A throng of people crowded the sidewalks Saturday in front of the Lynnwood Tesla dealership at 17731 Highway 99 to protest the recent actions of the Trump administration, and particularly the increasing role of billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk in government affairs.
As head of the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Musk is classified by the Trump administration as a “special government employee” not subject to Congressional approval like other cabinet-level federal department heads. In recent weeks, Musk has overseen the elimination of federal departments and functions, and the firing of thousands of government employees, all in the name of cutting waste in government.
The event began at noon with an estimated 50 protesters, but by 1 p.m. had swelled to more than 150. Protesters carried mostly homemade signs. While the majority were directed at Musk, there were a smattering of others supporting Ukraine and decrying the array of government actions taken in the weeks since the inauguration of President Donald Trump.
The demonstration was confined to the adjacent sidewalks to avoid trespassing on dealership property.
Group organizer and Edmonds resident Bill Alexander explained that the group’s goal was to raise their voices against what they see as an out-of-control administration taking actions that flaunt the U.S. Constitution, the rule of law and the outsized role of Elon Musk.
“At first I didn’t feel like I could do anything about it,” he said. “But we can start here at Tesla, the main source of wealth for Elon Musk.”
Not that long ago there was a man that shutdown the country , closed business, and had you wear a mask . Now you’re complaining about one man who’s actually making a difference in our government for the better. Being misinformed by your mainstream media is starting to show its ugly face.
Who’s misinformed, Mark? Check your calendar and figure out who was president during the COViD shutdowns in 2020. That was a good idea at the time, back when we had an NIH and CDC that understood science, pandemics, and public health.
You must not work for the government.
Oh how horrible what happened in 2020. When trump was president. Biden took office in 21.
Closing comments now.
Congratulations and Kudo’s to all those who Showed Up, and Joined Together today. Many of us KNOW THE POWER “We the People” have when we come together and unite!!! Blessings to all of you!
The country voted. They voted for reform. The country is moving forward. All the wacky silly signs in the world won’t change that.
Yeah, you voted for reform. Like switching sides to be aligned with Russia and North Korea. Like alienating our long-standing allies. Like indiscriminately firing people working on preventing epidemics, safeguarding nuclear weapons, and forecasting the weather. Like preventing diverse news media from covering press conferences or asking questions. Like throwing people off of Medicaid. Like letting the richest man in the world line his pockets with even more government contracts. (And wait – did Musk wear a suit when he held court in the Oval Office?). Like bullying and berating a head of state who is trying to save his country. Like trying to rewrite the Constitution (can you say Birthright Citizenship?). Is that what you voted for?
Kudos to all those who protested!
Well said!
I certainly concede that among the reasons for voting for Trump (aside from xenophobia, the desire to own “libs”, and isolationism) was a desire to cut waste – a very good goal. But it’s distressing to find that we also voted for alienating our neighbors and allies, and aligning ourselves with the Kremlin: which on Sunday cheered the shift in U.S. foreign policy under President Donald Trump, saying the American view now “largely coincides” with Russia’s take on geopolitics.
Among many other things, it seems we also voted for trashing our national forests. As the Seattle Times reports today(How Trump’s firing of Forest Service staff affects recreation in WA | The Seattle Times), “Heading into summer hiking and camping … Forest Service staff will now be stretched even thinner, prompting concerns that large swaths of Washington state’s federally owned public land, especially in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie and Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forests, will go unpatrolled and unmaintained.
“… there are critical tasks, like managing human waste in the backcountry and checking hiker permits that only trained Forest Service personnel can perform. “ And like disposing of tons of garbage. But that’s only one aspect of our “reform”.
We may seriously wonder why the guy in charge of efficiency, who makes $8 million a day off the government, thinks seniors getting $65 a day they worked their whole lives to earn is a ‘ponzi scheme.’ But that’s another story.
As you say, the country voted for reform – among other, less creditable things. It’s just a bit hard to determine whether that reform is moving forward – or backward, and whether a wrecking ball yields the kind of careful and thoughtful reform we need.
Get a clue people we are tired of the corruption in our government, Elon is simply helping get rid of it. I’m sorry if you don’t like it but we don’t like big government stealing our money.
Have fun trying to access your socsec, Jeff!
