Washington – The president was expected to be the first few weeks in his position, “honeymoon”, which is an enjoyable period if it was brief from both parties and a good feeling.
The first four weeks of President Trump were the Blitzkrieg game, an angry attack on federal agencies that were elected to manage it.
Trump and his shock forces, led by Elon Musk, have been exposed to the federal bureaucracy program suddenly freeze billions of spending in spending that has already been allocated, and urges thousands of civilian employees to quit “deleting” entire agencies.
Democrats appeared in Congress, who helped build these agencies, surprisingly – not through Trump’s enthusiasm to dismantle bureaucracy, but quickly and bold his tactics, many of which seemed illegal.
Before Trump’s inauguration, some seriously offered to work cooperatively with Musk to photograph the gradual government reform scheme.
Then others voted politely to confirm the members of the cabinet in Trump because the honeymoon became a wide nightmare.
Some expressed what appeared to be a violation. “What is our leverage?” The leader of the minority in the House of Representatives, Hakim Jeffrez (DN.Y.). “They control the House of Representatives, the Senate and the Presidency. It is their government.”
It was not until last week, after the angry voters flooded their switching plates, the party’s Congress leaders stood to reach their base.
“They want us to overcome Trump and stop this.” “This is what we do.”
Schumer began the late Democrats in the Senate to stop voting for Trump’s candidates – a symbolic action often, because the Republican majority still confirmed every person who appeared to vote.
In the House of Representatives, Jeffrez appointed a “quick response team” to confront the tyrant Trump. In the first week of its presence, the work group appointed another work group (in litigation) and urged the actors to hold the city’s halls – the responses that seemed fast and not fighting.
To be fair, Jeffrez was right in the narrow sense: Democrats have no little financial leverage – when it comes to legislation. The Minority Party cannot pass a bill, nor can it prevent a president from representation recklessly, or he cannot even launch an investigation or hold an official hearing.
But this does not mean that Democrats have no influence at all.
The most effective opposition to the attack on Trump came from the state prosecutor, who won the court rulings that stopped freezing the president in most federal funding and prohibiting his attempt to cancel citizenship in the field of birth.
Judges usually do not allow Congress members to sue the president. But Democrats in Congress can still try to mobilize public opinion.
Senator Elizabeth Warren (Majas) joined the protests outside the Financial Consumer Protection Office, an agency that I designed and wanted to cancel it. Representative Ro khanna (D-FREMONT), in Silicon Valley, processed Musk on X, and told the technology pole that he had no right to prevent the money approved by Congress. (Musk answered, “Don’t be an advertisement -“)
Dozens of Democratic actors, including Khanna and Laura Friedman, were held from Glindel and Ted Liu from Torrance and Linda T. Sanchez from Whiter, City City meetings to direct the anger of the voters ’components towards the most effective invitation.
“Calling the offices of Congress is easy,” Khanna told me last week. “What we need is to tell stories. … We need real people from the working class and the middle class to explain how these illegal procedures harm their families-what does this mean when Trump cuts the financing of children’s cancer research, school lunch meals, or the beginning.”
These tangible examples of hardship are what can affect public opinion: “This is what turned into Trump during the mass deportation [during his first term] Law stories about family separation. We need to tell these stories. “
He added: “This is more effective than politicians standing in front of a building.”
It is right in the opportunity of Democrats in antiquities. Opinion polls have found that most Americans support Trump’s desire to reduce federal spending – but most of them, with the exception of Trump’s voters, are still opposing discounts on health and education.
There is also one field where Democrats in Congress will soon have a direct influence: the next battle around government spending.
The current StopGAP measurement continues to finance federal operations until March 14. If Congress does not behave before that, the government may occur.
In recent years, the two parties have often made compromise deals to pass spending bills. But it seems that the Mossk Haji has ignited the opposition of the Democrats.
“This is not the time to commit to commitment,” Khanna said. “We will not make a single democratic vote unless Trump guarantees a contract of the iron contract that he will spend on what Congress allocates.”
Shomer said that the Democrats in the Senate will remain looking for a compromise of the two parties – but the price will be “a retreat from many of the many things that [Trump and Musk] They do. “
This will be the beginning, but still just stop. The only way to prevent congress with Trump’s effectiveness from dismantling the federal government is to restore control of the House of Representatives or the Senate in the mid -period elections 2026. (The Senate appears out of reach, but the margin of the Republican party at home is three thin seats.)
In fact, Khanna and other Democrats hope to start the mid -term campaign for 2026 early, by persuading swinging voters to vote for a democratic vote to provide a check on Trump and Musk.
This will not be easy for the party that lost the presidential elections. In the exit polls during the presidential elections in November, and for the first time in about half a century, more voters themselves as more Republicans than Democrats.
It is not surprising that politicians and democratic activists do not agree to the lessons of defeat and contradictory support from the working class, including Latin and black voters: do they need a new message, or just a different messenger? Should they move towards the center, or further to the left?
Such discussions have led to the Democrats cavity decades ago – and it is usually not resolved until the party chooses its next presidential candidate, after more than three years from now.
Last week, Democrats in Congress, which the voters stimulated, admitted that they were facing a more urgent crisis.
They already knew – or at least, they said they knew – that they were fighting for democracy. Now they finally started to act like that.