Funding freeze sparks Democratic uproar as party grapples with how to take on Trump

CNN —
Donald Trump’s move to pause trillions of dollars in federal grants and loans awakened widespread Democratic resistance to the new president’s second term that was felt Tuesday on Capitol Hill, in governors’ offices and in the race to helm the party’s national committee.
A federal judge on Tuesday blocked part of the White House budget office’s Monday night order to freeze federal aid — but only with a temporary order in place until February 3.
The reach of the administration’s order created immediate confusion and Trump’s administration spent the day trying to tamp down fears that the temporary freeze applied to public benefit programs like Medicaid, even while states’ federal funding portals stopped working Tuesday. (They started to regain access to the system in the afternoon.)
But the Trump budget office’s move lit a spark under Democratic officials in a way other moves of his first week back in office had not, even leading some Democrats to change the way they were voting on the president’s Cabinet nominees.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who has sought to position himself as a progressive firewall against Trump in his blue state and is widely seen as one of a long list of Democrats who could seek the presidency in 2028, cast doubt on the Medicaid outage being incidental, and said federal agencies had canceled meetings scheduled for this week with state officials. He told reporters Tuesday that the Trump administration “is lying to you” or is “critically incompetent.”
“What the president is trying to do is illegal,” Pritzker said, vowing to fight the White House in court. “The Trump administration is trying to confuse the American people. That’s why it’s so important that we speak plainly.”
The Democratic pushback comes as party leaders and lawmakers look for answers on how to take on Trump as his second administration tries to implement sweeping change to government through executive actions and on Capitol Hill, where Republicans control both the House and the Senate.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told Democratic colleagues in a letter Tuesday that they will huddle for an “emergency meeting” on Wednesday in response to Trump’s move.
He said the party will “discuss a three-pronged counteroffensive” that includes policy-making and legal and communications pushback.
“Millions of Americans will be hurt,” the New York Democrat said of Trump’s move. “By necessity, we will combat the extreme funding freeze with a forceful response on all fronts.”
Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley, the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee, and other Democratic committee members sought to delay consideration of Russell Vought, Trump’s pick for director of the Office of Management and Budget.
In a letter to Chairman Lindsey Graham, the Democrats wrote that Vought “stonewalled members of Congress” but “was already planning on halting programs that feed hungry children, heat the homes of low-income families, support farmers, and bring relief to those suffering from natural disasters.”
They asked for a two-week pause on the committee’s vote to advance Vought’s nomination, currently scheduled for Thursday.
“It is simply unconscionable that the Budget Committee could vote to confirm Mr. Vought to be director of Office of Management and Budget without getting some real answers from him about his ongoing efforts to stymie the will of Congress,” the Democrats wrote to Graham, a South Carolina Republican.
Democrats also used another Trump nominee to express their opposition. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, a former Wisconsin congressman and uncontroversial choice who had previously advanced 97-0 on a procedural vote, was confirmed by the Senate on a 77-22 vote Tuesday. But those 22 votes against Duffy were in protest of Trump’s freeze on federal grants and loans, Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut told CNN.
Delaware Sen. Chris Coons said in a statement that he voted against Duffy because of Trump’s “disastrous and illegal order last night to freeze all federal aid, including millions for those very transportation investments.”
And in the race to chair the Democratic National Committee, one contender, former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, seized on Trump’s funding freeze.
“Now more than ever the Democratic Party needs a leader who is willing to punch back and fight for the hardest working people in our economy,” he said in a letter to DNC members.
And other governors, like Pritzker, vowed action. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement she and state Attorney General Letitia James are working on a lawsuit seeking to protect funding for health care, law enforcement, infrastructure and more. She also called on Republican members of New York’s congressional delegation to “step up and use their influence to protect our state, our people, and our federal funding.”
‘Democrats suck at this so bad’
Some Democrats saw the party’s first moves to push back against Trump’s funding freeze as insufficient.
Indivisible co-executive director Ezra Levin said that Jeffries was moving too slow and that he should have gathered congressional Democrats to discuss a strategy Monday night.
“Tomorrow is too late. By tomorrow, the next Trump-initiated crisis will be at our doorstep,” Levin said in a statement. “This is pathetic, feckless, and dispiriting to those people organizing around the country to actually limit harm and defeat MAGA. Jeffries needs to get his head in the game.”
Bakari Sellers, a former South Carolina state lawmaker and CNN political commentator, said that “Democrats apparently have been caught flat-footed.”
“House Democrats have a meeting tomorrow over something that’s urgent today,” he said. Sellers also criticized congressional Democrats for making Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who held a news conference criticizing Trump on Tuesday, the face of their response.
“We don’t need to hear from Chuck Schumer. We need to hear from people who are actually affected. And it’s just malpractice that Democrats suck at this so bad that we’re allowing Donald Trump and Stephen Miller to run roughshod on what our government looks like,” Sellers said, referring to the White House deputy chief of staff for policy.
A midterm issue
Pat Dennis, the president of American Bridge 21st Century, the major Democratic super PAC whose donors are gathering in Palm Beach, Florida, this weekend, said Trump’s funding freeze “goes right to the heart of some of the most vulnerable Republicans” and could be a potent midterm issue next year.
Maine Sen. Susan Collins, one of the Republican incumbents on the ballot in 2026, “is up there saying she’s ‘concerned’” about Trump’s freeze. (Dennis was mocking Collins’ previous use of the word to address controversies Trump has ignited; asked about Trump’s freeze, she told reporters Tuesday she was “surprised at its breadth.”)
“That’s all she can do,” Dennis said. “She runs the Appropriations Committee, and the president has decided that appropriations aren’t laws anymore.”
“Trump wants to flood everybody with too much information and process with the hopes that people tune out,” Dennis said. “Our job is to distill this information down into: Here’s who’s getting hurt. Here’s why it matters. Here’s what we are going to do about it.”
CNN’s Fredreka Schouten contributed to this report.