A Republican strategist handed Democrats a playbook to fight back against Donald Trump’s MAGA agenda – even if they can’t stop it.
GOP strategist Susan Del Percio delivered the political advice Monday in an MSNBC opinion piece where she laid out a path for Democrats to counter Trump’s so-called “big, beautiful bill.” Despite Democratic resistance, Del Percio warned the Republican megabill is likely to clear the Senate later this summer.
But the real opportunity for Democrats lies in the “small window of opportunity to define the legislation, and Trump’s party, ahead of next year’s midterms,” she told readers.
“In politics, one of the first things you want to do is define your opponent before they define you,” Del Percio wrote. Democrats, she said, “should hammer the GOP on easy targets.”
That should begin with the chaos at the Federal Aviation Administration, according to Del Percio.
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“While Republicans are fighting among themselves in D.C. this summer, Americans will be taking to the not-so-friendly skies,” she wrote Monday. “I can think of no bigger backdrop for a discussion on the failures of the Department of Government Efficiency, aka DOGE.”
“This should not be about Elon Musk,” she added while pointing to layoffs in aviation safety roles before outdated computer systems were addressed. “Musk may have taken a chainsaw to federal agencies, but he did so with Trump’s permission.”
Trump, according to the GOP strategist, should “own the results.” She advised Democrats to “at least find a message,” if they can’t find a leader, but pitched Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) as a model.
“That’s exactly the energy Democrats need to harness as the humidity descends on the Hill,” she added.
