Demonstrators gathered outside a Tesla showroom in Boston on Saturday to protest against U.S. President Donald Trump's administration and the company's founder Elon Musk. Trump is the president, but billionaire Musk was the focus for activists as they demonstrated against the Trump administration’s push to gut federal health, education and other agencies. Musk has been tapped to spearhead cuts to the federal government. "The message today is to stop Elon, stop this terrible tearing up of our government and get things back to normal," said Carina Campobasso, a retired federal employee. "This government, led by Trump and Musk, have gone, it's gone completely off the rails and we are here to stop that." Trump has defended the cuts as necessary to eliminate waste and fraud. And he has praised Musk’s work with his Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, saying it has found “shocking” evidence of wasteful spending. He signed an executive order expanding Musk’s influence. Musk, meanwhile, has defended the swift and extensive cuts he’s pushing across the federal government while acknowledging there have been mistakes. "There's a lot of different things that people are doing to stand up against what the Trump administration is doing," said Nathan Phillips, a professor at Boston University participating in the protest on Saturday. "But when you do it right in front of a showroom door, that takes it from an expression of opposition to direct action and resistance against Musk and all of the terrible things that he is doing."