Now that President Trump is back in the White House, it’s time to take a victory lap and remind every smug liberal that their so-called “34-time convicted felon” narrative was always a sham. We knew it. You knew it. And now, with the truth coming to light, even some of them are starting to wake up.

Because here’s the reality: That entire case was a disgraceful political hit job, and the most blatant abuse of the justice system we’ve ever seen. The Biden DOJ never even bothered to hide their corruption. They weaponized the courts like a banana republic, hoping to kneecap Trump before the election. Spoiler alert: It failed spectacularly.

The “Crime” That Wasn’t a Crime Let’s break this down so even your most TDS-ridden cousin at Thanksgiving can understand it:

Trump was hit with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records—which, by the way, is a misdemeanor. The statute of limitations on a misdemeanor in New York? One year. So how did Alvin Bragg upgrade this to a felony? Well, in legal gymnastics that would make Simone Biles jealous, they claimed Trump falsified records to cover up another crime.

What was the other crime? No one knows! The indictment didn’t say, the judge didn’t specify, and the jury was handed a grab bag of possibilities, like some twisted legal lottery.

The jury wasn’t even required to agree on what this “other crime” was. One juror could think it was election fraud, another could believe it was a tax violation, and another could claim Trump’s hair is a crime against humanity. It didn’t matter.

The Statute of Limitations Trick Even with this legal charade, the prosecution had a problem: The case was still outside the statute of limitations.

But fear not! The deep state had a trick up its sleeve. They used a court ruling from Harvey Weinstein’s appeal (yes, THAT Harvey Weinstein) which said time spent out of state could “pause” the statute of limitations.

Trump, being the former leader of the free world, traveled frequently. So they decided that because Trump was… you know… doing his job, his statute of limitations clock should be stopped.

Yeah, that sounds fair.

Let’s be clear: Trump was never told what crime he was supposedly covering up until AFTER the trial.

Think about that.

How do you mount a defense against an unknown crime? That’s not justice. That’s a third-world dictatorship.

But the jury? They weren’t troubled by such pesky details. They were handed a list of three possible crimes—one state election law violation, one federal election law violation, and a tax issue—and told they didn’t even have to agree on which one Trump “covered up.”

Meaning? We don’t even know what crime Trump was actually convicted of!

This isn’t just a sham trial. This is a historic disgrace.

Let’s not forget:

Hillary Clinton literally had a secret server in her basement, deleting 30,000 emails AFTER they were subpoenaed. No charges.

Hunter Biden has been caught in more shady foreign dealings than a Bond villain. Slap on the wrist.

Joe Biden himself was caught with classified documents next to his vintage Corvette—which, by the way, was NOT protected by Secret Service. Nothing happened.

Meanwhile, Trump writes a check to his lawyer and suddenly he’s a felon? Give me a break.

You cannot make this stuff up? USAID, which blessedly is no more, paid for a radical Islamic terrorist’s college tuition. Past receipts show that the former agency footed the bill for Anwar Awlaki’s higher education. Awlaki lied about the country of his birth to obtain funds for college through the State Department. Awlaki later became the point of the lance for al-Qaeda’s digital jihad arm. Investigative Catherine Herridge has more:

Looks like USAID supported college tuition for Anwar Aulaqi (Awlaki) who later became a high level al Qaeda terrorist. Aulaqi falsely claimed he was born in Yemen to secure the financial help via the State Dept. when he was actually a US citizen, born in Las Cruces New Mexico.

Aulaqi would later develop close ties with several 9/11 hijackers and attain leadership status in AQ’s Yemen affiliate. Aulaqi was the godfather of the digital jihad that leveraged his writings and the web to radicalize Americans to AQ’s cause. Aulaqi became the first American targeted for death by the CIA.

In 2011, he was killed in a US drone strike.

…

USAID supported college tuition for Anwar Aulaqi (Awlaki) who later became a high level al Qaeda terrorist.

Aulaqi falsely claimed he was born in Yemen to secure the financial help via the State Dept. when he was actually a US citizen, born in Las Cruces New Mexico.

