More than 10,000 protesters gathered in New York City on Presidents’ Day to talk out in opposition to the present Trump administration and the actions specifically of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
It was certainly one of a number of protests that passed off Monday in main cities throughout the nation and got here throughout the identical lengthy weekend that smaller protests sprouted up at Tesla dealerships throughout the nation.
Protesters who spoke to TechCrunch from Washington Square Park, raised considerations about DOGE’s entry to delicate information of hundreds of thousands of Americans and the group’s dismantling of federal companies. They stated that they view Musk’s work with DOGE as a veiled try at a monetary energy seize, and expressed frustration that Musk, an unelected official, has gained unprecedented ranges of energy over the federal authorities.
“I think it’s extremely dangerous that [Musk] has access to our personal data,” Dmitri, 53, an architect who requested that his final title not be used, advised TechCrunch. “He’s kind of a futurist fanboy who’s basically living in a sci-fi fantasy and trying to implement that, and has the resources to do mass amounts of damage. He’s tinkering with something that he doesn’t have the ability to actually understand.”
A 55-year-old retired instructor who recognized himself solely as Tom and who held an indication that learn: “No one voted for Musk,” advised TechCrunch, “As much as I dislike the fact that a significant number of Americans voted for Trump, it is absolutely the case that no one voted for Musk.”
Tom famous that he didn’t imagine the common MAGA supporter voted for Musk and frightened that DOGE’s cuts would damage Americans on a state, native, and particular person stage.
“The consolidation of power under billionaires is a frightening thing,” he stated.
Trump signed an government order on his first day in workplace to create DOGE, giving Musk, the billionaire proprietor of SpaceX, Tesla, X, and different corporations, the reins to root out authorities fraud, waste, and abuse of taxpayer {dollars}.
Since then, DOGE has fired almost 10,000 federal employees who dealt with all the things from managing federal lands to caring for army veterans. Another 75,000 employees have accepted the Trump administration’s buyout proposal, which in late January supplied federal employees eight months pay and advantages to depart their posts in the event that they resigned in early February. DOGE has additionally lower 104 authorities contracts associated to variety, fairness, inclusion, and accessibility packages and dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Trump additionally granted Musk’s DOGE group entry to the Treasury division’s digital funds system, which controls trillions of {dollars} in funds to Americans, from Social Security advantages to tax refunds, regardless of questions on their safety clearances, their cybersecurity practices, and the legality of Musk’s actions.
Supporters of Trump and Musk applaud their on-paper efforts to root out corruption, inefficiency, and crimson tape. Opponents object to the best way DOGE goes about its said objectives, and warn that the group’s actions will result in extra corruption and nationwide safety dangers.
A wave of authorized challenges has adopted that allege a scarcity of transparency and information privateness violations.
The protesters in New York began at Union Square and marched to Washington Square Park, congregating underneath the enduring memorial arch devoted to George Washington, the nation’s first president. They chanted “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Elon Musk has got to go,” and held indicators that touted a variety of causes, however Musk and DOGE have been a standard theme all through.
The New York Police Department estimated the variety of attendees to be greater than 10,000.
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