Democratic attorneys general held their first of a series of town halls to discuss how they are standing up to President Donald Trump on March 5, 2025, in Phoenix. From left to right: Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield, New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez and Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes. Photo by Jerod MacDonald-Evoy | Arizona Mirror
The attorneys general of Arizona, Minnesota, New Mexico and Oregon vowed at a town hall in Phoenix Wednesday evening that they would continue to fight back against sweeping federal cuts being made by President Donald Trump and his ally, Elon Musk.
“It is not efficiency, it is destruction,” Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said to a crowd that gathered at Central High School to share their stories and concerns over the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, that has been directed by Musk, the richest man in the world.
Musk and his minions have overseen DOGE’s effective takeover of the federal government, with sweeping and indiscriminate layoffs, canceled contracts, blocked funding and a host of other disruptions. The ostensible reason is to cut government spending, though Musk has written on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, that the takeover is actually “all about” stopping Democrats from giving money to undocumented immigrants to convince them to vote for Democrats.
Noncitizens are not able to vote, and Musk’s claims are part of the racist Great Replacement conspiracy theory, which falsely claims that nefarious forces are flooding the U.S. with nonwhite immigrants in order to overtake the country.
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The AGs are part of a group of 23 Democratic AGs that have banded together to file seven lawsuits against the Trump administration’s actions.
Mayes said that an eighth lawsuit will be filed this week, and the AGs will be releasing information about a Freedom of Information Act request seeking the number of veterans and spouses of veterans who have been fired as a result of DOGE cuts.
The town hall is the first in a series of town halls the four attorneys general are intending to do across the country. The next is scheduled for March 20 in Minnesota.
“We are going around this country to listen to you,” Oregon AG Dan Rayfield said.
Much of the focus Wednesday night was around the chaos that has ensued in recent weeks as federal employees across the country have been laid off via emails or memos, only to be told to return again to find out that their office will be going away. In the case of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, nearly 6,000 workers fired by Trump were ordered back to work after the Merit Systems Protection Board found the agency illegally terminated the employees.
The turmoil at agencies such as the USDA was front and center in testimonials from some in attendance.
Elyse Guidas, the executive director for the nonprofit Activate Food Arizona, a group that works to bring affordable food to rural Arizona communities, said the suppliers they work with that rely on federal funding may go under due to the Trump administration’s spending freeze.
Her organization has already lost several grants. Adrienne Udarbe with Pinnacle Prevention, a non-profit that does similar work, said her organization is facing similar challenges.
“It impacts us all, and we are all going to be feeling it with rising food costs,” Udarbe said, adding that the USDA has not been sending money to farmers they had been scheduled to send that is intended to help reimburse them for providing food for low-income programs.
It was a lawsuit from the Democratic AG coalition that led USDA to say it had released those funds after a judge had ruled the money couldn’t be frozen.
“We’ve had to go to court twice now to get a motion to compel,” Mayes told Udarbe.
“While the president may be a powerful person, he does not have some sort of super power that allows him to travel back in time to reverse decisions that have already been approved,” Rayfield said of Trump’s funding freezes.
The AGs also focused on the impact the firings have had on the employees themselves.
“What I hear from the president and Elon Musk and others is a language that is stripped of any humanity,” New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said of how the two men speak about federal employees. “We don’t ask them if they are Republican or Democrat. We don’t demean what they do.”
A number of recently laid off federal workers shared their stories with the AGs. All of them recounted how they were laid off by an email from Washington DC, via Musk’s DOGE, and that their supervisors were unaware of the impending firing.
Employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs and veterans themselves spoke about services such as music therapy being cut, and a recently leaked memo shows that the agency is anticipating firing 83,000 employees.
While fear permeated comments from many of the speakers, the AGs tried to strike a tone of hopefulness when speaking with the press.
“I thought this was an incredibly powerful town hall. Maybe the most powerful town hall I’ve ever seen,” Mayes told reporters afterwards. She said the 23 AGs have been meeting daily via Zoom and that reporters should be keeping an eye out for litigation around firings of federal workers in the near future.
Minnesota AG Keith Ellison had a message to those federal workers who may have been listening or are currently worried about the future.
“You’re not alone,” he told the Arizona Mirror, adding that the “battle will not be won in a courtroom” but “in the court of public opinion.”
“Honor commitments to Indian Country”: Tribal leader highlights impact of federal cuts
Tribal leaders nationwide have voiced their concerns regarding federal budget cuts that affect Indian Country. During the community hearing, Paul Russell, the vice president of the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation, emphasized how these cuts directly impact his community.
The Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation is one of 22 federally recognized tribes in Arizona. They have nearly 1,000 tribal members and their tribal land is about 35 miles northeast of Phoenix.
Russell was the only Arizona tribal leader to stand before the attorneys general on Wednesday night and declare that the situation is “dire” in Indian Country.
He said the substantial budget cuts and firings enacted by the Trump administration have left many tribal nations in a “state of extreme concern.”
“We need to demand that the federal government honor its commitments to Indian Country,” Russell said. “The future of tribal communities depends on your actions.”
He said that the impacts on tribal governments and economies are devastating, with some potential consequences including a reduction in services for tribal members, layoffs of tribal government and enterprise employees, and the reduction or elimination of grant funding for key projects.
“The uncertainty of the future is perhaps the most alarming aspect as we are left questioning how much worse things will get in the coming weeks and months,” Russell said.
He shared two ways in which actions from the Trump administration have already impacted his community. First, there has been a pause in grant funding from the Bureau of Reclamation, threatening two significant projects within the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation, including a crucial well rehabilitation project for their tribal farm.
“Without federal support, we risk losing farmland productivity, which will impact revenue for our community,” he said. “These cuts stifle our ability to be self-reliant and violate the federal government’s trust responsibilities to honor tribal economic development.”
Second was the effects the proposed closure of the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ western regional office in Phoenix will have on his tribe.
Russell said that the closure of the BIA office will directly affect the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation by removing its support for tribal governance, law enforcement and land management. Because of the office closure, these essential functions will be delayed or neglected.
“Our law enforcement and emergency response rely on timely Bureau of Indian Affairs support,” he added. “With this office closing, public safety in our community is severely at risk.”
Russell said these federal budget cuts not only undermine tribal sovereignty and economic self-sufficiency but erase the years of hard-earned progress throughout Indian Country.
–By Shondiin Silversmith
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