Aulaqi would later develop close ties with several 9/11 hijackers and attain leadership status in AQ’s Yemen affiliate.

Aulaqi was the godfather of the digital jihad that leveraged his writings and the web to radicalize Americans to AQ’s cause.

Aulaqi became the first American targeted for death by the CIA. In 2011, he was killed in a US drone strike.

…

And yet, some media figures claim they cannot find any waste or abuse at USAID.

Yeah, again, the legacy media is a joke.

How many Americans had even heard of the U.S. Agency for International Development just a month ago? Now in the third week of the second Trump administration, the country is learning that USAID apparently has been running a racket that has propped up the Democratic political machine, which includes the usual big-media players, with tens of millions of taxpayers’ dollars.

As political scandals go, this one could be the grubbiest of all.

Democrats are already reeling. Polls show they have become as popular as a pineapple on a pizza. This country would be well served if the party collapsed and the remaining reasonable and sane voters Democratic formed a new group.

The Democratic Party of the 21st century has revealed itself through its radical, nonsensical positions to be a party that no longer can be stomached by most of America. A recent Quinnipiac University survey found that 57% of voters have an unfavorable opinion of Democrats, “the highest percentage of voters having an unfavorable opinion of the Democratic Party since the Quinnipiac University Poll began asking this question.”

Meanwhile, The New York Times’ own polling shows that Americans feel that Democrats are out of touch, and don’t see the party “as an appealing alternative.”

Hastening the downfall might be the scandal that is roiling the waters of the Potomac right now. A nest of corruption, it seems, has been rooted out. And those who have relied on its success are squealing the loudest and longest.

Ostensibly an agency that shuttles financial and other resources for humanitarian reasons, the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, looks and acts more like a political slush fund that has kept the political left rich with taxpayers’ dollars than a global development agency.

Earlier this week, stories broke claiming various media outlets, all more defenders of the Democratic Party and the federal administrative state than true journalistic institutions, had received millions of dollars from USAID. The New York Times, Associated Press and Politico, all hostile to the political right, were named as benefactors.

Whoa, said the fact-checkers. These payments were for subscriptions, not for favorable coverage, and the payments weren’t just from USAID, but also from other federal departments and agencies.

Maybe so. Could be that all those subscriptions added up to the millions in question. But that doesn’t fully clear up the issue.

One, did these offices also subscribe to media that dissent from the Washington narrative, which is consistent with the Democratic Party’s agenda, if not perfectly in line with it? Where are the millions in subscription payments to the New York Post, Washington Times, City Journal, Reason, National Review or … Issues & Insights?

As for I&I, we sure didn’t get any. And if we did, we’d be sure to hear about it from the very same people who’ve been squealing about the president shutting down USAID.

Also consider that federal workers are feeding their biases reading the New York Times, Politico the AP and other similar material. They’re living in a bubble in which members serve themselves at the expense of those outside the bubble – you know, the others, the deplorables, the semi-fascists, the bitter clingers, the garbage people.

That few or no federal workers are reading the New York Post, Washington Times, City Journal, Reason and others that would open up new avenues of thinking for them and challenge their political bigotry is disturbing.

Equally disturbing, however, is the strong likelihood that those “news” outlets tailored their coverage to perpetuate and grow the administrative state — and to aid the one major U.S. political party for whom that same administrative state is sacrosanct (hint: It isn’t the Republican Party).

Two, we don’t think we’re being unreasonable to say the subscription arrangement is not an innocent routine because it feels too much like a good way to funnel money to favored and friendly media outfits to get solid propaganda in return. After all, we know that Reuters raked in $300 million from taxpayers to attack Elon Musk because he dared to back Donald Trump.

But, hey, all that money we’ve heard about this week was just for subscriptions, nothing to see here. But what do those outlets provide federal workers that they couldn’t get free on the internet – and maybe by paying attention to their jobs, staying informed about the activities of other departments and agencies, and searching through federal databases? Why does the phrase “money laundering” come to mind?

