As Washington, D.C., enters a third week of federal occupation ordered by Donald Trump, Democratic Party leaders have been absent from demonstrations against the president’s latest power grab.
Residents of the nation’s capital have seen armed federal agents deployed to the streets of their city to purportedly combat a nonexistent crime problem. National Guard troops have been deployed to locations like subway stations, clearly in sight of Capitol Hill staffers and likely the politicians that they work for. The takeover is a very visible attempt by Trump to exercise power in an authoritarian style.
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But House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, along with other senior Democrats, have not been a part of any concerted effort to voice opposition to the occupation.
To be sure, they have sent out messages criticizing Trump’s actions, like Jeffries’s Aug. 11 statement saying that “Donald Trump has no basis to take over the local police department.” But the party leaders have not been part of a growing protest movement.
Even Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, who represents the District as a non-voting member of Congress, has been missing in action. Her absence has raised new concerns about the 88-year-old member’s decision to run for yet another congressional term in 2026.
By contrast, D.C. residents have been on the ground making their revulsion at Trump’s actions loud and clear. There have been marches, street protests, and even loud booing of Vice President JD Vance when he appeared at Union Station to praise his boss.
Trump and his minions have worked to push his false narrative and justify the deployment. On Thursday, the president appeared at a National Guard staging location to once again claim that crime had fallen because of his actions, ignoring the reality that crime was at a 30-year-low before his authoritarian antics began.
The disparity between the two parties’ responses has reinforced a problem that has been apparent since Trump won the election in 2024. The Democrats have been caught flat-footed again and again, unable to respond to many of Trump’s provocations—even while the public has made clear they aren’t aligned with his priorities.
Trump may be an unqualified goon pursuing ideological goals that are ultimately harmful to the country, but he has practiced a brand of politics that his opponents have yet to figure out how to counter—and he has done it while keeping his core supporters and the rest of the Republican Party in line.
Trump is widely unpopular because his policies hurt a wide swath of Americans outside of his very wealthy inner circle, but the Democrats are also on the outs with the voters who should be supporting them the most.
Showing up when the nation’s capital is under siege would probably go a long way toward letting the nation know that the Democratic Party gives a damn.