The demonstrators aimed to intensify their campaign against Tesla showrooms and its vehicles, protesting Musk’s leadership of the newly established Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. In this role, Musk has accessed sensitive information and closed down multiple agencies in a push to reduce government expenses.

The majority of Musk’s estimated $540 billion fortune comes from his holdings in the electric automobile company, which remains operational while collaborating with the Trump administration. A number of Tesla owners who purchased their cars before Musk’s DOGE involvement are now seeking to sell or trade them. Others have opted to use bumper stickers to publicly dissociate from him.

But Musk did not appear concerned about an extended slump in new sales in the March meeting, during which he reassured the workers that the company’s Model Y would remain “the best-selling car on Earth again this year.”

He also predicted that Tesla will have sold more than 10 million cars worldwide by next year, up from about 7 million currently.

“There are times when there are rocky moments, where there is stormy weather, but what I am here to tell you is that the future is incredibly bright and exciting,” Musk said.

After Trump was elected last November, investors initially saw Musk’s alliance with the president as a positive development for Tesla and its long-running efforts to launch a network of self-driving cars.

That optimism helped lift Tesla’s stock by 70 per cent between the election and Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration, creating an additional $890 billion in shareholder wealth.

But virtually all those gains have evaporated amid investor worries about the backlash, lagging sales in the US, Europe and China, and Musk spending time overseeing DOGE.

“This continues to be a moment of truth for Musk to navigate this brand tornado crisis moment and get onto the other side of this dark chapter for Tesla,” Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said in a recent research note.