A Tesla Employee Posted an Anti-Elon Musk Web site. Then He Was Fired.

Matthew LaBrot looks as if an unlikely face of the Tesla resistance. He drives a Cybertruck and a Mannequin Y and powers his dwelling with the corporate’s photo voltaic vitality system. He skilled Tesla workers methods to promote the electrical vehicles throughout North America. In the event you’ve watched one of many automaker’s buyer help movies, you may need seen him.

He referred to as it his dream job.

However over the past two years, LaBrot, a self-described Democrat, turned more and more disenchanted with Tesla CEO Elon Musk. His emotions started to show after Musk’s buy of Twitter, and soured additional over Musk’s work for President Donald Trump. On April 24, LaBrot arrange a web site protesting Musk’s management at Tesla. The following day, he took his Cybertruck to a Tesla Takedown protest in California. Lower than 24 hours later, he was fired.

“I wasn’t planning on working wherever else,” LaBrot advised Enterprise Insider. “I used to be very proud of my place, and I may have continued to work in that position my entire life.”

Whereas a whole lot of protests outdoors Tesla services have sprung up throughout the nation, Tesla workers have largely kept away from talking publicly on the problem. LaBrot needs to alter that.

Professional-Tesla, anti-Musk

LaBrot, 35, joined Tesla in 2019 after stints at Greatest Purchase, Starbucks, and in actual property. He rose shortly on the carmaker, ultimately stepping right into a program administration position for gross sales and supply coaching in North America.

He was initially drawn to the corporate as a result of he believed within the mission of sustainable vitality. He had all the time been impressed by Tesla’s merchandise and the individuals who work there, he mentioned. It additionally afforded him super alternatives: He moved up the company ladder, and the corporate’s stellar inventory efficiency helped him buy his first home in 2022.

He first started to query Musk’s management after the billionaire took over Twitter in 2022.

“Sadly, at the moment, I selected the route of simply stick my head within the sand,” he mentioned.

He mentioned he discovered it more durable to disregard when Musk started donating to Trump’s marketing campaign. Musk spent no less than $277 million in political contributions to Trump and different Republican candidates forward of the presidential election. He additionally held $1 million giveaways for voters who signed his tremendous PAC’s petition. Musk formally endorsed Trump on July 13.

He was particularly offended by a salute Musk made throughout Trump’s inauguration celebration in January, which LaBrot and different critics believed was a veiled Nazi salute.

“When your CEO makes a kind of selections, it pulls the corporate together with it,” LaBrot mentioned.

After the salute, Musk urged in a put up on X that Democrats have been behind the criticism. He later mentioned in an interview with Joe Rogan that he is “not a Nazi.”

Tesla’s gross sales droop as Musk will get additional into politics

In October 2024, Musk mentioned he did not assume his political actions would have an effect on Tesla, saying gross sales have been at an all-time excessive. “I feel individuals actually care concerning the high quality of the product versus whether or not they agree or disagree with the CEO’s views. The CEO of any given firm goes to have political beliefs,” he mentioned. “On the finish of the day, what issues is that if Tesla makes an awesome product, and other people like shopping for nice merchandise.”

LaBrot mentioned his on-the-ground expertise did not help Musk’s prediction.

“By election time, we actually began to appreciate that these clients we might anticipated to see weren’t coming,” LaBrot mentioned. The tip of the 12 months is usually when Tesla gross sales are highest, he added, and mentioned the corporate had been aiming to beat lackluster summer season supply numbers within the fourth quarter.

As foot visitors started to drop, LaBrot mentioned Tesla’s gross sales coaching workforce was advised it was extra necessary than ever to win over every buyer that got here by the doorways. Tesla started pushing extra gross sales promotions and incentives, which was uncommon, LaBrot mentioned. Gross sales workers usually needed to work by a backlog of consumers; if one determined to not buy, there was somebody able to take their place. Now, salespeople have been combating to shut on each reservation.

LaBrot mentioned he was used to dealing with the everyday EV hurdles: vary nervousness, misinformation, person error. However a CEO who had alienated left-leaning voters was a complete completely different problem altogether.

“We did not need to do a ton of overcoming objections as a result of these clients simply stopped coming,” LaBrot mentioned.

Earlier this 12 months, LaBrot mentioned, Tesla’s gross sales workforce hit one other stage of panic as EVs started piling up in gross sales heaps. Even Tesla’s refreshed Mannequin Y wasn’t promoting like they’d hoped, he mentioned. Tesla launched the automobile in January and already has a surplus of stock, LaBrot mentioned. It launched a less expensive model of the refreshed Mannequin Y on Might 6.

In April, Tesla reported that its first-quarter supply numbers dropped 13% from the identical interval the earlier 12 months. In California, a key marketplace for the corporate, Tesla registrations fell greater than 15% throughout that first quarter.

Analysts say there are a number of components at play relating to Tesla’s gross sales, together with buyer alienation over Musk’s political beliefs, the corporate’s ageing automobile lineup, elevated competitors from firms abroad, and the general US electrical automobile market.

A spokesperson for Tesla didn’t reply to a request for remark.

An earnings name and the web site

By early 2025, LaBrot was rising more and more annoyed with Tesla. He was sad with the corporate’s lack of inner communication about how Musk’s political beliefs could also be affecting gross sales numbers, in addition to scant steering round how salesworkers ought to deal with protests and vandalism.

“They’re speaking about struggling gross sales and the way can we improve the shut charge, with out speaking about this humongous elephant within the room,” he mentioned.

Because the months went on, LaBrot mentioned he started to voice extra of his issues to his coworkers and in a gathering with different company gross sales workers. The tipping level got here on April 22, when Musk introduced that he could be spending much less time on DOGE and turning his consideration again to Tesla.

Two days later, he posted his web site, which he saved nameless. It contained an open letter calling for Tesla to discover a new CEO.

“When it went stay, I felt so relieved, like a weight had been lifted,” LaBrot mentioned. “This assertion I have been making an attempt to place into phrases, been expressing in firm conferences — lastly publishing it was a extremely good feeling.”

Whereas the open letter was written as if it got here from a number of Tesla workers, LaBrot mentioned he was the one writer — however that some coworkers had expressed related sentiments to him.

In conversations with greater than a dozen present and former workers, many advised BI they’d issues about Musk’s management and political focus. Others largely shrugged off Musk’s conduct. One longtime engineer mentioned that whereas Musk often is the face of the corporate, his position is way faraway from the day-to-day of the typical Tesla worker.

On April 25, LaBrot spray-painted his Cybertruck with details about his web site and the slogan “Professional Clear Vitality Professional Sustainability Professional EV Professional Tesla Anti Elon” and displayed it outdoors a Tesla facility. He mentioned it felt like a logical subsequent step and a great way to attract consideration to the letter.

The following day, he mentioned he acquired a name from Tesla’s Human Assets division. He mentioned he was advised his employment was terminated for utilizing firm sources to construct a web site that didn’t align with the corporate’s perspective. LaBrot denied that he used Tesla sources to construct the positioning.

Since his firing, LaBrot has continued to attend Tesla protests and says he has acquired help from some former Tesla workers. Leaving Tesla has been a bitter tablet to swallow, he mentioned, however he understood the dangers when he launched the web site.

Musk’s politics apart, LaBrot mentioned he stays a cheerleader for the model.

“I nonetheless firmly imagine within the firm and what we’re working in direction of,” he mentioned.

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