Protesters lined up on the corners at Big Beaver Road and Lakeview Street on Sunday in hopes of sending a message to President Trump adviser Elon Musk.

Seeking to target the pockets of the Tesla CEO, more than a hundred people held signs directed at drivers in an effort to “takedown Tesla.” The event’s organizer, Hank Kennedy, said they were peacefully protesting in the area because a Tesla showroom is on the first floor of Somerset Collection in Troy.

“We’re opposed to the damaging cuts that are being done … The fact that he called Social Security a Ponzi scheme, you’d only call it something like that if you’re planning to get rid of it, which would put I don’t know how many seniors into poverty as well as disabled people,” said Kennedy of Hazel Park.

Protesters held bullhorns and signs including those with the word “DOGE” with a slash through it, “Deport Musk” and “Stop Trump and Musk. This is Treason.”This is Kennedy’s third time organizing a protest.

“Everything he says brings more people out to protest against him. What he says about unions, trans people, government employees,” Kennedy said. “I’d like to see him fired and these cuts reversed. I think that’s the end goal and how we’re doing that is we’re aiming to damage his wallet … so if that means people boycotting Tesla, divesting themselves of stock, if that’s the only way we can fight back peacefully … that’s what we’re doing.”

Tesla stock doubled in value in the weeks after Trump’s election but has since shed all those gains.

The billionaire’s recent involvement in the federal government alongside Trump, including executive orders, mass firings of federal employees and programs like Social Security have left many Americans, even those who once supported Trump, discontent. A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency from Social Security systems that hold personal data on millions of Americans, calling their work there a “fishing expedition.”

Musk oversees the president’s cost-cutting and downsizing operation, or DOGE, which stands for Department of Government Efficiency, and has targeted the federal workforce of key government agencies in an effort to downsize the federal government and tackle spending.

It has allowed the billionaire, who also owns the social media platform X, access to potentially sensitive data while he and the president have suggested slashes to Medicare programs and personnel.

The Trump administration has sought to make the spending reductions because the federal government faces an annual estimated deficit of $1.9 trillion and an accumulated debt of about $36 trillion.

Andi Costantini of Ferndale, 60, said she was scared that democracy would be destroyed so she protested Sunday. With her bullhorn, she called on youth to help the cause and to respond to a man who stopped on Big Beaver Road and called the crowd “idiots.”

“I want to see Trump impeached and Elon taken out of our government,” Costantini said. “I want to see their whole administration taken down. Project 2025, we knew it was coming … They’re getting rid of the Department of Education… it’s scary.”

Many drivers honked and raised their fists in support of the protesters while some yelled “Go Trump.”

Kate Goodin, 68, held a sign at traffic that said “Delete Musk” alongside many others. She said she was angry that Musk’s influence on program and employee cuts comes without research and accountability to the public.

“We’re only beginning to sense the hurt that’s going to come. Things like this have two-fold purpose. One: they send to Washington a message that we’re not happy and also it raises consciousness of the population that we interact with,” Goodin said.

“I just don’t believe that when people were voting (for) Trump, hoping the price of eggs would go down, they expected to see cuts to the National Forest Service, Social Security, the IRS. Irresponsible cuts. I don’t fault Trump voters, I think they were duped like the rest of us,” she said.

Regina Cable of Troy, 71, said she wanted to show community members that they should be doing something instead of watching the federal government shrink and workers fired. “I feel better being out here doing something.”

The retired teacher said she did not vote to eliminate the Department of Education or give anyone access to personal data, Cable said.

People around the country also protesting Musk and DOGE cuts in recent weeks by selling their Tesla sedans and SUVs in large numbers, in some cases announcing they are ditching the EV brand on social media.

Auto information website Edmunds.com reported that Tesla owners have been trading in their vehicles at record-high levels in March.

And February sales of Teslas fell 10% compared to the prior month, dragged down by declines of its Cybertruck, Model 3 and Model Y — even as EV competitors such as BMW AG and Rivian Automotive Inc. saw their sales surge, Cox Automotive said.

Attacks on property carrying the logo of Musk’s car company have cropped up across the U.S. and overseas. No injuries have been reported, but Tesla showrooms, vehicle lots, charging stations and privately owned cars have been targeted. Prosecutors in Colorado charged a woman last month in connection with attacks on Tesla dealerships, including Molotov cocktails thrown at vehicles and the words “Nazi cars” spray-painted on a building.

And federal agents in South Carolina last week arrested a man they say set fire to Tesla charging stations near Charleston.

Some of the most prominent incidents have been reported in left-leaning cities in the Pacific Northwest, like Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, where anti-Trump and anti-Musk sentiment runs high.

The White House has thrown its weight behind Musk. Trump has said Tesla vandalism amounts to “domestic terror,” and has threatened retribution, warning that those who target the company are “going to go through hell.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi said she’d opened an investigation “to see how is this being funded, who is behind this.”