Democrats seek winning message to combat Trump
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DEMOCRATS ARE SCRAMBLING to identify new leaders and a message that resonates with the public as President Trump and his GOP allies charge ahead with his sweeping agenda. Trump’s swift upending of federal agencies and programs has created an urgent situation for Democrats, even as the party reels from a 2024 election that saw them lose the White House and both chambers of Congress.
The drama over how best to oppose Trump played out Thursday on the House floor, where 10 Democrats joined Republicans to censure Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) for disrupting Trump’s joint address to Congress. Democrats who didn’t vote to censure Green surrounded him in the well of the House and broke out in a rendition of “We Shall Overcome.”
Green’s demonstration during Trump's speech this week was panned by some Democratic lawmakers and national Democrats, with strategist David Axelrod calling it “despicable.”
Democrats also protested Trump’s address by flashing paddles with messages directed at him; wearing coordinated protest outfits; releasing videos they hoped would go viral; or simply by walking out in the middle of the speech. Democrats refused to stand and applaud, even at emotive moments centered on civilian audience members.
The White House on Thursday mocked Democratic lawmakers who acted in a new "choose your fighter" video based on a TikTok trend that was popular last year.
“A lot of this is performative, when we need to be planning,” Democratic strategist Joe Caiazzo told The Evening Report. “We need to be thinking strategically about how we can reestablish our connection with working families.” The Democratic performance at Trump’s Tuesday speech was mocked by liberals in the media, including late night host Stephen Colbert, who held up his own paddle that said “Try Doing Something.” The liberal protests that were so effective at the height of the resistance during Trump’s first term have materialized in small pockets but largely fizzled out. |
WHO LEADS THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY? |
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), who was former Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate in 2024, was asked on CNN who the leader of the Democratic Party is at the moment.
After a brief pause, Walz responded: “The voting public.”
Polls indicate Democrats are giving past candidates and elected officials a second look, with Harris the current leader atop the 2028 Democratic primary polls while former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is a favorite to be the next mayor of New York City. The leadership vacuum has opened the door for straight-shooting outsiders, like television personality Stephen A. Smith, who has mocked Democrats for their messaging and called for the party to blow it all up and start over.
“The Democrat Party, they lost,” Smith said Wednesday on NBC’s “The Tonight Show”. “They had a bad few months. We all know this. And even though there’s a lot of qualified Democrats all over the country from a local perspective — governors, mayors, stuff like that — there’s no real national voice.”
“Enter moi,” Smith added. “They’ve come to me.” But Smith has repeatedly said he has no interest in running for office. |
DEMS RECONSIDER UNPOPULAR POSITIONS |
There are signs Democrats are shifting away from some of the unpopular policy positions that helped Trump win in 2024.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said on the debut episode of his podcast this week that it’s “deeply unfair” to allow trans women to play in women’s sports. A New York Times/Ipsos survey released this year found 79 percent of voters oppose trans women participating in women’s sports, including 67 percent of Democrats.
Newsom, who was speaking with conservative media personality Charlie Kirk, also criticized longstanding liberal shibboleths, including the use of gender-neutral terms, the movement to defund the police and “cancel culture.” Over the course of the 2024 election, Democrats sought to move to the center on issues such as immigration and crime, which were anchors around President Biden’s administration.
Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), who won a Senate seat in 2024 in a state Trump carried, gave a well-received response to Trump’s congressional address. Slotkin contrasted President Ronald Reagan's foreign diplomacy with how Trump has spiked global alliances, and she made overtures to the middle class as the “engine” of the economy. Party officials have talked at length about how they need to find a message that resonates with men, working class voters and some racial minorities who have shifted to the right.
They’re desperate for a new media phenomenon, akin to what Joe Rogan has become on the right, to create an echo chamber for their message as longtime liberal bastions, such as MSNBC, have fallen on hard times. |
💡Perspectives:
• Chicago Tribune: Dems need to learn common sense.
• Vox: The Dem response to Trump is splintered — but getting better.
• Newsweek: Make Democrats funny again.
• The New Republic: A Rust-Belt city holds the secret to Dems’ Latino woes.