As events continue to unfold, it appears USAID lavished money not just on media, but on all the right organizations. For instance, author John Ringo has tweeted that the Tides Foundation, “the Soros ‘charity’ that funded much of the Antifa BLM protests in 2020,” has been one of USAID’s primary beneficiaries.

Surprised?

We’ve also heard from Mike Benz, the former State Department official who blew the whistle on the Reuters arrangement. He tweeted earlier this week that “USAID grantee NGOs (non-governmental organizations) literally take their USAID money then turn around and lobby all key members of Congress to give more and more US taxpayer money to USAID each year in the budget. USAID buys an army of lobbyists with your tax dollars to give it more of your money.”

In response, Elon Musk, who has become a villain to the left, called USAID “a criminal organization.” It is, he said, “time for it to die.”

According to DataRepublican (small r), who says she’s cracked the code of the government’s byzantine funding of nonprofits, the scam goes this way:

– Gov-funded NGO gets a USAID grant for something vague like “strengthening education.”

– That NGO dumps millions into a DAF (Donor-Advised Fund).

– The DAF isn’t required to disclose what the NGO told them to do with the money. – But somehow, every hyperpolitical nonprofit with a sketchy agenda ends up getting funded.

DataRepublican identifies one of those nonprofits as Defending Democracy, a never-Trump run in part by the Trump-hating Bill Kristol, as “an indirect beneficiary of USAID through Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.”

She also pointed out the millions going to nonprofits organizations provide “immigration-related services,” which is likely a euphemism for groups that help illegal immigrants skirt the law.

We are seeing, as well, accusations that USAID channels have funded outside terrorists, reports that the agency itself was involved in the 2019 Trump impeachment, and research that concluded that the Biden administration weaponized it to establish “foreign aid programs to fund abortion, gender and identity ideology, and climate alarmism.”

It’s still early. Scandals can take any number of turns and some messy situations end up not being scandals at all. But we have questions. We hope the legacy media does, too, and will dig for the story rather than reflexively protect their own. This is a huge story, possibly involving misconduct by elected officials and fraud on a massive scale. There’s no reason not to get all the facts out in the open. Maybe some media outlet that didn’t get federal dollars will give the effort a fair chance.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (“USAID”) has operated for years as a rogue organization inside the federal government’s executive branch, sporting an annual budget of over $23 billion and managing over $40 billion in combined appropriations. Those days are finally over. President Trump has ordered a temporary freeze on most of USAID’s activities and operations and has taken other executive actions to allow a thorough analysis of where all that money is going.

Implementing an executive order issued by President Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that he has taken over as acting administrator of USAID. The State Department has assumed direct control of this atrociously run executive branch agency, which has abused its so-called “independent establishment” status by veering sharply leftward against the national interests of the United States. Secretary Rubio has provided written notice of the Trump administration’s plans for its changes to USAID’s organizational structure and programs to the Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate and House committees on foreign affairs and relevant appropriations.

Work arrangements with USAID contractors are being terminated or put on hold. Non-essential contractors are being discharged. Many of USAID’s 10,000+ direct hire employees are being placed on paid administrative leave.

USAID is a cesspool of waste, inefficiency, and abuse. Thanks to Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), stones are being turned over to expose the rot underneath. Why, for example, are American taxpayers funding $1.5 million to “advance diversity equity and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities,” and $2 million for “LGBT activism” in Guatemala? Why are more than $1 million dollars going to Bangladesh to pay for “gender diversity,” $70,000 to pay for a DEI Musical in Ireland, and $47,000 for a “transgender opera” in Columbia? None of these wasteful projects do anything to advance America’s national interest.

Some nonprofit organizations and United Nations agencies that received money from USAID have undermined America’s national security. For example, USAID funding has been used to support hundreds of thousands of migrants making their way to the U.S.-Mexican border to cross into the U.S. illegally, including from Venezuela.

