Rally participants hold a sign during the Unite for Veterans rally on the National Mall in Washington on June 6, 2025. Thousands of people attended the event to defend the benefits, jobs and dignity that veterans earned through sacrifice through service in the armed forces. (Eric Kayne/Stars and Stripes)

WASHINGTON — Lela Bell, a 43-year-old disabled Army veteran, drove from her Pennsylvania home Thursday night to a commercial parking garage in downtown Washington where she and a friend forked over $20, pulled into an empty space and tried to get some sleep in her Subaru sedan.

Bell, a former sergeant who served in Iraq, said she was short on cash but determined to be among the first veterans at the National Mall on Friday for a veteran-led rally protesting President Donald Trump’s layoffs of federal workers and cuts to veterans services.

Army veteran Lela Bell, 43, attends the Unite for Veterans rally on the National Mall on June 6, 2025. (Eric Kayne/Stars and Stripes)

Bell and her friend, Ed Wetzell, who also served in the Army, did not have trouble finding a prime viewing spot for the rally and a free rock show that followed. Though organizers had predicted a turnout of 20,000, less than 5,000 people had gathered at the National Mall by midday.

Called the Unite for Veterans rally, the daylong event was billed as a grassroots movement to activate veterans across the country to come together and oppose Trump’s initiatives that include plans to lay off thousands of workers at the Department of Veterans Affairs in the summer.

Thousands attend the Unite for Veterans rally on June 6, 2025, in Washington. Thousands of people attended the event to defend the benefits, jobs and dignity that every generation of veterans has earned through sacrifice through service in the armed forces. (Eric Kayne/Stars and Stripes)

People waved signs, wore T-shirts with political messages and held umbrellas to shield themselves from the sun as temperatures neared 90 degrees.

“I am under the belief that there’s an authoritarian takeover attempt underway of our federal government by wealthy oligarchs,” said Bell, who was medically retired from military service in 2017 following a back injury.

Bell and Wetzell carried custom-made signs that she had ordered online for the event. “Due process for everyone or everyone revolts” was one of the messages in block letters on a metal placard.

The rally included speeches by veterans and labor leaders, followed by a concert by the Dropkick Murphys, a Boston-based band whose music has political themes.

The Dropkick Murphys perform during the Unite for Veterans rally on June 6, 2025, in Washington. (Eric Kayne/Stars and Stripes)

Paul Nance, a retired Army sergeant and 15-year VA employee, paused under the shade of a tree as the rally started. He said he traveled to the nation’s capital from Washington state, where he works in infection control at the VA hospital in Spokane.

He said he attended the rally to protest policies of the Trump administration to cut the federal workforce.

“I’m convinced the Trump administration wants to privatize the VA, and I am here to support our veterans and the care and services the VA delivers,” said Nance, a former sergeant who left the Army in 2006.

He described himself as an active member of the American Federation of Government Employees, and he wore a bright red T-shirt showing his membership.

Dozens of other AFGE members wearing red T-shirts with the union logo also participated at the rally, and the AFGE hosted a crowded visitor’s tent to share resources and information.

Wearing a blue bandana on his head, Navy veteran Patrick McLaughlin, 67, sat on a bench not far from the main stage where veteran organizations and union leaders gave speeches warning about threats to the federal workforce from government downsizing.

Navy veteran Patrick McLaughlin from Ohio attends the Unite for Veterans rally in Washington on June 6, 2025. (Eric Kayne/Stars and Stripes)

McLaughlin, a retired carpenter from Ohio, said he was looking forward most to listening to the protest songs of the Dropkick Murphys, including an ode to veterans called “Who’ll Stand with Us.”

He said he missed a previous veterans rally on the National Mall that also was a protest of cuts to the federal workforce.

“I’m worried the VA is being dismantled,” said McLaughlin, a former petty officer second class who served from 1977 to 1981. “The VA is where I get my care.”

He said he felt it was his duty to attend the rally.

“We need more people involved in politics because politics are involved in our lives,” McLaughlin said. “There is a shift toward authoritarianism by this administration. As service members we took an oath to protect the Constitution, and I’m worried the Constitution is now under threat.”

Protestors attend the Unite for Veterans rally on June 6, 2025, in Washington. (Eric Kayne/Stars and Stripes)