Callers swamp Senate offices in Trump’s first weeks, leading to busy signals and full voicemail

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Callers are getting busy signals and voicemail inboxes are full at many U.S. Senate offices as people try to reach out and voice their opinions on President Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks, executive orders and moves to dismantle various federal programs. The influx of phone calls — which some in the Senate say are at unprecedented volumes — come as Trump and ally Elon Musk are working to shrink the federal government during the president’s first weeks in office. Some progressive nonprofit groups, including Indivisible, are among those urging disgruntled people to reach out to their lawmakers by phone and in person and are calling on Democratic lawmakers to “shut down the Senate.” One popular post making the rounds on social media urged opponents of those actions to call their lawmakers six times a day, every day — two calls each to their two senators and two to their House member. Meryl Neiman of Ohio Progressive Action Leaders sought to draw attention to the fact that they were having trouble reaching both her state’s senators — Republicans Bernie Moreno and Jon Husted — by phone or in person at their field offices before Wednesday’s nationwide protests against Trump and Project 2025, a hard-right playbook for American government and society.