How Should Democrats Respond to Trump’s Early Actions?

There will be opportunities for them to both push back and place themselves on the right side of public opinion.

More than a month into Donald Trump’s second presidential term, Democrats are still struggling to effectively respond to the breakneck speed with which he has pursued his agenda. Insofar as the party is forming a plan to counter him over the next two to four years, it seems to mostly be a rerun of his first term, when they spent an inordinate amount of time trying to convince America not to “normalize” Trump and that he was a “threat to democracy.”

Recently, Jamie Raskin, a prominent House Democrat who served on the second Trump impeachment committee, offered: “We have to work on a short-term, daily basis to defeat and block every authoritarian, fascistic move against the rights of the people, against the separation of powers, against legislative supremacy to be the lawmaking power.”

However, this was the same case that Kamala Harris made against Trump during the last campaign—a case that ultimately fell on deaf ears. Of course, part of being the loyal opposition in Congress is countering abuses of power and overreach by the executive branch where they exist. But it also entails countering the president on policy, making clear to the public when his policies are falling short of what he promised or are even actively working against their interests.

One obvious example of this relates to the top issue in last year’s presidential race: inflation. During the campaign, Trump promised that he would work to combat the rising cost of living in America in his second term. However, of the 73 executive orders that Trump has already issued, just five even mention inflation, and it doesn’t appear to be the primary focus of any of them. Moreover, both his liberal use of tariffs and his second proposed round of tax cuts risk exacerbating inflation even more. Trump has even acknowledged this, openly admitting that Americans may experience some economic “pain” as a result of his tariffs.

All this comes at a bad time for the U.S. economy: inflation unexpectedly rose in January, and people are starting to see it hit their real lives again, including at the gas pump and grocery store (virtually everyone has seen the skyrocketing price of eggs by now). Voters haven’t yet given Trump dour marks for his handling of the economy—it is, after all, unreasonable to expect that he will have made a significant dent in this problem after just one month—but they’re not thrilled with his early moves, either. A recent Echelon Insights poll showed that by 10 points, Americans think the current economic situation in the U.S. is getting worse, and he is underwater with all-important independents in another YouGov poll over his handling of inflation.

Most political analysts agree that a primary reason Trump won last year was because voters were sick of inflation. In fact, voters cited it as the top issue facing the country. If Trump is failing to follow through on his campaign promise to lower the cost of living for average Americans, Democrats would be right to call him out for it and offer a countering vision for how they would help people facing economic hardship if voters return them to power in next year’s midterms.

Another area where they could confront Trump is over the unaccountability of DOGE and the risks that the actions of Elon Musk’s team pose to ordinary people. While some of Trump’s voters are getting exactly what they hoped for, many are not. Musk’s team has not only taken aim at programs like USAID, whose focus is beyond America’s borders. They also have their sights set on domestic programs that working-class people—including many who voted for the president—rely on, such as aid for healthcare, food, and housing. Musk has additionally tried to shutter the consumer protection watchdog created in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, an institution that has notably come after Big Tech in the past and had plans to investigate Musk’s X.

DOGE is also broadly unpopular. Less than one-quarter of Americans think that Musk and his program should have “a lot” of influence over government operations and spending, and even many conservatives who have long supported cutting the size of government have expressed reservations about the haphazard manner in which Musk is approaching it. While it likely isn’t in the Democrats’ interest to defend to the death every institution or program that comes under fire, they would be wise to highlight those that are popular and have the most direct impact on Americans’ daily lives.

Finally, as my colleague, Ruy Teixeira, has argued, Democrats should make a point of working with Trump where it makes sense. A repeat of his first term, when the vast majority of the party voted against him on a routine basis, likely won’t work out well. In the early running, they seem to be doing the same. Though extensive post-election polling has shown that voters—including swing voters—agree with Trump’s positions on immigration and gender issues, most Democrats in Congress rejected the opportunity to side with him on some key early votes.

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It may be a long four years for Democrats, especially right now, when they find themselves completely locked out of power in Washington. There are nonetheless steps they can take to make themselves relevant now, work on behalf of the country, earn back some trust among key demographic groups whose support they’ve been losing, and set themselves up for success in next year’s midterms and beyond. But this will require a deliberate and thoughtful strategy—not a reactionary repeat of how they often did things in Trump’s first term.

Editor’s note: A version of this piece first appeared in UnHerd.