Tesla Fires Employee After He Launches Anti-musk Website Amid Sales Slump: Report

A longtime Tesla worker was fired conscionable 24 hours aft launching a protestation website captious of CEO Elon Musk and attending a objection extracurricular a Tesla facility, according to a Business Insider report. Matthew LaBrot, who joined nan electrical conveyance elephantine successful 2019 and roseate to a location training role, said he launched nan inaugural because he could nary longer reconcile his values pinch Musk’s governmental leanings, peculiarly his support for Donald Trump.

“I wasn’t readying connected moving anyplace else,” LaBrot told Business Insider. “I was very happy pinch my position, and I could person continued to activity successful that domiciled my full life.”

LaBrot’s protestation website went unrecorded connected April 24, and nan pursuing day, he appeared astatine a “Tesla Takedown” arena holding a motion that publication “Pro Tesla, Not Elon!” He was terminated nan time after.

His dissent comes astatine a clip erstwhile Tesla is battling aggregate crises: sagging demand, increasing EV competition, and what galore labor opportunity is reputational fallout from Musk’s governmental actions. In nan first 4th of 2024, Tesla reported a 13% driblet successful world deliveries. In California, agelong considered a Tesla stronghold, conveyance registrations fell by much than 15%, according to authorities data.

Inside Tesla, LaBrot said, it was clear that Musk’s progressively partisan floor plan was pushing distant a information of nan company’s once-diverse customer base.

“By predetermination time, we really started to realise that these customers we’d expected to spot weren’t coming,” he said. “We didn’t person to do a ton of overcoming objections because those customers conscionable stopped coming.”

LaBrot, who describes himself arsenic a Democrat and had been an outspoken soul advocator for Tesla’s ngo of cleanable energy, said his discomfort escalated aft Musk acquired Twitter (now X) successful 2022. He grew progressively disappointment by Musk’s governmental donations and his alleged salute astatine Trump’s inauguration, which galore viewed arsenic inappropriate.

“When your CEO makes 1 of those decisions, it pulls nan institution on pinch it,” LaBrot said.

Tesla has not commented connected LaBrot’s firing aliases his claims. Musk, successful past statements, has dismissed suggestions that his governmental positions impact Tesla’s marque perception. “At nan extremity of nan day, what matters is if Tesla makes a awesome product,” he said past year.

But LaBrot isn’t buying it. He believes Tesla’s halfway values are astatine consequence of being overshadowed by its CEO’s governmental identity. “I support Tesla’s mission,” he said. “But I deliberation it’s clip nan institution had a caller CEO.”

Published on: May 12, 2025 3:40 AM IST