HAMPTON, Iowa — Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley fielded questions from a packed room of heated Iowans on Friday who urged him to “stand up for what’s right” in the face of the Trump administration’s massive federal downsizing.
“My question, which I think is on our minds here, is where is Congress?” asked one audience member, which was met with cheers from the audience at the Franklin County Courthouse in central Iowa.
The town hall, which drew a crowd of more than 100 Iowans and quickly reached the room’s capacity, comes after the National Republican Congressional Committee recently advised Republicans against holding public town halls as speakers’ anger over Trump’s administration policies went viral.
Grassley is the first Iowa lawmaker to hold a true town hall in the wake of a wave of discontent from voters across the country with Washington, D.C., politics.
Iowa’s federal representatives recently told the Des Moines Register, a USA TODAY Network partner, this month they still plan to hold town halls.
Following the national outcry, left-leaning groups have held more than a dozen “people’s town halls” or “open seat town halls” for Iowa’s federal delegation because they say their questions remain unanswered.
National Democrats have also heard the calls from voters and included Iowa on a tour with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz last week of swing districts for the 2026 midterms where potentially vulnerable Republicans hold seats. Walz told Iowans that Democrats need to list to voters’ “primal scream” to “do something, dammit!”
Other federal lawmakers, such as Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo., who have held town halls in recent weeks have faced boos and heckling from voters frustrated with politics in Washington, D.C.
Before the town hall’s start, Margaret Smith of Hampton said she appreciates Grassley meeting with Iowans, but she said what the senator does next is important.
“I’ve got three points I’d like to bring up. One is, what the hell is the Department of Government Efficiency? It’s not a federally appointed organization,” Smith said. “Where’s the approval for it, where’s the oversight for it, where’s the security clearance for it and how can the people in that organization be telling people ‘shut down your office, and you’ll lose your job.’ There’s no precedent for that.”
Grassley: ‘I let them set the agenda’ for town halls
As the town hall began, Grassley said he wouldn’t be able to answer everyone’s questions over the hour they had scheduled. He remained calm as speakers shouted — sometimes all at once and while rising from their seats.
Audience members said they appreciated that Grassley took the time to hear from them, even as they heckled him during the town hall and protested with signs while he left the building.
Iowans express concern about DOGE, Trump, Musk at Grassley town hall
Watch as Iowans express their concerns about President Trump and Elon Musk to U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley during a town hall in Franklin County.
A town hall speaker questioned Grassley on court and government oversight of Trump and the new administration. He said he hasn’t been impressed by Congress members’ oversight on cuts to the federal government.
“The courts are doing their job, and they’re doing it really well,” the unidentified speaker said. “They’re reining in Trump and others, but we need to have the Senate and the House also providing oversight, and it’s your job. We are depending on you and the others to save Democracy.”
In response, Grassley, who has called himself a “watchdog” in Congress, said he has a staff with 33 investigations going, including one on curbing “government waste.”
The crowd roared in reply to Grassley’s response, cutting him off.
Another speaker asked Grassley, as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, “President Trump is above the law, and I’ll just reinforce what other people have been saying here, why have you not spoken up for it? We have trusted you with our votes. We have sent you to Congress for decades. We expect you to follow through for what we Iowans really want our government to do.”
Grassley replied that he has a track record of being available to journalists, working to publish all of his remarks he gives on the Senate floor and time spent meeting with Iowans shows his communication to voters in the state.
“I try to make myself very very available to the journalists, but if you don’t read about it. … I put it out the best way I know to put it up,” Grassley said.
The voter restated his question: “Why do you feel that President Trump is above the law?”
“He’s not above the law,” Grassley said, with yelling from attendees following.
Iowans express their frustration with DOGE and Elon Musk
Mark McCormick, 41, of Des Moines wasn’t able to get into the town hall before it filled up. But outside afterward, he said he is an independent voter and used to side with Republicans but said he can’t support Grassley and is frustrated with how the new Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, led by billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk is being run.
“I mean, if they make sense and they’re doing the right thing, then I’ll vote for them, but the party has gone off the rails, and now they’re basically OK with fascism, which is crazy,” McCormick said.
Grassley told reporters afterward that it was evidence of “representative government in action.”
“It goes like all of my town meetings. I let them set the agenda, and they can bring up anything that they wanted to, so we dealt with a lot of issues that are on people’s minds,” Grassley told reporters. “It’s not only that it’s expressed here, it’s expressed in the massive amount of emails and postal mail, and telephone calls every day. And it’s reflected that people are very concerned about a lot of issues that are going on in Washington, D.C.”
He said he frequently fields concerns from Iowans and advocates for them. He gave an example of reaching out to the U.S. Department of Agriculture after a federal employee from Ames, Iowa, who studies bird flu was laid off.
“When we deal with this on an institution basis, it’ll be through the appropriation bills, and when we appropriate money …” Grassley said. “Congress has given too much flexibility to both Republican and Democrat presidents on how you spend these trillions of dollars that we appropriate, and maybe this year, we’re learning a lesson not to be so delegating of authority to the president and put more restrictions in the appropriation bills of how many has to be spent.”
Sabine Martin covers politics for the Register. She can be reached by email at sabine.martin@gannett.com or by phone at (515) 284-8132. Follow her on X at @sabinefmartin.
