Five Things Dems Must Do to Fight Trump Now

The party is not helpless. In fact, Democrats have some effective tools at their disposal.

(Bulwark photo alteration / Original Photo by Michel Delsol/Getty Images)

“Fight, fight, fight.”

I DON’T USUALLY QUOTE DONALD TRUMP, but there is a lot we can learn from the man’s instinctive feel for politics and human psychology. He has long understood that you win by projecting strength and self assurance, not weakness and despair, and by pushing forward, forcing others to react to your actions instead of worrying what they will do to you. Everything he’s done since being inaugurated is psychological warfare, designed to demoralize his opponents and make them feel helpless.

The most important thing defenders of American democracy can do right now is not to let that happen—and to seize every opportunity to turn Trump’s method back on him.

It’s true that Trump is extremely powerful right now, chiefly because members of his party in Congress fear him. But his opponents also have enormous advantages, too.

First, Democrats have the most powerful congressional opposition to a governing party in modern history. Speaker Mike Johnson can’t spare a single Republican vote in the House right now. So when critical votes must be taken to fund the government and lift the debt ceiling, he will need Democratic votes.

Second, the federal judiciary that laughed Trump’s 2020 election challenges out of court remains in place, only with the addition of 234 judges that President Joe Biden appointed. Clearly unlawful actions will be overturned—not “should be,” but will be—as we’ve already started seeing.

Third, the people around Trump are not exactly the GOP “A team” that helped him in his first term. They have a plan for their first few weeks, but as they confront challenges, they will make mistakes, go too far, and eat their own.

The key now for Democrats is to fight back not with complaints (which project weakness) but with actions that reclaim the initiative, inspire confidence, and force Trump to play defense. Here are some suggestions, in no particular order:

1. In response to Trump’s cruel and unlawful funding freezes, House Democrats should announce now that they will not engage in negotiations about funding the government or lifting the debt ceiling or give Speaker Johnson a single vote on these measures without an iron-clad guarantee from Trump and his Office of Management and Budget that the administration will spend every penny Congress appropriates as Congress directs. Congress should not just rely on the courts to uphold the Impoundment Control Act. It should assert itself, using the power of the purse to defend its power of the purse. I’d consider using the same leverage to stop the gutting of federal law enforcement.

2. Democrats should force a rapid vote in Congress on Trump’s tariffs, should they actually remain in place. Doing so will force Republicans either to go on record against the president or own the economic chaos that results. Can they do so in the minority? Likely yes. Trump’s unprecedented use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose the import tax allows members of Congress to introduce a resolution to terminate the “emergency” he declared. Under the relevant law, such a resolution would be “privileged,” meaning the House and Senate would have to take it up.

3. Trump’s flood-the-zone executive actions and personnel purges should be countered with an equally massive flood of legal challenges—not just to stop him, but to burst his aura of invincibility. This has already begun. But it may require some hard choices. For example, a humanitarian charity might fear antagonizing the administration by joining a lawsuit and instead try to negotiate an individual exemption from funding freezes. That may seem like a less painful path forward. But that process won’t work for many groups or individuals. It also gives Trump and Musk even greater power. People need to get over their fears and false hopes and start playing offense when the law is on their side. Our message should be that we relish the opportunity to sue or be sued by this president so that WE CAN MAKE HIM LOSE LIKE NO ONE HAS NEVER LOST BEFORE.

4. Trump’s opponents should continue to remind voters about the promises about inflation and the economy he is not keeping. We can be reasonable here—I mean, the man has only been president for two weeks—while setting clear and memorable benchmarks. Give him a deadline of, say, six months, to lower the price of groceries and cars as he said he would, to get gas below $2 a gallon, to cut the price of new homes in half, to lower mortgage rates and credit card interest. And then remind him every day that the clock is ticking.

5. Anyone concerned about democracy in America should also at long last recognize that Big Tech is the enemy and act accordingly. The social media companies have poisoned our politics with their addictive hate algorithms, done unforgivable harm to our kids’ mental health, and fueled a war against our democratic institutions—in which Elon Musk, the Cronus of the tech titans, is an active belligerent. Most Americans across party lines disapprove of the social media giants already (especially parents of kids). Any Democrat who can’t take advantage of this and run a populist campaign against our Bond-villain tech overlords should have his politician’s license revoked. Meanwhile, states with Democratic governors and legislatures should be racing to pass legislation on data privacy, tech accountability, and AI safety.

One of my favorite bad movie quotes is from Will Smith in After Earth. He says to his son on a planet full of monsters: “Danger is very real, but fear is a choice.”

The danger we face right now—to the very foundations of American democracy—is, indeed, very real. It will persist for some time. Depression and fear are natural responses, but they can be paralyzing, which is why Trump’s whole strategy is to induce those feelings in us. We will escape the trap not by bemoaning the problem, but with a constant stream of actions and an attitude that inspires confidence in success.