“I think it’s smart for progressives to make as much progress as they can with Trump in power,” said Tad Devine, who served as a senior advisor to Sanders during his primary battle with Hillary Clinton. Devine emphasized he was speaking in a personal capacity, not on behalf of Sanders.

Trump “is going to have this authority for four years and people are hurting. They can’t wait for progress on economic issues.”

Devine asserted that Democrats could still “draw the bright lines where we need to,” even while working with Trump on some issues. To back away completely, he warned, would mean suffering the “political consequences” with working-class voters who might think the party was deaf to their concerns.

But others on the left see things differently. To cooperate with Trump, they warn, runs the risk of “normalizing” a political figure they see as an existential threat to democracy.