WASHINGTON — A president’s first few weeks in workplace have been as soon as anticipated to be a “honeymoon,” a nice if transient interval of bipartisanship and good feeling.
President Trump’s first 4 weeks have been a blitzkrieg, a livid assault on the federal businesses he was elected to handle.
Trump and his shock troops, led by Elon Musk, have barreled by means of the federal forms — abruptly freezing billions in already-allocated spending, urging 1000’s of civil servants to give up, and threatening to “delete” whole businesses.
Democrats in Congress, a lot of whom helped construct these businesses, appeared paralyzed abruptly — not by Trump’s zeal to dismantle the forms, however by the pace and audacity of his ways, a lot of which appeared unlawful.
Earlier than Trump’s inauguration, some had earnestly provided to work cooperatively with Musk to draw up a blueprint for gradual authorities reform.
Then others politely voted to affirm Trump’s Cupboard members because the honeymoon turned a dystopian nightmare.
And a few expressed what gave the impression of defeatism. “What leverage do we now have?” Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) requested. “They management the Home, the Senate and the presidency. It’s their authorities.”
Not till final week, after offended hometown voters flooded their switchboards, did the occasion’s congressional leaders scramble to get in entrance of their base.
“They need us to beat Trump and cease this s—,” Senate Minority Chief Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) advised the New York Instances. “And that’s what we’re doing.”
Schumer started by belatedly ordering Senate Democrats to cease voting for Trump’s nominees — a largely symbolic motion, for the reason that Republican majority nonetheless confirmed each final one who has come up for a vote.
Within the Home, Jeffries appointed a “fast response process drive” to counter the Trump juggernaut. In its first week of existence, the duty drive appointed one other process drive (on litigation) and urged representatives to maintain city halls — responses that appeared neither fast nor combative.
To be truthful, Jeffries was proper in a slender sense: Democrats have little leverage — when it comes to laws. A minority occasion can’t move a invoice, can’t cease a president from appearing rashly, can’t even launch an investigation or maintain an official listening to.
However that doesn’t imply Democrats haven’t any leverage in any respect.
The best opposition to Trump’s onslaught has come from state attorneys basic, who gained courtroom rulings halting the president’s freeze on most federal funding and blocking his try to abolish birthright citizenship.
Judges usually don’t enable members of Congress to sue the president. However Democrats in Congress can nonetheless strive to rally public opinion.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) joined protests exterior the Shopper Monetary Safety Bureau, an company she designed and Trump needs to abolish. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Fremont), in Silicon Valley, tackled Musk on X, telling the tech mogul he has no proper to block funds that Congress has accredited. (Musk replied, “Don’t be a d—.”)
Dozens of Democratic representatives, together with Khanna, Laura Friedman of Glendale, Ted Lieu of Torrance and Linda T. Sánchez of Whittier, held phone city conferences to channel constituents’ anger towards more practical advocacy.
“Calling congressional workplaces is simple,” Khanna advised me final week. “What we want is extra storytelling. … We’d like actual working-class and middle-class people to clarify how these unlawful actions are hurting their households — what it means when Trump cuts off funding for youngsters’s most cancers analysis or faculty lunches or Head Start.”
These concrete examples of hardship are what might sway public opinion: “That’s what turned Trump throughout the mass deportations [during his first term] — the brutal tales about household separation. We’d like to inform these tales.”
“That’s more practical than politicians standing in entrance of a constructing,” he added.
He’s proper in regards to the Democrats’ alternative amid the ruins. Polls have discovered that almost all Individuals assist Trump’s need to lower federal spending — however most, apart from Trump voters, nonetheless oppose cuts to well being and schooling.
There’s additionally one space the place congressional Democrats will quickly have direct leverage: the approaching battle over authorities spending.
The present stopgap measure funding federal operations runs by means of March 14. If Congress doesn’t act earlier than then, a authorities shutdown might happen.
Lately, the 2 events have typically labored out compromise offers to move spending payments. However Musk’s rampage seems to have stiffened Democrats’ opposition.
“This isn’t the time for acquiescence,” Khanna mentioned. “We is not going to give a single Democratic vote until Trump ensures with an ironclad contract that he’ll spend what Congress appropriates.”
Schumer mentioned Senate Democrats will nonetheless search bipartisan compromise — however that the value shall be “undoing a lot of the various issues that [Trump and Musk] are doing.”
That might be a start, however nonetheless solely a stopgap. The one manner Congress can successfully cease Trump from dismantling the federal authorities is to retake management of the Home of Representatives or the Senate within the 2026 midterm election. (The Senate seems past attain, however the GOP margin within the Home is a razor-thin three seats.)
In impact, Khanna and different Democrats are hoping to start the 2026 midterm marketing campaign early, by convincing swing voters to vote Democratic to present a examine on Trump and Musk.
That gained’t be straightforward for a celebration that simply misplaced a presidential election. In exit polls throughout November’s presidential election, for the primary time in nearly half a century, extra voters recognized themselves as Republicans than as Democrats.
Not surprisingly, Democratic politicians and activists have disagreed over the teachings of defeat and dwindling assist from working-class Individuals, together with Latino and Black voters: Do they want a brand new message, or merely a special messenger? Ought to they transfer towards the middle, or additional to the left?
Such debates have roiled Democrats for many years — and they often aren’t resolved till the occasion chooses its subsequent presidential nominee, greater than three years from now.
Final week, the Democrats’ leaders in Congress, prodded by their voters, belatedly acknowledged that they’re dealing with a extra quick disaster.
They already knew — or at the least, they mentioned they knew — that they have been in a combat for the survival of democracy. Now they’ve lastly begun to act prefer it.
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