(2025-03-03) Democrats Plan A Different Kind Of Response To Trumps Big Speech

Democrats plan a different kind of response to Donald Trump’s big speech. Their less pugilistic approach is the latest sign the party is still coming to terms with how to confront the president.

President Donald Trump will address a joint session of Congress on Tuesday for the first time in five years. Democrats are determined not to make their response all about him.

That might come as a surprise for those who remember what ensued during Trump’s first term. His congressional addresses became a prominent stage for the Democratic resistance, with lawmakers booing, chanting and walking out at times. Many chose outfits and invited guests to make a point. Most famously, in 2020, then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi tore up a copy of Trump’s speech while seated directly behind him on the dais.

This time, many Democrats are signaling they’ll take a less pugilistic stance — the latest sign that the party is still coming to terms with how to confront the president, even as the party base grows increasingly restless.

“In 2017, a lot of us felt like Donald Trump was an anomaly. In 2025, he won the election. Everybody knows who he is. He said what he was going to do, and the country still voted for him, so I think we have to be very strategic as Democrats,” said Rep. Ami Bera (D-Calif.).

That strategy, 10 Democratic lawmakers said in interviews, is to use the speech to focus on the impacts of Trump’s second-term policies

private guidance sent to Democratic lawmakers and obtained by POLITICO urged them to coalesce around a message that “Democrats are on the side of the American people while Trump and Republicans in Congress stand with Elon Musk and billionaire donors.”

Rather than skip the speech, some Democrats said they wanted to show that Trump faces opposition — the image of seated, stern-faced Democrats while Republicans stand and cheer. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) said it was important that the viewing public “sees a significant presence of us there.”

*It’s not a universal sentiment. Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), who represents a substantial population of federal employees in his suburban district just outside Washington, said he’ll skip the speech after attending addresses during Trump’s first term.

“The notion of half my colleagues rising and standing and enormous clapping for … things that I think are terrible for the American people every couple minutes will not be funny,” he said. “I don’t see that I’ll contribute anything to the event.”*

Tuesday’s speech is not technically a State of the Union

Trump is widely expected to use the speech as a theatrical spectacle

Democratic leaders are indicating they will not take the bait as they try to keep the focus on Trump’s policies and the cost of living. They chose Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan to deliver the party’s official response — a lawmaker who ran a disciplined campaign last year focusing on economic issues and won a state where Trump also prevailed.

The progressive Working Families Party has Rep. Lateefah Simon (D-Calif.) delivering a separate left-flank rebuttal.

“He’s so much more abusive, but my job is to be there,” said Rep. Norma Torres (D-Calif.), who is bringing as her guest a fire chief from her southern California district to highlight planned FEMA cuts.

One more conspicuous gesture of protest will come from members of the Democratic Women’s Caucus, which will be making a statement with their choice of clothing. (sigh)