How to Make the GOP Pay a Price for DOGE

Trump made a huge mistake by putting Musk in charge of implementing deeply unpopular policy

I have seen this movie before, beat for beat.

In August of 2010, in the middle of the effort to pass the Affordable Care Act, Congress went home for a month-long recess. At every townhall and interaction with their constituents, they were bombarded with complaints from voters angry about the pending health care bill. Democrats were shaken. The process slowed as the party brainstormed a response to this backlash. More importantly, a media narrative was born. The Affordable Care Act became polarizing — something to fear. Previously, most Americans paid little attention to the arcane efforts towards health care reform. They learned about it from news coverage of people angrily screaming about the dangers of the bill.

We’ve since learned that much of that energy was “astro-turfed” by Republican groups funded by Right Wing billionaires like the Kochs and the Tea Party Movement. It was as much about the election of a Black president as it was the size and scope of government.

The angry townhalls are back. This time, voters are furious about the chaotic, clumsy, and counter-productive cuts from Elon Musk’s DOGE Commission.

Voters find themselves disillusioned as townhalls in Georgia and across the country reveal the so-called populist they elected to cut prices is instead cutting their services, their government aid, and laying off their friends and neighbors. Some Republican members of Congress are complaining publicly; and many more are privately expressing their concerns to the White House.

It’s early, but this is clear evidence of a grassroots backlash to Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s assault on our government. Democrats must define Trump’s presidency, push back on the cuts, and regain political momentum.

This post is part of a series about the various strategies and tactics Democrats — from leadership down to activists — can employ to make Trump more unpopular. If you want to follow along and participate in the conversation, sign up here.

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1. Add Fuel to the Fire

The backlash is reminiscent of 2010. People fear that the world’s richest man and his squad of inexperienced tech goons are rummaging around in the government and shutting down entire agencies and programs just cuz. The chaos and incompetence is palpable. There is legitimate concern about job loss in the parts of the country (i.e. most of the country) that have significant federal government employment.

Democrats need to channel and communicate this dissatisfaction. Back in 2017 when Trump was trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act, there were several efforts to organize attendance at GOP townhalls — oftentimes this meant simply publicizing the details of when and where the townhalls were being held. I have no doubt that many of the same Democratic groups that did this in 2017 are doing it again, but this is priority number one. We need support from the highest echelons of the Democratic Party as well as media personalities with platforms.

In 2017, Republicans eventually stopped having townhalls to avoid facing their own constituents. That outcome is possible again. In that event, Democrats should hold and livestream their own townhalls. Democratic presidential hopefuls (of which there are many) should go to places where the DOGE cuts are most impactful like Atlanta, Georgia, Birmingham, Alabama, and the Research Triangle in North Carolina and hold townhalls. They should be real townhalls. Open invitation. Don’t pack the crowd with supporters. Prepare for uncomfortable conversations and protestors. The drama will draw coverage and conversation. Lean into the risk.

2. Be Specific

The idea of shrinking the government is broadly popular, but cutting specific programs, aid, and services is traditionally unpopular. As Politico columnist Jonathan Martin recently said in Playbook:

If the theoretical becomes the tangible on DOGE. On paper, voters like the idea of paring back the federal government. But it has long been axiomatic that Americans are ideologically conservative but operationally liberal. Which is a fancier way of saying they don’t like cutbacks when it’s their asses on the line.

Trump will pay for DOGE if we can be specific in our critique — talk about the individual services being cut, the people losing their jobs, and the opportunity cost of cutting back on research. If this is an argument about the size of government or a reflexive defense of institutions or protocols, we lose. If it’s about what Trump, Musk, and their enablers in Congress are taking from people, we win.

Data for Progress polled specific programs that could be targeted by DOGE. These polls can help guide your conversations with friends and family.

Grow Progress, a top Democratic research outfit, shared with me the results of a recent test of ten messages about the impacts of Trump’s funding freeze. The most persuasive messages focused on cuts to HeadStart and healthcare for women and girls:

• States have been unable to access federal payment systems, even for pre-approved expenses. HeadStart programs and childcare centers around the country cannot pay their staff or provide meals for children. Many are closing their doors. When children can’t go to school, parents can’t work.

• The order specifically cuts off medicines, low-cost vaccines, prenatal care, and essential healthcare for more than 90 million women and children at home and worldwide.

Messages about PEPFAR and pandemic prevention were less well received. You can read the whole memo with all of the results HERE.

Use the polling, but I still advise you to talk about the initiatives you feel most passionate about. Whether in a townhall, over a cup of coffee, or arguing in a family group chat, authenticity is more important than precision. The worst thing you can do is sound like a politician vomiting up talking points that have been focused-grouped to death (This advice goes for politicians, too!).

Share as many stories and clips as possible on social media. Send them to your friends and family. Don’t assume anyone is following this closely.

3. Make It About Musk

Elon Musk is not running for office. He will not be on the ballot when we try to take back Congress in 2026. Trump loves that Musk is taking the brunt of the criticism from the DOGE cuts. But nonetheless, Democrats should use Musk in their messaging. He is an attention magnet. I recently wrote:

By design, Elon Musk gets a lot of attention. One way to be heard in this fragmented, hyper-kinetic ecosystem is to talk about controversial people. And few people on the planet generate more controversy — and online engagement — than Musk. There is an algorithmic incentive to center him in our messaging — a comment about Musk is more likely to go viral than one about Trump. Frankly, Democrats have been attacking Trump for a decade now and lots of people, the press and the algorithms are bored by it.

I am personally exhausted by Musk. But he cannot be ignored. A message only works if people hear it. Talking about Musk solves that problem. I hope to see this photo in a lot of ads next year:

4. Explain the Aid and Services Cuts

Musk and Trump keep talking about our deficit and the need to save money. That is not why these cuts are happening. Musk is taking his chainsaw to our government for two reasons. First, Trump and Musk hate the government. They view it as an impediment to making more money. They don’t want to follow the rules or be held accountable. If they can decimate the government, the country is theirs. They certainly don’t care about the people who will be hurt. The second reason is just as pernicious. The cuts will fund a massive tax cut for corporations and billionaires like Trump and Musk. Data for Progress found the following message to be very effective:

Putting the world’s richest man, who also happens to be a giant attention magnet, in charge of making unpopular cuts was a big mistake. Trump is leading with his chin. And Democrats are about to land an uppercut.