President Donald Trump returned to the White House four years after his political career appeared to be over, and Democratic leaders have taken a different approach to President Trump 2.0.
While Democrats will still be much of the opposition to Trump and his agenda, some leaders from the Democratic Party are expressing more of a willingness to work with the president than during his prior term. These are some of the politicians who have expressed this willingness, along with others who are still going for stark opposition.
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Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI), one of the most outspoken opponents of Trump’s 2024 White House bid, but ahead of Trump’s return to the White House she made an appeal for bipartisanship as she enters her final two years in office.
“Michiganders elected both me and Donald Trump twice, just two years apart. Every one of us swore an oath to the people we serve, and the people expect us to find common ground, especially when it comes to lowering costs, creating good paying manufacturing jobs, boosting research and innovation, and cutting red tape,” Whitmer said in a speech last month.
“Now I don’t want to pretend we’re always going to agree, but I will always seek collaboration first. I won’t go looking for fights. I won’t back down from them either, because I’m not here to play games,” she added.
Another governor who has been hostile to Trump in the past, but appears to be open to more collaboration is Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA). While Newsom has still not shied away from opposing Trump, even calling a special session of the California legislature to combat his expected policies, the governor greeted Trump when he arrived in the Golden State late last month.
Newsom has been seeking to work with the Trump administration on rebuilding Los Angeles after deadly and costly wildfires ravaged the city. As an apparent gesture of good will to Trump, he joined GOP governors in raising flags to full staff for Trump’s inauguration, interrupting the half-staff mourning period for late former President Jimmy Carter.
Trump has also seen less hostility early on from the local government in Washington, D.C., including Mayor Muriel Bowser. The local government and the Trump administration have several policy differences, but one issue they both agree on is federal workers returning to the office. The Trump White House has made return-to-office a key focus early in his term.
One aspect where Trump has seen more cooperation, or less interference, is with deportations of illegal immigration. Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) said the Empire State is willing to work with federal immigration officers under certain circumstances, while legal resistance by other Democratic governors has been less forceful than during Trump’s first term.
Some of the same hostility
While some Democratic governors have shown some willingness to change their tune with Trump, others have opted to still
Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-IL) has been one of the leaders in forcefully combatting Trump early into the president’s second term, as the Illinois governor is reported to have presidential aspirations in 2028.
Pritzker, alongside Gov. Jared Polis (D-CO), started an anti-Trump group shortly after the president won his second term, titled, Governors Safeguarding Democracy, as Democrats were figuring out their strategy for the coming four years.
“We strengthen the foundations of American democracy by catalyzing collaboration across state lines. Working together, we leverage the collective strength, experience, and institutional knowledge in governors’ offices across the country to craft laws and policies that protect the rule of law and serve the people of our great states,” the alliance states.
The Illinois governor has also been one of the leading voices against Trump’s deportation efforts, including accusing the president and the GOP of “sowing fear and chaos” when it was initially reported that ICE agents had shown up to a Chicago elementary school.
The federal agents at the school were from the Secret Service and the incident was not related to deportations, leading to the Trump administration blasting Pritzker over his assumption.
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While Democrats will likely shift their strategy regarding Trump as his final term continues, fresh off the decisive losses in last November’s election, many leaders have tried to aim for common ground as they appeal to voters and residents they lost.
The first test on Democrats’ strategies will likely come with next year’s midterm elections.
