Progressive Democrats wrestling with how to navigate a second Donald Trump presidency are settling on a new approach: Take his populist, working-class proposals at his word — or at least pretend to.
If he succeeds, they can take some credit for bringing him to the table. If he doesn’t, they can bash him for it.
It’s a change in strategy, emerging in private conversations among some liberal elected officials and operatives, that comes after years of resisting Trump ended with him returning to the White House.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said in an interview that she would likely work with Trump if he pursues antitrust promises he made on the campaign trail. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said he sees himself partnering with Trump to tackle “large corporate consolidations,” while Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) posted on X that he “looked forward” to Trump “fulfilling his promise” to cap credit card interest rates.
Even Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the resistance icon who popularized the motto “nevertheless, she persisted” while skewering a Trump cabinet pick in 2017, is finding common cause with the president-elect.
“President Trump announced during his campaign that he intended to put a 10 percent interest rate cap on consumer credit,” Warren told POLITICO. “Bring it on.”
But, she added, “if he refuses to follow through on the campaign promises that would help working people, then he should be held accountable.”
An aide to a progressive member of Congress, who was granted anonymity to discuss internal strategy, stated the obvious: Liberal Democrats will continue to oppose most of what Trump does “tooth and nail.”
However, the person said, “For the few policy proposals that we think will help the working class, capping credit card interest rates being one of them, we’ll say, ‘Put up or shut up.’ Because if he does, it’s a great win for millions of people across this country. And if he doesn’t, it exposes him as a fraud that he is.”
Progressives are not suddenly buying MAGA hats, and with Trump not yet in office, the range of ways they may engage him — or oppose him — remains a work in progress. They are still appalled by Trump’s behavior and policies, including his plans to create the largest deportation program in history, cut taxes for the wealthy and roll back transgender rights. And many of them fear that Trump is an aspiring dictator who threatens democracy itself (which Trump allies have said is unfounded).
But some of Trump’s populist campaign promises fall in line with progressives’ own aspirations. Those include making in vitro fertilization treatments free, ending taxes on tips and capping credit card interest rates. He has also promised for years to protect the popular programs of Social Security and Medicare. At times, he has promoted directing Medicare to negotiate drug prices.
When asked for comment, Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung said, “President Trump’s America First policies will help uplift all Americans and Democrats know voters are now firmly behind him, as opposed to their failed and tired policies that have devastated this country for the last four years.”
And some of Trump’s allies have also backed a handful of other ideas that progressives support, from slashing the Pentagon to strictly enforcing antitrust laws.
Billionaire Elon Musk, who has been charged by Trump with downsizing the federal government, appeared to agree with progressive Rep. Ro Khanna in a recent thread on X that the Department of Defense spends too much money on contractors.
Top Trump ally Matt Gaetz, whom the president-elect tapped for attorney general but has since withdrawn, has praised Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan. Khan is revered on the left for infuriating Wall Street and aggressively busting up monopolies. Though Khan is not expected to stay on under Trump, and Musk said she would be “fired soon,” Vice President-elect JD Vance has also spoken positively about her and called for breaking up Big Tech.
Last week, Khan returned the favor at an FTC meeting, saying that she is “so grateful and appreciative of the bipartisan support” for her work, “including from Vice President-elect Vance and formerly Congressman Gaetz.”
Progressives are clear-eyed that with a Republican-controlled House and Senate, many, if not most, of Trump’s populist campaign promises will not happen — if he were ever serious about them to begin with. But they believe that his voters want him to follow through. They also lack any power in Congress and are desperate for even an outside chance to influence policy.
Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Institute, said that his group conducted polling in the critical battleground states of Pennsylvania and Michigan during the final week of the election. He said the surveys, done in conjunction with the liberal firm Data for Progress, found that the majority of Trump’s voters want him to crack down on price gouging, raise taxes on billionaires, and strengthen anti-monopoly laws.
“Trump actually made promises to people, like helping those on Social Security, ending taxes on tips, and capping credit card interest at 10 percent,” he said. “His own voters believe he has a mandate on that, plus higher taxes on billionaires and big corporations. So let’s hold a mirror up to him and ask, are you going to be a hypocrite or not?”
Not all progressives agree with that strategy. Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.), a member of the so-called Squad, said of Trump, “I’ve never gotten the impression that he’s been accountable to anything in his life.” But, she said, “I don’t fault anybody for trying.”
Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) said that holding Trump’s feet to the fire in Congress is “a little bit unrealistic — we don’t have the votes.” But he said there is room to advocate for liberal policies.
“If there’s areas we agree, let’s work together and get them done: credit card fees, cap on interest rates, prescription drug reference pricing,” he said. “I’m all about working on things that are going to help working-class people.”
Either way, it’s not 2017 anymore. And Resistance 2.0 won’t look exactly the same as its first era.
“There’ll be places where resistance is appropriate,” said Warren. “For example, if Trump follows his V.P. JD Vance in trying to ban access to abortion nationwide through the FDA, there will be massive resistance. If Trump follows through on his promises for more tax cuts for billionaires and billionaire corporations, we’re going to be in that fight all the way.”
At the same time, she said, “if Trump is going to lower interest rates on all consumer loans to 10 percent, count me in.”
