The first seven weeks of President Donald Trump‘s second presidency have been as frantic and unpredictable as any term we’ve seen. The perpetual pace, driven by Trump taking questions from reporters on an almost daily basis, has kept Democrats scrambling to coalesce around messages attacking the president’s agenda.
Frustrated and helpless, Democrats are being led by raw emotion to oppose Trump reflexively at every turn, including when the party is on the wrong side of every 80/20 matter.
Let’s look at the ways the blue team and its media allies are doubling down on stupid.
Unhinged hyperbole
The New York Times, which hasn’t endorsed a Republican presidential candidate since former President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956, has tried everything to bring Trump down in its “coverage” of the president.
Here’s what it has looked like through the years:
2018: “Donald Trump’s Racism: The Definitive List, Updated”
2020: “How Racist Is Trump’s Republican Party?”
2023: “Talk of a Trump Dictatorship Charges the American Political Debate”
2024: “Amid Talk of Fascism, Trump’s Threats and Language Evoke a Grim Past”
But apparently, racism and fascism weren’t quite over-the-top enough in the eyes of the Old Grey Lady. So it has now turned to basically calling him the Merchant of Death.
Here is one ominous prediction from columnist Michelle Goldberg (emphasis mine) in a piece predictably titled, “Is the Destruction the Point?: Three Opinion Writers on Trump’s First 50 Days”:
“[Trump is] taking America’s soft power and setting it on fire in all sorts of ways, but really making these abrupt decisions that are going to kill hundreds of thousands and maybe more than a million people and he’s doing it in this incredibly arbitrary, careless way.”
So, let’s unpack this with a reality check:
More than two dozen American hostages have been returned to the United States since Trump took office.
Trump has pressed for peace between Ukraine and Russia and repeatedly said the killing must stop.
Last week, Ukraine agreed to a ceasefire with Russia.
This week, Russia agreed in principle to a ceasefire with Ukraine.
Trump helped usher in a ceasefire in Gaza.
So, how are hundreds of thousands or even a million people going to be killed because of Trump’s decisions? If anything, it appears that the world is more on a path to peace, as it was from 2017 to 2021.
Talk about a disconnect.
Men playing against biological women in sports
Earlier this month, 45 Democratic senators voted against the Protecting Women in Sports Act, with none supporting the bill. Since 60 votes were needed for passage, the bill was killed.
One would think that since this matter played a huge role in Democratic losses on Nov. 5, the party would pivot to the center. But it simply is not happening.
Just listen to Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), who dismissed the debate as a shiny object pushed by Republicans in the culture wars.
“I think this issue is being sort of brought up in order to make sparks and see sparks fly,” she said.
But polls say otherwise: Eight in 10 Americans believe biological men should not compete against biological women in sports, including 67% of Democrats in a recent New York Times survey.
One would think Democrats would vote accordingly. But instead, in addition to 45 senators voting down the bill, 206 Democratic members of Congress also voted against the bill.
For his part, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) explained the opposition from his party:
“What Democrats opposed was unleashing sexual predators on girls throughout the United States of America,” Jeffries said in an answer that made zero sense when asked by reporters why Democrats were against the bill.
In a related story, some female House members laughably dressed in pink for Trump’s joint address to Congress to show their unwavering support for women.
Opposition to DOGE
In an interview with Fox Business Network’s Larry Kudlow, Elon Musk was asked how he was running other businesses while heading Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency.
Musk: “With great difficulty.”
Kudlow: “So there’s no turning back?”
Musk: “I’m just here trying to make government more efficient.”
Seems like a selfless and noble mission. After all, who would ever come out against making any business or government more efficient by cutting waste, fraud, and abuse?
Here’s Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in 2008, for example:
“There is no question that there is an enormous amount of waste, and fraud, and abuse in this government. We have an administration in Washington, D.C., and the function of an administration is to administer. That means that when there is waste and fraud, you have an administration who should also be on top of that situation.”
And here’s former President Barack Obama in 2012:
“I’m announcing an executive order that will build on our efforts to cut waste and promote more efficient spending across the government — we’re cutting what we don’t need so that we can invest in what we do need,” he said at the time before also announcing that then-Vice President Joe Biden would be leading the charge on this effort.
“Nobody messes with Joe,” he added.
Nothing happened, of course. And the federal deficit via wasteful spending only skyrocketed under Obama.
A recent Harvard-Harris poll shows that 70% of voters, including 58% of Democrats and 78% of independents, say the government’s expenditures are currently filled with waste, fraud, and inefficiency.
But, in yet another example of being on the very wrong side of a matter, Democrats have continued to scream about protecting the status quo.
And while all of this is happening, there have been scores of reports of violence and looting at Tesla dealerships across the country, including in Oregon, where more than a dozen shots were fired at one location on two separate occasions.
In North Carolina, a man unintentionally set himself on fire while setting fire to three Tesla charging stations with Molotov cocktails while donning a shirt that said, “F*** Trump, long live Ukraine.”
That is not exactly the way to capture hearts and minds in peaceful protest, now, is it?
The search for authenticity means … swearing more?
A reporter recently asked Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) what she would say to Musk if she could speak directly to him.
Crockett: “F*** off.”
Whoever is advising Democrats on messaging these days appears to see this kind of provocative approach as a good thing. For example, on the day of Trump’s address to Congress, 23 Democratic lawmakers released videos of themselves reading from the same script. They each began by saying, “S*** that ain’t true.”
Besides this being what Trump 2024 co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita called a “collage of idiocy” in its conformity in a bizarre attempt to be seen as authentic, the message wasn’t even accurate. Inflation has fallen since Trump took office to its lowest level in four years.
High egg prices, which Democrats insisted was somehow Trump’s fault, have fallen to $4.90 a dozen, which is down from $8.64 on March 5, according to the Department of Agriculture.
Gas prices continue to tumble, with the average cost per gallon down to $3.08, which is down from an average of $3.30 in 2024.
“I don’t swear in public very well, but we have to f*** Trump,” Rep. Maxine Dexter (D-OR) awkwardly declared, adding, “Please don’t tell my children that I just did that.”
Democratic adviser Lis Smith summed up her party’s strategy perfectly.
“If the first time you’ve used a cuss word in public is reading off a script, it’s probably not authentic and not something you should do,” she told Politico.
Approval of the Democratic Party stands at 21%, an all-time low in Quinnipiac polling.
DEMOCRATS HAVE AN AUTHENTICITY PROBLEM
It’s not just the messaging that’s the problem, but being continually on the wrong side of 80/20 matters.
Perhaps it’s time to stop taking cues from the New York Times, which is attempting to turn Trump into the next Stalin. And perhaps it’s also time to stop listening to tone-deaf consultants and more to, you know … voters.
