Daniel Clarke-Pounder, a 24-year-old progressive activist, was arrested in South Carolina this week for setting a lot of Tesla chargers on fire with Molotov cocktails. He scrawled “F*** Trump” and “Long live the Ukraine” on the pavement.
The incident appeared to copy an arson weeks earlier in Loveland, Colorado, which saw 42-year-old Justin Grace Nelson, a man who also goes by the name Lucy and lives with his mother, throw Molotov cocktails at cars in a Tesla dealership. Nelson graffitied the dealership, spray-painting “NAZI” and “F*** MU.” The arresting officers were alarmed by the destructive potential of the explosive devices he used.
So far, in 2025, there have been at least 20 instances of Tesla property destruction. In addition to the incidents in South Carolina and Colorado, arsonists attacked charging stations in at least five states, including Massachusetts, Oregon, and Nevada. In other states, Tesla cars have been shot at, vandalized, and set ablaze.
At least 15 people were arrested in connection with these incidents.
With the exception of Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), who roundly denounced the attacks and called on fellow Democrats to join him in doing so, Democratic leaders have remained silent.
It isn’t hard to guess why. For one thing, the anti-Elon Musk fervor rippling through “progressive” America is not random but the fruit of a monthslong political strategy. Lacking a coherent vision for the country, Democrats have relied on demonization to stay relevant in the early part of the second Trump administration. Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency, has been their top target.
There is an unmistakable link between the Democrats’ irresponsible and unhinged rhetoric maligning the tech mogul and the violent uprisings nationwide.
At a February rally outside the Treasury Department, Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) called Musk a “Nazi nepo baby … a godless, lawless billionaire” before promising that he would face opposition “in the court, in Congress, in the streets.”
At that same rally, Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) said of DOGE’s efforts, “God d—it shut down the Senate! We are at war!”
The attacks on Tesla dealerships and charging stations suggest many people understood Pressley and McIver’s statements, in addition to numerous unfounded claims by top Democrats that Musk is Trump’s “puppet master” and a “shadow president,” as a literal call to arms, not a metaphorical one. Who can blame them? If America really were at war with a godless, lawless Nazi, torching charging stations and shooting cars would be rational and morally defensible.
Democratic allies in the media have also encouraged the attacks in more explicit terms. This week, Rick Wilson, a prominent Democratic political strategist and co-founder of the anti-Trump super PAC the Lincoln Project, published an article on his personal Substack titled “Kill Tesla, Save the Country,” with a picture of a burning Tesla under the headline. It doesn’t get more explicit than that. ABC’s late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, during a monologue trashing Musk, looked into the camera and said, “People have been vandalizing Tesla vehicles. Please, don’t ever vandalize Tesla vehicles,” followed by a pregnant pause and wry grin. Yeah, Jimmy, great comedy!
BONDI CHARGES THREE PEOPLE FOR TESLA VANDALISM
In addition to being dangerous — it is easy to imagine attacks escalating, costing lives, and inspiring retribution — the episode underscores the Left’s bald hypocrisy when it comes to political violence. When destruction is done in the name of progressivism, such as when cities across America were set ablaze in the summer of 2020 or when student agitators destroyed their own campuses to the tune of millions of dollars last spring, it is brushed aside or made light of. In darker instances, such as when progressive activist Luigi Mangione assassinated UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December, the Left makes an assailant into a folk hero.
The silence of Democratic Party leaders in the face of the Tesla attacks can mean only that they are afraid of drawing fire if they oppose it or are pleased by what they are seeing. Either way, they’ve abandoned any claim to the decency they preach.