‘Veterans are going to die’: Hundreds protest Elon Musk’s DOGE cuts in Raleigh

Musk’s cuts could delay Social Security checks, end cancer research and make it harder for veterans to reach counselors during a mental health crisis

Sean Wright, a former Army medic, brought a giant American Flag to a rally outside a Tesla showroom in Raleigh on Friday. 

The protest, which drew hundreds of people, was part of a growing pushback against Elon Musk’s planned cuts to essential federal spending, including the US Department of Veterans Affairs, and Wright saw the flag as an exclamation point. 

A steady breeze fluttered and flapped the flag around him as talked.

“ I have friends who died for this flag,” Wright said, “21-year-old kids who gave their life.”

If it weren’t for the VA, Wright said, he’d be dead too.

“ I’ve treated wounded soldiers in combat, and without the VA, I 100% would’ve taken my life,” he said.

During the times he felt at his lowest, he said, he’d called the VA’s crisis hotline. Counselors answered right away, talked with him, and listened. They stayed on the phone as long as he needed and led him away from thoughts of ending his own life.  

The Trump administration, as part of Musk’s DOGE cuts, wants to eliminate more than 80,000 jobs at the VA, the department that is the main source of healthcare and urgent care for more than 400,000 North Carolina veterans. Musk’s proposed cuts would also target the staff working that crisis hotline, framing the cuts as eliminating alleged waste.

But those costs would be in real lives, not dollars saved, Wright and many of the other protesters said on Friday. The two-hour protest was part of a weekend of similar rallies across the country, and passing cars continuously honked their horns in support for the duration. The crowd in Raleigh on Saturday, organizers said, was even bigger.

And cuts to the VA are just some of the cuts DOGE is proposing or has already made —  cuts that cover lots of ground with similar effects: 

• Staffing cuts to the Social Security administration could mean delays in getting checks for seniors who depend on them to eat, pay rent, and live.
• Cuts to national and international science and research funding will stall efforts to fight cancer, measles, and other serious diseases.
• The Trump administration is also canceling a grant that would help prevent pregnant women from being murdered by abusive partners. 

Cuts to the crisis hotline will mean fewer counselors and longer wait times when veterans need immediate care and are often within reach of a gun, Wright said. 

 ”One of the times I called 9-8-8, I was just bawling in a Walmart parking lot in my car .. and you’re gonna take these people who answer these calls and you’re gonna make those wait times greater?” Wright asked.

“Most male veterans, they commit suicide with handguns and it’s impulsive. So you’re gonna have a veteran who’s sitting there with a handgun thinking about taking their own life. And if they’re on hold for just a little too long, that could be fatal for them,” he said.

“ By Elon Musk going in and indiscriminately cutting VA healthcare, veterans are going to die. Veterans are going to take their own lives who otherwise would’ve gotten care.”

‘I need the young people to understand’ 

The flag was a theme.

Another participant protested from the padded seat of her walker, holding a sign and waving to the cars as they passed. She did not want to give her name, but asked that Cardinal & Pine get her outfit on camera. She wore an American flag sweatshirt and scarf. 

The flag, as it has since it survived the bombs bursting in air, represented the ideals she too was there to protect.

“ I need to save our country,” she said.  “We live in a democracy. This country is for everybody, not any one person.”

“[Musk] stopped the scientists who were almost ready to cure cancer and he stopped it. What’s wrong with you?” she asked.

“Think of somebody else,” she said. “That’s what America’s about. It’s about thinking about the other person.”

She was also worried about Musk’s efforts to obtain Americans’ personal data through the IRS and other federal systems, she said, especially if that data could be used to track pregnancies or used in states with abortion bans.

“Men think that they have the right to tell women about their bodies,” she said. “No man has ever known the tragedy of having a miscarriage or having to go through menopause or even menstruating, they don’t understand any one of it. And we suffer with it from 13 to almost 80. So we have to get away from that and let people do what they feel they have to do with their doctor.”

“I need the young people to understand how precious it is, because when I was born, Hitler was in charge and that’s why I’m here. ‘Cause that can’t happen here. I was too young to do anything about it then. But now we can get out and make our voices heard and we just have to make our voices heard. And don’t stop. Don’t let them stop you.”

‘Every cent is earned’

Nancy N., who did not want to give her full name, came to the rally because she was worried about the Social Security cuts, she said. Though  in keeping with the ideals stated by the other protester, she was more worried about others than herself.

In some communities, staffing cuts have already increased wait times for seniors who have questions or other issues with their benefits.

Their checks could be late and it could take longer to get someone on the phone to tell them why.

“I know it’s going to impact the checks coming in,” Nancy N. said.” It’s going to be delayed. Not me necessarily, but a lot of people wait on that, they go paycheck to paycheck.”

For many seniors, that leaves little wiggle room. 

“A lot of people will starve and not be able to pay electricity, water bills, and even mortgage without that,” she said

Like most of the protesters, Nancy N. carried a sign, 

“Social Security is NOT a handout !!!” it read. “Every cent is earned.”

If her Social Security check was delayed or cut, the woman in the flag scarf said, she’d likely lose her home.

“ I don’t know what’ll happen to me. I probably can’t afford to be in an apartment or do anything,” she said.

‘We need this VA healthcare’

The cuts Musk has already already pursued or hinted he would in the future were not models of efficiency, Wright, the retired Army medic, said.

They were violations of principle.

 ”We jump outta planes, we serve on submarines, our bodies are beaten up, and we come back, we need this VA healthcare,” he said.

These people made a sacrifice for the country. It’s about honoring that sacrifice.”

Those sacrifices take a heavy toll, Wright said, and the VA helps veterans weather them.

“Literally every day [before going to the VA] was like walking through wet cement,” he said.

“My thoughts would be, you know, I should just go and shoot myself, but they were there for me,” he said. 

“They were there.”