Even more ominously, hundreds of thousands of dollars have been doled out by USAID for a non-profit linked to designated terrorist organizations. And USAID funneled millions of dollars to EcoHealth Alliance, which helped to fund gain-of-function virus research at the infamous Chinese Wuhan lab – the most likely source of the coronavirus that killed more than seven million people worldwide.

DOGE has uncovered these scandalous expenditures by unaccountable bureaucrats and more. But instead of wanting to be good stewards of the American people’s money, congressional Democrats are outraged that their pet progressive, left-wing projects are in jeopardy.

Democrats are exclaiming that President Trump’s directive regarding the reorganization and downsizing of USAID has created a “constitutional crisis.” Some have accused the president of staging a “coup.”

Democrat Congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland complained that this “illegal, unconstitutional interference with congressional power is threatening lives all over the world,” adding that it is “a killer: in terms of all of the efforts to shut down global viruses.” Rep. Raskin appears to think that putting a stop to projects like funding the leaky Chinese virology lab engaging in gain-of-function virus research that was the likely source of the killer coronavirus is itself the “killer.”

In addition to targeting President Trump, the progressive Democrat resisters are demonizing Elon Musk as an unelected plutocrat presiding over a “shadow government” running amok. In their fevered imagination, unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats doling out taxpayers’ money to looney – sometimes dangerous – projects are serving the American people. But these resisters pillory the nation’s foremost business entrepreneur whom President Trump called upon to use his cost-cutting expertise in helping the president root out government fraud, waste, and inefficiency, as he promised to do during the campaign.

A Senate Judiciary Committee vote on advancing Kash Patel’s nomination to be FBI director was delayed Thursday after Democrats raised objections.

The move will require the committee to take a one week hold before voting on Patel’s nomination but the delay will likely have no bearing on Patel’s ability to ultimately be confirmed.

Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s choice to be director of the FBI, appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee for his confirmation hearing, at the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 30, 2025.J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Patel, who has never served as an FBI agent, has become a controversial pick after Democrats questions about his comments that he planned to fire agents and the bureau’s leaders as well as his voicing support for Jan. 6 rioters.

MORE: Kash Patel hearing: FBI director nominee pressed on Jan. 6, conspiracy comments

Democrats argued they needed the pause to see if they could get more information on Patel contending did not provide the committee with information “essential to our consideration of his nomination.”null

In a letter to Republican chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley, obtained by ABC News, Democratic Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse, Cory Booker and Adam Schiff wrote that Patel has “repeatedly refused to discuss the testimony he provided to a federal grand jury investigating Donald Trump’s unlawful retention of classified documents, as well as his invocation of his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination.”

“We regret that you have rejected our efforts to inquire into the first-ever invocation of Fifth Amendment protection by a nominee seeking to lead the FBI,” they wrote.

MORE: Trump aide offered immunity to testify before grand jury about Mar-a-Lago docs: Sources

The senators said that when they asked Patel to disclose information about his grand jury testimony, he said he could not because it was “subject to a seal order” but they said no such order could be identified.

They also argued that Patel’s choice to invoke the Fifth Amendment before a grand jury “merits further inquiry.”

“Until Mr. Patel discloses the substance of his grand jury testimony, the Committee should similarly draw the adverse inference that he has something to hide; that he invoked the Fifth Amendment because his testimony would have shown that he committed a crime or was in other legal peril, which should be disqualifying for any candidate seeking to be confirmed as FBI Director,” the senators wrote.

Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s choice to be director of the FBI, appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee for his confirmation hearing, at the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 30, 2025.Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

During his hearing before the committee last week, Patel testified that he would be impartial but dodged questions about his comments and associations with far-right groups such as QAnon.

MORE: How fierce Trump ally Kash Patel could help reshape the FBI or Justice Department

Sen. Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the committee, said Thursday that the Democrats asked for another hearing due to those concerns and what he said was Patel’s contradictory testimony.

“For God’s sake, to give the most sweeping investigative agency in the United States and the world over to this man to settle political scores is something we’re going to regret. That’s why we asked for a second hearing on this,” he said.

