According to a local media report, a group identifying itself as "Students Against Nazi Extremism" is threatening Tesla owners with vandalism unless they surrender their cars.According to Lost Coast Outpost, people in northern California's Humboldt County discovered notes left on their Teslas that read, "no Nazis in America." Local media said that at least one of the letters was connected to a brick. The group claimed responsibility for the letters and addressed a purported manifesto to the news organization. Additionally, the manifesto threatened Tesla owners in Seaside, Monterey County; Hayward, Alameda County, in the city's East Bay; and Rohnert Park, Sonoma County, north of San Francisco.The outlet did not release the manifesto, but offered a summary of its contents.

"So obviously this is a vendetta against [Elon] Musk, and their goal, they say, is to create a big stigma around owning a Tesla. So they want the value of Tesla vehicles to plummet," explained Ryan Burns, a reporter at Lost Coast Outpost.Police in Seaside said they were aware of the notes and were taking the implied threats seriously, but had received no reports of vandalism as of Wednesday afternoon.

Musk, the CEO of Tesla, X, and SpaceX, is currently in the process of gutting the federal government under the questionable authority he has been granted by Donald Trump as a "special government employee" running the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is not actually a federal department.The world’s richest man quickly faced sharp criticism after he gave what has been described as a Nazi sieg heil salute during a speech on the day Trump was inaugurated.

Musk has dismissed the criticism of his salute as "dirty tricks" played by the media, and responded to the criticism with a slew of puns incorporating the names of historical Nazi leaders.Backlash against Musk's wholesale incursions into government systems – some of which have given Musk and his team access to pay systems of the Treasury Department with Americans' Social Security numbers and other sensitive information – has resulted in some ill-will toward those using Musk products.

A woman in the Bay Area recently reported that someone spray painted the word “Nazi” on her Cybertruck. She said she believed the message was intended to be criticism of Musk.

A man in Worchester, Massachusetts who drives a Cybertruck claims he has been threatened for driving the vehicle.

According to CBS News, Dr. Kumait Jaroje said someone put an insulting sticker on his golden Cybertruck in early February. He shared an image of the sticker and his truck online, and claims he then began getting threats over social media.Protesters against Musk in Manhattan and Maine have also posted up outside of Tesla showrooms and charger stations to express their frustration with the unelected billionaire’s actions against the federal government, MSNBC reports.

Tesla blowback isn't just limited to the US; a group projected an image of Musk giving his controversial salute onto an exterior wall of a Tesla factory in Berlin, along with the word "heil." German authorities have been investigating the incident with the intent to press charges against those responsible.

Musk has been a vocal supporter of the far-right AfD party in Germany, sparking backlash from moderate and liberal Germans who oppose his attempts to influence their national politics.