By Meryl Kornfield, Patrick Svitek, Alec Dent · The Washington Post (c) 2025
The opposition party claimed an early win in Donald Trump’s second term Wednesday after his administration rescinded an order freezing federal grants that caused widespread confusion. It came after Democrats in Congress banded together to raise alarm about the order, arguably their most cohesive moment of pushback against Trump since he took office last week and unleashed a flurry of executive actions.
It was a test of the strength and dexterity of the Democratic opposition, which has so far been more muted than it was after Trump took office in 2017. It’s not clear how much their opposition to the order swayed the administration – if at all – but the moment united Democrats.
“They started to wake up,” Ezra Levin, co-founder of the liberal grassroots group Indivisible, told The Washington Post last night. “I think they’re opening their eyes. They’re not fast asleep. They’re starting to pay attention to exactly how serious this is going to be.”
Indivisible and other outside groups had been pushing for Democratic lawmakers to act more urgently and aggressively to counter Trump.
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) sought to keep expectations in check during an afternoon news conference at the Capitol, calling the end of the freeze a “small victory” in a “long war.” At the same time, there was a fresh air of excitement to his remarks.
“We have a lot of energy, and we have a lot of talent in our caucus, and you’re going to see us focusing on a whole bunch of different things,” Schumer said. “It just so happened that this funding freeze was so, so broad and so cruel that we knew we could arouse the American people. And one other good thing happened: The American people see that we can win.”
Senate Democrats are now fully turning their attention to stopping Trump’s nominee to lead the budget office, Russell Vought. That’s a tall order in a GOP-controlled Senate where no Republicans have publicly expressed concern about Vought, let alone announced opposition. Earlier in the week, Democrats pushed to at least postpone a committee vote on Vought’s nomination, but it remains scheduled for noon Thursday.
In the chaotic aftermath of a vague White House budget office memo instituting the freeze, Democrats highlighted stories of disruptions to programs that Americans rely on, such as Medicaid and Head Start. They also took the opportunity to underscore their argument that Trump was grabbing power without any checks on his authority.
Several Democratic state attorneys general requested a restraining order on the federal aid pause in courts, and Democratic members of Congresssaid Republicans need to step up and retain the Hill’s power of the purse. Senate Democrats spent last night delivering floor speeches about how Trump’s freeze hurt their states, filling the hours of time left before another confirmation vote.
In rescinding the budget office’s order Wednesday, the White House attributed the chaos to a court injunction and “dishonest media coverage.” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump’s other, more targeted orders related to federal spending remain “in full force and effect.”
Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Illinois) told The Post that the White House is clearly still freezingfederal funds. Duckworth said she’s still hearing from organizations and individuals affected by it, highlighting a Chicago-based nonprofit that serves homeless youths. Those stories led to the order’s reversal but haven’t stopped the problem, she said.
“It came from the pressure campaign,” she said of the reversal. “And for me, when I got calls from people who are in red congressional districts, I’m like, ‘Call your congressman. I’ll fight for this, but you need to call your Republican congressman or congresswoman in Illinois and tell them this is a problem.’”
Still, the pace of the Trump administration’s evolving orders also came with some whiplash for Democrats, and the party’s response was not without scrutiny as some activists pushed for Democratic lawmakers to show more fight.
Democrats in the House, which was not in session this week, scheduled an “emergency meeting” for 1 p.m. Wednesday in response to the freeze. But by that time, a federal judge had temporarily halted the order, and then the White House rescinded it.
Senate Democrats pivoted Tuesday morning, reorienting a news conference that was supposed to be about Jan. 6 pardons to address the freeze.
Indivisible told members to call Democratic senators to urge them to “grind Senate activity to a halt until this freeze is lifted.” Another liberal organizing group,Our Revolution, demanded that Democratic senators “refuse to advance or confirm any of Trump’s nominees” until the freeze ends.
“Talk is cheap, and talk is part of any response … but it can’t be the entirety of it,” Levin told us. “What we need Democrats to do is use the power where they have it.”
Some Democratic senators got the message. Twenty-two members of the Senate Democratic caucus – nearly half – voted Tuesday to oppose Sean P. Duffy’s nomination to be transportation secretary, despite voting to advance his nomination before the news of the freeze.
More Democrats voted Wednesday to oppose Lee Zeldin as administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency. Duckworth, among those who voted no on Duffy and Zeldin, told The Post that she will continue voting no for other nominees amid the fallout from the freeze.
“Donald Trump needs to know that if he’s going to use the levers of government to harm working families, we’re going to stand in his way,” Sens. Cory Booker and Andy Kim, both New Jersey Democrats, said in a statement on their votes against Duffy.