Opinion | Trump and Musk have created a new type of opposition in federal workers

Since Donald Trump returned to the White House and has transformed the Elon Musk chain into long -standing federal programs and agencies, democratic voters have asked: where is the opposition?

Democrats are still furious with senator Chuck Schumer, the leader of minorities, for having helped Trump to keep the government open; Many find the public style of the representative Hakeem Jeffries, the leader of minorities at home, too sketched to meet the moment. And while more democratic politicians are throwing the meetings and gatherings of the Town Hall, the construction of lists and the maneuvers to apply for the presidency in 2028 are not the same as the organization. Even senator Cory Booker, who went up to the Senate this week with a 25-hour speech, closed his heroic effort with a flight of messages and e-mails asking for money. This is not how you build a movement.

Democrats have sought the next resistance in all the wrong places. Instead of waiting for a politician to say the right words and take fire, they should look at people who are already on fire: federal workers.

America’s 2.4 million Federal civil workers are, by their nature, generally patriotic and politically moderate. Almost 30 percent of them are veterans. Do everyone a oath to defend the Constitution. Furthermore, unlike many politicians of both sides that have gone to elite schools, they are worth millions and they must talk about the humble beginnings of their parents or grandparents to claim a connection with their members, most of the federal workers are just like the people who need: work and middle class.

All this makes them only well positioned to conduct a new type of resistance – more mainstream and rooted than the last, and powerful enough to mobilize millions of Americans under its banner.

It is a Truism that Americans do not realize how good the federal government is good in their life. But now there is an army that spreads to remember them. In March, the Park Rangers out of service guided demonstrations in over 100 locations, from the Abraham Lincoln house to Zion National Park. Postal employees, who work for an independent federal agency and number about 635,000 at national level, have held similar events in over 200 places.

Federal workers are also protesting Inside the United States Capitoltestifying to the impact of the community and speak in the municipalities. Saturday, groups such as Indivisible and Moveon, who contributed to conducting the resistance to Mr. Trump during his first term, are organizing their first large national demonstration in Washington, and federal workers and their unions have a significant role. Satellite gatherings are happening in over 1,000 locations across the country.

Why does this new challenge emerge from this corner of the political panorama? Many Democrats have accepted the re -election of Mr. Trump with a sort of amazing resignation: it is difficult to discuss with a popular and electoral vote victory. But almost nobody expected that Mr. Musk’s fury through the heart of the federal government with his so -called department of government efficiency.

The authors of the 2025 project, a project prepared for the new Trump mandate, have asked to strengthen the government’s hiring and conservation standards and to make the dismissal of low performance public employees easier. They did not recommend that they give a non-elected super-boldt super-miliarodarial the power to demolish entire agencies and government programs during the night by eliminating their budgets, shooting many of their employees without cause or trial and paying it with mass e-mails that ask to demonstrate their value on a weekly basis.

Furthermore, humans do not like to be said that the work of their life is fed “in the wood chipper”, since Mr. Musk has cheerfully described the destruction of doge agencies such as the US agency for international development and the office for the financial protection of consumers.

They are still the first days. Many government assistants are keeping their heads down, hoping to avoid attention and maintain their job. Some are doing what they can to throw sand into the gears, Losses of harmful news to journalists. Many of their unions – who have just canceled their long -standing contracts by Mr. Trump – are fighting in court. And every week, more than rank and files speak, sharing their stories and organizing.

Rosa Lafer-Sousa and Matt Brown are post-dictated research companions at the National Institutes of Health, carrying out cutting-edge work in neuroscience. They are both officers in the nascent union of Nih Fellow. Despite their prestigious works, most of the companions live a paycheck for the paycheck, said dr. Brown. After 10 years of academic study, he earns less than $ 70,000 per year.

The madness that shoots doge is reproducing greater political awareness in them. “I spend a lot of time in Tiktok,” said Dr. Lafer-Sousa. “Very soon, seeing videos in my veterans feed that had just been illegally interrupted, seeing scientists who had just been illegally interrupted, seeing the park rangers,” he said, he understood that “this is our coalition. Now we are all experiencing the same cruel treatment and we can work together to fight against this”.

“What unites us is that we have all done a oath,” he added. “We have all chosen, at least within the federal sector, to serve our country”.

A worker of the Army of the Engineers’ Corps said something similar when we met in March in a weekly picket outside the Consumer Office Financial Protection Bureau in Lower Manhattan. He described how the day he was hired, raised himself with a flag, put a hand on a Bible and made an oath to defend the Constitution. He had come out during the lunch break to support Bureau workers. “They keep Wall Street in line,” he explained. “This is all crucial for the way we live our lives, the way we protect our homes and the way the American system has worked.”

While we were talking, the demonstrators of all breeds and ages marched in the circle, shaking American flags and singing things like “2-4-6-8, Dodd-Frank is quite large!” A woman kept a sign that recited “late credit card commissions? Costs hidden on car loans? The mortgage lender” loses “your payment? The CFPB helps you”.

Since Trump returned to the office, dozens of clinical drug studies have been interrupted, cancer research programs have been closed, commercial fishermen in the middle of the update of their boats have lost thousands of dollars, food banks have gone in panic mode, veterans lost the consultants for mental health, parents of children with special needs have been said to expect a minor number of schools and School hires and social security assistants have been The website crashed Four times in 10 days.

While the explosion radius of Trump and Musk’s Cuts and Chaos spread, federal workers and their message resonate further. It’s like Joni Mitchell’s text: “You don’t know what you have until it’s gone.” Healthcare workers, scientists, park rangers, assistance veterans, letters of letters, air traffic controllers and many others who speak are not just trying to save their work – are trying to save programs and investments that were providing irreplaceable services to regular Americans. By chasing the federal workforce, Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk are radicalizing the same people who can best explain how the government does so well for so many.