The crisis of confidence they felt after Trump’s shocking win has faded and his record-low poll numbers have killed any incentive in their minds to suck it up and compromise with him.
“There is zero chance of any of this working out that way, and it doesn’t matter who you’re changing,” said Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), who notes that many of his colleagues who once decried his absolute opposition to Trump now agree with him. “At the end of the day,” he added, “this is Donald Trump, and we don’t want to work with him.”
As far as Democrats are concerned, the idea of a moderate, post-partisan staff rising to guide Trump into building bridges with them—even for the sake of building actual bridges as part of infrastructure investments Trump talks about and they agree are needed—has now entered the realm of complete fantasy.
“This notion of the battle between Jared Kushner and Steve Bannon and who prevails is irrelevant in many ways to the policies,” said Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), one of the chairs of the House Democratic Policy & Communications Committee, about the discord among Trump’s most senior advisers. “What Democrats are responding to is the substance of the policies—it doesn’t matter who wins the internal battles in the White House.”
Join the conversation as a VIP Member