The capital wakes up only to the acquisition of Elon Musk

On Tuesday, the long bloc lined up on Tuesday with the demonstrators. They were immersed through the street with signs of slogans: “No one elected musk.” “This is illegal.” “Stop the coup.” It was one of the many protests of the capital, targeting billionaire Elon Musk Access to basic government payment systems has been reportedThe members of the Democrats in Congress – and the citizens who fear a few people stand on the path of musk.

“What we are witnessing here is the biggest theft in American history,” said Senator Chris van Holin (D-MD) of the tightly packed crowd, which was full of signs and surgical masks (joint security procedure) and the Orange Milar Balloon, which resembles a caricature of President Donald Trump. The atmosphere was organized but active. Some signs called for the arrest of Musk, and at some point, the demonstrators began chanting from “locking”.

In the past few days onlyMusk and the Ministry of Governmental efficiency (DOGE) – a new temporary organization Trump that was created from the US digital service and assigned Musk to lead – unified power and targeted a growing list of federal departments. he He took it upon him to close it United States Agency for International Development (USAID) according to what was reported Civil employees closed At the Personnel Management Office (OPM) of their computer systems. “This is all about controlling the government in order to advance the interests of Elon Musk and billionaires at the expense of everyone in America,” Van Holin continued.

“We must tell Elon Musk, someone elected your ass.

The crowd, which seemed to include more than a thousand people, was peaceful but heard. The attendees chanted the democratic legislators who spoke in the gathering, including Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), MP Jimmy Raskin (D-MD), and MP Ayana Presley (D-MA), who made noisy speeches about the government’s non-concession to control musk. But talk with freedomThe demonstrators said that he felt that the elected officials have just begun to retract the unprecedented control of Musk, while others wanted more. After statements from the leader of the Senate minority Chuck Schumer, a chanting of the crowd erupted: “The Senate closed!” So far, Shomer and other Democratic Senators have not so far gone.

“Where is the leadership of the Democratic Party in this?” One of the gathering pioneers, who refused to present their name, asked. “There are people that you cannot cooperate with, and it is time to get to know this. So it’s time to install a real opposition to what appears to be a hostile acquisition of the United States government.”

The demonstration covered a common feeling in Washington: that the arrival of unprecedented musk into the data and operations of the sensitive government represents a turning point towards the few; After all, it is He spent a quarter of a billion dollars Securing Trump’s presidency and his newly created job. Besides – in this gathering and one was held in front of OPM earlier that day, as well as in Talks with federal workers It is a feeling that many Americans did not notice and that people in power do not do enough to help.

“What is happening now is the entire ball game,” said Katie Moore, who attended a rally on Tuesday in front of the Treasury. “If they can do things like these without any accountability at all, how can we stop anything they are trying to do? I don’t think people outside the capital have a good feeling of how much a big deal occurs.”

While the cabinet rally attended relatively well, the OPM event earlier that day – the second of the five planned for this week – was scattered. The organizers said that it had never been unparalleled about 50 people, almost multiplied from the previous day. The attendees were similarly enthusiastic, where they sang and shared stories about the effect of musk acquisition, and passed cars during the morning peak hour. Nadine Siller Rally, though, was pessimistic. “We can only collect 50 people to appear with this person who reaches hundreds and hundreds of millions of personal information for people,” I told Siller. freedom. “You cannot want the revolution, and you cannot want to change, then you want to be comfortable.” – She found herself “she is concerned that the American people do not care.”

Ciller, Moore, and many other demonstrators were not federal workers. “This relates to all of us,” Siller argued. “The information they can access includes people who provide taxes online.” (Reports indicate that the systems include information such as student loan data and social security numbers, among other personal data.) Moore expressed concern that someone like musk is infiltrating into the federal government is “something that we cannot easily fix with the elections.”

Another demonstration, Krista O’Connell, is afraid of Musk’s arrival to federal data because she believes that he does not have a moral compass or handrail. ” Even before Trump’s inauguration, Musk used to use a Doug banner Direct harassment In the unknown government employees. “The set of things that he can do with this data, it’s so wide that it is very terrifying. You have to assume the worst.”

after Warren student with information Earlier this week about the arrival of the Musk payment system, Treasury official Jonathan Bloom He said that The administration was “committed to protecting the safety and security of the system.” Bloom said that Tom Crass’s employees, the treasury employee and Technology Executive Connect to Doge“It will only be read to the encrypted data of the financial service payment systems” that are similar to what the department will provide. This description does not carry with Reports from Wireless and TPM,, Which says Musk Associates have administrative privileges that allow them to write a symbol and perhaps modify payment systems.

Warren put the worst scenarios to reach the reported Mosk: delay in examining the social security of a person who criticizes him on X; Rejection of a medical care batch in exchange for a person’s care in Doug that he considers is invalid. (The cabinet has it Deny It has been rejected.) Musk, often referred to, has an empire from companies that partially depend on government contracts and can benefit from deep access. “The information of every American is in danger-your privacy, and your security, each of you,” Senator Richard Blumenant (D-CT) told the crowd. “What will Elon Musk do with this information? What does Elon Musk do with anything he touches?

Besides any one procedure, there is a more looming question on the horizon: if Musk can demand the authority to close an agency funded by Congress such as the American Agency for International Development, and has the technical capacity to control from Congress credits? Trump announced the freezing of comprehensive federal financing last week and was rejected by court order. Dog also faces legal challenges, but its results are still unknown.

“Trump’s attempts to withhold the money that has already been agreed is categorically unconstitutional. Let me be clear: the credit bill is a law, and Donald Trump has a duty Constitutional to follow up on the message.

Nevertheless, Democratic lawmakers have publicly announced that their tools are limited. Without a majority in any of the room, they cannot stop the procedures in which Republicans mostly appear. Some hope to take advantage of the slim edge of Republicans in Congress, stop operations with procedural maneuvering or depriving Republicans of a victory vote. “While there are things that Democrats can do and they must do to slow down, obstruct, etc., the Republican Party carries the majority of the House of Representatives and the elders, which strongly limits our options.” Books on Blues.

The comment was somewhat surprising about the legislator, who was known to criticize her party because of the failure to work. but On the live broadcast On Tuesday, voters confirmed that they would likely see more measures from Democrats now after they have returned from members of the House of Representatives from their areas to Washington and called for the Senate to prevent all Trump candidates. “We need to be pain in the back,” she said.

Politician speeches seem to provide some comfort for the demonstrators. But they are still pushing for Democrats to be more disturbing, including by making Republicans more difficult to confirm Trump’s candidates by depriving them of the procedural shortcuts. Meanwhile, legislators say that there are many of them that they can do on their own. “We have to reach beyond this crowd, and reach beyond this city,” says Blumenant. “You go beyond Democrats to Republicans and say that you are also losing your country.”

The crowd quickly spread once the notes ended. The doors of the treasury building remained closed in front of the legislators. It was not clear who was behind those doors listening.