The Revolving Door Project Condemns Democrats’ Cowardice In The Face Of Trump’s Nominees

The Revolving Door Project Executive Director, Jeff Hauser released the following statement:

"The one constant within the Democratic Party is that its leaders will inevitably default to the belief that wisdom counsels caution. That is why it is unsurprising that Democrats are only offering more than perfunctory resistance to the few Trump nominees so brazenly offputting that they draw nearly uniform skepticism. For all the Trump nominees not accused of killing a dog or committing heinous crimes, Democrats do not seem poised to offer even a whisper of resistance, no matter how unqualified.

For instance, Senate Democrats have failed to question how Scott Bessent’s experience of running a second tier hedge fund with declining assets under management* qualifies him to hold one of the most powerful economic policymaking in the world. Or how Chris Wright’s experience as an unhinged plutocrat out of touch with scientific reality would qualify him to manage some of the world’s most important laboratories.

Joe Biden's degraded public communications capacity played an enormous role in the Party's past four years. While the Senate Democratic caucus is not exactly run by figures exuding vim and vigor, they should have learned from Biden's calamitously passive strategy. Yet there is no indication of a shift. By all accounts, Senate Democrats are seeking strategic retreat wherever possible, convinced that ‘opposition' is a bad strategy for the opposition party.

Every senior Trump Administration official will have the discretion to exercise presidential authority on behalf of corporate interests in ways that will hurt ordinary Americans. Workers, consumers, breathers of air -- every typical American is at risk from the most corporate captured set of nominees in American history. Democrats should be telling this story now, not only to raise alarms ahead of the inauguration, but to be able to tell a compelling story about what went wrong and why when things inevitably decline across so many critical fronts in the next few years. Democrats do not have the votes to kill any of these nominations, but they do have the ability to begin drawing attention to the cronyism that will inevitably appear from within the Trump administration. Contrary to the party’s current position, being able to say ‘I told you so’ is helpful to future success.

Donald Trump is no world bestriding electoral colossus -- even with substantial breaks, he has never received an outright majority of the vote and has generally been unpopular. Sadly, their latest defeat has left Democrats doubling down on an ostrich-like strategy of hiding their heads until Donald Trump goes away. But the MAGA movement will not go away on its own, it will have to be defeated.

Defeating the MAGA movement does not require clever theories, it requires the hard work of opposition on behalf of the millions who will suffer at the hands of Trump's corporate cabinet. Democrats must find their inner populists and fight at all times, even in battles that they will almost certainly lose. There is never a better opportunity to find an opposition's voice than when a would-be populist President appoints a corporate owned cabinet."

* "Scott Bessent’s hedge fund has seen up-and-down returns; Assets under management have plummeted from the fund’s initial George Soros funding. Of course, The Revolving Door Project remains opposed to the idea that Wall Street service qualifies one for public offices, but a checkered history on Wall Street seems even less impressive than a strong one.