Thousands of people rally in support of military veterans on the National Mall on the 81st anniversary of D-Day, in Washington, DC.Allison Bailey/NurPhoto/AP
On Friday afternoon, thousands of veterans who fought wars on behalf of the United States descended on the National Mall in Washington, DC, to fight something else: cuts proposed by the Trump administration.
Since his inauguration in January, President Donald Trump has moved to slash and burn the federal workforce—and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is no exception. Already, the sprawling agency serving America’s 16 million military veterans has fired 2,400 probationary workers and proposed eliminating an additional 15 percent of its workforce—about 80,000 people.
Veterans rely on the VA for help with critical needs like counseling for addiction and PTSD, prostheses, senior services, and treatments for cancer stemming from exposure to toxic chemicals. Medical research by VA doctors and scientists not only saves veterans’ lives, but benefits civilians; over the years, the breakthroughs have included pacemakers and CT scans.
“Veterans are the canary in the coal mine for how the rest of Americans are going to experience health care,” an Army veteran from Maryland who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan told Mother Jones.
In addition to protesting job cuts, many in the crowd were incensed by Trump’s executive order to ban trans people from the military. “It is a shame that we’re letting hard-working, able-bodied, willing people go in a time of great need in our military,” said a DC resident who says his trans friend is being forced out of the Navy.
Organizers opted to hold the protest on Friday in part because of its historical significance: June 6 is the anniversary of D-Day, when the US military and Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy, France, in 1944 to help end World War II.
The rally featured a performance by Dropkick Murphys and speeches from former congressman Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), an Air National Guard veteran, and Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), who lost both legs after her helicopter was shot down in Iraq.
“We are sick of politicians promising to look out for veterans when they are on the campaign trail and then abandoning them when they take office,” Duckworth told the crowd.
