Heath Haussamen
When the world’s richest man goes off the rails, can a bunch of regular folks stop him?
That’s the question I was pondering while I drove to a protest outside a Tesla charging station in Las Cruces on Saturday.
When I arrived there were 15 people holding up signs lambasting Elon Musk. By the time the protest officially started 20 minutes later, there were nearly 50 people expressing outrage at the way Musk is indiscriminately slashing the federal government without accountability.
“Impeach President (F)Elon Musk,” one sign read. “Public Enemy #1,” stated another. Both included a photo of Musk making the Nazi salute at President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January.
Musk and his DOGE minions are running unchecked across the federal government. They’re laying off workers who are performing critical functions and crippling agencies. On Friday they fired an estimated 800 people at the National Weather Service, which will substantially harm public safety.
Indivisible Las Cruces organized Saturday’s protest on the corner of Amador Avenue and Motel Boulevard, where a parking lot includes 15 Tesla Superchargers for electric vehicles. Tesla is, of course, owned by Musk.
A coffee shop that shares the parking lot is not affiliated with the Tesla charging stations. Many protesters bought food or coffee from the business in a show of goodwill. They largely kept the protest on the public sidewalk and off the coffee shop’s property.
Pam Hett, the facilitator of the Indivisible group, said the organization’s work is based on three pillars: disrupting the Trump agenda, building the progressive community and educating people about Project 2025, the blueprint for much of what the Trump Administration is doing.
She said protesting Musk’s actions is an attempt to disrupt Trump’s agenda.
“He’s a shadow president, never elected, and does not represent us,” Hett said. “We’re going to stand up against it.”
Postitive reactions
Two truck stops share the busy intersection with the Tesla chargers, and the city’s recycling center is a block away, so tractor-trailers frequently passed the hour-long protest.
Two of the first semi drivers to react to the protest flipped off the demonstrators. But then the mood shifted: Semi driver after semi driver honked their horns and gave the protesters thumbs up signs.
Bill McCamley, one of the organizers of the protest, started counting. Three favorable reactions to two. Then four to two. By the end of the protest, the score was 14-2 from semi drivers.
“I definitely didn’t expect that,” he said with a smile on his face.
That’s how it went. A pecan farmer honked in support as he passed in his pickup. Two ladies rolled down a window while at a stop light and complained about the way Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance treated Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, at the White House on Friday.
Even two Tesla drivers showed support as they drove by.
Through it all, protesters consistently expressed surprised at the number of positive reactions to their message.
‘The most anti-veteran administration’
There were Trump and Musk supporters, of course. Several people flipped off the protesters. One held up a MAGA cap while he drove by. Another man rolled down his window when the light was red and engaged McCamley, arguing that Trump was going to help veterans.
“This is the most anti-veteran administration in the history of the United States,” McCamley shouted back. The two debated for a bit before the light turned green. Among the man’s final words before he drove off were, “We’re headed for greatness.”
The exchange about veterans is personal for McCamley. His sister is a Veterans Affairs doctor in Albuquerque who’s working to help people like their dad, who was a vet. Musk has encouraged her to quit, and McCamley is really angry about that.
Such cuts will leave veterans without the care they need, McCamley said. He believes it’s all about finding the money to give the wealthy another tax cut.
“If the world’s richest man doesn’t have enough, if he needs to screw over veterans, cancer patients and air traffic controllers because he doesn’t have enough, that’s bullshit,” McCamley said.
In spite of his anger, McCamley kept his cool throughout the protest. One man parked his Tesla at a charging station, plugged it in and walked right up to McCamley, the bulkiest person at the demonstration. He tried to start a fight, but McCamley de-escalated the situation. The man returned to his vehicle and stayed in it while it charged.
A nationwide protest
Folks protested Musk’s actions across the nation on Saturday. A thousand people took to the streets surrounding a Tesla dealership in Tucson. Hundreds chanted “Zelensky is a hero” outside a dealership in Manhattan. Protests outside dealerships in cities including Baltimore, Denver, and Stamford, Conn. all had hundreds of demonstrators.
There’s no Tesla dealership in Las Cruces, which is why folks gathered at the charging station.
Just like the protesters, I was surprised by the positive reactions from the semi drivers. It was encouraging to see so many people show up to protest —about 60 through the hourlong event — and to see that the vast majority of drivers who reacted to the protest gave positive feedback.
The widespread federal layoffs and massive funding cuts have the potential to make so many people turn on the Trump Administration. Who doesn’t know someone who works for the federal government or whose state or local job is dependent on federal funding? I personally know people who have lost their jobs because of Trump’s and Musk’s actions.
There will be more.
A groundswell of opposition, perhaps
Musk’s layoffs are disrupting critical services. As DOGE gradually cripples the federal government, more and more people will feel the negative effects of the things their tax dollars fund vanishing.
Perhaps that will lead more people to appreciate what their government does for them. Perhaps they’ll take to the streets.
Perhaps it’s already happening.
Perhaps there’s a groundswell of opposition building. Perhaps an army of regular folks can defeat even the world’s richest man.
Saturday’s protests gave me some hope.
Disclosure: McCamley, a former county commissioner, state legislator and state cabinet secretary, is my close friend.