TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Protesters across the country rallied Saturday against Federal funding cuts by the Trump administration and special government employee Elon Musk.
In Arizona, those protests popped up from Phoenix down to Nogales with groups in Rio Rico, Green Valley, Tubac and Tucson.
Organizers say that over 10,000 people came out to Reid Park for the protest. At its peak, they say protesters lined both sides of 22nd St.
An hour after most of the crowd had left, a small group of about ten stayed on the corner.
“Just because the protest stops doesn’t mean we go home,” protester Mary Granatowski said.
A pair of counter protesters also showed up to the park. Though they didn't want to speak on camera, one said that as a veteran, his supports the Commander in Chief transcends policy.
That isn't the case for the protesters like Granatowski.
“I came out today to stop the insanity with social security," she said. "Because if we don’t stop, our seniors are going to be in the streets dying.”
She says as a four-time cancer survivor, she relies on social security and medicare: “we paid in all of our lives for that and it shouldn’t be taken from us.”
The Trump administration has announced cuts to some Social Security Administration staff but has promised to protect Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare benefits as the administration works to drastically cut Federal spending.
“Only by tackling the waste and fraud in entitlements like Social Security and Medicare can we actually preserve those programs in the future," Elon Musk said while standing beside Trump on the White House lawn in March. "Because with unchecked fraud and waste, we won’t be able to afford them.”
However, cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services— which houses the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare— has people like those Reid Park protesters concerned about the future of those benefits.
Though eventually those protesters will have to go home, Granatowski says this won't be her last protest.
“If we do not stand up for our grandchildren and our children, who is going to stand up for them?” she said.
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Alex Dowd is a multimedia journalist at KGUN 9, where her work combines her two favorite hobbies: talking to new people and learning about the community around her. Her goal is to eventually meet every single person in Tucson. Share your story ideas with Alex via email, alex.dowd@kgun9.com, or connecting on Instagram or X.
