troublemakers, the group I organize with, along with four other organizations, were ActBlue-funded, which, at least for Troublemakers, is outright not true. And then, Sunday morning, I received — a friend sent me the most chilling text for me, which was Elon Musk had retweeted another tweet where this person had taken a clip from a podcast interview I did about the Tesla Takedown protests and made allegations that I was promoting vandalism and such. And Musk said, “Costa is committing crimes.” So, that was terrifying to receive the news of that tweet.
And the fallout from that has just been, there’s been a lot of people online trying to smear me, make connections, make up stories about who I am and where I get money from — all sorts of just harassment. And I’ve received threats. It’s been scary. It’s been scary, in response to a tweet from a person who essentially bought his way into the White House, as the largest online social media platform, and is spreading outright lies about me and the movement as a whole, the Tesla Takedown movement as a whole.
So, I am just an organizer with the Seattle-based group Troublemakers. There’s a group of us here. We’re working with a number of organizations and individuals who have been planning protests at Tesla showrooms in the area for the last month or so. They’re peaceful, nonviolent protests. They’re First Amendment-protected, free speech, peaceful assembly. And we’ve done that, and we’ll continue to do that as this movement is gaining momentum.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the fake buyers, actions at Tesla dealerships where there have been reports of protesters faking interest in buying a Tesla to waste time?
VALERIE COSTA: I can’t — I’m not sure — I know that people are using different strategies and tactics to engage with Tesla, but I can’t speak to that particular strategy that people are using. I think there’s different tools in the protester’s toolbox.
I mean, essentially, protesting Tesla, this protest, is ultimately about hitting Elon Musk’s bottom line. You know, every dollar that goes into Tesla, every Tesla that’s purchased increases his — essentially, his profits. And the more money he has, it’s clear, the more influence he has on the government and in the world. He was able to, like I said, buy his way into the White House with his $250 million contribution to Donald Trump’s campaign. And he bought Twitter, giving himself sort of a platform to spread lies. And this campaign is giving people a way to show their outrage about what he’s doing to dismantle critical services and government institutions that people rely on for their health and well-being in this country.
AMY GOODMAN: And can you talk about the strategy of Tesla Takedown urging people to dump Tesla stock?
VALERIE COSTA: I think it’s just related to what I just said. It’s really about, you know, you as a consumer, you as a person that may have stocks and investments. You can choose where to put your money. And I think right now, given the, essentially, fascist takeover of our government, one thing that you can easily do is to move your money out of Tesla into other companies, into other things in your community — move it out of the market — where your money will be used for better, for good.
AMY GOODMAN: And can you address Elon Musk’s claims that — about violence at Tesla dealerships? You’re in Seattle, where on Sunday someone set fire to four Tesla Cybertrucks in a Tesla lot in Seattle’s Industrial District.
VALERIE COSTA: For sure, there’s been vandalism at Tesla dealerships. I’ve seen it on the news. I want to make it really clear that I don’t, and the Tesla Takedown movement, Troublemakers, none of us have ever supported violence or called for violence. We do not believe in that as a strategy of nonviolent resistance. I think the vandalism really shows the outright anger and rage that people are feeling about what Elon Musk is doing right now in our government.
AMY GOODMAN: Clearly, the movement has had an effect, even a Fox reporter questioning Elon Musk and President Trump at that infomercial at the White House, where you could see President Trump had a piece of paper that talked about the costs of various Tesla cars, you know, over $100,000, and he asked about pushing these expensive cars at a time when so many people are suffering in the United States. I was wondering if you could respond to that. Now, that was a Fox reporter asking that question. But also —
VALERIE COSTA: I know. It’s wild.
AMY GOODMAN: Also, Elon Musk talking about violence at dealerships as domestic terrorism?
VALERIE COSTA: Yeah, I’ll first speak to the first part. I mean, that infomercial on the White House lawn was surreal. I’ve been an activist in different forms for years, and I’ve never been part of something like this that’s gained such quick momentum and sort of gotten such national attention, for better or worse. And you can really tell, with, you know, the — OK, the president of the United States of America is buying a car from the world’s richest man’s company. Why? In order to make him feel better? In order to try to prop up the stock? I think the stock barely went up that day and has only gone up a little since then.
I think it really shows that this movement is working, that it’s gained momentum. It’s not just in the United States. We’ve, I think, had over 300 protests so far throughout the country, that are known of, that have been put on the Tesla Takedown map. And there’s 95 planned for this weekend. And that’s all decentralized. Like, I’m just based in Seattle. I’ve just been involved in the Seattle-based protests. This is just — Tesla Takedown is essentially a website with a map where you can put your protest on the map and encourage people in your community to show up and speak out and defend their civil liberties, as well as, you know, their upset about what Elon Musk is doing.
The allegations or the claims of —
AMY GOODMAN: Valerie, we have 30 seconds.
VALERIE COSTA: Yep, OK. Thank you. The allegations and the rhetoric right now of conflating the Tesla Takedown protests with violence and domestic terrorism is chilling, but I think, more than ever, this is the time that we all need to show up, because our civil liberties are getting attacked, as we’ve seen throughout even just watching your program this morning. And I just encourage folks to step up, because the more of us who do, it will be safer for all of us.
AMY GOODMAN: Valerie Costa, I want to thank you for being with us, an activist with the Tesla Takedown movement, speaking to us from Seattle, Washington.
