Maria Baker’s daughter was once simply furloughed.She labored for a subcontractor of USAID, the global help group that President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk have sought to shutter over the previous few weeks. Their contemporary movements would possibly upend the whole thing she has labored for over the past 13 years.“She doesn’t know what to do,” Baker informed the South Florida Solar Sentinel Saturday afternoon. “Her occupation is ruined. There’s no task for her now.”The involved mom was once certainly one of roughly 200 individuals who accumulated at the sidewalk outdoor of the Tesla dealership in Fortress Lauderdale round 1:30 p.m. They carried indicators studying “Tesla Loves Fascism!” and “Musk Be Long past,” chanting “industry it in!” on the Tesla drivers who inevitably handed. One massive banner merely learn “LAWLESS.”For most of the protesters, the hot movements of the present management, during which Musk now performs a key position — together with mass layoffs, the removing of federal techniques and investment for clinical analysis and the scrubbing of LGBTQ data from govt web pages — felt deeply non-public.“Individuals are in reality outraged about what’s going down in our govt,” stated Jennifer Jones, who arranged the protest via a neighborhood bankruptcy of a revolutionary anti-Trump workforce known as Indivisible. “We really feel like we don’t have a voice.”Jones had anticipated a way smaller turnout, however phrase had it seems that stuck on and attendees persisted to move in over the following couple of hours. As the gang chanted, most of the drivers heading down Federal Freeway honked their horns and gave them thumbs up, although one individual yelled “You misplaced!” and a couple of other folks flipped them off.
Protesters line up on Federal Freeway in Fortress Lauderdale in entrance of the the Tesla dealership on Saturday February 22, 2025 to protest Elon Musk, DOGE and the Trump management (Mike Stocker/South Florida Solar Sentinel)One of the crucial protesters carried anti-Trump indicators, however most commonly they targeted their rage on Musk, the sector’s richest guy, who has grow to be the general public face of most of the cuts via his crew, DOGE, or the Division of Executive Potency. Over the last few weeks, the crew has inserted itself into the interior workings of the government, slashing jobs and investment for federal techniques and resulting in calls from critics who’ve described its movements as a “adversarial takeover” and a danger to democracy. Musk has argued that his strikes are vital to chop spending and forms.Like Baker, a number of of the protest’s attendees had been already seeing the results of federal investment cuts or fearful that they might quickly.Jones’ spouse, Lynne Kunin, stated her non-profit, FLIPANY, gives wholesome foods to scholars and feeds 8,000 children an afternoon. The Trump management sought to chop investment to organizations together with hers. The investment is lately frozen because of a felony problem.Many different attendees had been disabled or of their 60s and 70s and frightened about cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and investment for clinical analysis. The Trump management has just lately sought to slash investment allotted through the Nationwide Institute of Well being to universities, most cancers facilities and hospitals.“They’re seeking to kill me,” stated Lisa Yurkin, 62, who has breast most cancers and stated she was once there “to rise up and assist folks with most cancers and discuss out towards what’s going down with those willy-nilly cuts which might be affecting actually, the lifestyles and loss of life of many of us.”Tiffany Put up, 42, who was once paralyzed from the waist down in a automobile twist of fate on the age of nineteen, stated she will depend on Social Safety and Medicaid for her many physician’s appointments.“I simply actually want clinical stuff,” she stated. “I wouldn’t be capable of pay for all of it.”Lots of the protesters waved American flags along with homosexual and trans pleasure flags. Whilst the MAGA motion has incessantly followed the American flag and the ones at the left have fielded complaint over now not being patriotic, attendees argued that they got here out as a result of they love the rustic and its democracy.“I imagine that American citizens are able to rise up and take again The usa,” Yurkin stated.Some additionally stated they’d felt on my own with their emotions of frustration and concern and needed their representatives, together with South Florida Democrats, had been doing extra to rise up to Trump and Musk. To them, Saturday’s protest felt cathartic.Steve Eide, 77, has so much to fret about. He used to paintings as a contractor for the government and has just lately observed lots of his former colleagues lose their jobs. He’s petrified of shedding Medicare and Social Safety advantages.“I’m attempting to not let it get to me,” Eide stated. “I don’t do a large number of tv. However I couldn’t cross this up, simply to let it out. I used to be at the verge of tears a short time in the past, simply seeing all of those other folks.”
At the start Revealed: February 22, 2025 at 5:43 PM EST
