It’s still unclear what exactly the opposition to Donald Trump’s second presidency will look like, but in the weeks since his administration began governing with an unwieldy, iron fist, a strategy among Democrats is emerging.
On Thursday, Democrats on the Senate Budget Committee boycotted the nomination of Russell Vought—one of the authors of the far-right Project 2025 agenda—to lead the Office of Management and Budget.
The boycott had little immediate consequence, unfortunately. Republicans, unfazed and in lockstep, voted 11-0 to advance Vought’s nomination to the full Senate, all but assuring his confirmation.
But the move was symbolic: a sign that Democrats, despite diminished power in each branch of government, are beginning to define their opposition strategy in Trump’s second term. It also represents something of a change from early January, when the Democratic caucus voted for the GOP-led Laken Riley Act, which requires the government to jail undocumented migrants accused—but not convicted—of certain crimes.
Now, Democrats are relearning how to take public outrage and mobilize it for their—and the country’s—benefit.
Earlier this week, Trump’s Office of Management and Budget ordered a freeze on billions of dollars of federal funding, jeopardizing money for early childhood education programs, crime prevention, and much, much more. It even hampered Americans’ abilities to access Medicaid benefits.
Following the order, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called an emergency meeting for Democrats, focused on a “comprehensive three-pronged counteroffensive” involving appropriations, litigation, and communication, according to a Tuesday memo released by Jeffries’ office.
“My office was smothered by an avalanche of calls from New Yorkers [and] local leaders in every part of my state furious that the administration would do this with no notice, with no understanding,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday. “Again, chaos reigned.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer
Later that day, the OMB announced the directive would be rescinded.
After the White House reversed course, Democrats and their base didn’t let up.
“House Democrats are now fully engaged. The bell has rung. I think we see this for the constitutional test that it is, and we’re going to be aggressively pushing back,” Rep. Jared Huffman, a Democrat from California, told The Hill.
“Leader Jeffries described it as a legal fight, a legislative fight, and a street fight,” Huffman added. “And I couldn’t put it better.”
Meanwhile, the Democratic attorneys general wasted no time. Within hours of the funding freeze announcement, 23 of them united to launch a multistate lawsuit against the Trump administration. New York Attorney General Letitia James condemned the order as “reckless, dangerous, illegal, and unconstitutional.”
As Trump barrels forward, the courts will be a key battleground. But another front is also taking shape. Americans, outraged by a president who sees laws as mere suggestions, are joining forces with Democratic lawmakers in what is quickly becoming the defining resistance of Trump’s second term.
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