By
This is an adapted excerpt from the Jan. 30 episode of “The Rachel Maddow Show.”
On Tuesday afternoon in Washington, D.C., hundreds of people turned out just outside the U.S. Capitol, in Upper Senate Park, to show their support for the civil service and to protest our government being dismantled by President Donald Trump and his top campaign donor, Elon Musk.
It’s worth noting the CFPB handles consumer complaints, including hundreds about Tesla, the car company owned by Musk.
That protest followed an equally large and energetic demonstration Monday outside the Washington headquarters of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which the Trump administration is attempting to unilaterally shut down, even though legally that does not appear to be within its power.
It’s worth noting the CFPB handles consumer complaints, including hundreds about Tesla, the car company owned by Musk. It’s also the agency that would oversee a new project Musk just unveiled on his social media platform, X, which used to be called Twitter. Musk said he's working to transform the platform to offer users a place to do their banking. What could possibly go wrong?
We may never find out. Elon Musk now says he’s killed the agency, posting “CFPB RIP“ on his social media platform. But the president's top campaign donor doesn't get a unilateral say in that and those protesters doorstopping outside the CFPB on Monday told him as much, holding signs that read “Hands off our CFPB” and “Elon is stealing your data.”
Outside of Washington, protesters gathered in Parkersburg, West Virginia, which, according to two sources who spoke to ProPublica, might be the next target of Musk’s flying wedge of government saboteurs. After Musk's DOGE guys got their hands on the Treasury payments system — which is responsible for sending out Social Security checks, veterans benefits and secret payments from intelligence agencies to their assets and sources — they realized that there was another sensitive payment system called the Central Accounting Reporting System. That system is a part of the Treasury's Bureau of the Fiscal Service which has offices in Parkersburg.
After ProPublica reported Friday that Trump was sending Musk’s team out to Parkersburg, the ACLU of West Virginia, the Democratic Party of West Virginia, the Wood County Democratic Party and the people who work at the Treasury Department there quickly sounded the alarm and organized Tuesday’s protest.
We’re also starting to see an upsurge in protests targeting Tesla dealerships and Tesla charging stations, as the corporate representation of Musk. Last week, there was a seemingly impromptu protest at Tesla charging stations in Waterville, Maine. But now it seems they’re happening everywhere. Over the weekend, protesters gathered in front of Tesla buildings in New York, California and Ohio.
According to Forbes, Musk’s personal wealth has dropped more than $42 billion this month, as shares of Tesla have started to fall off a cliff. This follows earlier reports about how Tesla sales all over the world, and especially in Europe, are sinking like a stone, down as much as 60% in the most important European markets. Tesla’s stock price is down 19% in February alone. One prominent analyst warned that the “negative downturn in consumers’ perception” of Musk could result in a “headwind to sales” for Tesla.
Republican members of Congress are even privately expressing concern about Musk. Reporters at The Bulwark got their hands on several letters sent by Republican representatives to their constituents about the billionaire. Sen. John Curtis of Utah wrote a letter to one voter thanking them for reaching out to share their thoughts about DOGE and “Elon Musk’s role in the new administration.” Curtis wrote, “It is important that DOGE operates with appropriate oversight to maintain transparency, prevent conflicts of interest, and ensure its work remains focused on serving the American people.” That’s what he’s telling his constituents but is he actually working to ensure that in the Senate?
Rep. Mike Flood of Nebraska told one of his constituents that they were “not the only one who has expressed concern” about Musk’s role. “The Treasury Secretary told me, to my face, that Mr. Musk absolutely does not have full access to the federal payment system,” Flood wrote. But Flood might want to check with the most recent court filing in the case over Musk's actions at the Treasury Department. In the government’s filings, they admit that it wasn’t only read-only access. It was full access.
Rep. Daniel Webster of Florida also assured a constituent that “Members of the DOGE team are being vetted to ensure qualifications are met and then monitored by Treasury officials throughout their work. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent … granted the DOGE team access to the Treasury’s payment system in a read-only capacity.”
One prominent analyst warned that the “negative downturn in consumers’ perception” of Musk could result in a “headwind to sales” for Tesla.
According to the government’s filing in the case, on the morning of Feb. 6, it was discovered that one DOGE employee’s database access to the payment system had “been configured with read-write permissions.” But all these members of Congress are assuring their — apparently quite angry and insistent — constituents that never happened.
Sen. Deb Fischer of Nebraska told one of her constituents she understands “the Treasury Department’s payment system contains extremely sensitive and confidential data,” and that it "is critical for the Treasury Department to maintain its strict procedures to ensure that this data is protected.” So, what does she think those strict procedures are? Fischer insisted that one DOGE employee had “access to read-only data from the Department’s payment system” But, again, according to the government’s filing, that’s not true. Fischer ended the letter by assuring that constituent she would “continue to closely monitor this situation in the days and weeks ahead.” Well, I don’t know how closely the senator is monitoring it, but what she’s telling her constituents is happening, to reassure them, is not actually what’s happening.
But, perhaps, the most important thing about what we're seeing is that all these Republican senators and members of Congress now feel compelled to come up with some kind of explanation for what Trump and Musk are doing because their constituents are inundating them with complaints and concerns about it.