President Donald Trump is clearly unpopular: Most Americans disapprove of his performance and millions recently turned out for “No Kings” protests. So why is it that so many major corporations and billionaires are either actively assisting Trump’s attack on democracy or else meekly complying with his dictates?

The disconnect is, most likely, the result of simple cost/benefit analysis. For the American business elite, the cost of crossing Trump is high and specific: He might deny your mergers, initiate bogus civil rights investigations, or even attempt to throw you in jail. By contrast, the costs of compliance are low: Perhaps a majority of voters might disapprove, but they can’t really do anything about it.

Or can they?

Consider, as one piece of evidence, a brand-new study on the fortunes of Elon Musk’s Tesla. The researchers show, using careful empirical analysis, that Musk’s foray into far-right politics — and especially his role into the Trump administration — have cost his company enormously.

All told, the researchers find, Tesla would have sold as many as 1.25 million more cars in the past three years had Musk behaved differently. This is equivalent to roughly 83 percent of Tesla’s actual sales during this period, meaning the company could have nearly doubled its sales had its CEO not alienated its heavily Democratic customer base.

Partially, this is a story of individual liberal consumers making their own choices. But it’s also the story of an organized movement — the #TeslaTakedown boycotts and protests that began in response to the cruelty and lawlessness of Musk’s DOGE.

And the Tesla protests were not one-offs: There are other moments in Trump’s second term that show liberal consumer boycotts can inflict real damage on corporations who align with Trump or bend the knee.

When you look at all of this together, you can start to see the contours of a real and actionable plan for challenging elite quiescence in the face of democratic backsliding — one with deep roots in the history and theory of civil resistance.

Liberal consumers 1, Elon Musk 0

The Tesla study, written by a team of four researchers at Yale University, tracks trends in monthly auto sales between 2018 and the first quarter of 2025. In the early years of the investigation, Tesla was on an upward trajectory — buoyed by rising enthusiasm for electric vehicles........

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