Kathy Hochul Will Cut A B*tch
As Trump's Honeymoon Ends, Wayward Democrats Sharpen The Knives
Several weeks ago, I predicted that a vigorous Democratic opposition to Trump, a second resistance, so to speak, would not work until Trump touched a political third rail and made unpopular moves. It wasn’t worth launching a massive opposition campaign like in 2017 because people had grown tired and cynical of it. It might even backfire.
Unlike in 2016, Trump won the popular vote, and his numbers with non-white voters improved substantially. There was no ambiguity about whether this was what people wanted. The opposition would have to wait it out.
A month in, the cracks are already beginning to show. Trump’s favorabilities are underwater, and his association with the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, is ruffling feathers. His praise for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and his criticism of Ukraine, which has been under siege from Russia since 2022, is rankling his allies.
Democrats have determined now is the time to pounce.
In a widely expected move this week, Trump attempted to cancel the congestion pricing program in New York City – a toll on people driving below 60th Street in Manhattan to raise revenue for the oft-cash-strapped Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The program required federal approval granted under the Biden Administration and went into effect last month after several delays. After rescinding federal approval, Trump followed up with a bizarre Twitter post where he referred to himself as a “king” along with a doctored photo of himself on the cover of Time wearing a crown.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, rarely considered a firebrand in her party, held a merciless press conference on Wednesday in response. Barreling through a subway turnstile at Grand Central Terminal like an irate mother ready to confront her child’s bully, Hochul blasted Trump for trying to spike the program and calling himself a “king.”
“The bear’s been poked,” Hochul said on Wednesday. “Someone draws first blood, you respond. I didn’t draw first blood. There’s a response that’s required when someone comes after you – someone just came after my state.”
Hochul wasn’t alone in her rebuke of Trump. At a Friday meeting of the nation’s governors in Washington, Gov. Janet Mills of Maine did not flinch when Trump told her to obey his orders on transgender girls in sports or risk losing federal money. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a potential 2028 presidential nominee, slammed Republicans in his State of the State speech, likening the party’s blind support for Trump’s moves to Nazis folding to Adolph Hitler after his party took power in Germany in 1933. When criticized by Republicans for the comparison, Pritzker doubled down.
“It was important to talk about the destruction of a constitutional republic,” he said in a press conference after the speech. “Recognize that, you know, what happened in Europe in the last century is something that could happen really anywhere,”
Like Pritzker, some Democrats have started aiming their fire at not only Trump but also rank-and-file Republicans who support him. Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-Massachusetts) directly challenged Republican Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas for supporting a proposed budget resolution in Congress that Trump has backed, which cuts over $880 billion from Medicaid.
“The Texas 17th (Pete Sessions’ district) has 100,000 people on Medicaid. The majority of them are children. And for every dollar that gets spent on their primary care visits, on their vaccinations, on their at home care for the elderly, the federal government picks up $0.66. So who's going to pay for that? When you take out $888 billion out of Medicaid, what are you going to say to your constituents back home?” he said to a flustered Sessions on Christopher Cuomo’s News Nation show.
Cuomo even tried to redirect the conversation by taking Trump at his word that he wouldn’t support Medicaid cuts, even though he’s endorsed the House budget proposal. Still, Auchincloss doubled down, making it a criticism of Trump and the entire Republican Party.
They join other Democrats, like Reps. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Jasmine Crockett of Texas, who have already been doing the media rounds laying into Trump, Musk and the GOP.
New York Democrats are confident that courts will strike down Trump’s attempts to end congestion pricing. Though the policy was unpopular when passed and implemented, there are some signs that its unpopularity and salience as an issue are waning. Unlike policies like bail reform, which were directly tied to rises in crime and disorder, there are, so far, no obvious negative repercussions to point to for congestion pricing, and some positive ones – i.e., the reduction in traffic in Manhattan. As long as that continues, and if Trump polarizes the issue by becoming the face of anti-congestion pricing1, its popularity may continue to increase.
Much of this echoes the path Democrats took against George W. Bush in his second term and against Trump in his first term when he appeared embattled almost from day one. Coordinated Democratic opposition to his policies and the culture surrounding him that culminated in the “Unite The Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and propelled Democrats to a midterm election victory in 2018. During the COVID-19 Pandemic, Democratic governors like Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan fearlessly pummeled a damaged Trump over his COVID response. Hochul’s predecessor, Andrew Cuomo, became a de facto opposition leader. It set the stage for Trump’s defeat that November.
Despite the illusion of strength, Trump is a paper tiger whose power depends solely on how the general public views him. He invested everything in being seen as a winner. Losing is his kryptonite, and nothing emits loser energy more than being widely disliked. He was never particularly popular in his first term, which was why his party took so many L’s between 2017 and 2020. The more Democrats sense they can leverage Trump's losses, the more they will be willing and ready to fight. If Trump cannot cancel congestion pricing, it would be a loss to him. Republicans, with their narrow House majority, are unlikely to pass the current House bill, which is another loss for him. If egg prices continue to be elevated, inflation fails to be tamed, planes fall out of the sky, and essential government functions unravel because of Elon Musk’s drug-induced staffing cuts, Trump will face more losses. Trump created an aura of winning even outside politics. Thursday’s loss to Canada by the U.S. hockey team after Trump blustered and mocked Canada and its prime minister, Justin Trudeau, gives off loser vibes. The more losses, the weaker Trump becomes. The weaker Trump becomes, the more Democrats will amass the army to fight him. Over time, the public will grow tired of the trolling and view him as the paper tiger he is.
Trump’s greatest strength in his first term was that he was eligible for a second one, which gave him a chance to win and prove detractors wrong. Now, he is term-limited, despite the ongoing sad, pathetic trolling attempts by his supporters that suggest otherwise. Once his favorability falls enough, and once he starts losing, he becomes a lame duck, and Democrats can snatch the Burger King crown from him.
Some key opposition to congestion pricing came from core Democratic constituencies that still hate Donald Trump.
Go Scrappy Kathy!