Proud of everyone who was there! Fascism and oligarchy will NOT be tolerated. Deport Elon.
Musk is a US citizen. What are you suggesting? Send him back to Africa? One would hope that these people are not the Democratic party best and brightest. Although Edmonds council member Eck showed up so go figure.
He’s not though. He’s here on an expired work visa. The end.
Musk became a U.S. citizen in 2002, about a decade after he first came to the country, taking the citizenship oath with a few thousand other immigrants in California.
If you want to get billionaires out of government interference, start with Soros.
Except he has nothing to do with anything outside the fantasy world in your head.
Funny he used to be the lefts darling, almost makes me want to go buy one. I bet more than a few of those protesting drive his cars or use his star link service, oh the irony.
As a dyed-in-the-wool leftie, I have to say that aside from curiosity about the cars, he was certainly never my darling – or the darling of anyone I know, other than conservative friends. And may I just say that “I bet” is a very long way from proving anything, and even possibly inaccurate with regard to numbers?
A educated guess would be 10 which is more than a few but certainly I have no proof but I would wager/bet on it if there was a way to find out. Maybe darling isn’t the right word but he certainly has accomplished a lot in the car industry the satelite industry and the space industry. I have never been a fan of Twitter or as it is now but from what I can tell it works just as good today as it did when it was Twitter and runs on 70% fewer employees. My guess is the federal government should be able to function just as well with 10-20 percent fewer employees. I read under Joe the federal workforce grew by greater than 10% with some agencies growing up more than 30 percent. I don’t know what the answer is but we can’t afford over a trillion dollars in interest payments and we can’t afford to spend more than another trillion above what we take in. What I heard from Democrats in the last election was higher taxes and bigger government, no talk of how to reduce spending or address the deficit it might not be perfect but at least a effort is being made. Our city could certainly use to cut spending by at least 10% more all I hear is higher taxes.
The Trump regime is out to crash the economy, dismantle the government, and cause mass chaos. Protests are growing. When the protests reach a certain level the regime will implement martial law and use the sedition act to imprison protestors. It’s all unfolding right before us. Wake up America!
All the phone calling our representatives, all of the “wacky silly” signs, all of the protests and people showing up for what is right and decent are most definitely making a difference.
Of course we all want less tax, but Trump is taking your money in many other ways: alienating our trading partners, threatening Tariffs, creating chaos everywhere and uncertainty in the markets, increasing the unemployment rate and giving tax breaks to billionaires IN ADDITION, to cutting grants to Universities whose research saves lives and contributes over double the amount of those grants to the economy. I don’t think cutting support for Head Start who serves the poorest of our poor or putting immigrants in jail (many of whom have been contributing to our economy too by working menial jobs that Americans don’t want to do) and using expensive military aircraft to report people makes any sense. Our reliable Canadian and EU trading partners have economies 10+ times that of Russia. Trump’s trade war only hurts us and our best friends. Why are we throwing them under the bus to kiss up to a murderous dictator whose goal is to invade his neighboring countries. Like Hitler, Putin won’t stop at Ukraine if we allow him to win this war. His success wiping out Crimea only emboldened him. Let us not allow Trump to drag the whole world down because he thinks he is a King.
Anyone who actually believes that Trump/Musk’s actual objective is to cut government fraud,, waste and abuse has drunk the “Kool-ade”. All of the savings Doge have touted have turned out to be imaginary or errors. ( and took credit for a contest Biden canceled)The real aim is to take control of Government payment systems so they can personally control the whole budget, making Congress and the Judicial Branch irrelevant and keeping the spoils for themselves. Musk is literally giving himself billions in federal contracts – grift and corruption right out in public. They are unleashing “shock and awe” on government employees now and will soon be decimating many agencies and programs that our citizens depend on in hopes of demoralizing citizens so we won’t resist the coup that is happening now. Trump has revealed who he is, a friend to Putin and a wannabe dictator. But he keeps giving MAGA what they want, deportees in chains, black Generals and females Admirals being fired, etc.. He is giving Billionaires what they want, cutting regulations so they can pollute our air and waters, downsizing the IRS so they can’t pursue lapsed taxes, firing Inspector Generals and agencies whose job is to go after fraud and to protect citizens, ending programs to monitor hacking of government systems. So I say Thank You to the protestors.