As the chaos of the Trump — and, de facto Musk — administration bashes the attention spans of Americans, many of those trying to follow along have wondered where, exactly, the Democrats have been. Jon Stewart recently bemoaned the attempt to send out Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), one of our blandest posters, to counter Trump’s attempts to impose tariffs on US allies. Critics have wondered if the Democrats intend to stand up to Trump’s onslaught at all — particularly with Democrats like Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) backing Republicans’ anti-immigrant Laken Riley Act.
That was the question Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL), 28, put to a crowd of his Congressional colleagues and hundreds of protesters during a rally outside the Treasury Department yesterday: “Are we the minority or are we the opposition?” Along with representatives Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), and other members of Congress, Frost tried to enter the Treasury, seeking answers about Elon Musk’s hostile takeover of federal financial data. On Wednesday, Frost and other Democrats on the House Oversight Committee tried to subpoena Musk to get more information; Republicans on the committee ultimately killed the motion.
“The plan is, obstruct where we can, and we have a lot of vehicles to do that,” Frost tells Teen Vogue. “If you are a House member and you're just saying, ‘Well, we're in the minority. There's nothing we can do,’ we've already lost the battle. And that's what Trump really wants us to do — essentially bow down and not do anything to fight. We want to see Democrats get more involved.”