Democrats emerged from the federal government funding showdown with a little pep in their steps for the first time since Vice President Kamala Harris was defeated by President-elect Donald Trump.
The prospect of a government shutdown over the holidays before Trump even takes office revived a familiar playbook for a party that will be shut out of power next month, a tried and true staple of anti-Republican messaging that has worked since Bill Clinton used similar fights in 1995-96 to revive his reelection prospects after a disastrous midterm election.
“Republicans need to stop playing politics with this bipartisan agreement, or they will hurt hardworking Americans and create instability across the country,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement. “President-elect Trump and Vice President-elect Vance ordered Republicans to shut down the government, and they are threatening to do just that — while undermining communities recovering from disasters, farmers and ranchers, and community health centers.”
But there are new twists. One is the focus on Elon Musk, who played a leading role in tanking a bipartisan short-term spending bill before Trump himself pulled the plug on it. Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX) accused Musk of “cosplaying as co-president.” Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) posted on X, saying, “Republican Unelected Co-President Elon Musk.”
“The American people deserve to know whether an ‘unofficial co-president’ is advancing policies that are good for the country or just good for his own bottom line,” wrote Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).
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“We had many weeks of negotiations with the Republicans, we arrived at a bipartisan legislative compromise, the Senate Democrats, the Senate Republicans, the House Democrats, the House Republicans, everybody agreed,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) told reporters. “And then, it was blown up by Elon Musk, who apparently, has become the fourth branch of government. That is intolerable.”
The point is as much to drive a wedge between Trump and Musk as to create another right-wing supervillain to demonize for the next four years. Trump’s top spokeswoman told reporters the president-elect is “the leader of the Republican Party. Full stop.” Failing that, Trump and Musk can be packaged together as Republican billionaires who want to drastically cut spending or shut down the government.
No matter the final outcome, the episode reminds Democrats that even with unified control of the federal government, it will be difficult for Republicans to legislate with a razor-thin House majority. The Department of Government Efficiency, spearheaded by Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, may also pursue spending cuts Trump himself would have never dared to run on during the 2024 campaign.
Trump still took shots at important Republican lawmakers Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) and outgoing Rep. Bob Good (R-VA). There was still open dissension in the ranks against House GOP leaders after a few weeks of unity following the election.
Since Harris lost and outgoing President Joe Biden has increasingly receded from public view, Democrats have been in a funk. They lost the popular vote for the first time in 20 years. They lost all seven battleground states and might have done worse if Biden had remained at the top of the ticket. They achieved these dismal results while blowing $1.5 billion to $2 billion in campaign cash, with some outlets reporting that Harris’s operation is in debt and still trying to raise money.
Democrats lost their Senate majority. At 53, the Republicans will control more seats than the Democrats did at any point under Biden. Democrats failed to win back the House. Trump will likely resume his efforts to restock the federal judiciary with conservative judges after his inauguration in January. His first-term nominations led to the reversal of Roe v. Wade, which Democrats tried and mostly failed to turn into a winning issue for themselves this year.
The post-election recriminations have divided Democrats, with different factions blaming each other for the party’s loss. The Democratic National Committee’s leadership could be due for a major shake-up. Even with a handful of controversial Cabinet nominees, Trump’s transition has generally polled well. His numbers heading into 2025 are among the best of his political career. The Resistance looked stalled and exhausted.
Now, certain Democratic attack lines have taken shape. House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) position looks more precarious than it did just a week ago. Memories of Trump’s tumultuous first term are being rekindled.
There is no guarantee history will repeat itself. Both Trump’s campaign and transition have been more disciplined and professional than previous iterations. Trump is better prepared to hit the ground running in the Oval Office than he was in 2017. The now-dead spending bill contained many unpopular provisions, such as a pay raise for Congress, an institution with a 21.5% approval rating, according to a FiveThirtyEight polling average. And Republicans quickly came up with a Trump-endorsed alternative.
Trump described the measure as “SUCCESS in Washington!”
“All Republicans, and even the Democrats, should do what is best for our Country, and vote ‘YES’ for this Bill, TONIGHT!” he posted on social media.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) was less impressed. He told reporters the “Musk-Johnson proposal” is “laughable” and “not serious.” He insisted, “Extreme MAGA Republicans are driving us to a government shutdown.”
The Biden White House weighed in shorty before the vote on the new deal, calling it the “Republicans’ billionaire giveaway.”
“President Biden supports the bipartisan agreement to keep the government open, help communities recovering from disasters, and lower costs — not this giveaway for billionaires that Republicans are proposing at the 11th hour,” Jean-Pierre said in a statement Thursday night.
Yet many House conservatives also balked, as Trump posted that “Republican obstructionists have to be done away with.”
“The Democrats are using them, and we can’t let that happen,” he added.
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Democrats are nevertheless looking forward to the midterm elections in 2026, where their odds are better than if Harris or Biden had won. They have newfound hope that if Republicans struggle to govern, they can win again without changing much of anything about their own party.
That’s the outcome Democrats prefer.