President Donald Trump mocked Democrats who sat in front of him Tuesday night, needling them with a grin, “nothing I can say or do to make them happy.” Democrats mostly responded with silent protest — wearing pink, waving placards emblazoned with “FALSE” and “Save Medicaid.” More than a dozen walked out of his speech early, some revealing shirts that said “No Kings Live Here.”
The shambolic scene was emblematic of Democrats’ larger problem after facing a brutal election cycle that locked them out of power as they struggled to communicate in a vastly fragmented media environment. Though the official Democratic response, delivered by Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin, got carried on major networks, much of what Democrats had to say didn’t play out on voters’ TVs.
“We’re all trying to get up to speed as fast as possible to take this fight right to Republicans,” said Shasti Conrad, associate Democratic National Committee chair, in an interview with POLITICO after the speech. “But there’s a little bit of a delay.”
Absent a sharper, in-the-room response, frustrated Democrats vented online, complaining that the Democrats’ signs were “giving bingo” and “not landing,” as former Joe Biden spokesperson Symone Sanders Townsend put it on X. North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton added: “why did democrats go to this tbh,” while late-night host Stephen Colbert mocked Democrats for their signs, making one of his own that said: “Try doing something.”
Democrats’ protest was “very silly, and unserious, but I can’t help but feel some level of empathy for them,” said a Democratic strategist granted anonymity to discuss the issue candidly. “I’m sure they feel like they have to do something, anything, [but] that wasn’t it.”
Outside the chamber, Democrats sharpened their political attacks on Trump. Some Democratic lawmakers headed to the party’s influencer spin room, where they invited 30 progressive-aligned social media influencers, like Brian Tyler Cohen and Liz Plank, to Capitol Hill. Social media creators pumped out political content before, during and after Trump’s speech — a first-of-its-kind effort for the party during such an address.
Those videos started to pop on social media, starting with Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), who told YouTuber Adam Mockler inside the spin room: “We’re fighting with Greenland, we’re fighting with Canada, we’re fighting with Mexico — yet we’re in love with Putin? What is happening? This is not America. This is a terrible nightmare. Somebody slap me and wake me the fuck up.”
A House Democratic aide, granted anonymity to discuss the issue candidly, acknowledged that “a key learning” from the 2024 loss was that Democrats “have a lot more work to do to reach people online.”
“Local TV is still really important, but it has to be a both-and strategy,” the aide added.
Senate Democrats, led by Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), offered a pre-buttal to Trump’s speech in a series of direct-to-camera videos, featuring senators using the same “shit that ain’t true” script. Republicans mocked Democrats for the videos’ hokeyness, including Elon Musk and Libs of TikTok, but they also elevated the videos on their own social media channels.
Booker argued in an interview with Puck that the Republican retweets “drew attention to our message today,” which “shows that we can do their playbook just as well, which is to use our ecosystem of connected progressive voices to get a single message out.”
Conrad, who said she did an Instagram live earlier in the day to prebut Trump’s speech, added she was “confident” Democrats understand the assignment and are ready to “both go to the outlets that are already there, but also to build our own.”
Trump, for his part, did offer up a series of clippable moments for Democrats from his speech that could be used in future campaign ads and social media posts. Democrats seized on Trump’s acknowledgment that “there will be a little disturbance” due to his tariffs levied on Canada, Mexico and China.
“‘There will be a little disturbance’ is a genuinely Soviet way to describe people not being able to afford their groceries,” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) posted on X.
Some Democrats, including those eyeing possible 2026 congressional bids and 2028 presidential runs, looked for non-traditional ways to respond. Among them: Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who opted to deliver his first TV interview following Trump’s inauguration on Colbert’s show.
Buttigieg criticized Trump on his preelection pledge to lower grocery prices.
“The biggest issue on people’s minds — the affordability of everyday life — is not something that got more than a few seconds of mention in his speech,” Buttigieg told Colbert. He added, “If eggs are $10 and you’re a billionaire, that’s a little disturbance for you, but not for most people.”
Michigan State Sen. Mallory McMorrow, who is like Buttigieg weighing a Senate bid to replace retiring Sen. Gary Peters, took to Instagram to answer questions.
“People are sick and tired of performative nonsense,” McMorrow told POLITICO. “They don’t want to see their elected officials try to be cute or clever. People are anxious and scared and angry and energized and want to see substance and clear direction.”
McMorrow added, “Democrats need to think about how we actually cut through … not just adding to the noise.”
Amid that noise, Democrats appeared to plead with Americans to listen to them.
“Pick just one issue you’re passionate about and engage. And doom scrolling doesn’t count. Join a group that cares about your issue and act. And if you can’t find one, start one,” Slotkin said.
She said, “Don’t tune out.”
