Democrats sent reeling by the first weeks of the Trump administration put forward a fresh-faced messenger to counter his speech, blasting the president for ‘mindless’ firings of federal workers and for berating the Ukrainian president.
Newly elected Senator Elissa Slotkin stood before a bank of flags from her home state of Michigan to deliver the Democratic response, beginning with a joke about Trump’s record-shattering hour and forty-minute discourse.
‘It’s late so I promise to be a lot shorter than what you just watched,’ she said, keeping her own remarks to under ten minutes.
Slotkin hammered Trump on kitchen table issues and stressed bipartisanship, even putting in a hat tip to Ronald Reagan.
Her first target was the DOGE firings, where she took on the tactics, but not the search for government waste itself.
‘America wants change, but there’s a responsible way to make change and a reckless way, and we can make that change without forgetting who we are as a country and as a democracy,’ she said from Wyandotte, Michigan, a town both she and Trump carried in November.
She called for a tax system that doesn’t cater to people who ‘don’t happen to make a bill dollars’ and slammed an ‘unprecedented giveaway to [Trump’s] billionaire friends.’
Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) stressed bipartisan and kitchen table issues in the Democratic response, while hammering Trump for his Oval Office meeting with the Ukrainian president and for Elon Musk’s exploits
‘Grocery and home prices are going up, not down, and he hasn’t laid out a credible plan to deal with either those. His tariffs on allies like Canada will raise prices on energy, lumber and cars and start a trade war that will hurt manufacturing and farmers.’
Slotkin stressed many of the issues like inflation that Trump himself ran on.
She said Trump ‘stole’ his ‘peace through strength’ line from Ronald Reagan, that hit him for backing away from Ukraine, after Trump sparred with Democrats inside the House chamber over keeping the funding pipeline going.
‘But let me tell you, after the spectacle that just took place in the Oval Office last week, Reagan must be rolling in his grave,’ said Slotkin.
‘That scene in the Oval Office wasn’t just a bad episode of reality TV. It summed up Trump’s whole approach to the world. He believes in cozying up to dictators like Vladimir Putin and kicking our friends like the Canadians in the teeth.’
The post-presidential speech is known to be a thankless task. Several practitioners have blown it. Now-Secretary of State Marco Rubio got mocked for nervously taking a sip of water during his.
Slotkin’s delivery was smooth and she provided no such fodder.
She picked issues where Democrats have polling opportunities, highlighting fears about data security amid Musk’s efforts.
!['Is there anyone in America who is comfortable with [Elon Musk] and his gang of 20 year olds using their own computer servers to poke through your tax returns, your health information and your bank accounts?' she asked.](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/03/05/04/95853777-14462029-image-a-4_1741149266828.jpg)
‘Is there anyone in America who is comfortable with [Elon Musk] and his gang of 20 year olds using their own computer servers to poke through your tax returns, your health information and your bank accounts?’ she asked.
‘But let me tell you, after the spectacle that just took place in the oval office last week, Reagan must be rolling in his grave,’ said
The Democratic response is considered a thankless task
‘Is there anyone in America who is comfortable with him and his gang of 20 year olds using their own computer servers to poke through your tax returns, your health information and your bank accounts?’ she asked.
On immigration, an issue that helped propel Trump to the White House, she may have left a door open to compromise.
‘America is a nation of immigrants. We need a functional system keyed to the needs of our economy that allows vetted people to come and work here legally. So I look forward to the President’s plan on that,’ she said.
Slotkin’s rebuttal finally gave Democrats their chance to have their say. Rep. Al Green (D-Tex.) got booted from the House chamber after heckling Trump in protest. Others held up signs or yelled out their disapproval.
It was a symptom of Democrats’ larger struggle. They can’t stop Republicans in the House despite the GOP’s narrow majority. Without Republican help they can’t stop Trump’s nominees in the Senate. And Trump has been going around them – and sometimes the courts or other guardrails – with a slew of executive orders that has left the party deflated.
But her remarks spelled out one way for Democrats to try to win with a more centrist approach even while throttling Trump for some of his actions – after Trump attacked their party leaders during his speech and bragged about winning every battleground state.
Slotkin narrowly edged Trump-backed former Michigan Rep. Mike Rogers in the November elections, beating him by less than 20,000 votes in a state Trump carried.
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, who elevated her, called her ‘nothing short of a rising star in our party.’
Her state is impacted by the 25 percent tariffs Trump slapped on Mexico and Canada. Many U.S.-produced cars include parts and manufacturing from both sides of the border.
As her guest to the speech she brought Andrew Lennox, who lost his job at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Ann Arbor amid slashing job cuts by multiple agencies prodded by Elon Musk’s DOGE.
Slotkin, 48, has been reelected in a competitive House seat before winning statewide. She is a former Middle East analyst at the CIA, and did three tours in Iraq assisting the military.
