Democrats in Congress will pull out the stops to oppose the Trump administration’s ongoing assault on federal agencies and its collateral effects on the American people, U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., said during a virtual town hall hosted by Democracy Forward.
Gerry Connolly
More than 100 House Democrats already have taken action by sending a letter to 24 federal agencies demanding employees be immediately notified they are not required to respond to confusing and threatening emails from Elon Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency, and that nonresponses do not constitute resignation.
Even as the minority party in Congress, Democrats have a “bully pulpit” that includes holding hearings, launching media campaigns and filing litigation, Connolly said.
“We’re going to use partnerships with outside advocacy groups and labor unions to do everything we can to help the American people understand what’s at stake here and to try our best to stop them in their tracks as they are on this wrecking-ball mission, which is not a government efficiency mission. It’s just a mindless, reckless wrecking ball to destroy government and to destroy confidence in government, and that’s going to hurt real Americans in real time.”
“It’s just a mindless, reckless wrecking ball to destroy government and to destroy confidence in government.”
The Feb. 20 town hall was organized to assess some of the damage done by Donald Trump’s executive orders and by the havoc Musk has caused across federal agencies, Democracy Forward President Skye Perryman said.
The organization has filed more than a dozen legal challenges against the administration and has partnered with fellow legal groups, state attorneys general and other groups to push back against Trump’s agenda. Altogether, more than 60 lawsuits have been filed against the president’s self-proclaimed “shock and awe” campaign, she said.
Skye Perryman
“What that means right now is that we are spending a lot of time in court having to bring challenges against the Trump-Vance administration that has accelerated the implementation of incredibly extreme policies from Project 2025, which we know Americans across the country reject — policies that raise costs on working families, that make it harder for Americans to make ends meet, and that really attack our fundamental freedoms.”
There have been successes already. On Feb. 21, U.S. District Judge Adam Abelson in Baltimore blocked Trump executive orders abolishing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs across the country, calling the actions “arbitrary and discriminatory” and possibly in violation of the free speech rights guaranteed by the First Amendment.
During the federal court hearing, Abelson asked federal attorneys if the orders consider teaching about Jim Crow in a history class could constitute a violation of DEI restrictions and result in penalties for the school or teacher. “And they wouldn’t answer the question on the record,” Perryman said.
“Let’s talk about this obsession they seem to have with eradicating what they are going to call DEI, but really these incredibly extreme orders and now letters that are seeking to condition federal funding on a particular ideological view,” Perryman said.
Trump’s orders banning DEI are nothing more than a “boogeyman” to whip the MAGA base into a frenzy and to blame equity programs for other problems, said Fatima Goss Graves, president of the National Women’s Law Center, a legal partner with Democracy Forward.
“So, if the economy crashes, it’s going to be the fault of DEI. With the horrific (Washington, D.C.) plane crash, you saw them saying it was the fault of DEI. The fires that traumatized Southern California, DEI is always their answer.”
“DEI is always their answer.”
The administration’s goal is to distract attention from efforts to further limit reproductive rights and civil rights while hoping corporations, businesses, academic institutions and the rest of civil society will abandon DEI initiatives from fear of federal backlash, she said.
And that’s already happened, as Aldi, Amazon, Meta, McDonald’s and Walmart are among the corporations scaling back or eliminating DEI initiatives. Target has experienced significant decreases in sales and stock prices since announcing it would end its DEI programs.
“What they are doing is not only intentional with the Civil Rights Act, with longstanding laws, whether it be Title IX or beyond, it is inviting extra discrimination, it is creating containers where organizations are not going to take the steps they actually need to take to ensure people can learn and work with dignity,” Graves said.
Fatima Gross Graves
Perryman paused the discussion to share two questions from the audience: What if Trump or Musk ignore court rulings against the administration and what if the U.S. Supreme Court grants a range of unconstitutional actions?
“If Elon Musk or if the president decide to pick this fight, it’s not a great fight for them to pick because the federal courts — whether judges have been appointed by Democratic administrations, Republican administrations or President Trump himself — do not like it when people ignore their orders and ignore their power,” Perryman responded.
The courts have “a range of tools” at their disposal to enforce compliance, including holding violators in contempt. “And then, of course, Congress has a range of checks. And so, if we get to a situation where this administration will simply ignore court orders and will flaunt the courts, it will be important that both the courts and Congress check the administration.”
Meanwhile, there is no ignoring the fact the Supreme Court has rewritten long-standing constitutional protections, she acknowledged. “But we have also seen this court reject a number of fringe legal theories, including the so-called independent theory of the state legislature, which the president and his allies have sought to pedal before the courts.”
The Independent State Legislature Theory claims state legislatures alone have authority to regulate federal elections in their states. In 2023, justices ruled the approach to be unconstitutional.
“And so we are going to really litigate as hard as we can in the lower courts, bring the best cases up to the Supreme Court, and we do believe the courts will fundamentally be a check on much of this activity and that the people have power too, and that Congress needs to step in on cases where the courts are not able to protect the rights of people,” Perryman said.
Richard Trent
Small-business owners also are playing a significant role in opposing the president’s harmful policies, said Richard Trent, executive director of the Main Street Alliance, a network of 30,000 small businesses across the nation.
The organization partnered with Democracy Forward in a lawsuit challenging the administration blocking trillions of dollars benefiting a range of services, from child care centers to Meals on Wheels. A federal judge ruled the funds must be released.
“Small business owners are key players in legal challenges against harmful policies. Small business owners aren’t just passive participants in the economy,” he said. “We have standing in legal fights, and in past administrations, small business coalitions have successfully challenged policies that harm Main Street, whether it’s been health care rollbacks or unfair tax laws.”
Concern remains about the fate of the Small Business Administration under the Trump administration, Trent said. “Defunding government equals defunding small business support, cuts to government programs like the SBA and community banking initiatives. We saw a lot of this play out even with the federal funding freeze a few weeks ago.”
The organization is remaining vigilant in monitoring the administration’s actions going forward, he said. “If Trump guts essential programs or enacts anti-competitive policies, small businesses will be among the first to take him to court. And with partners like Democracy Forward, we actually have that opportunity.”
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