Fired federal employees, Trump voters express regret and protest Elon Musk, DOGE cuts

After President Donald Trump's Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) fired more than 125 people from the Treasury Department's Bureau of Fiscal Service in Parkersburg, West Virginia, some supporters of Trump in the 2024 presidential election began to second guess their votes. On Feb. 28, 2025, opponents of DOGE cuts rallied in Parkersburg to protest the Trump administration's federal workforce cuts.

Jennifer Piggott, who voted for Trump in 2024, 2020 and 2016, was one of the employees fired from the Parkersburg BFS office — after a recent promotion.

"The common theme is, you know, we voted for this," Piggott said. "There's always that back and forth conversation now it's like, 'You knew this was coming,' but we didn't, like, nobody that I've talked to understood the devastation that having this administration in office would do to our lives, but other people that we love and care about to within the Mid-Ohio Valley."

"I mean, if you can't trust your president and your vice president to do what they said they were going to do, you know, which is protect us, protect the veterans, love the veterans, support them then it leaves you in a really, really, really ugly place in your thinking," Piggott said. "I don't think I could vote for President Trump again, knowing that this has happened and the impact it's had on the American working class."