Democrats have been impotent as they have seen President Donald Trump deliberately demolish government agencies and stretch the limits of his presidency with little regard for the consequences.
However, they do have one looming piece of leverage: the March 14 deadline to avoid a government shutdown.
According to interviews with more than two dozen members and top aides, House and Senate Democrats are already at odds about what exactly to seek in their first major negotiation with Trump and how hard to press.
Trump and Republican leaders will need Democratic backing in the Senate, where 60 votes are necessary to pass the package. In the House, they must deal with a group of conservatives who are unlikely to support any spending legislation. While rank-and-file Democrats are anxious to play hardball with Trump, other senior Democrats are unsure how firm a line to draw, fearing they would be forced to yield in a funding dispute and therefore seem even weaker.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and his Senate counterpart, Chuck Schumer, have been discussing how to effectively exploit the funding deadline to challenge Trump. But other top Democrats are concerned that even if they win policy concessions, Trump would simply ignore the law, as he has in some of his earlier attacks on government agencies, meaning a knockdown, drag-out struggle and potential shutdown may be for naught.
“If the foundational role of Congress is the power of the purse, why would we ever believe them again on an appropriations deal?” Senator Chris Coons, a Democrat from Delaware. “It’s going to be harder for us to work together because it’s harder for us to trust each other.”
According to one senior official, “there’s just not a lot of good options for Democrats.”
Many frustrated Democrats, including those from battleground House seats, say that a shutdown should not be ruled out if Republicans are unable to muster the votes. However, Schumer and other governing-minded senators are taking a more cautious approach, fearful of inciting a disastrous shutdown and receiving some of the blame.
Indeed, even as Jeffries and Schumer have escalated their criticism of Elon Musk’s involvement in Trump’s administration, it is unclear if they would target the tech billionaire when it comes time to negotiate a funding agreement.
In an interview last week, Jeffries stated that Democrats’ legislative attempt to restrict Musk’s access to government payment systems is not “at the moment” one of their financial requests.
“There are bipartisan negotiations that are underway right now to try to reach a spending agreement that meets the needs of the American people,” Jeffries told HEADLINESFOREVER.com. “I’ve encouraged those bipartisan conversations to continue.”
Other Democrats, however, argue that any Democratic vote must come at a high cost.
“We’re not going to keep bailing him out,” said Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, who is part of a growing group of Democrats prepared to confront Trump in a shutdown struggle. “We’re not a cheap date.”
Across the Capitol, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, emphasized that the party must “use every point of leverage that we have” and that democracy is at stake. However, he also highlighted the risks of pushing too hard and resulting in a shutdown: “Nobody wants a shutdown, but we have leverage.”
Sen. Mark Warner, a veteran of congressional budget debates who represents a sizable proportion of federal workers in Virginia, said the party must fight to “protect the rule of law” and block Trump’s destruction of government. “But who knows,” he went on to say, “that may be all destroyed by the time [the deadline] comes about.”
Democrats are caught off guard by Trump’s cuts to Washington programs, notably those of the US Agency for International Development. While the GOP unanimously supports the agency’s mandate and feels Musk’s efforts to undermine it violate federal law, some are concerned about making foreign aid the centerpiece of a government shutdown dispute.
“As tragic as what has happened to USAID and our efforts abroad is, I’m not sure it has touched many Americans emotionally — certainly not outside the Beltway,” said Democratic Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut.
Why a shutdown might still occur.
Avoiding a shutdown will prove challenging. With just over a month until the deadline, top House and Senate appropriators remain divided on how much Congress should spend in a fiscal year that is nearly halfway over.
House Speaker Mike Johnson accused Democrats on Friday of “trying to set up some sort of government shutdown” and stated that their negotiators have withdrawn from negotiations in recent days.
However, Democrats disagree with his assessment. They argue the main issue is that Republicans in the House and Senate disagree on spending levels.
“We want to make sure that once we reach an agreement, it can’t just be thrown out the window after it’s passed into law by the current lawless Trump-Elon administration,” said Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the senior Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Other difficult issues, such as California wildfire relief and a raise in the national debt ceiling, might be included in the budget package, making the final conclusion of the debate unclear.
“The Republicans need us. So if they want to have serious talks, they know where to find us,” said Rep. Pete Aguilar, a California Democrat and third-ranking leader.
Some on the left are calling for a battle.
“If Senate Democrats don’t have the gumption to do what is necessary in this moment, I believe House Democrats will,” New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stated. When asked if the disagreement may lead to a shutdown, she emphasized her party was not to blame and that the price of Democratic support should be “very high.”
‘Do not swing at every pitch.’
Jeffries and his colleagues are closely monitoring their most vulnerable members, many of whom represent Trump-won districts. According to numerous sources, the minority leader met with a group of battlefield members on Thursday to address the coming issue of leverage.
“I don’t think people like it when their government shuts down, and I don’t think the average person pays enough attention to the debate to know who is to blame,” said Sen. Elissa Slotkin, a Michigan Democrat who won a key battleground seat that Trump also won.
As Democrats try to learn from their 2024 setbacks, they’ve disagreed on how forcefully — and how frequently — to strike back against Trump.
Rep. Al Green of Texas, for example, used the floor Wednesday to present articles of impeachment against Trump. Two additional House Democrats recorded themselves pushing their way into Johnson’s office to talk about Musk’s access to Treasury Department payment systems. A day later, Democratic Rep. Jared Huffman opposed the GOP’s National Prayer Breakfast in the Capitol, calling it a sign of the MAGA’s “dystopian authoritarian agenda.”
In private sessions, Jeffries has advised members to be choosy, much like his favorite baseball star Aaron Judge, and not “swing at every pitch.” However, not all Democrats agree with Trump’s flood-the-zone approach to politics.
“I believe there is no harm in Democrats raising alarms every day. I don’t believe in the premise that we should sit in the bushes and wait until things become very awful. Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut stated, “They’re bad right now.” “We’re going to need everybody to be even louder in the coming days.”