SAN ANTONIO – Demonstrators gathered in downtown San Antonio on Thursday to protest billionaire Elon Musk and his involvement in the U.S. government.
The protest — organized by Bexar County Democrats — started in Travis Park and moved to the front of Texas Sen. John Cornyn’s office on Navarro Street.
According to a news release, demonstrators wanted to “demand accountability for his failure to act against Musk’s growing, unelected influence over the U.S. government.”
>> Musk uses his X ownership and White House position to push Trump priorities, intimidate detractors
“The protest aims to hold Senator Cornyn accountable for failing to uphold his constitutional duty to protect U.S. institutions from corporate overreach,” the release states.
Some of the signs at the protest read “Dump Elon Musk,” “Republicans didn’t vote for this” and “Nobody elected Elon.”
“Elon Musk has no business in the treasury payment system,” Michelle Solis, an organizer said. “He has no business sending emails threatening every federal worker, has no business doing Medicare, Medicaid, closing down U.S. AID, you name it.”
President Donald Trump signed an executive order just after he was inaugurated to create the Department of Government Efficiency, also known as DOGE. The President placed Musk in charge of the department and mentioned plans to cut government spending and provide “advice and guidance from outside of the government.”
“It’s only been 16 days and it’s been chaos,” Solis said.
Protesters came close to getting in the senator’s office to speak with an aid but came up short and were told no one was in the office, according to Alison Beam.
“I hope our tax dollars aren’t going to provide for this wonderful office, yet it goes vacant,” Beam said.
Senator Cornyn’s team said he was not available for an interview. Instead, the team referred KSAT to this social media post on Elon Musk’s app, X.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs also confirmed that one DOGE employee under Musk is working within the VA and a spokesperson provided this statement:
“VA has one DOGE employee, who is specifically focused on identifying wasteful contracts, improving VA operations and strengthening management of the department’s IT projects.
The DOGE employee will be solely focused on improving VA performance and efficiency and will not have access to Veterans’ or VA beneficiaries’ data.
VA looks forward to working with DOGE to improve services to Veterans, their families, caregivers and survivors.”
Regardless, protestors took a stance against Elon Musk’s input in the federal government. musk’s input in the federal government full stop.
“As a senator, [Cornyn] has the power and the legal responsibility to curb the excesses and the illegalities of the president and he’s doing nothing about it,” Martha Spinks, an organizer said.
BACKGROUND
The emergence of X owner, Musk, as the most influential figure around President Donald Trump has created an extraordinary dynamic — a White House adviser who’s using one of the world’s most powerful information platforms to sell the government’s talking points while intimidating its detractors.
In recent days, Musk has used X to promote Trump’s positions to his 215 million followers, attack an agency he’s trying to shut down as “evil” and claim a Treasury employee who resigned under pressure over payment system access committed a crime.
His use of the social media platform he owns has become both a cudgel and a megaphone for the Republican administration at a time that his power to shape the electorate’s perspective is only growing, as more Americans turn to social media and influencers to get their news.
Musk isn’t bound to all the same ethics and financial disclosures as some other federal workers because he is classified as a special government employee. Trump earlier this week dismissed concerns about Musk’s conflicts of interest, saying, “Where we think there’s a conflict or there’s a problem, we won’t let him go near it.”
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