Despite Democratic objections, Republicans have warmly received Patel’s nomination. During his hearing, Grassley called Patel’s career a “study in fighting for unpopular but righteous causes, exposing corruption, and putting America First.”

No Senate Republican has said they intend to vote against Patel at this time.

Calling for a one-week holdover before a vote is allowed under Judiciary Committee rules. Both parties have exercised it regularly when in the minority. The committee will now likely vote on Patel’s nomination next Thursday.

A free press is essential to freedom and democracy – and 75% of countries around the world do not have a free press. BBC Media Action supports local media around the world to deliver trusted information to people most in need.

Like many international development organisations, BBC Media Action has been affected by the temporary pause in US government funding, which amounts to about 8% of our income in 2023-24. We’re doing everything we can to minimise the impact on our partners and the people we serve.

As the BBC’s international charity, we are completely separate from BBC News, and wholly reliant on our donors and supporters to carry out our work.

BBC Editorial Board

Be of good cheer. Leftists right now are rattled. They’re like mobsters who have pulled off crime after crime, and unexpectedly had a big defeat. But leftists have learned nothing, and are incapable of learning or growth because their core premises are set on destruction. Sooner rather than later, their sociopathic and psychopathic attitudes will resurface. It will all manifest as coercion and violence. It always has, because that’s the nature of collectivism and totalitarianism: forcing others into submission. The battle for truth and liberty will never be over; the cost of such blessings? Eternal vigilance.

*******

DEI is Jim Crow on the federal level. Jim Crow laws in the South coerced people into racial favoritism in certain counties and states. DEI coerced the entire federal government and, at least indirectly, major corporations to practice racial and gender favoritism. The groups who benefit from the favoritism are not the issue. Under Jim Crow, it was whites who were shown favoritism; under DEI, it’s blacks, Hispanics, gays, Muslims and people with gender dysphoria who are shown favoritism.The point: It’s always morally wrong to show favoritism, although it is a legal right on your own private property to choose with whom to associate. It’s always illegal to force people to show favoritism. Advocates of DEI pose as racially and culturally sensitive souls. In truth, they’re unsophisticated bigots with totalitarian tendencies seeking to obliterate the spirit and letter of American Constitutional law.

*******

Cancel leftism.
Defund leftism.
Abolish leftism.

Follow Dr. Hurd on Facebook. Search under “Michael Hurd” (Charleston SC). Get up-to-the-minute postings, recommended articles and links, and engage in back-and-forth discussion with Dr. Hurd on topics of interest. Also follow Dr. Hurd on X at @MichaelJHurd1, drmichaelhurd on Instagram, @DrHurd on TruthSocial. Dr. Hurd is also now a Newsmax Insider!

