Andrew and Wendi Moreo and their three teen daughters spent most of Saturday waving American flags in front of a Tesla dealership on Federal Highway in Fort Lauderdale. Andrew said he and his family came from Coral Springs to protest the Trump administration and “the trashing of our Constitution.”
The Moreos were joined by more than 400 protesters who lined the street, holding signs and voicing their outrage with Elon Musk and the Trump administration. Passing cars and trucks tooted horns in support.
Broward County residents of all ages and backgrounds were protesting a range of actions — from widespread layoffs in the federal government, threats to Social Security and Medicare, and cuts to education and for HIV prevention.
“We are protesting everything that’s going on in our country,” said Lauderdale By-The-Sea resident Linda Thompson Gonzalez. “There’s so much right now.”
Similar protests took place Saturday in Delray Beach, Miami, Tampa and outside the state at nearly all 277 of the automaker’s showrooms and service centers in the U.S. The protesters are participating in a movement targeting Tesla dealerships and vehicles in opposition to Musk’s role as the head of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, where he’s gained access to sensitive data and shuttered entire agencies as he attempts to slash government spending. Most of Musk’s estimated $340 billion fortune consists of the stock he holds in the electric vehicle company that he continues to run while also working alongside Trump.
“Musk has gone in and trashed every institution we have,” Andrew Moreo said. “I’m an educator, so the destruction of the Department of Education is a travesty. The feeling is that they are trying to create uneducated citizenry.”
His wife Wendi said one of her daughters is gay, and the family also is protesting Trump’s position on gay and transgender rights.
Protesters like Connie Darga, of Margate, and Madonna Letourneau, of Deerfield Beach, said they came out on a rainy Saturday to express their overall opposition to what’s happening in D.C.
“I am trying to do everything I can to help save our country,” said Darga, 77, who held up a sign reading, “President is not a King. Keep our Checks and Balances.”
Letourneau, 58, said, “I’m here to protest the firings of people for no apparent reason, to quit making enemies of all of our allies…the list could go on forever.”
She said she wants benefits when she reaches her senior years.
“I want there to be Social Security. I want there to be Medicare,” she said. “Our Congress has got to step up to somebody who is not an elected official and is making all kinds of changes to our government.”
The Fort Lauderdale protest was relatively peaceful. A small group of Trump and Musk supporters held signs across the busy street supporting the administration. A young man in a Tesla Cybertruck taunted protesters by repeatedly driving by with a Trump banner.
In some parts of the country, people opposed to Musk have gone beyond protests and set the automaker’s vehicles on fire and committed other acts of vandalism that U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has decried as domestic terrorism.
While the Florida protests are grassroots efforts publicized on social media, the more formal movement labeled the Tesla Takedown is a national group of supporters that includes disillusioned owners of the automaker’s vehicles, celebrities and some politicians.
For 70-year-old Fort Lauderdale resident Bud Beehler, Saturday’s protest was his fifth in a row and one of the largest he has attended, he said.
“I am fighting for democracy,” he said. “This is what democracy looks like.”
Information from the Associated Press contributed to this report.
South Florida Sun Sentinel reporter Cindy Goodman can be reached at cgoodman@sunsentinel.com.