When organizers announced a “Nobody Elected Elon” protest at the treasury department’s headquarters in Washington – in response to the revelation that Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) had accessed sensitive taxpayer data – not a single Democratic lawmaker had agreed to attend.
But as public outrage mounted over Donald Trump’s brazen assault on the federal government, the speaking list grew. In the end, more than two dozen Democratic members of Congress including Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, spoke at the event, which drew hundreds of protesters outside on a frigid Tuesday last week. In speech after speech, they pledged to do everything in their power to block Trump from carrying out his right-wing agenda.
“We might have a few less seats in Congress,” Maxwell Frost, a Representative from Florida, thundered into the microphone. “But we’re not going to be the minority. We’re going to be the opposition.”
In the weeks since Trump took office, Democrats in Washington have been under increasing pressure from the left to get tougher as the president, with Musk at his side, defies Congress and possibly the constitution. Their phone lines have been inundated with angry callers imploring the opposition party to “do something”. And on Wednesday, progressive activists staged protests outside of their Congressional offices, demanding Democrats in Washington “treat this as the constitutional crisis it is”.
“Nobody is going to hear your boring message about the price of tomatoes when a coup is going on,” said Ezra Levin, co-founder of the activist group Indivisible, which helped organized the treasury department action. “You’ve got to fight back.”
Relegated to the minority in both chambers of Congress, Democrats have limited powers to stop Trump. But Levin said there is more they could be doing to stand in the way, especially in the Senate.
He has urged Democrats to channel Mitch McConnell, the former Republican leader who built a reputation as a ruthless tactician by stonewalling much of Barack Obama’s agenda.
“Mitch McConnell was the leader of a much smaller minority than Chuck Schumer leads today. And you know what, he never said, ‘I’m in the minority. I’m powerless. What do you want me to do?’” he noted, challenging Democrats to “pretend you’re Mitch McConnell … and use the powers that he would use.”
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On Wednesday, Senate Democrats held the floor in an all-night protest against Russell Vought, Trump’s nominee to lead the White House budget office and the architect of Project 2025, a conservative blueprint for Trump’s second term. The office was behind a now-rescinded Trump administration order freezing all federal loans and grants, which drew legal challenges and united Democrats in opposition. Vought was ultimately confirmed along party lines, but activists were pleased to see Democrats jolted into action.
“What we are seeing from members is a very strong desire for Democrats to show some resolve and meet the moment,” said Britt Jacovich, spokesperson for MoveOn, a progressive group that helped organize Tuesday’s protest. “They want Senate leadership and House leadership to use every tool at their disposal to fight back.”
Some Democratic senators – Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware – have said they will vote against all of Trump’s nominees, citing the president’s “unacceptable and dangerous” actions. Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii said he will put a “blanket hold” on all of Trump’s state department nominees until the administration restores funding to USAid, which Musk moved to eliminate.
“We should not be complicit in approving Trump’s nominees or Trump’s legislation,” Murphy told the Guardian, arguing that doing so sends the wrong message to Americans whom Democrats are asking to rise up against the Trump administration’s “dangerous slide towards corruption”.
In the House Hakeem Jeffries, the minority leader, has vowed to use Democrats’ leverage in the narrowly divided chamber to protect federal programs that Trump has tried to defund. On Thursday, he introduced legislation that would shield taxpayers’ personal data from the Doge team, denouncing Musk as an “unelected, unaccountable, out-of-control billionaire puppet master”.
Democrats are also attempting to seize the spotlight. Last week, groups of House and Senate Democrats turned up at government agencies targeted by Doge. On Monday, they protested outside of USAid’s headquarters in solidarity with fired and furloughed workers, after being denied entry from the agency’s building. Similar standoffs unfolded at the treasury department and the education department.
Trump, with Musk’s help, has acted with astonishing speed. The president’s blitz of executive actions is part of a deliberate effort to “flood the zone” – a tactic that former Trump administration strategist Stephen Bannon said was designed to overwhelm the opposition and the media.
“It’s important for you to understand that the paralysis and shock that you feel right now is the point,” Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told followers during an Instagram live last week. “They are trying to induce a state of passivity among the general public.”
But she said Democrats could flood the zone as well, and encouraged supporters to keep making calls to members of Congress, including to Republicans in vulnerable districts who may be persuaded to vote against the president’s agenda if they fear a political backlash in their district.
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While Democrats in Washington adjust to a new political reality, many on the left are placing their hopes in local and state leaders.
“On everything from immigration to climate change to abortion access and education, they are going to be able to do so much, whether it’s harm mitigation or actually advancing progressive policies that we’re just not going to get in DC,” said Amanda Litman, the executive director of Run For Something, a progressive group that helps young people run for local office.
One of their recruits, Alyshia Dyer, was elected in November to serve as sheriff of Washtenaw County, Michigan. Last month Dyer said her office would not assist federal immigration authorities.
There are also early signs that the next four years could yield a new class of Democratic leaders, as happened during Trump’s first term. Since election day, Run for Something has had more than 17,000 people express interest in running for office, Litman said, including 4,000 since inauguration day.
Shocking power grabs by Trump and Musk have rekindled the anti-Trump resistance. Democratic attorneys general, liberal groups and non-profits have already brought dozens of lawsuits against the Trump administration and Doge, notching a series of favorable rulings. Meanwhile, thousands joined demonstrations across the country this week, stretching from Los Angeles city hall to the US Capitol in Washington.
Protesters carried signs denouncing everything from Trump’s crackdown on immigrants to his attack on transgender people and his proposal for the United States to take ownership of Gaza. Motivating many of the actions was the fear that American democracy was in peril.
“These are not normal times,” said Isabel Storey, a member of Indivisible Westside LA, who helped organize a protest outside of California Senator Alex Padilla’s office this week. “Our message to them was that they need to shut down business as usual.”
Since Trump took office, Storey said she has been “swamped” with inquiries from people asking how they can get involved and make a difference. She even had someone who had joined a letter-writing event at her house years ago during Trump’s first administration knock on her door to ask: “Are you doing anything now?”
That is the same question progressive activists are posing back to their party’s leaders in Washington. Storey said she is a strong supporter of both of California’s Democratic senators but on Wednesday she and her daughter stood outside Padilla’s office demanding he and his colleagues “do everything they can to impede this coup that is happening”.
At one point, she nearly became emotional as she considered the stakes if they do not succeed. “I almost started crying because I’m looking at my daughter thinking, I don’t want her to grow up in a dictatorship.”
