U.S. Rep Tokuda tells Maui residents fearful of Trump’s changes: ‘You need to help us agitate’

WAILUKU — Two weeks after the news broke that the Trump administration planned to cut 80,000 jobs from the Department of Veterans Affairs, Vietnam veteran Bo Mahoe showed up to a town hall with a poster on a yardstick that read “VA = Veterans Abandoned.”

The 74-year-old Mahoe relies on multiple sources of federal income in his retirement, including Social Security, compensation from the VA for his military service and his pension as a former U.S. postmaster on Moloka‘i.

“My livelihood comes from the same piggybank, so it’s creating a lot of anxiety even for me,” said Mahoe, the sergeant-at-arms of the Maui County Veterans Council.

Mahoe was among the concerned Maui residents who came to the Baldwin High School auditorium last week to press U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda on Congress’ plans to respond to the billions in federal funding cuts and thousands of job losses whose effects are trickling down to the islands.

On Maui, 131 residents employed in wildfire recovery efforts and 17 workers with the Kāko‘o Maui Hub fire relief office lost their jobs due to funding cuts. On neighboring islands, conservation staff with the Hakalau Forest Refuge and Kaua‘i National Wildlife Refuge Complex were fired. At the University of Hawai‘i, the federal funding freeze put research in jeopardy. 

The Hawai‘i state attorney general joined nearly a dozen other Democratic states in a lawsuit that temporarily halted the funding freeze earlier this month, but even a court order seemingly failed to make a difference as one judge ruled that the White House did not comply. 

Across the country, angry voters at town halls have confronted congressional lawmakers of both parties over everything from tariffs to the role of billionaire presidential adviser Elon Musk, prompting Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson to discourage GOP lawmakers from attending the public forums.

Tokuda, a Democrat who represents Hawaiʻi’s 2nd Congressional District that includes Maui County, responded to vocal frustrations in a town hall on Maui last week with a call to action.

“I’m going to legislate,” she said. “You need to help us agitate.”

She urged residents to not only share “the pain and the hurt that we are going through” with Hawaiʻi’s four members of Congress, but with other members of Congress as well.

“We are doing everything we can to push back and stand up for our people, for our families,” Tokuda told the crowd. 

“We don’t see it,” someone retorted from the audience. 

Dissatisfaction with Democratic leadership from Maui residents who predominantly vote blue is an indication of how concerned community members have grown.

Ryan Berg of Wailuku, who’s been involved in Democratic politics since 1988, criticized “the seeming invisibility of Democratic leadership” figures like House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and wanted to know what the plan was. He said people “are hungry and starving for direction” but don’t know where to place their energy “because I don’t see an active, vital Democratic party.”

“I see a shadow of a group of people,” Berg said to widespread applause. “I really appreciate your fire, and your passion, and the fact that you’re here, but it is not enough.” 

Nick Nikhilananda, a Huelo resident who has previously run for local office as a Green Party candidate, said the president “is making a direct attack on the survival of our country and the image the United States now has around the world.”

“The damage that has been done from every moment is getting worse, whether it’s on immigrants, migrants, foreign medical and humanitarian aid, education, the weather service, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, veterans’ benefits,” Nikhilananda said. “It is an overwhelming, full-throttle attack on our country.”

Tokuda said she is regularly stopped in Long’s Drugs, in bathrooms and on airplanes by residents with the same burning question: What is the plan?

“The plan,” Tokuda said, “is not to fall for their trap. Because what they’ve succeeded in doing is getting us to turn against each other. Is it enough? It’s never enough. … Not enough money, not enough staff, not enough litigation. … This is what they want. They’re good at it, in stoking fear and division into America.”  

“So what’s the plan?” several people in the audience shouted.

Tokuda said even if she provided a “five-point plan of the specific races that we’re going after or the specific legislation in addition that we’re going to do … it wouldn’t be enough for you.”

“It’s really hard to be everywhere to everyone,” Tokuda said. “I assure you, we are fighting back, we are speaking up. … I want you to understand something: that what the Democrats are dealing with right now is a party that’s fighting against itself.” 

Tokuda said the first step lawmakers need to take is to “solidify” every aspect of democracy, from making sure the Constitution is ironclad to ensuring the court system continues to function separately and independently of the presidency. 

“We have to solidify it, seal it, whatever it is, we have to make sure that this never happens again,” Tokuda said. “We have to make sure that we preserve the integrity of our democracy.”

Nationwide, protests calling for Musk and Trump to take their “hands off” public services are set for April 5. Maui activists are holding their own version at 4 p.m. April 5 in front of Whole Foods in Kahului. 

Mahoe said the town hall on Maui was not as raucous as some on the Mainland where security or police have removed attendees, “but you can see by people’s reactions and comments and just yelling out of turn that we’re in a new era of politics.” 

Mahoe, who’s gone so far as to take his U.S. passport with him on trips to the Mainland in case he’s profiled by federal immigration officials, said decisions like the cuts to the VA and the erasure from government platforms of diverse stories like the Nisei veterans who served in the 442nd are not what he fought to protect.

“Everybody in the apple cart is upset,” Mahoe said. “Usually it’s one side or another, but our current direction of government taps into each and every citizen, whether it’s medical or pension or education.”