Hoping to spearhead a resistance while other Democrats appeared at least temporarily cowed by recent MAGA-driven political upheaval, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is attacking President Donald Trump‘s aggressive actions during his first weeks back in the White House and slamming the team he’s chosen to help execute his agenda.
Stung by losing both the presidential election and Senate control, many out-of-power Democrats have been on their heels — “Trump Leaves Democrats Dazed and on the Defensive” reads a typical headline — and reportedly unsure how to mount a resistance to objectionable Trump policies after election results that the President triumphantly calls a “mandate.”
(Trump won all seven “battleground” states, yet emerged with an overall margin of victory of less than two percent.)
Yet Ocasio-Cortez instead portrays Trump’s unconventional cabinet picks and early flurry of executive orders as signs of the new administration’s vulnerability, not its power.
The Congresswoman is seizing on administration stumbles such as its appearing to walk back some threats and orders (including the “federal funding freeze”) and also not fully explaining what its directives mean in the first place.
Mimicking her colleagues on the GOP side of the aisle, including the President, Ocasio-Cortez is engaging in denigrating name-calling and insults, calling Trump 2.0 “shockingly dim and incompetent.”
Yes, this administration is dangerous and cruel, but they are also shockingly dim and incompetent.
Opportunities are everywhere.
Make everything as hard as possible. Resist every demand. Refuse entry without a warrant. Don’t take the buyout. Their problem solving skills are
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@aoc.bsky.social) January 29, 2025 at 9:35 PM
NOTE: Ocasio-Cortez’s general charge of incompetence gets specific below, as she excoriates new Trump Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
In case you’re having a bad day at work, remember that at least you’re not Trump’s @PressSec who tweets were so bad today she earned the entire administration a federal restraining order.
Keep talking and tweeting, girl! You’re doing great!
https://t.co/HgndHpoZ1h
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 29, 2025
Trump campaigned hard on divisive culture war issues like transgender and abortion rights, but his election win was largely driven, experts say, by two issues: the unchecked influx of migrants at the U.S. Southern border and inflation.
Trump promised to secure the border and lower prices — and those two promises held broad appeal against a Democratic ticket whose border management was seen as chaotic and unsustainable and who were also minding the store when inflation soared.
“Inflation, immigration, some evidence of backlash against Democrats on identity politics, crime, education, and a public mood moving in a conservative direction all suggested a Republican win,” said Wayne Steger, a political scientist at DePaul University.
Ocasio-Cortez says the opportunity now for Democrats is to expose the notion that the real interests of the Trump administration aren’t in fixing the kitchen table problems it campaigned on, but rather to cater to oligarchs like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg and move wealth to the top, neglecting everyday Americans. She says the anti-autocratic fight is one the Democrats can win.
This is Trump’s first major loss.
When we fight, we win.We may not have majorities in the House and the Senate, but we DO have the power to loudly educate and mobilize against the mass looting the Trump admin is attempting against our veterans, healthcare, education, and more. https://t.co/Wkn9vtwCFo
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 29, 2025
[NOTE: The border crossings had already slowed drastically by the time Trump took office, with Biden issuing executive changes that saw unlawful border crossings reach a four-year low by the time he left office. And the price of eggs — which (inaccurately) became a meme metric representing inflation — is higher today than it was when Trump took office. Both Trump and Biden saw bird flu affect the prices of eggs.]
Opposed to Trump’s ICE immigrant sweeps, the firings of watchdog Inspectors General and career DOJ attorneys, and his threats to replace civil servants with loyalists throughout the federal workforce, Ocasio-Cortez issued a call-to-action to her supporters to resist the new administration’s power grab.
“But they’re only going to round up immigrants committing crimes!”
No. ICE is already rounding up innocent American citizens.
https://t.co/d2n4mKhfjT
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 29, 2025