Top Democrats Stunned Into Admitting Trump’s Strategy Is Working — And They're Desperate to Catch Up
In a moment of rare candor, leading Democrats are publicly admitting what conservative voters have known all along — President Donald J. Trump’s strategy is not only working, it's forcing the opposition to reconsider everything.
At the Hill Nation Summit this week, a handful of Democrats dropped the mask. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) went so far as to call Trump “a very talented politician,” despite his ideological objections. Sitting next to the likes of far-left Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and socialist Zohran Mamdani, Khanna praised President Trump’s unmatched ability to resonate with everyday Americans across the political spectrum.
Even more shocking was Khanna’s admission that the Democrats’ real failure wasn’t the voters — it was the party itself.
“We acted as if the problem was the voters. The problem was the party, and we acted with a condescension and a judgment on voters,” Khanna said.
That moment of brutal honesty reflects the soul-searching within a party still reeling from the electoral thrashing it received in 2024. Now staring at a 220–212 GOP-controlled House and cratering public approval, Democrats are scrambling to rebrand ahead of the 2026 midterms.
Democratic strategist Fred Hicks put it plainly: “You can’t understand how to win by repeating losing behavior… the reality is that Trump has won two of his three elections.”
The panic among Democrats is so deep that even Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, credited President Trump’s foreign policy — particularly his bold realignment in the Middle East. Himes acknowledged that Trump’s decisions, including lifting sanctions on Syria following Assad’s downfall and the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran’s nuclear program, had “meaningfully” disrupted Tehran’s ambitions.
“I will give him some real credit on foreign policy,” Himes said.
It’s a stunning reversal for a party that spent years denouncing the President's America First diplomacy — and now quietly admits it worked.
The signs of fracture are everywhere. Democrats are being pushed by internal activists demanding a clean slate, while party elites look for ways to mimic Trump’s effectiveness without alienating their radical base.
Even Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) praised her bipartisan work with Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on the “Take It Down” Act, which President Trump signed into law to crack down on deepfake revenge porn — a law that would never have passed under weak Democratic leadership alone.
Strategist Antjuan Seawright summed up the moment with rare clarity: “You don’t have to keep doing business as usual — but you must master doing unusual business.” That, of course, is what President Trump has done better than anyone — shaking up Washington and reconnecting with Americans left behind by establishment politics.
Some Democrats, like Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Md.), are clinging to hopes that President Trump’s approval numbers — which remain remarkably stable — could open a window. But even he admitted that Republicans have mastered the digital battlefield while Democrats lag behind.
“He’s hurting himself a lot,” Ivey said, hoping that a vague “affirmative message” could reverse the damage.
But it’s clear: this isn’t just about messaging. It’s about a complete ideological reckoning.
Democrats are now forced to reckon with the political reality that President Trump isn’t just surviving — he’s shaping the future. And unless they abandon the elitism and failed narratives of the past, they’ll keep losing to a President who understands the American people far better than they do.