Donald Trump’s return to the White House was always going to be a disaster. The question was never whether he would bring chaos, but rather how long it would take before the wrecking ball of his governance swung into action. However, while America braces for impact, the first real victim of Trump’s second presidency isn’t democracy itself, nor is it the institutions he so gleefully erodes. No, the first casualty is the Democratic Party, a party too busy stumbling over its own feet to mount a meaningful resistance.
If history has taught us anything about Trump, it’s that he thrives in the face of a fractured opposition. The Democrats, once again, seem determined to hand him that advantage on a silver platter. Their inability to stop his devastating 2025 budget, the internal disarray, and the bitter infighting, exemplified by the rift between Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Bernie Sanders, and Chuck Schumer, showcase a party that simply does not know how to fight back when it matters most.
One would assume that after four years of Trump’s first term and the painful lessons of 2020-2024, the Democrats would have figured out a strategy to counter him. Instead, they appear to be recycling the same failed tactics: outrage without action, performative resistance without real consequences, and a deep-seated inability to unify when it counts.
The 2025 budget fiasco is a glaring example. Trump’s budget, an economic and social disaster in the making, was rammed through with shockingly little resistance. Cuts to social programs, giveaways to billionaires, military expenditures bloated beyond belief, and yet, the Democratic leadership played right into Trump’s hands by failing to present a united front. Instead of standing as a blockade against this economic monstrosity, the party fell into predictable discord.
AOC and Sanders were right to be furious at Chuck Schumer’s concessions, but the problem runs deeper than one leader’s missteps. This is a systemic failure, an institutionalized incapability to recognize the urgency of the moment. The Democrats are still playing by rules that no longer exist, believing in backroom deals and gentleman’s agreements while Trump bulldozes every norm in sight.
Chuck Schumer, for all his experience, seems unable to grasp the fundamental reality of Trump’s politics. Trump doesn’t engage in negotiations, he engages in dominance. His 2025 budget was never meant to be a compromise; it was designed to obliterate any remaining opposition and solidify his grip on power.
Yet, Schumer approached it like a standard political debate, making calculated concessions in the hope of appearing reasonable. Reasonable to whom? Trump’s base? The Republican Party that has long abandoned any notion of governance in favour of blind loyalty to its leader? Instead of holding the line and forcing the administration into a political deadlock, Schumer handed them the victory they needed—allowing them to frame the Democrats as weak, divided, and incapable of governing.
AOC and Sanders, along with the progressive wing of the party, were absolutely justified in their outrage. The budget represents everything they’ve fought against, corporate handouts, the erosion of social safety nets, the dismantling of what little economic justice remains in America. Their anger at Schumer’s failure is not only warranted but necessary.
However, their response has also played right into the larger problem. Instead of channeling that fury into a strategic counteroffensive, the progressive movement risks isolating itself further within the party. If the Democratic Party is eating itself alive, the progressive wing has now taken up the role of chewing at its own limbs. Publicly denouncing leadership without offering a realistic path forward only weakens their position and gives Trump exactly what he wants: a fractured opposition incapable of unity.
The Democrats are running out of time to fix this mess. The 2026 midterms will determine whether Trump’s grip on power becomes unshakable. If the party continues down this path of self-destruction, it won’t just be another political loss, it will be the end of any meaningful opposition in America.
The only way forward is for the party to recognize the reality of the battlefield. Trump does not play fair, and neither should they. They need to abandon the outdated belief that bipartisanship will save them. They need to stop making concessions to a party that seeks their destruction. They need to take the fight directly to Trump, not with empty outrage, but with real, tangible action that forces his administration into a corner.
Because if they don’t, the Democratic Party won’t just be the first victim of Trump’s second term. It will be the first of many.
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