Nevadans are fighting back against Elon Musk’s quest to cut key government programs

From Las Vegas to Carson City, Nevada residents and officials are trying to reign in the powers of Elon Musk, an unelected billionaire with several conflicts of interest who seemingly has access to Americans’ most sensitive private data.

As billionaire Elon Musk continues to rifle through dozens of federal agencies to slash “wasteful” government spending that funds humanitarian aid, medical research, education, and a litany of public infrastructure projects, Nevada citizens and lawmakers at the state and federal level have begun to voice concern — if not complete repudiation — towards an effort led by Musk and Trump allies to decimate federal spending on programs relied on by thousands of Nevadans. 

Trump for months on the campaign trail had committed to vast cuts to federal spending, and promised to appoint Musk — the world’s richest man and who is either owner, chief executive, or has a controlling stake in companies like X (formerly Twitter), Tesla, SpaceX, and Neuralink — to lead the effort. Musk is also founder of The Boring Company, which in recent years opened its network of underground tunnels around the Las Vegas Strip to the public.

Within days of Trump assuming office for his second term, Musk’s newly-created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — named for a joke cryptocurrency — quickly got to work attempting to dismantle the civil service and key federal agencies. Musk and his team also accessed sensitive payment information through the US Treasury Department, which includes Americans’ Social Security information and the data of recipients and vendors of Medicare, Medicaid, and other federally-administered healthcare programs. 

The Trump administration has since said benefit claims will not be impacted by any of DOGE’s proposed cuts. 

MORE: Trump’s coziness with billionaires shoe he has ‘no plan to bring costs down,’ Nevada officials, advocates say

Federal judges, meanwhile, have issued temporary pauses to many of Trump’s executive orders seeking to cut, freeze, or otherwise audit funds that have already been authorized by Congress as these challenges navigate the courts. 

But those judicial setbacks may also be paving the way for an unprecedented showcase of executive power. Since those rulings, Musk and other Trump allies like Vice President JD Vance have asserted that “judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power” and that “activist” judges who impede DOGE’s efforts are staging a “coup of American democracy” because the orders defy the wishes of Trump and the millions of Americans who voted for him. 

Residents last week staged protests in Las Vegas, Reno, and Carson City to voice their displeasure with the early days of the new Trump administration. 

“Elon Musk, he has no qualifications, all he has is money,” said one protestor, Anitra, who asked to only be attributed by her first name. 

She was one of the nearly 300 people who demonstrated outside the governor’s offices in Carson City last week as part of the “50501” protests nationwide. 

“He should stick to making cars, or, better yet, he should go back to where he came from,” she added. 

Another Carson City protestor, AJ, told The Nevadan he thought it was concerning that Musk, who was born in South Africa, could be handling the data of millions of Americans and could use it potentially for his own personal gain. 

“We’ve got a foreign national infiltrating our Treasury Department,” AJ said of Musk. “Our Social Security, our retirement, it’s at risk. Foreign aid is being cut off. All sorts of people are going to suffer from this. We’ve got to stop it. I don’t know how, but we’ve got to stop it.” 

At the federal level, many of Nevada’s Democratic lawmakers have spoken out forcefully against Musk’s access to financials for a number of federal agencies, but lack standing without Republican support to use the powers of Congress to reign in Musk. Congress is the governmental body that under the Constitution is able to authorize federal spending, but Republicans (who control the US House and Senate) have to this point yet to offer any resistance to Trump and Musk. 

Vance’s comments on the judicial branch seemed especially chilling to Nevada US Rep. Steven Horsford, who said in a statement Tuesday that rhetoric will erode “faith in American democracy and the institutions that have ensured peaceful self-governance for generations.” 

“Nevadans want the president focused on reducing the cost of rent, eggs, and childcare – not questioning the legitimacy of the Judicial Branch of government,” Horsford continued. 

On Monday, Nevada Democratic Sens. Jacky Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto were among the 26 lawmakers who sent a letter to newly-confirmed Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins asking him to deny or sever any access from Musk’s teams to access data related to veterans’ health records, bank information, or agency information on whistleblowers or other “sensitive” casework. 

Nevada Democratic US Rep. Susie Lee also recently announced her support of the Taxpayer Data Protection Act, a bill introduced last week that would prohibit anyone with conflicts of interest or without the proper security clearance from accessing the Treasury Department’s payment systems. That bill, however, would require Republican support in the House and Senate, in addition to Trump’s, to become law. 

At the state level, Democratic Attorney General Aaron Ford may be the biggest bulwark against Trump’s flurry of executive actions. 

Ford’s office has sued, in conjunction with Democratic attorneys general from elsewhere across the country, to stop the Trump administration’s efforts to end birthright citizenship, bar DOGE access to Treasury payment information, and reinstate spending that was previously-obligated, such as grant funding for medical research at the University of Nevada, Reno, and UNLV. 

“I have consistently said that President Trump has the right to enact his policies, but he must do so lawfully,” Ford said in a statement Friday announcing legal action against DOGE. 

As state officials continue to work on the budget for the 2025-27 biennium, Democratic leaders from the state Senate and Assembly sent a letter last week to Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo and state health officials asking how Nevada’s Medicaid funding would be impacted if proposed spending cuts were to happen at the federal level. 

The state receives roughly one-third of its overall funding from the federal government, including a 50% match for Medicaid, which provides health insurance coverage for low-income individuals. Medicaid currently provides coverage to a roughly estimated 800,000 Nevadans statewide, or about 25% of the state’s population, many of whom only gained access to insurance from the Medicaid expansion program created under the Affordable Care Act. 

“Major federal cuts to Medicaid would result in a massive increase in the number of uninsured Nevadans, a hole in the state budget that could exceed several billion dollars, and major financial disruptions for physicians and hospitals providing care in our communities,” states the letter, which was signed by Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro, along with Sens. Marilyn Dondero Loop (D-Las Vegas) and Fabian Doñate (D-Las Vegas), the respective chairs of the senate committees on finance and health and human services. 

Lombardo’s administration has not publicly responded to the inquiry, but a source from within the governor’s office said last week that any reduction in federal funding impacting the budget would need to be dealt with on a situational basis, and that the governor’s office isn’t able to operate based on speculation alone. 

The letter seeks a response by Feb. 18.