Az AG Mayes calls Trump admin actions a ‘coup’ during Tucson town hall

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes described the actions of the Trump administration and billionaire Elon Musk as a “coup” and said state attorneys general should fight in the courts to block them.

“I know this is a strong word and strong language, but I believe that we are in the midst of a coup in this country,” Mayes said. “You have a lawless, out of control president who is allowing an unelected billionaire to destroy American government and and our institutions. That is hurting Arizonans and Americans, and the AGs will not stop fighting this until the job is done.” 

“The American Constitution and our republic is under attack,” Mayes said,  adding the U.S. is now “at greater peril today than we have been in since the Civil War.”

Around 100 people attended the town hall at the YWCA of Southern Arizona on Tucson’s West Side to hear Mayes discuss her work on fair housing—slated ahead of April, which is National Fair Housing Month—as well as an update on ongoing lawsuits against the Trump administration and what she called Musks’s “illegal federal funding cuts and firings.” 

Mayes was introduced at the event by Tucson Mayor Regina Romero and Arizona state Rep. Betty Villegas, a Democrat representing Arizona’s LD20. 

As she began, Mayes discussed a “housing crisis” in the state and outlined how her office planned to quell the problem. This includes her lawsuit against RealPage, filed last February, which accused the software company of violating state law by helping landlords engage in price-fixing. The federal government also filed suit and Mayes said she hoped the Trump administration—and newly installed U.S. Attorney Pam Bondi—would continue the lawsuit. 

Mayes told the crowd her office had a civil rights division, cracking that her predecessor—Republican Mark Brnovich—didn’t do much with the division, and maybe “didn’t even notice it was there.” 

She said her office was working to file civil rights cases and are serious about enforcing anti-discrimination laws. She also gave out tips on how renters can best protect themselves if they need to file a complaint. She also described a lawsuit against a Phoenix apartment complex which failed to provide air-conditioning during some of the hottest months. 

Nearly two dozen people spoke, many outlining issues of housing discrimination and potential fraud over utilities from mobile home parks that use “master-meters” to bill individual renters, indirectly from utilities. Some people faced massive utility bills and were forced from their homes.

Mayes said she would form a “working group” to address utility issues faced by mobile home park residents, and would speak with the state’s utilities, including Tucson Electric Power and Arizona Public Service about how they dealt with “mastered-metered” mobile home parks. She also said she would follow up with people who accused landlords of housing discrimination, including against  people using Section 8, and create a portal so Arizonans could report problems with their social security payments. 

‘We are responsible for upholding our Constitution’

After discussing housing, Mayes shifted and lambasted the Trump administration, telling the crowd her office has seven separate lawsuits against the Trump administration—part of a larger coalition of states who have filed suits to halt the efforts of Elon Musk and others. 

For months, Musk has operated as the de facto—but legally unacknowledged—head of the “Department of Government Efficiency” declared by President Donald Trump. The effort is called ‘DOGE’ by the Trump White House and Musk in a reference to a joke cryptocurrency featuring a dog meme mascot. 

This includes a lawsuit against Trump’s attempt to end birthright citizenship, guaranteed under the 14th Amendment; a move to block a freeze on federal funding; a suit to halt cuts to the National Institutes of Health and university research grants; a suit to stopping DOGE from accessing federal data; a lawsuit to halt the mass firings of federal employees; and a suit over the dismantling of the Department of Education.

The legal structure of DOGE remains in doubt, and yet, Musk underlings have spread out into the federal government, shuttering some agencies wholesale, while attempting to fire thousands of federal workers, and demanding access to sensitive databases. 

DOGE officials also attempted to sell off hundreds of federal installations, including the federal building in Downtown Tucson. However, after the list became public and was reported by Tucson Sentinel, the General Services Administration pulled the entire list, replacing it with a “coming soon” notice. 

Earlier this month, Mayes held a similar hearing in Phoenix her office said was “focused on uncovering Arizonans’ experiences as President Trump and Elon Musk illegally disrupt critical public health, public safety, agricultural, and other Arizona services supported by the federal government.” 

And, last week Mayes attended a similar event with New York Attorney General Letitia  James, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platki, and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison. 

Mayes said she will attend another town hall in Mesa with U.S. Rep. Greg Stanton on April 3. 

She said people need to fight back using what she called the “three Cs” which she described as crowds—including protests against Tesla and Trump administration actions—the courts—which she said was “my job,” and courage to “stand up and tell their story.” 

“We are all patriots at this time in our nation’s history, and it’s up to all of us to play whatever role that we can play in saving this democracy,” she said. She said when she files a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s actions, she thinks of “past generations of Americans speaking to us across time and space and the ages, and they are saying to us fight, fight for this country.” 

“Millions of them lost their lives fighting for this country, and it’s the least we do to show up in crowds and to fight in the courts and to have courage, because when we do this together, they cannot beat us,” she said. 

“We are responsible for upholding our Constitution,” Mayes told reporters after the town hall. “We see the unlawful actions of the Trump administration and Elon Musk—an unelected billionaire— rampaging through our federal government and engaging in cruel firings of critical federal employees.” 

“They are violating federal court orders and they have done that on several occasions,” she said. “And that is a coup. When the executive branch ignores the courts, that’s a coup, and I think we have to call it what it is.” 

“I don’t know what’s going on with Republican members of Congress. I know they know better,” Mayes said. “Shame on Juan Ciscomoni. Shame on people like Eli Crane, shame on David Schweikert for not calling it what it is, or at least trying to stand up in Congress.” 

“Their constituents deserve better, and as long as I’m AG I’m going to continue to fight for their constituents,” she said.