Seeking more certainty in their golden years, Montco seniors protest against Trump

Dozens of people of varying mobility levels and political persuasions were holding up an assortment of signs near their Montgomery County retirement community Thursday, expressing their disdain toward President Donald Trump and his administration, when a truck slowed with a message.

“Get a job!” the man shouted, perhaps keeping his eyes just enough on the road to miss the people in scooters and walkers.

The seniors, revved up for a fight, were quick in their response.

“We already had them!” said one woman. “We paid our dues!”

“Wrong crowd, son!” said someone else in the group.

The exchange offered a moment of levity in what the protesters have described as a time of uncertainty. Though their signs hinted at various priorities — deportations without due process; the gutting of federal agencies; the rollback of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives — they agreed they did not like the direction the country was going in.

Though the protest at Shannondell Boulevard and Egypt Road coincided with similar rallies across the country for May Day, the group did not claim any party or organization affiliation. The group lives in Shannondell at Valley Forge, a retirement community in Audubon, and the seniors have been following the news with bated breath at their twice-weekly current event club. As they went over headlines regarding the volatile stock market, which many depend on, the Trump administration’s fights with universities, and staff cuts to the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Social Security Administration, they felt they needed to speak up.

“I don’t know that it’ll help, but it makes us feel like we’re doing something,” said Linda Clark, 84, with a sign that read “grandmas for Democracy.”

Art Lebofsky, 83, has felt the strain of a struggling Social Security Administration firsthand.

He said a phone interview to confirm his wife had died in March, so that he could collect a monthly $250 death benefit, turned into an in-person visit, which he was told could be a year’s wait, before a staffer told him the directive was rescinded. Employees never explicitly blamed the Trump administration or the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, but it was clear to Lebofsky the hours-long wait times over the phone were due to staff shortages.

“While I’m not dependent on the $250, it seems like the rules keep changing in the middle of the game,” he said, adding that people his age need predictability.

But the protest was just as much about the country the seniors were leaving for their progeny as it was for the service cuts that directly affect them.

The seniors flagged a wide range of news headlines they said did not reflect the country they grew up in, including the deportation of U.S.-born children, whose mothers were given the option to leave them behind with “someone safe,” according to the Trump administration.

Vietnam veteran George Weir, 76, said he didn’t like that the administration was “intimidating colleges,” violating people’s due process, and touting the arrest of a Milwaukee County judge.

Burton Sutker, 90, who popped into the protest after a four-mile run, echoed the desire to leave his great-grandchildren a country they can be proud of, but he said he and his peers need to lead by example.

“It’s good that we’re waking up some senior citizens. It’s too easy to sit and rock in your wheelchair,” he said.