Dozens gather in downtown Spokane to protest Elon Musk

Snowy streets, heavy coats and runny noses accompanied the ringing cries and subsequent honks Tuesday as about 70 people gathered outside the federal courthouse in downtown Spokane to protest the unusual involvement by billionaire Elon Musk in the early workings of the second administration of Donald Trump.

Toting signs that read, “We didn’t vote for this chaos” and “Elon” slashed through by a diagonal line, as well as “Send DOGE to Mars,” protesters came to the Thomas S. Foley U.S. Courthouse on Tuesday afternoon.

“I’m here for my grandchildren and all future generations,” said Kim Harmson of Spokane. “I’m outraged. You can’t normalize this.”

Joanna Ellington, of Valleyford, said she saw an interview Monday night where U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Maryland, suggested that anyone who was not comfortable with the actions of Musk, who has been appointed the head of the newly created Department of Governmental Efficiency, to locally organize.

So, Ellington said she started calling those mostly older residents who she knew could immediately respond.

“We believe in the rule of law,” Ellington said. “What has happened is unprecedented and illegal and very concerning to me. I decided to have it now because of the actions in the Treasury Department. I just wanted to make sure that Spokane voices were being heard.”

Over the past two weeks, Musk’s team moved to dismantle some U.S. agencies, push out hundreds of thousands of civil servants and gain access to some of the federal government’s most sensitive payment systems. Musk has said these changes are necessary to overhaul what he’s characterized as a sclerotic federal bureaucracy and to stop payments that he says are bankrupting the country and driving inflation.

But many officials in Washington, and Spokane, have questioned how Musk can be allowed to run roughshod over established government agencies.

“No one elected Elon Musk,” said Mary Ellen Gaffney-Brown, a retired attorney from Spokane. “Look around. Our kids and grandkids are watching. We are willing to fight for the privacy, which he has invaded.

“President Trump and pretend President Musk are attempting to invade the power of our elected representatives who passed the laws and funded the programs that this administration is trying to wipe out.”

Gaffney-Brown said she had friends in both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Attorney offices who fear for their future.

“He’s trying to wholesale fire them without due process or any of the guarantees they were provided when they agreed to a life of public service,” she said.

Pam McEachern, of Spokane, said she has two sons, including one who is finishing his master’s degree in public policy at the University of Colorado Denver.

“I am trying to protect what little is left of our country,” McEachern said, “so my kids can grow up in a country where the rule of law means something.”

Dan Kobe-Smith said he agreed to join the protest because he believes Musk has no “business being allowed access to our personal data. I hope people listen and start to realize what is going on and take action.”

Kobe-Smith said he served two years active service in the U.S. Navy and another 15 years in the U.S. Naval Reserve. His father, Gordon Smith, served 33 years in the Navy and was in Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, when Japan attacked, he said.

“Why are people not absolutely outraged by what (Musk) has been allowed to do? My father fought against fascism,” he said. “We are right back where we were in 1945.”