GET CAUGHT FIGHTING

MAXWELL FROST IS LEARNING THE ROPES OF CONGRESS AND SHOWING HIS OLDER COLLEAGUES HOW TO PUNCH BACK IN THE AGE OF TRUMP.

- TIM MURPHY

ON a sunny afternoon in early February, two dozen Democratic representatives, clutching smartphones and talking points, converged on the Treasury Department's public entrance in downtown Washington, DC.

For weeks, a strike force from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, loosely vetted and barely old enough to vote, had swarmed federal buildings with a mandate to dismantle the government's core institutions and bend what was left to their whims. They had threatened career employees, shut down lifesaving programs, and demanded—and received—access to some of the government's most sensitive systems. Democrats, many caught off guard by the totality of the takeover, had watched with a mix of apprehension and disbelief. The day before, a group of lawmakers attempting to visit the now-shuttered offices of the United States Agency for International Development had been denied entry. Now, with about 1,000 demonstrators assembling outside the Treasury for a rally organized by national progressive groups, Democrats hoped another in-person visit might wake up more of their colleagues to the reality of the constitutional crisis.

Standing outside the building’s marble colonnade, Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost (D-Fla.) held up his camera to capture his colleagues’ show of force. They were heading into the building, he said, because “an unelected billionaire has access to the private information of our constituents, and we want answers.”

Instead, the Democrats were locked out by the Secret Service. On X, Musk responded with a yellow waving-hand emoji. Three days later, at the Department of Education, Frost and his colleagues showed up again. This time, he trained his phone on the armed agents on the other side of the blocked glass doors.

“This is what they’re doing,” he said. “Elon is allowed in, but not you.”