Let’s Try Something Different in How We Deal With Trump

Opinion|Let’s Try Something Different in How We Deal With Trump

President-elect Donald Trump and the Republicans have managed to sell themselves as the party of change. It worked: They will soon control the presidency, Congress and, in essence, the Supreme Court. But to change and fix America requires both parties to work together. As a Democratic member of Congress, I know my party will be tempted to hold fast against Mr. Trump at every turn: uniting against his bills, blocking his nominees and grinding the machinery of the House and the Senate to a halt.

That would be a mistake. Only by working together to find compromise on parts of Mr. Trump’s agenda can we make progress for Americans who are clearly demanding change in the economy, immigration, crime and other top issues.

I’m no dupe: Some of Mr. Trump’s actions offer little reassurance that he is ready to embrace the bipartisanship and compromise essential to a functioning democracy. His radical cabinet picks, such as the Project 2025 contributor Russell Vought and Matt Gaetz (now withdrawn); his last-minute demands on last month’s government funding bill; and the recent demonstrations of hubris, such as Republicans bringing Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to Capitol Hill and refusing to include Democrats in the meetings, offer no reason for optimism about compromise. But if Mr. Trump wants to have a more effective presidency than he had in his first term, he needs to embrace his inner dealmaker and negotiate with the other party that holds just shy of half of the seats on Capitol Hill and key governorships around the country. And if he does that work, Democrats should meet him halfway rather than be the Party of No.

I know many voters reject my party’s significant leftward shift. So do I. But as a common-sense Democrat who won in a district that Mr. Trump also won, I am certain our closely divided electorate would rather have bipartisan solutions than political gridlock. After Mr. Trump almost caused a federal shutdown with the funding bill antics, the government was able to stay open only through Democrats joining with some Republicans to pass compromise legislation. Americans shouldn’t have to hold their breath to see if we’ll do the right thing together.

The election was a mandate. But it wasn’t for one-party rule — Mr. Trump won with less than 50 percent of the popular vote, and Republicans have thin majorities in the House and the Senate. But as I see it, the results of the 2024 campaign were a mandate for border security, immigration reform, low inflation, economic stability and common ground on culture-war fights. That’s good for America. So let’s make that our shared agenda in 2025. There are a majority of votes for all of it.

And let’s try something different when it comes to the president-elect.

Since the day Mr. Trump announced his candidacy at the tower bearing his name almost 10 years ago, many politicians, pundits, activists and members of the news media have detailed every one of his failings and missteps. Every word he’s ever spoken has been criticized. Yet he just won again. People are exhausted by the endless finger-pointing, nit-picking and daily battling for political advantage. They want leaders to work together to get things done.