Ciscomani discussed the Trump administration’s first weeks in a “fireside chat” Monday with the U.S. Hispanic Business Council's Javier Palomarez

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Ciscomani praises DOGE work while protestors warn that U.S. is sliding into fascism

The Trump adminstration's firing spree praised by Republicans, criticized by Democrats

U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani said he supported the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce federal spending through Elon Musk’s DOGE initiative.

Ciscomani discussed the Trump administration’s first weeks in a “fireside chat” Monday with the U.S. Hispanic Business Council's Javier Palomarez in a meeting room at Loew's Ventana Canyon Resort.

The Southern Arizona GOP congressman said Trump “hit the ground running a lot of this through executive orders. That's what also Biden did, and what President Trump had done before as well. And that helps an administration take off in a very quick and aggressive way, delivering on the promises that they made, and he made.”

“Congress's role now is to be able to codify the things that we need codified into law,” Ciscomani added. “Because if it becomes a ping-pong game to executive orders from administration to administration, that's no way for a nation of the size and the prominence of the United States of America to live. We should not just be doing it in that order and in that fashion. I understand the purpose of it and I support what's been done, however, we need to look now at Congress and say, ‘Where does spending need to go?’”

Ciscomani said politicians on both sides of the aisle, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, had lost a sense of fiscal responsibility and had been bitten by the “Washington bug.” He said it was imperative to reduce spending.

Since Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration, Musk has been working alongside a handpicked DOGE team of young men to swiftly dig through federal records to assess and, in some cases, shut down the work of various federal agencies. The DOGE team has, among other actions, taken control of the Office of Personnel Management and the General Services Administration, gained access to the Treasury Department’s payment system and cancelled data-gathering contracts with the Department of Education, which also appears to be on Trump’s chopping block, according to press reports.

Musk, the world’s richest man and the owner of X/Twitter and Tesla as well as companies with huge federal contracts such as SpaceX and Starlink, has already declared the foreign humanitarian assistance agency USAID to be “criminal” and the Trump administration has announced it would be shutting down USAID and moving what remains of its responsibilities to the State Department.

USAID had moved to probe potential corruption related to Starlink's foreign operations.

Over the weekend, the Trump administration fired thousands of federal workers at agencies such as the FAA, the FDA and the United States Forest Service. After dismissing hundreds of employees who worked on nuclear weapons at the National Nuclear Security Administration, the administration reversed course and rehired most of them, according to the Associated Press.

The acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration, Michelle King, quit her job over the weekend rather than grant DOGE operatives access to the retirement agency’s sensitive records, according to the Washington Post.

Federal courts have temporarily blocked some of DOGE’s efforts, including access to the payments system of the Department of Treasury and the dismantling of USAID.

Musk has called for the impeachment of federal judges who have issued orders slowing DOGE’s efforts.

Trump, meanwhile, has jettisoned federal regulations barring U.S. companies from bribing foreign officials, while pardoning and ending prosecution of U.S. politicians involved in federal bribery probes.

Last week saw a wave of resignations in the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York after prosecutors quit rather than follow orders from Attorney General Pam Bondi to drop corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams because he had agreed to work with Trump on immigration enforcement.

Ciscomani, a member of the new DOGE Caucus in the House of Representatives, met with Musk on Dec. 5 alongside House Speaker Mike Johnson and other Republican lawmakers.

Ciscomani said Monday his approach to the DOGE effort “is to make sure that government spending is being held accountable and that we can tackle and identify the waste, the fraud, the abuse within the government that is not reaching its intended purpose. And when you do that, you're going to find areas that don't need this funding anymore. You're gonna find programs that are not meeting their standards, programs that are outdated and no longer necessary.”

While Ciscomani is working arm-in-arm with Trump, the DOGE team's work, coupled with mass firings of federal workers and freezing of funds for various grants and programs, have rankled many Americans.

Roughly five dozen protestors lined North Kolb Road on Monday near the entrance to the Ventana Canyon resort where Ciscomani was holding his fireside chat with Palomarez.

Steve Bauer, who said he served six years in the Navy after being drafted during the Vietnam War, said he was distressed that Trump had pardoned the Jan. 6 rioters who stormed the House of Representatives in 2021.

“Our democracy is gone and fascism is on the way,” said Bauer. “My relatives were in World War II and fought fascism.”

He said he was unhappy with Musk’s approach to reducing federal spending.

“They have the wrong guy doing it,” Bauer said. “It should be a congressional thing, not some billionaire who is half out of his mind.”

Bauer said he used to be a fan of Musk and has owned two cars built by the billionaire’s Tesla car company but “I got rid of them, thank God.”

“I loved Elon Musk before he touched – anybody that touches Trump turns to shit,” Bauer said.

Jennie Bennett, holding a sign that read “Silence is consent, Ciscomani," said she grew up in a GOP household, admired Ronald Reagan and remained a registered Republican even though she was disappointed with the party’s direction under Trump.

She said she didn’t think Musk’s efforts could be considered a legitimate audit.

“I just feel that Trump is doing everything wrong, and no corporation would allow a stranger to go through their records just arbitrarily without analyzing it,” said Bennett.

“Especially the nuclear thing – to let all these people go and then go, ‘Oh my God, yeah, they're important.” Now they can't find them. They've done that in a lot of departments,” Bennett said. “And the USAID – People don't realize they protect America against diseases. It’s not only helping other people in foreign countries. I mean, they just don't realize what they're tampering with.”

Musk's cost-cutting approach has also faced criticism from Arizona’s Democratic elected officials, including Sen. Mark Kelly, who called Musk “a billionaire, unelected, unaccountable bureaucrat who is illegally shutting down federal agencies that make Americans safer and more prosperous."

“I’m willing to get together with anyone who wants to make our government work better, who wants to save taxpayer dollars, who wants to improve peoples’ lives—but that’s not what the Trump administration is trying to do here,” Kelly said. “Because their endgame isn’t efficiency, it’s not about being more responsible with taxpayer dollars—it's about giving rich people another massive tax break on the backs of hard-working Americans.”

But inside Ventana Canyon, Musk’s efforts were cheered.

Lea Marquez Peterson, a Republican who sits on the Arizona Corporation Commission, said she was happy to see the Trump administration’s push to reduce the federal workforce in light of the federal deficit.

“Our federal debt has exceeded $36 trillion dollars, so I understand the importance of even the disruptive activities we’ve had recently focused on the cost that the federal government has grown to, has ballooned to,” Marquez Peterson said. “I know it’s uncomfortable, I know it’s scary for the American people but I think this is necessary and we need to let this play out. And I want you to continue the work of tackling the national debt.”

Jeanette Massaglia, the president of the Huachuca Area Republican Women who had driven up from Sierra Vista for the event, said she was delighted by what she had seen.

“I couldn’t have done it better,” she said. “And in only three weeks, they’ve discovered all of this. And I just feel like it’s been happening too long. I’m ready for that change. And God bless Elon Musk.”