Former CNN political reporter Chris Cillizza revealed Wednesday that his Tesla was vandalized with a “Musk is a Nazi” sign while attending his son’s soccer tournament over the weekend. Cillizza shared the incident on his Substack, calling it yet another example of how the politicization of everyday life is “making us all crazy.”
“So this is the first time I’ve experienced the sort of politics of Elon Musk and Tesla,” he said.
But beneath his words was a deeper, more uncomfortable realization.
Back when he bought his Tesla—a Model 3 purchased around 2019 or 2020—Cillizza assumed the real danger would come from conservatives. “The big concern I had—because this was the big thing that was happening—was sort of pro-MAGA people keying the car or smashing it…because America is about, like, real engines, not electric cars,” he said. “That was the perception back then, right? It was like you’re coding yourself as, like, an enviro-liberal-wacko-communist if you bought a Tesla.”
Was it, though? Was there ever a time that Tesla owners really thought that conservatives were going to vandalize their cars?
But I digress. Fast-forward five years, and it’s the very crowd that once idolized electric cars and celebrated Tesla as the future of green innovation who are now doing exactly what Cillizza once feared from the right. Now that Elon Musk has become persona non grata among Democrats and leftists—first for buying Twitter and turning it into a free speech platform, and now for his open support of President Trump and his push to mainstream DOGE—owning a Tesla has become a lightning rod for left-wing outrage.
“It is amazing to me that five-ish years on, I am getting this on my car because Elon Musk has now become sort of persona non grata for the non-MAGA crowd,” Cillizza said.
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The irony isn’t lost on him. Tesla, once ranked 8th in Axios/Harris’s corporate brand rankings in 2021, has plummeted to 95th in 2025. Cillizza notes that this dramatic shift came after Musk became politically associated with the right. But instead of conservatives vandalizing Teslas as he once feared, it’s the very people who once celebrated the brand now attacking it—literally.
He drew a comparison to another culture-war flashpoint: Chick-fil-A.
Years ago, he tweeted about wanting a sandwich a Chick-fil-A and was immediately inundated with attacks. “I hope the hate tastes good,” was a common refrain. While Chick-fil-A has long been accused of supporting conservative values, its brand has held strong. In the same Axios/Harris poll, it ranked 26th—far better than Tesla.
The bigger question Cillizza seems to struggle with is whether everything now has to be political. “I don’t think that me eating a Chick-fil-A sandwich is a political statement. It’s a statement that I like Chick-fil-A,” he said. “I didn’t buy a Tesla to support anyone or not support anyone. I bought the car because I thought it was cool, and I liked it.”
While he claims he tries to remain neutral—claiming he’s “not an activist” and doesn’t “hate Elon Musk”—the incident forced him to confront a truth many liberals refuse to acknowledge: It’s not the right that’s policing behavior through public shaming and vandalism. It’s the left.
It’s sad that he didn’t realize this sooner.
It wasn’t people in MAGA hats or driving pickup trucks keying his Tesla. It was the cancel-culture crowd, the self-proclaimed tolerant left, leaving signs calling Musk a Nazi. “This person obviously never met me,” Cillizza said. And yet, they targeted him anyway—because owning a Tesla is now a thought crime in their eyes.
Cillizza thought evil conservatives would vandalize his Tesla—oops! His shock at leftist intolerance is hilarious, but clearly he hasn’t been paying attention. PJ Media readers knew better because we report the facts. Join PJ Media VIP with code FIGHT for 60% off and laugh at liberal hypocrisy with us.
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