As the Trump administration concluded its third week in power — with 53 executive orders challenged by 41 lawsuits, an incursion led by Elon Musk into the U.S. Treasury blocked Saturday by a federal judge, and a push to impeach President Donald Trump a second time — San Diegans engaged in their own form of dissent: sustained, peaceful protest.
For at least the third time this week, they marched to voice anger, fear, courage and resistance to hate, fascism, oligarchy and eroding civil rights.
At a Sunday morning protest, which started at Waterfront Park and wove through downtown, people came from Point Loma, El Cajon, Vista and Santee. There were babies, high school students, families and retirees in a crowd that appeared to easily top 1,000 people. Their handmade posters listed a long catalog of values: Support for federal workers and Palestine. Support for immigrants and people in same-sex relationships. Support for “education not deportation.” Support for democracy, empathy, science, due process, social security, the Constitution and love.
They were united in protesting two U.S. leaders — Elon Musk and President Donald Trump — and one scourge: fascism.
One chant, which matched a poster, said: “No Trump. No KKK. No fascist U.S.A.” Another was “Hey hey. Ho ho. Nazis have got to go.” Other versions of that chant replaced “Nazis” with “Elon Musk” and “Donald Trump.”
While Trump was a primary focus, at least as much of crowd’s ire was directed at Musk, who is the appointed head of the new Department of Government Efficiency and whose directives have aimed to shrink the federal government and replace civil servants with new hires loyal to the new leadership.
One poster played on Musk’s first name and called him “F’elon.” Another showed Trump and Musk in an intimate pose.
“We have been pushed to the corner,” Carla Severe told the crowd through a megaphone minutes before the march began. “The people will not bend down and let Elon Musk ravish the treasury and destroy regulations meant to protect the people. Elon Musk is an enemy of the people. We will fight tyranny against Musk as he seeks to strip us of our rights… The face of tyranny is Elon Musk.”
The event was not organized by one entity and was advertised through social media posts.
The day began with speeches and continued with a march that stretched for blocks and moved through several downtown neighborhoods before looping back to Waterfront Park.
In interviews, people said they wanted to support others and weren’t just marching for causes that directly affect them. A woman who gave her name as Rome, 31, of San Diego, said, “I don’t fit into all the categories, but I still think it is important for us to stand up for those people,” she said. “I know it has a lot to do with immigrants and stuff like right now, but it’s also bigger for the LGBT community.
“I am a lesbian and my partner is in the military, and this is just all really important — to stand up for all of us. It’s not just one person or one category. It’s all of us as people.”
Abby Deckert, 17, a senior at Santana High School, was upset about Trump’s “plans for taking over Palestine and especially how he claims he wants to encourage Palestinians to permanently move away from their land, which is theirs,” Deckert said. “We’ve been fighting for this whole year to get this cease fire. Now finally it’s here. And then we have our own president supporting taking over someone else’s land, so I was just upset by that.”
Deckert also cares deeply about the environment and said marching is a way to put pressure on lawmakers.
A 52-year old U.S. Navy veteran who lives in North County, and who gave his first name as Cliff, said he was afraid to give his last name, out of fear of facing consequences from the government for dissenting.
“It’s terrifying, the direction we’re heading in. What this regime — it’s not an administration, it’s a regime — what they’re allowing to have happen, without any consideration for the people that they are elected to take care of,” he said. “They only, in my opinion, seem to care about themselves and money.”
Cliff said he was especially concerned with Musk, who he described as “a civilian, an unelected official, unvetted, no security clearance, pretending to run a department that is fake — it’s not even a department. Dog-e.” He said he pronounces it “doggy” because the department “doesn’t even exist. It’s not real.” Using its given name gives it legitimacy, he added.
“Nobody’s stopping Elon,” he said. “To allow a civilian just to free rein into sensitive information — I’m a veteran. He has access to my disability records, medical information, my address, Social Security number … It’s terrifying to think he has this access. What’s he going to do with it. Are all these tech bros — are they going to stop my payment because I put something on Facebook or other social media, or I’m out here being interviewed or on video?”
Musk’s team so far has gained access to critical data in the Department of Labor, Department of Treasury and Department of Education. These include “medical and financial records of millions of Americans, including those who have filed safety complaints about their employers,” the Associated Press reported. Musk’s workers have also shown up at the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Associated Press also reported.
Cliff added that Trump and Musk’s actions are “impacting people that voted for Trump. … We want them to just wake up. I don’t wish them any harm. I don’t wish them any ill will at all,” he said. “I just want them to realize what’s is taking place in our country right now.”
Severe’s speech to the crowd wove together the ascendance of Musk, the move by Musk to cull the federal workforce, the push for tax cuts for the most wealthy Americans, the erosion of economic opportunities for middle and working-class Americans and a weakened contract between voters and the elected officials who have lost trust of their constituents.
“I can’t even focus because I am in constant anxiety of the fact my country is becoming a fascist state,” she said. “We cannot just down and let it happen.”
Severe, 37, said she sees the rapid deployment of Trump’s multiple executive orders as “a strategy to overwhelm. It is a strategy to depress. It is a strategy to weaken. It is a strategy to destroy hope. But we cannot destroy hope. We have to rise up.”
She also had harsh words for Musk, who, she said “has made cruelty banal.”
Marshall Hullin, of El Cajon, spoke about the importance of collaboration and communication as ways to protect and preserve democracy. “Don’t let them erase history,” he told the crowd. “We have a duty to our forefathers. We have a duty to our children and their children.”
“I know a lot of you may disagree on this, but don’t hold contempt for those in MAGA. I think they’re really disillusioned. I think they need a lot of love. I think they need a lot of help. So don’t turn your back on anybody, if you can possibly avoid it,” he said.
There were no counter protestors at the morning march.
