'We're Gonna Fight': Clevelanders Pack Shontel Brown Town Hall to Rail Against Trump and Musk's Drastic Federal Job Cuts

Congresswoman Shontel Brown attended or hosted two rallies back-to-back on Thursday to brief the public on how, she said, they can push back against the overstepping of the Department of Government Efficiency that Democrats have been accusing it of. Credit: Mark Oprea

Despite the 17-degree weather and the finger-numbing windchill, 70 or so union leaders, members and officials gathered on the steps of the Celebrezze Federal Building downtown Thursday morning hyper-focused and energized. They shouted pro-democracy harangues. Their winter gloves held signs lambasting billionaires.

And they welcomed, with loud voices and energy, the message delivered to them and thousands of federal workers being furloughed or fired.

“Federal workers are the backbone of America,” Congresswoman Shontel Brown. shouted through a megaphone to protesters around her. “You make sure that people get their Social Security payments. You take care of our veterans.”

As expected, a lot of the discussion was about Elon Musk. “This unelected, unaccountable, unvetted billionaire is trying to take away your jobs,” she said, “while they line their pockets and take care of their tax cuts.”

Since President Trump’s inauguration and the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, Trump’s administration has spent the last month attempting to wring out millions of workers powering the federal government down to a bare minimum.

Brian Pearson, the director of the North Shore Federation of Labor, wrangled together 70 federal workers and their sympathizers Thursday morning in front of the Celebrezze Federal Building downtown. Credit: Mark Oprea

In just two weeks, Trump and DOGE have made directions to lay off at least 28,624 federal employees, the New York Times reported on Friday, out of a targeted 200,000. So far, that involves 19,340 workers hired in the past year—including 6,700 from IRS, 1,000 from the National Park Service and 388 from the EPA—along with 22 government watchdogs and 33 persons hired to investigate Trump and the January 6 insurrection.

Which amounts to roughly 60 federal workers in Cleveland, Brian Pearson, the director of the North Shore Federation of Labor, told Scene at Thursday’s rally. Those include an undisclosed breakdown of workers from the Veteran’s Affairs Healthcare Center, the Department of Defense Finance Accounting Service (DFAS) and the Social Security Administration, among potential others.

And, on Friday, NASA Glenn announced that five percent of its 1,468 employees base, or about 73 people, took the buyout offer emailed to them by the Office of Personnel Management in late January. A spokesperson told Cleveland.com it would be working with OPM “on exemptions” for newer employees that DOGE could mark for firing.

“We don’t know exactly how all these numbers are going to fall, but it’s going to impact a system that’s already not in a great place,” Pearson told Scene on Thursday. “I can’t predict when, but the American people are going to suffer from these cuts.”

A fleet of Trump-signed executive orders in the past 10 days, along with a myriad of posts by Musk and DOGE on Twitter/X, have framed the expected slashing of 200,000 federal jobs—roughly 10 percent of the U.S. government—as a necessary means of cutting fat.

At least four orders in the past week have attempted to carry out these cuts, both to agencies and wages, in a swift, no-questions-asked manner without, as Brown and others have criticized, going through the proper (and legal) channels. More legal questions and fights remain, icluding giving DOGE and Musk’s team access to 360 million Americans’ financial and health data typically reserved for vetted government officials.

But the cuts are being carried out. To the U.S. African Development Foundation, which supported African entrepreneurs. To the Community Bank and the Credit Union advisory councils, which regulated consumer financial products. To practically anything, a February 11 executive order directed, that isn’t DOGE-approved or has to do with public safety, immigration, the military or law enforcement.

“The American people have seen their tax dollars used to fund the passion projects of unelected bureaucrats rather than to advance the national interest,” Trump wrote in an order on February 18.

As per Brown’s three-pronged remedy for apparent federal overreach, entities like Pearson’s AFL-CIO, the American Federation of Government Employees and others have filed lawsuits against DOGE—18 since late January—to attempt to hinder what they claim is an illegal foray by Musk into sensitive data and job cuts that should require vetting by Congress.

That, to put it another way, Musk and DOGE have been cutting without guardrails.

Even more people showed up at the packed auditorium at CMSD’s East Professional Center on Thursday evening, with a line snaking out the front door in a scene played out across America as Congressional members held townhalls. As the Washington Post and others reporters, GOP members got an earful over the cuts.

Hundreds gathered Thursday night to listen to Brown riff on DOGE’s overstepping and how Democrats can respond despite a Republican trifecta in the White House, Senate and House of Representatives.

The event and recent news might’ve brought more of Brown’s constituents in her 11th District out than probably ever. When she asked how many were first-timers at a town hall, nearly half the room raised their hands.

Nearly half of the crowd Thursday night raised their hands when Brown asked if it was their first town hall attendance. Credit: Mark Oprea

“This is why this is serious, y’all,” Brown said from the podium, with a blown-up photo of Musk on a projection screen behind her.

“Trump and Musk do not care about safe air travel. Why? Because they don’t fly commercial,” Brown went on. “They don’t care about education—no one they know goes to public school. And don’t care about the cost of food because they aren’t shopping at Dave’s and Giant Eagle—like we are!”

After Brown touted her own legislative efforts—one that could restore DEI protections—she opened the aisles to a sea of attendees who had questions to ask questions. What might happen to HIV funds? Cleveland’s Consent Decree? What about science research or the Department of Education? And more federal cuts to come?

“We have not been told anything,” a woman in her fifties who holds a federal job in Cleveland told Brown. “Every day we go to work. Are computers are being shut down. Some can’t access email. We should have certain protections, right?”

Brown nodded from the podium. “Again, we’re looking into litigation,” she said. “I believe the courts are looking into that.”

The woman sat down. A man approached the mic, asking Brown about how many of the 218 House Republicans are covertly against Trump’s mandate.

Brown tilted her head. She hinted at Bernie Moreno and Jon Husted. “We have two senators here in Ohio that I think would love to hear from you,” she said.