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” SKIP TO CONTENTSKIP TO SITE INDEXSEARCH & SECTION NAVIGATION Subscribe for $1/week Trump Administration LIVEUpdates 8m ago Birthright Citizenship Order Hegseth Nomination Migrant Deportations Paying for Trump’s Agenda ADVERTISEMENT SKIP ADVERTISEMENT You have been granted access, use your keyboard to continue reading. Trump Leaves Democrats Dazed and on the Defensive Locked out of power in Washington, the party is struggling to agree on a unified message of opposition. Some of its lawmakers are even telling Republicans they want to work together. Listen to this article · 7:43 min Learn more Share full article 438 Gov. Tony Evers of Wisconsin, a Democrat, used his annual State of the State speech this week to defend immigrants. Many other Democratic leaders have been quieter in their pushback to the new administration.Credit…Morry Gash/Associated Press By Reid J. Epstein Reporting from Washington Jan. 24, 2025 Updated 3:03 p.m. ET Sign up for the Tilt newsletter, for Times subscribers only.  Nate Cohn, The Times’s chief political analyst, makes sense of the latest political data. Try it for 4 weeks. Follow our live coverage of the latest news on President Trump. As President Trump pushes aggressively to reshape the federal government, Democrats have retreated into a political crouch that reflects their powerlessness in Washington. Far from rising up in outrage, the opposition party’s lawmakers have taken a muted wait-and-see approach as Mr. Trump tries to end birthright citizenship, halt diversity programs in the federal government, undo foreign policy alliances and seek retribution against his perceived political enemies. In some cases, Democrats are even making a show of working with Republicans. Scores of them voted for the Laken Riley Act, which allows the deportation of unauthorized migrants who are accused but not yet convicted of crimes. Others volunteered to work with Republicans on a border security bill. And while Democrats are fighting the nominations of Pete Hegseth as defense secretary and Tulsi Gabbard as national intelligence director, Mr. Trump’s other cabinet appointees appear on a glide path to confirmation without much vocal resistance. It is telling that in the opening days of the new Trump administration, the loudest pushback to the president’s policies has come not from an elected Democrat but from the bishop at Washington National Cathedral, who asked Mr. Trump directly during a service to have mercy on immigrants and L.G.B.T.Q. children. ADVERTISEMENT SKIP ADVERTISEMENT “We’re no longer trying to win a news cycle,” said Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii, a Democrat who has become an outspoken messenger for his party on social media. “We’re trying to win an argument, and that’s going to take time and patience and discipline.” A group of 70 progressive House Democrats and six Senate Democrats gathered at the Capitol on Thursday to try to settle on a single message of opposition to Mr. Trump as he takes aim at myriad liberal constituencies and priorities. The assembled Democrats concluded that their best course of action was to focus on economic concerns, which they believe led to the party’s November defeats. Representative Greg Casar, a Texas Democrat who is the chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, convened the meeting. He said Mr. Trump’s control of the federal government, combined with his allies’ ownership of major social media networks, meant that Democrats must be in lock step, with a focused message of opposition for voters. “It’s going to be really critical for Democrats to point out what Trump’s real intentions are, which is to screw people over on pocketbook issues in service of the mega-rich,” Mr. Casar said. Image Representative Haley Stevens of Michigan said that fellow Democrats “can’t be in a constant state of hysteria,” but added, “We also don’t want to be Pollyanna.”Credit…Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times The Democratic stance is a stark change from the last time Mr. Trump came to office. That period, in 2017, was defined by public demonstrations of resistance, a flurry of new liberal groups and a palpable anger over an election outcome many in the party saw as illegitimate. ADVERTISEMENT SKIP ADVERTISEMENT This time, Mr. Trump won the popular vote and there have been no murmurs of significant foreign interference in the election. And he has unleashed so many new policies and executive orders that Democrats have been left in a daze. “It feels like we’re battling the L.A. fires, and the wind is 100 miles per hour, and it’s zero percent contained,” said Matt Bennett, a founder of Third Way, a center-left think tank. “We’re just going to have to wait for the wind to die down a little. It’s going to be a minute before Democrats can mount an effective response.” Some Democrats do believe Mr. Trump has already made significant mistakes that will cause political damage for him and Republicans. Trump Administration: Live Updates Updated  Jan. 24, 2025, 2:43 p.m. ET29 minutes ago Mike Pence is waging a lonely crusade against Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over his abortion views. Lutnick, Trump’s nominee to lead the Commerce Dept., discloses details of his complex financial interests. Hegseth’s ex-wife who denied physical abuse is bound by a nondisparagement clause. His far-reaching pardons for people convicted of attacking police officers at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, have already led to uncomfortable responses from Republicans. Democrats are also quick to point out that few of Mr. Trump’s early actions have addressed inflation or grocery prices — top issues for voters that he pledged during the campaign to prioritize. ADVERTISEMENT SKIP ADVERTISEMENT And in a sign that substantive pushback to Mr. Trump’s policies is likely to come from state capitals rather than from Washington, 22 state attorneys general sued the federal government to block Mr. Trump’s executive order directing the government not to recognize U.S.