Hundreds of people gathered on Capitol Hill on Tuesday afternoon to rally against the Trump administration’s policies targeting the federal workforce.
The rally, which was organized by the American Federation of Government Employees, featured fiery speeches from Democrats and chants of “F*** Trump,” with Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) taking it a step further to say “F*** Donald Trump and Elon Musk” to the cheering of rally attendees.
Rep. Donald Norcross (D-NJ) fired up the crowd, saying: “I’m from Jersey so … I say ‘f*** Trump!’”
Rep. Maxine Dexter (D-OR) said she was uncomfortable swearing in public, but she too yelled awkwardly: “We have to f*** Trump.”
“Please don’t tell my children that I just did that,” she said.
Democrats have sharply rebuked President Donald Trump and his allies, especially Elon Musk, for their efforts to shrink the federal government and reduce government spending. Musk has partially become a source of ire for Democrats for his work leading the Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, including offering federal employees a deferred resignation deal, closing the U.S. Agency for International Development office, and accessing the Treasury Department’s payment system.
At the start of the rally, rallygoers could be heard chanting “Hey, hey, ho ho. Elon Musk has got to go.” AFGE President Everett Kelley called on members of Congress to “support and defend the people you represent … and please remember that nobody voted for Elon Musk. Nobody voted for his rampage.”
Other speakers included Reps. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) and Steny Hoyer (D-MD), as well as House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY).
“I wanted to make sure I crossed the street to make it clear that the attack on you, the attack on the civil service is unacceptable, unconscionable, un-American, and we are going to stand with you until each and every one of those unlawful executive orders are fully and completely reversed, buried in the ground, never to rise again,” Jeffries said to protesters near the Capitol.
One rallygoer, Chris Brown, who works for the Transportation Security Administration, told the Washington Examiner that he believes Republican plans will be an “attack on federal employees.”
“I’ve been with the government for 22 years, almost 23, so I’ve earned, I believe, like the pay that I get and the retirement benefits that I’m supposed to get, and the health insurance I’m supposed to get,” Brown said.
Another rallygoer named Tucker Bingham, who works for the National Labor Relations Board, told the Washington Examiner that he attended because he felt it was “important to show up because civil servants work for the American people and are being targeted by a group of billionaires who don’t want the government to be able to function, to put the American people in the more precarious position for the purpose of more effectively controlling them.”
Bingham continued, “The federal civil service is the largest group of people dedicated to serving the American public that exists. And I’m here today to protect that.”
Congressional Democrats laid out their plan to fight against Musk last week, with Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) unveiling legislation they called “Stop the Steal” to prevent “unlawful meddling in the Treasury Department’s payment systems.”
The Democratic leaders also indicated they will be relying on House Republican’s thin majority.
“At this moment, they’re not at full strength and will certainly be 217 Republicans, 215 Democrats. That will be the smallest majority since the 1800s,” said Jeffries. “Even when they had full strength, all we need is three, three principled Republicans in the House, and a lot of the madness and extremism that has been unleashed on the American people can be halted.”
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Meanwhile, Trump shows no sign of distancing himself from Musk and his efforts to root out waste. Musk and his young son, X, joined Trump in the Oval Office to sign an executive order directing federal employees to comply with DOGE as it seeks to cut the size of the government’s workforce.
“I campaigned on this,” Trump said Tuesday. “I campaigned on the fact that I said government is corrupt. And it is very corrupt. It’s also foolish.”
