Nearly two hundred demonstrators gathered at Tennessee’s state capitol building in Nashville on a chilly Presidents’ Day to protest President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s overhaul of the federal government through the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
Trump created DOGE within hours of entering the Oval Office to “implement the President’s DOGE Agenda by modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity,” according to The White House’s website.
Elon Musk said DOGE saved “billions” in federal funds at a press conference in the Oval Office alongside the president last week. Trump told reporters at the press conference, “When you get down to it, it’s going to be probably close to a trillion dollars. It could be close to a trillion dollars that we’re going to find.”
During the protest, demonstrators with the 50/50/1 movement, a national coalition of volunteer-based organizations, took turns giving speeches from the Tennessee capitol steps. Parents carried children and homemade posters, and the occasional bystander yelled back at the crowd in support or disapproval.
This was the second protest associated with the 50/50/1 movement held in Tennessee. The alliance attempted to reclaim Presidents’ Day, a day traditionally recognized to celebrate the Presidency, according to an event posting.
Eventually, the crowd left the capitol steps and took to the streets. They filed through downtown Nashville, admonishing Trump’s “loathsome” executive orders said Linn Folger, a retired preschool teacher who protested what she called “the end of democracy.”
The national protests are called “Not My Presidents’ Day,” or “No King’s Day,” after the presidential holiday. President Trump has signed dozens of executive orders since he entered office earlier this year. Protesters called the orders “un-American,” “cruel” and “unconstitutional.”
“Once we decide we are no longer going to abide by the spirit of the laws, the Constitution is a worthless piece of paper,” local teacher Noreen Sloan said. “I think an American is someone who understands what is written in that.”
The crowd marched from Church Street to the riverfront. After they rested and rehydrated, about half of the protestors broke off to head home, while the other half continued to march and chant back to the capitol before they dispersed.
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