Democrats are finally fighting amid MAGA 2.0—but it is with each other.
President Donald Trump picked a side in the party’s burgeoning civil war Friday, praising his longtime foe, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, for supporting the Republicans’ stopgap bill to keep the government open.
Schumer’s politically dicey decision—ahead of a midnight Friday shutdown deadline—has infuriated Democrats to the point some are suggesting he step aside as leader. He explained on the Senate floor late Friday afternoon that his decision was “a Hobson’s choice,” conjuring images of a chainsaw-wielding Elon Musk.
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”I believe that allowing Donald Trump to take even more power via a government shutdown is a far worse option,” he said. “The shutdown would allow DOGE to shift into overdrive. It would give Donald Trump and DOGE the keys to the city, the state and the country. And that is a far worse alternative.”
“Next question,” House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries answered Friday afternoon when a reporter asked if it was time for new leadership in the Senate. Jeffries said House Democrats are “strongly opposed to the partisan funding bill” that Schumer says he now supports.
Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi repudiated Schumer’s choice earlier in the day, saying, “I salute Leader Hakeem Jeffries for his courageous rejection of this false choice, and I am proud of my colleagues in the House Democratic Caucus for their overwhelming vote against this bill.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Schumer’s “unthinkable” acquiesce was a “betrayal,” adding she was “texting, calling, sending carrier pigeons” to Senate Democrats to beg them to not follow suit.
Democratic lawmakers are so “infuriated” with Schumer that some have spoken to Ocasio-Cortez, a New York progressive, about running against him in a Senate primary race, according to CNN, which noted even “centrists” are “so mad” at Schumer they are “ready to write checks for AOC for Senate” come 2028 when he is up for re-election.
One lawmaker reportedly said they had “never seen people so mad.”
Sixty-six House Democrats—led by Rep. Derek Tran—sent a letter to Schumer Friday calling on him to reverse course and vote down the bill just hours before the government is set to shut down at midnight.
“As members of the House Democratic Caucus, we write to express our strong opposition to the passage of a partisan continuing resolution that potentially legitimizes President Trump and the Republican party’s dismantling of government,” they wrote to Schumer. “The Republican leadership has deliberately cut Democrats out of the process, and we must not give in to Republican hostage-taking of our vulnerable seniors, veterans, and working-class families to advance their destructive funding bill.”
House Democrats also blamed Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and John Fetterman, who have signaled they’d rather support the GOP funding bill than have the government shut down.
Even Senate Democrats expressed frustration with Schumer for causing an intra-party public implosion.
“I find it aggravating that we are in a situation provoked by the Republicans, in which Democrats are fighting with each other over which would be worse, rather than focusing on the people who set up this whole problem,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse said Friday.
“The far-right Republican funding bill will unleash havoc on everyday Americans, giving Donald Trump and Elon Musk even more power to continue dismantling the federal government,” Jeffries wrote in a joint release. “House Democrats will not be complicit.”
Things appear to have gotten much nastier behind doors.
Gillibrand was heard by multiple reporters “screaming” and “speaking quite loudly” at a Senate Democrats lunch on Thursday, her voice carrying through “thick wood doors.”
“She seems to be making the case against allowing the government to shut down,” Punchbowl News reporter Andrew Desiderio wrote on X.
A Politico reporter overheard her say there would be “serious harm” if federal funding were to lapse and that “this will not be a normal shutdown.”
That fiery meeting lasted an hour, reports say, with Gillibrand’s supposed screed not moving any additional senators to immediately reveal they were now a “yes” vote on cloture.
While Republicans control the Senate, chamber rules require 60 “yes” votes to bring the budget—which already passed the House largely on party lines—to a vote. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has long said he will vote no on cloture, meaning Republicans need at least eight Democrats for the budget to be called for a vote.
A united Democratic front could still stop Republicans, however—a rarity in 2025 with the GOP controlling the House, Senate, and White House. This has many Democrats clamoring to score a win against their political rivals who have cheered on chaos via the Department of Government Efficiency, which has slashed and burned federal jobs, programs, grants, and leases at breakneck—and often reckless—speed.
Others have warned a government shutdown will just hand Trump even more freedom to do as he pleases. This was Schumer’s argument in voting yes on cloture, at least.
“Musk has already said he wants a shutdown, and public reporting has shown he is already making plans to expedite his destruction of key government programs and services,” Schumer said on the Senate floor Thursday. “A shutdown would give Donald Trump the keys to the city, the state, and the country.”
Republicans have agreed with that assessment.
GOP Sen. Markwayne Mullin, of Oklahoma, said simply to Politico: “The Democrats have A or B: Keep the government open or yield the authority to the president.”
The majority of Democratic lawmakers see the issue differently. This is a chance to finally push back against Trump and they are going to take it, they say.
Sen. Jeff Merkley, a Democrat from Oregon, told CNN on Thursday: “The best time to take on a tyrant is as early as possible, and this is the moment.”
Sen. Ruben Gallego, who is voting no on the GOP funding bill, called for a postmortem analysis. “I think any time you have a failure—and this is a failure altogether—we as caucus owe it to Democrats, country and our constituents to look back and see: how do we get ourselves in this situation," he told reporters.
Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley, of Massachusetts, spoke similarly on Friday morning after Trump praised Schumer for having the “guts” to side with Republicans.
“We do not want to be praised by Donald Trump,” she told CNN. “This is a hostile government takeover. He is a dictator, and what do you meet a dictator with? Defiance. The Democrats can’t only be the adults in the room. We have to be the fighters, too, and that is the message that we are hearing every day from our constituents.”
