Law enforcement officials and domestic extremism experts say they have found no evidence that a series of attacks on Tesla vehicles and dealerships are coordinated despite such claims from Tesla CEO Elon Musk and President Donald Trump.
At least 10 Tesla dealerships, charging stations and facilities have been hit by vandals, many of whom have lit cars on fire, while a growing collection of videos posted to social media have shown people defacing and damaging Tesla vehicles. One website appeared to encourage people to target Tesla vehicles, publishing a map with the information of dozens of Tesla owners and Tesla facilities. It’s unknown who started the site.
The attacks have come as Musk has emerged as one of the brightest flashpoints of an already tumultuous second Trump administration, leading a sweeping effort to cut large swaths of the federal government. Musk has decried the attacks on Teslas, and on Thursday claimed on his social media platform X that the attacks were “coordinated.” He did not provide evidence.
Later that day, Musk also said in a live presentation to the company: “I can’t walk past the TV without seeing a Tesla on fire.”
Trump has also claimed the attacks have been coordinated. In an interview Wednesday on Fox News, he said without evidence that “people that are very highly political on the left” are paying the vandals.
Trump has called the destruction of Tesla property domestic terrorism, and Attorney General Pam Bondi announced charges on Thursday against three people accused of vandalizing Tesla properties in Oregon, South Carolina and Washington state.
Publicly available court documents for the three people make no mention of coordination, an NBC News review found.
Experts and law enforcement officials nationwide from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the two federal agencies investigating the attacks, all told NBC News they have found no evidence of any coordination around the attacks.
Individual field offices for both agencies are handling the incidents on a case-by-case basis, working with partner agencies to determine if they warrant local, state or federal charges, the law enforcement officials said. Several said federal law enforcement agents from various areas of the country have been sharing information on the Tesla attacks, but have not found a common link other than the brand itself.
An FBI public service announcement published Friday evening warned that individuals have targeted Tesla vehicles and dealerships across the country “with arson, gunfire, and vandalism.”
“These criminal actions appear to have been conducted by lone offenders,” it says.
“If there is coordination (for the vandalism, not the protests), it’s not in the public domain,” John Horgan, the director of Georgia State University’s Violent Extremism Research Group, said in an email.
“There’s no evidence they’re connected,” said John Lewis, a research fellow at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism.
“What’s tricky is that unlike previous culture war flashpoint conspiracies, this one seems to have the attention of the Justice Department,” he said.
Musk, a federal adviser and top donor to Trump, has become the face of massive cuts to the U.S. federal government, leading to growing unpopularity among some Americans. An NBC News poll this month found that while many Americans support cutting federal government waste, a majority now hold negative views of Musk.
And while there does not appear to be any coordination around the attacks on Tesla dealerships, there have been organized efforts, such as Tesla Takedown, aimed at rallying people to show up at Tesla facilities to protest Musk. That group has disavowed violence and property destruction.
Dislike of Musk and Tesla has become increasingly popular online. Videos of people keying Tesla cars and spreading dog feces on Cybertrucks have circulated widely. Police reports say the vandalism has extended to people shooting automatic rifles and throwing Molotov cocktails at Tesla stores.
An FBI spokesperson said the bureau is still gathering information.
“The FBI is working with our law enforcement partners to investigate a number of incidents in which Tesla charging stations and dealerships were damaged. Incidents have occurred in several states and the FBI is coordinating with federal, state, and local law enforcement partners to gather information,” the spokesperson said.
On his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump said Friday that people who deface Tesla locations could face extrajudicial rendition to El Salvador.
“I look forward to watching the sick terrorist thugs get 20 year jail sentences for what they are doing to Elon Musk and Tesla. Perhaps they could serve them in the prisons of El Salvador, which have become so recently famous for such lovely conditions!” he said.
Lewis, of George Washington University, said the president’s push to label Tesla vandalism as terrorism is worrisome.
“The idea that you could take Americans who have not been charged with a terrorism offense, let alone convicted of it, and talk about deporting them to a foreign country to serve prison sentences is incredibly chilling,” Lewis said.
