The so-called backlash to Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) project on display at recent Republican town halls was actually astroturfed by left-wing organizations.
The legacy media, naturally, jumped on the alleged backlash, with The New York Times, The Washington Post, and CBS News all reporting the protests as if they were organic opposition to President Donald Trump’s attempt to reduce wasteful government spending. It turns out, however, that the protests were anything but organic, according to a report from the Washington Free Beacon.
In its attempt to attack the Trump administration, CBS quoted Maggie Goldman, who organized one of the protests in Rep. Rich McCormick’s (R-GA) district. CBS identified Goldman only as a McCormick constituent. Though she does live in McCormick’s district, Goldman is a self-described “Democrat & Political Activist.” Far from the concerned conservative voter the media painted these protesters to be, Goldman, according to her own LinkedIn page, coordinated volunteers to help Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign. She also ran for her local county commission as a Democrat and has donated only to Democrat campaigns, including Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign. She also publicly boasted about all the media outlets covering her protest, according to the Free Beacon.
But Goldman wasn’t the only leftist organizer of a protest allegedly coming from conservative constituents. Indivisible and MoveOn, which both receive funding from Democrat billionaire George Soros, were behind many of the protests across the country, the Free Beacon found.
“Both groups launched national ‘mobilization’ efforts targeting the ‘Trump-Musk agenda’ and ‘Trump-Musk coup’ during the recess period,” the Free Beacon reported, referring to the week-long Congressional recess. “MoveOn said its ‘members and allies will show up at congressional-led town halls and congressional offices around the country, targeting House Republicans whose votes will be crucial in opposing Trump and Musk’s harmful policies.’ Indivisible issued a ‘Musk or Us Recess Toolkit’ that showed members how to find their local town halls and urged them to ‘take the fight to Elon.’”
Local organizers used the tools to launch protests pretending to be Republicans, gaining local and national media attention. Local media outlets noted Indivisible’s role in the protests, but neither the Times nor CBS mentioned Democrat involvement. The only mention of Democrats in the process from the Times came when it acknowledged that “many of the most vocal complaints came from participants who identified themselves as Democrats.” The Times’ headline, however, reads: “Republicans Face Angry Voters at Town Halls, Hinting at Broader Backlash.”
CBS briefly mentioned that a local outlet “also reported that the Washington County Democratic Party had encouraged people to show up to the meeting with Fitzgerald with signs” but didn’t mention it was organized by Indivisible. The Post noted how “[l]iberal groups encouraged their members to show up to town halls in deep-red territory” in the 14th paragraph of its story but didn’t mention the names of the liberal groups.
As the Free Beacon noted, major media outlets should have known ahead of time that the protests were organized by leftist groups because the organizations sent out press releases, and the Associated Press reported that Indivisible and MoveOn were planning to organize the protests. The AP, however, titled its piece “The anti-Musk protest movement is expected to ramp up with Congress on recess.” That article was published days before other major outlets reported on the alleged “backlash” to Trump and Musk.