• The Liberal Patriot: Is Trump expanding his coalition? |
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© AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana/Evan Vucci/Marco Ugarte |
Trump delaying some Mexico, Canada tariffs |
President Trump said Thursday he’d delay tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports that are covered under a trade agreement signed during his first term, as the economy flashes warning signs.
Trump spoke with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Thursday morning before announcing the delay on Mexican imports until April 2.
“Our relationship has been a very good one, and we are working hard, together, on the Border, both in terms of stopping Illegal Aliens from entering the United States and, likewise, stopping Fentanyl,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “Thank you to President Sheinbaum for your hard work and cooperation!”
The announcement in the postponement of Canadian tariffs came
later in the afternoon.
"On April 2, we’re going to move into the reciprocal tariff, and hopefully Mexico and Canada will have done a good enough job on fentanyl that this part of the conversation will be off the table, and we’ll move just to the reciprocal tariff conversation,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said.
This comes as layoffs jumped in February to the highest they’ve been since 2020, with about one-third of those coming from Elon Musk’s sweeping efforts to gut the federal workforce through the Department of Government Efficiency.
Stocks sold off in recent days over concerns about job cuts and the impact of the trade wars, particularly on farmers. One of Trump's Thursday orders stipulated that tariffs on Canadian potash, a key ingredient in fertilizer, be lowered from 25 percent to 10 percent
In his Tuesday night address, Trump asked asked Americans to “bear with me,” while acknowledging there would be some economic pain. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent defended the tariffs in a speech at the Economic Club of New York that could become fodder for future Democratic campaign ads.
“Access to cheap goods is not the essence of the American Dream,” Bessent said. “The American Dream is rooted in the concept that any citizen can achieve prosperity, upward mobility, and economic security. For too long, the designers of multilateral trade deals have lost sight of this. International economic relations that do not work for the American people must be reexamined.”
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the administration could make more exemptions on specific products from Canada and Mexico after announcing a temporary carveout for auto-makers based in North America. |
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© AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite |
DOGE meets more resistance in the courts
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Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) received more setbacks from the judiciary on Thursday after the Supreme Court ruled earlier this week the Trump administration must unfreeze billions in foreign aid. The latest:
• A federal judge indefinitely blocked President Trump’s blanket freeze on federal grants and loans, saying the administration “put itself above Congress.”
• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notified about 180 employees who were laid off last month that they can return to work now. At a Thursday meeting with his Cabinet, Trump told his agency heads it's up to them — not Musk — to make decisions on who gets fired. However, he said that Musk could also step in at any time. "We’re going to be watching them," Trump said. "Elon and the group are going to be watching them. If they can cut, its better. And if they don’t cut, then Elon will do the cutting."
Musk went to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to make his case for DOGE in front of House and Senate Republicans.
GOP senators told Musk in the closed-door meeting that he would not be able to usurp Congress’s authority over spending. In addition, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) noted that Musk’s changes need to be codified into law if they’re to last beyond Trump’s second term. “I love all the stuff they’re doing, but we got to vote on it,” Paul said.
Not all Republicans are fans of Musk’s slash-and-burn style.
“If he just takes a half step back, we’ll do something that I think can be compassionate, at the same time, something that’s impactful, when it comes to saving Americans money,” Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.) told CNN.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) had sharper words, posting on X that she found Musk’s “confusing and callous handling of personnel matters” at the U.S. Agency for International Development to be “incredibly troubling.” |
💡Perspectives:
• Tablet: The great tech-family alliance.
• Washington Monthly: How Ukraine Can Survive Without America.
• The Hill: Kennedy can rein in Big Pharma.
• The Hill: Medicaid cuts risk children’s health care and academics
• The Hill: Trump’s strategy is to use power while he has it. |
Read more:
• GOP plows forward with government funding plan despite Dem opposition.
• Republicans need to cut Medicaid to hit budget savings target: CBO.
• GOP lawmakers balk at Trump’s call to repeal CHIPS Act.
• Trump’s plans to slash IRS staff could derail agency amid tax season. |
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