Tennessee Republicans Glenn Jacobs, Brent Taylor, Todd Starnes Support Tesla amid Protests over Elon Musk and DOGE

Tennessee Republicans made gestures in support of Elon Musk and his electric vehicle company Tesla on Saturday as organized protests over the billionaire’s efforts within President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) occurred throughout the Volunteer State.

Protesters descended on Tesla showroom in Franklin, Knoxville, Chattanooga, and Bartlett on Saturday as part of a “Tesla Takedown” organized by Indivisible Tennessee, which describes itself as individual cells “brought together by a practical guide to resist the Trump agenda.” The progressive nonprofit claims its members will take “regular, iterative, and increasingly complex actions” to resist Trump and his agenda.

They were joined by at least three prominent Tesla supporters, however, as State Senator Brent Taylor (R-Memphis), Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs, and Tennessee-based radio host Todd Starnes were all present at various Tesla locations on Saturday.

“Today I stopped by Memphis’ Tesla Showroom to make sure Bartlett Police had what they needed to stop any potential Tesla Terrorists from vandalizing property or harassing Tesla owners,” wrote Taylor in a post to the social media platform X, which Musk purchased in 2022. 

“I was surprised to see so many different protestors there. I saw Ukrainian flags, trans flags, gay flags (or whatever they’re called), upside down American flags, fat positivity flags, etc,” wrote Taylor. “I don’t think the protesters really knew what they were protesting.” 

Taylor summarized his visit to the protest and Tesla showroom in a video attached to the X post.

“I never really thought of myself as a Tesla person until I came out and saw all of these folks protesting, and I wondered to myself, what the hell are they protesting? Maybe I want a Tesla,” said Taylor.

The Tennessee lawmaker later added, “What’s interesting is the protesters are protesting because Elon Musk, through DOGE, is eliminating a lot of jobs, but yet they are here trying to eliminate Memphis jobs.”

Starnes revealed in another post to X that he visited the Tesla showroom in Memphis alongside Taylor. He described suffering an attempted attack from the protesters.

“A radical leftist exploded in rage at a Tesla dealership in Memphis. She began cursing [Taylor] and then the woman lunged at me, grabbed my phone and threw it on the ground,” wrote the talk show host. “These people are insane.”

https://www.twitter.com/toddstarnes/status/1903530181563949368

On the opposite side of the state, the Knox County Mayor was test driving a Tesla Cybertruck, according to a post Jacobs made to X.

“Hey everyone, I’m test driving a Cybertruck. Man this thing is awesome, just amazing. I have it in full self drive at the moment and it’s about to turn itself in front of a car here,” said Jacobs, before waving at admirers with both hands while the vehicle drove autonomously.

Jacobs added before concluding the video, “This thing is so cool.”

The protests at Musk’s business locations in Tennessee occurred less than one month after a Nashville emergency services technician was arrested for allegedly planning to bomb the xAI data center in Memphis, where the pro-Trump businessman plans to build the world’s largest supercomputer, over political disagreements with the Trump administration.

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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].