WATCH: Anti-Trump protesters slam budget reforms, label administration 'robber barons'

"[I'm] protesting how horrible things have become in our country," said May, who lives in Manhattan and held a sign she was reusing from protesting Trump's first term. "I mean, we've been taken over by a bunch of robber barons who are trying to take away all of our rights, benefits, and liberty."

One resident from Ridgewood, Queens, Mary, held a sign that stated "Stop Republican Chaos."

"I am outraged," Mary said. "The Republicans in Congress are enabling Trump to do many, many things. Everything he's doing is wrong, and they know it, and they are enabling it. The Republicans must go. They're causing chaos. People have to vote blue for every office, always." 

When asked what she hoped the protest would accomplish, Marty from Yonkers, who considers herself to be "a proud higher education 'diversicrat,'" said she wanted people to know that everyone is "ticked off."

"I mean, this isn't just you sitting at home in your jammies being ticked off. A lot of people are, and it goes back to 'you don't agonize, organize,'" she told Fox News Digital.

Several protesters, including Josh from Queens, said they hadn't been personally affected by the DOGE budget cuts, but noted that everyone knew someone who had - especially in education and science.

Wendy, a professor living in New Jersey, said she was particularly concerned about cuts to higher education and science. 

On DOGE's "Agency Efficiency Leaderboard," which details which government agencies have saved the most from canceled contracts and other methods to cut costs, the Department of Education ranks in second place. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) ranks in 13th place, as of March 30. 

"I haven't been affected, but I used to work at the NIH and a lot of my colleagues have been fired as a result, so scientific research is being halted because of DOGE," said one unnamed, masked protester, holding a sign which had the scientific symbol for "resistor." 

The White House and Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment.