Can the Democrats save Trump from himself? And should they?

The politics of government shutdowns used to be simple and clear. The party that refused to fund the government was the party that public opinion blamed when popular things like national parks closed.

But that was before deep-state operative Elon Musk infiltrated the bureaucracy, cutting off money for things everyone likes, such as cancer research, sacking workers who do things everyone needs, like weather-forecasting and making sure planes don’t fall out of the sky.

By one estimate, hundreds of thousands have been fired, all of them illegally, almost certainly, as Musk does not have the authority to do what he’s been doing, except that he’s been doing it under the auspices of a president whom the Supreme Court has said is criminally immune.

As for federal funding, I don’t believe anyone knows how much exactly the administration has frozen or cut off, but the total must be in the trillions. In normal times, there’d be some concern that shutting down the government would trigger a recession. Well, a recession is what you can expect when the world’s biggest cash-spigot is turned off.

Turned off illegally, too.

In the beforetimes, the US Congress would have to vote – or fail to reach a vote – for the federal government to shut down. Here in the aftertimes, however, the federal government is already shutting down.

Don’t take my word for it. As I typed these words, the head of the largest public workers union, the American Federation of Government Employees, sent a letter to the US Senate, which is now deliberating a recently passed House bill, informing senators that “a widespread government shutdown has been underway since January 20 and will continue to spread whether senators vote yes or no on HR 1968.”

Everett B. Kelley went on to say:

Under the current CR, federal workers are being treated no better than they will be if government funding ceases Friday night. Yes, it is true that workers who have not yet been fired are at least drawing a paycheck – for now. But if HR 1968 becomes law – a measure that ignores the administration’s brazen refusal to carry out duly enacted laws of Congress and further erodes Congress’s power of the purse – AFGE knows that DOGE will dramatically expand its terminations of federal workers and double down on its campaign to make federal agencies fail, because there will be nothing left to stop the administration for the balance of the fiscal year 2025, if ever. (my italics).

Real performative resistance

The deadline is tomorrow at midnight. As things stand, the Senate Democrats are united against passing the House’s “continuing resolution” ending in September. Yesterday, they filibustered the GOP’s first attempt at passage. They are now talking about supporting a one-month extension in order to allow more time to negotiate.

That may seem reasonable, except that some Democrats still seem to believe they are going to get credit for working with Trump. According toRoll Call, “if Senate GOP leaders grant Democrats a vote on a one-month CR, which likely would fall short, some Democrats may then be willing to join Republicans in advancing the House bill.”

Eight Democrats “might be willing to [support the House resolution] if they are first given a chance to show their support for a one-month extension and an 11th-hour effort to complete full appropriations bills for the current fiscal year, which is already half over,” Roll Callsaid.

US Senator John Fetterman said he’ll vote for the House bill, unlike some in his party, he said, who do “performative ‘resistance’ … [and] undignified antics.” He referred to Texas Congressman Al Green, who repeatedly disrupted Donald Trump at last week’s State of the Union.

But the real performative resistance is coming from inside Fetterman’s own house, where his fellow Democratic senators seem to be convinced that they can put on a show (by filibustering for an empty one-month CR) while planning the whole time to vote for the larger bill, thus dodging the public’s blame for a government shutdown.

New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said: “I hope Senate Democrats understand there is nothing clever about setting up a fake failed 30 day CR first to turn around and vote for cloture on the GOP spending bill. Those games won’t fool anyone. It won’t trick voters. It won’t trick House members. People will not forget it.”

They can’t save Trump from himself

There is a more charitable view. It’s that the Senate Democrats worry that shutting down the government will grease the skids toward redefining “essential services.” Trump would then tell Elon Musk’s ghouls at the “Department of Government Efficiency” to cut them.

Interpreted this way, you could argue that the Senate Democrats are making a devil’s bargain. They could trade some of “the power of the purse” in order to mitigate harms that they believe would otherwise take place had they not traded some of their constitutional authority.

But once traded, it can’t be taken back. Anyway, as Everett B. Kelley said, the federal government is already shutting down. Moreover, trying to prevent it from shutting down willhasten its demise.

If the Senate Democrats do not reassert their constitutional authority – in other words, they will not give the executive branch the power to steal theirs – they may not get another chance. The president is already signaling that if he does not get what he wants from the Congress, he will keep breaking the law. According to Politico: “Trump and White House Officials have been telling GOP holdouts who want more spending cuts that the administration will pursue impoundment.”

I think it needs to be said that this is a crisis moment, not only because Trump is carving up the federal government and (almost certainly going to try) selling it off for parts. It’s a crisis moment, because the Democrats are so used to saving the Republicans from themselves.

Over and over, the House Republicans would try leveraging must-pass legislation to extract concessions of some kind, and over and over, the Republican House speaker would turn to the Democrats to prevent his conference from feeling the consequences of their terrible choices. The Democrats obliged, not because they’re nice, but because they believe in government, and because doing so saved their own people.

They don’t know what to do now.

Or, less charitably, they do not accept reality.

Say no to evil

The reality is that a criminal president is forcing the government to fail for reasons not yet clear, but that probably have to do with some corrupt purpose, like further enriching himself and his friends. He is going to do this without or without the Congress. The only difference may be pace: a bit faster with the Congress, a bit slower without it.

In other words, as Everett B. Kelley said, the wheels have been in motion since Inauguration Day, as a consequence, it’s time for the Democrats to come to terms with reality – and that they cannot save the government. They might hope that the courts stop him. They might hope that the president obeys the courts. They might even hope that the Republicans who control the Congress come to their senses.

But the Democrats themselves cannot save it.

All they can do is choose whether to be a party to evil.

Polling suggests the public is on their side. So is their base. “After weeks of being told by the party base that they’re not being aggressive enough in fighting back against Musk and President Donald Trump, they are so far demonstrating a level of unity in opposing the measure that’s unusual for a must-pass spending bill,” according to Roll Call.

This shouldn’t be a hard choice.

Yet it is.