PENDLETON — More than a dozen protestors gathered outside of Pendleton City Hall as part of the nationwide rally against President Donald Trump’s administration and Elon Musk, leader of the Department of Government Efficiency.

The grassroots organization 50501 Movement, which stands for 50 protests, 50 states, one movement, teamed up with Political Revolution to host protests on President’s Day, under the banners “Not My President’s Day” and “No Kings Day.”

The 50501 group’s website called on the public to counter the “anti-democratic and illegal actions” of the Trump administration “and its plutocratic allies.”

Demonstrators in Hermiston, Pendleton, La Grande and Baker City joined the movement to oppose the Trump administration’s efforts to cut federal education, health and human services, which have resulted in job losses for thousands of federal employees.

“We’d all like to see government efficiency, but taking a meat ax to it is not efficient,” Robert Hill said at the Pendleton demonstration. “There are going to be a lot of people suffering.”

Katrina Dielman also was at the Pendleton rally. She is an assistant clinical professor at Oregon Health & Science University at Eastern Oregon University in La Grande. She said the school is at risk of losing federal funding, which could jeopardize research that affects vulnerable populations, including transgender individuals. Dielman described the federal cuts as “terrifying.”

“I teach according to science and statistics,” she said. “Removing all of the transgender and DEI information from the (U.S. Centers for Disease Control), a major source of students, affects how they understand vulnerable populations, disease, health and all that kind of stuff.”

Protesters across the nation have denounced the Trump administration’s push to ramp up deportations of illegal immigrants, eliminating diversity, equality and inclusion policies and dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development, which assists countries recovering from disasters, escaping poverty and pursuing democratic reforms.

“ I’m very unhappy with how the government is,” Bruce Mayfield said at the Pendleton protest. “The chaos and the destabilization that we’re seeing because scientific research is all messed up, the Forest Service is going to be messed up, the parks services are going to be messed up. The things that I enjoy about the outdoors are going to be messed up, and I’m worried about more drilling, more mining and more destruction of our nation.”

Protestors stood on the sidewalk, waving anti-fascist signs at passing cars and cheering whenever a driver honked in support.

“ We’re a diverse community,” Sierra Purnell said. “Maybe more so than people realize, and there’s a mixed bag of opinions here. We don’t all think the same way. There are a lot of people here that care about democracy and progress in our society.”