On Friday, February 14, 2025, Sheryl Crow shared a video of herself waving goodbye to her car, a Tesla. Along with the video, Crow shared a brief caption in which she explained that she had sold her car in protest of Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk and Donald Trump. With the money she made, she made a donation to National Public Radio (NPR).
“My parents always said, ‘You are who you hang out with.’ There comes a time when you have to decide who you are willing to align with. So long Tesla,” Crow wrote. “[The] money [was] donated to NPR, which is under threat by President Musk, in hopes that the truth will continue to find its way to those willing to know the truth.”
Crow is an outspoken critic of Musk and the Trump administration. When speaking to ITK at the Kennedy Center Honors in December, Crow said the political climate in the United States “doesn’t feel uplifting.”
“Right now, the story doesn’t feel uplifting, but I do look at it and think that you have to go through really, really hard times to come out the other side and define what the next chapter looks like,” Crow said. “I have kids, teenagers, and I’m hoping and praying that we get there sooner than later, so that I can see it. But they’re going to have to go through a period where they don’t understand what this country stands for, and then there will be some turnaround — because there always is — and they will live through it.”
Since taking office, Donald Trump has taken over the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, appointing new board members who elected him chairman in February. He also threatened to defund public media outlets in the U.S., including NPR.
“No more funding for NPR, a total scam,” Trump wrote on Truth Social prior to taking office.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk has become the target of public criticism following his appointment as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). On Inauguration Day, Musk made “what appears to be a Heil Hitler” salute at a Trump rally. One week later, he appeared at a campaign rally for a far-right political party and told attendees there is “frankly too much of a focus on past guilt and we need to move beyond that.” More recently, he’s received backlash after Trump’s administration, with Musk’s DOGE, initiated layoffs across federal agencies.
