Tesla CEO Elon Musk has all but torpedoed the electric car maker’s brand since taking on a special role within the Trump administration, determined to cut massive amounts of spending through job cuts and downsizing popular programs or eliminating entire agencies. That has understandably caused a lot of anger across the country, and Tesla has taken the brunt of the impact as showrooms are present across the nation and serve as an easy target to channel displeasure.
But a string of vandals have already been apprehended for defacing Tesla showrooms and destroying vehicles, with Attorney General Pamela Bondi, along with Musk and President Trump, all stating that vandalizing Teslas would now be treated as an act of domestic terrorism (it is unclear whether the president has authority to make such a declaration). 404 Media got its hands on charging documents for three individuals, which outline how the suspects were tracked down. It comes down to some classic investigative work, along with the help of newer license plate readers and trawling digital footprints.
In the case of Daniel Clarke-Pounder, who is said to have thrown Molotov cocktails at Tesla charging stations in South Carolina, the police were able to recover glass bottle shards from the scene and, combining that with eyewitness account’s of Clarke-Pounder’s appearance, searched through local surveillance footage to find a man wearing matching clothes and holding a bottle from the same brand of beer.
They then contacted the mall where the Tesla showroom was located and got footage of Clarke-Pounder entering a car, along with a scan of his license plate. Police obtained his phone number and found apps that he had used, including a “mobile payment app” with payment history for his apartment that led to a home address. At the time of his arrest, a search turned up a notebook with “statements opposed to the Department of Government Efficiency (‘DOGE’)” along with other evidence.
The other cases are pretty similar, with police using surveillance cameras, license plate lookups, and DNA evidence to track down perpetrators. If convicted, each of the defendants faces a minimum of five years in prison and up to twenty years.
In today’s day and age with dystopian surveillance cameras now ubiquitous, and smartphones helping facilitate much of everyday life, it is difficult to get away with such crimes. Tesla’s themselves are loaded with cameras. Musk has also mobilized the White House and Justice Department to defend the private company he runs alongside being a federal employee, so local police are taking the issue especially seriously.
Tesla has ramped up security and activated Sentry Mode on all vehicles at stores https://t.co/3HwUgE8ZoF
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 20, 2025
There are probably better ways to show displeasure for Musk’s antics—maybe point and laugh at every Cybertruck driver you pass by—and vandalizing Tesla showrooms could have the opposite effect of encouraging his loyal supporters to purchase new vehicles; though it seems like Republicans still are not coming out in big numbers. It also lends support to the surveillance industry which can point to these incidents as reason why communities should be blanketed in cameras. The toxicity of Tesla amongst traditional EV buyers seems like it is doing enough of the work to punish Musk.
The share price of Tesla is down 37% so far in 2025, and even some of Musk’s long time supporters are calling for him to step aside from DOGE and stop the bleeding. Maybe there will be a tipping point where even Musk cannot stomach the losses any longer. Or maybe he realizes the rest of his business empire is benefiting handsomely from his newfound power and can live with Tesla suffering.
