ABOUT 100 PROTESTERS have rallied outside a company office in Palo Alto after its billionaire CEO spent months working for President Donald Trump and Elon Musk at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
“We need health care, not another billionaire!” protesters shouted while holding up signs that read “No Gracias,” and “Power to the workers, not the wealthy.”
One protester donned a giant painting of Musk’s face making a smug expression on top of his head. Others played makeshift drums and shouted call-and-response chants, creating a noisy scene in the otherwise quiet neighborhood in the heart of Silicon Valley.
“When we fight, we win!” protesters yelled.
The Tuesday rally was led by several community organizations and Service Employees International Union, Local 521. SEIU 521 represents over 72,000 workers in the state’s Central Valley and southern portions of the Bay Area.
They picketed outside the office of Valor Equity Partners, an investment firm with several employees who were involved in DOGE.
Antonio Gracias is the CEO and founder of Valor. He is also a close ally to Musk, having served on the board of directors of Tesla and SpaceX, Musk’s companies that Valor also invests in.
DOGE, formerly spearheaded by Musk, was created by Trump through an executive order with the goal of reducing federal jobs and spending. DOGE members aim to identify and eliminate “waste, fraud, and abuse,” according to DOGE’s government website.
Gracias and at least two of his company colleagues joined DOGE in February, tasked with making spending cuts in the federal Social Security Administration, or SSA.
“From the beginning, our objective was to enhance the long-term financial stability of the SSA,” Gracias wrote in a social media post last week confirming his departure from DOGE. “Using Valor’s standard operating playbook, we applied our lean expertise to address challenging situations at the SSA.”
He is just one of a small group of people that have gotten the type of access and power where they are making decisions that are cutting resources.
Riko Mendez, SEIU 521’s chief elected officer
But for protesters rallying outside Valor’s office, Gracias represents the disruption DOGE has brought to some Americans by cutting nearly 60,000 federal jobs, according to the US Department of Labor. DOGE has also cancelled grants and reduced funding for organizations and entities that receive federal dollars.
“Gracias was part of the DOGE program that ended up cutting and eliminating really critical programs that help a lot of vulnerable people in our society,” said SEIU 521 Chief Elected Officer, Riko Mendez, in an interview. “When those cuts come down, we see firsthand the devastation it does to the families and their children.”
In his post to X last week, Gracias claimed that he and his Valor colleagues “restored collection of billions of dollars of overpayments and worked to improve antiquated systems.”
However, there is no concrete evidence to support these purported savings from reclaiming overpayments, which occur when the SSA pays too much money to beneficiaries, often due to technical errors.
Additionally, Social Security overpayments are estimated to make up less than 1% of the agency’s spending, according to a 2024 audit of the SSA’s improper payments from the Office of the Inspector General.
Gracias also led DOGE’s immigration task force which helped aid in Trump’s mass deportation efforts.
“Immigrant families deserve dignity, not surveillance,” chanted Kellie Guevara from the Santa Clara County Office of Education at the protest. “Working people deserve a government that works for them, not billionaires like Antonio Gracias.”
Protests were also held on Tuesday in Seattle, New York City and Miami, where Valor has other offices.
One group of protesters that captured the crowd’s attention were several older women who held up a sign that read “Raging Grannies.” They sang several protest songs to the tune of “God Bless America,” covering the original song with different lyrics that spoke against Gracias, Musk and DOGE.
“Say to Valor, and to Tesla, and to SpaceX, and to DOGE: No, no, no gracias!” the women sang during one verse.
Valor Equity Partners did not respond to requests for comment.
Although Gracias has since left DOGE, protesters still want to speak out against his involvement and DOGE as a whole.
“He is just one of a small group of people that have gotten the type of access and power where they are making decisions that are cutting resources,” Mendez chanted through a megaphone. “We’re here to send a message that it’s not okay and that we’re not going to let it go unchecked.”
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