-born children of unauthorized immigrants as citizens. (However, not all of these left-leaning attorneys general wanted to talk about their legal challenge — in Washington, D.C., the typically voluble top prosecutor did not issue a news release and declined to discuss it.) In Wisconsin, Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, devoted 11 paragraphs in his annual State of the State speech on Wednesday night to defending immigrants’ contributions to Wisconsin — though he did not mention Mr. Trump by name. “Wisconsin, we cannot allow reckless decisions in Washington to stymie our economic momentum,” Mr. Evers said. “I will not compromise on our Wisconsin values of treating people with kindness, dignity, empathy and respect.” And in Newark, Mayor Ras J. Baraka on Thursday denounced an immigration raid in which he said a U.S. military veteran was detained. “Newark will not stand by idly while people are being unlawfully terrorized,” Mr. Baraka said. Democratic officials whose constituents are being directly targeted by Mr. Trump’s actions are less willing to give the party time to think about how to respond. ADVERTISEMENT SKIP ADVERTISEMENT Cristóbal Alex, a former Biden administration official who is now the chairman of the Latino Victory Fund, ticked through Mr. Trump’s early moves: binding himself to billionaire tech executives, ending Biden-mandated caps on insulin prices, pardoning the Jan. 6 rioters and seeking to end birthright citizenship. “It’s prime time for Democrats to step it up,” Mr. Alex said. And yet plenty of Democrats want to make it known that they are trying to work with the new Trump administration. Thirteen Democratic senators signed a letter to Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the Republican majority leader, asking to be involved in Mr. Trump’s proposed legislation to crack down on the nation’s immigration system. “We stand ready to work with you,” the senators wrote. Some Democratic officials ascribed the party’s hesitation and confusion in part to a lack of clarity from their voters. While anger — and money — drove the so-called Resistance of 2017, Mr. Trump’s second coming has been met by liberal resignation. No one in the world of politics or culture has emerged with a cogent and consistent anti-Trump message since his victory over former Vice President Kamala Harris, and the social media platforms that hosted many of the influencers of eight years ago are now owned by Mr. Trump’s billionaire allies. Patrick Gaspard, the president of the Center for American Progress, a liberal research group, said the lack of Democratic mobilization was not surprising, given that few in the party were shocked by Mr. Trump’s 2024 victory. Democrats, he said, must take time to decide how best to oppose him and Republicans. ADVERTISEMENT SKIP ADVERTISEMENT “This guy is throwing loads of chum in the water, and we can’t go after all of it,” Mr. Gaspard said. One think tank’s thoughtfulness is another’s hesitation. Rahna Epting, the executive director of MoveOn, a liberal advocacy group, said elected Democrats were trying to determine what their voters want them to do. “I see Democrats still trying to figure out where to plant their feet on the spectrum of pure opposition and bipartisanship,” Ms. Epting said. “It’s up to constituents and outside groups like MoveOn and others to hold their feet to the fire.” Reid J. Epstein covers campaigns and elections from Washington. Before joining The Times in 2019, he worked at The Wall Street Journal, Politico, Newsday and The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. More about Reid J. Epstein See more on: Democratic Party, Donald Trump, 2024 Elections: News, Polls and Analysis, U.S. Politics, Republican Party READ 438 COMMENTS Share full article 438 More on the Trump Administration Expelling Migrants: The Trump administration is giving ICE officials the power to quickly deport migrants who were allowed under Biden-era programs, according to an internal memo. Rehousing Transgender Prisoners: President Trump told federal prisons to house inmates who are transgender women in men’s facilities and halt medical treatments related to gender transition, part of an executive order meant to limit the recognition of gender to sex at birth. U.S. Plan for Crypto: Trump issued an executive order to support the growth of the cryptocurrency industry, calling for a new plan to regulate a business in which he has substantial investments. A Potential Blow to Trump’s Base: Republicans are mulling deep cuts in safety net spending that would affect struggling working class voters, many of whom helped elect Trump in November. A Global Surge to the Right: Trump has positioned himself at the crest of a global wave of hard-line conservative populism, offering fuel and inspiration to surging nationalist parties in the European Union and beyond. 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