Since launching in early 2025, the anti-Trump protest at Van Ness and O’Farrell has consistently drawn a crowd every Saturday at noon, and some nearby residents are apparently fed up with the noise, as the city has received hundreds of complaints this year.
As SFist reported last year, the weekly demonstrations began in February 2025 outside the Van Ness Tesla showroom, as part of the nationwide “Tesla Takedown” movement after President Donald Trump returned to office and Elon Musk took on an outsized role in the administration. The protests were later renamed “Trump Regime Takedown,” and are now organized by Indivisible SF and 50501, as the Chronicle reports.
Turnout each week has reportedly fluctuated with national events, drawing around 200 protesters at the beginning, in early 2025. In January 2026, organizers say hundreds turned out after federal agents fatally shot Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, though a typical Saturday now draws around 50 to 80 protesters.
According to the Chronicle, nearby residents are fed up with the noise surrounding the protest, as the area around Van Ness and O'Farrell has logged hundreds of noise complaints this year compared to previous years. The increase briefly pushed the Western Addition, which includes the area between Japantown and Van Ness, into the city's top three neighborhoods for noise complaints after reportedly being well below the top 10 last year.
Organizers say that while they've been confronted by nearby residents complaining about the noise, they've never been cited or asked to move. In one instance, the group was told by police to simply ignore a person who showed up to the protest and began barraging the department with complaints.
“It’s on a Saturday, once a week, from 12 noon to 2. I don’t really think that really is creating a problem,” said protester Steve Harper, speaking to the Chronicle. “In our situation, how our country is right now, something needs to be done.”
The city reportedly can't determine how many people filed the complaints because the data is anonymized, but officials say repeat reports from a small number of users are common. Per the Chronicle, more than 20 of the complaints appear to include photos taken from the same nearby vantage point.
Additionally, complaints categorized as “other excessive noise” aren't routed to an enforcement agency, meaning they're logged but generally not investigated.
Previously: Meet The Organizer Who Turned The Tesla Showroom Into a Weekly Protest Hub
Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist
