WASHINGTON — “We can't chase every crazy squirrel that runs out of Trumpland.”

That’s Sen. Adam Schiff’s view of how Democrats should approach Trump 2.0.

What You Need To Know

  • Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif. says Democrats need to take a measured and strategic approach when it comes to the second Trump administration

  • “We can't chase every crazy squirrel that runs out of Trumpland," said Schiff.  “We have to focus on the things that really matter, and we have to be always also making the affirmative case for ourselves for the Democratic Party."

  • Some progressive Democrats in particular have criticized the response of the party’s congressional leaders to Trump’s flood of executive orders as weak.

  • Over the last few days, Democrats have stepped up their messaging efforts against the Trump administration, particularly on the federal funding freeze

“We have to focus on the things that really matter, and we have to be always also making the affirmative case for ourselves for the Democratic Party,” said the U.S. senator from California in an interview with Spectrum News.

He cited as an example the freeze on federal grants and loans President Donald Trump’s administration tried to put in place this week as a prime example. A federal judge on Tuesday, imposed a temporary stay of the order until a hearing next week. The next day, the administration lifted the freeze.

“That just truly reached out and harmed everyday Americans, and I think we fought successfully to get them to rescind it within about 24 to 48 hours.”

Schiff, a frequent target of Trump’s attacks, said Democrats should focus on the significant executive orders that Trump is signing, “like the mass deportations that are driving up food prices.”

“In California, farm workers are not showing up on farms, citrus that's going to remain on the trees that's going to push up food prices – directly contradicting what Trump said he would do in bringing prices down,” accused Schiff. “[Democrats] need to make the affirmative case that we are fighting for ordinary Americans who are trying to pay their bills, who are trying to provide for themselves and their families, and they're fighting for the Elon Musks of the world, the wealthy, wealthy billionaires and mega rich corporations. They're in the category of other things that matter. Their number one priority legislatively, they made clear, [are] tax cuts for rich people. Our number one priority is helping average families, and we need to continue to forcefully make that case.”

Some progressive Democrats in particular have criticized the response of the party’s congressional leaders to Trump’s flood of executive orders as weak. A never-Trump Republican, former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., also questioned the Democrats’ response.

“I don’t know where the Democrats are,” Kinzinger wrote on his Substack page. “Are there comments on Twitter occasionally? Sure. Is there a press release? Yeah, there’s a press release occasionally. But there is no organized message.”

On Friday, Democrats in Congress waged a coordinated response on the potential impacts on their constituents if Trump’s federal funding pause actually goes into effect: Rep. Katherine Clark, D-Mass., the number two House Democrat, held a press conference in the Boston area; Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., delivered meals to the elderly; and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., held a press conference in Brooklyn.

“The federal funding freeze that was put into place this week was unlawful, unconscionable and un-American. It was part of an effort to rip off the American people, connected to a Republican scheme to cut taxes for billionaires and wealthy corporations and force everyday Americans, working-class Americans, low-income Americans and middle-class Americans to pay for it. It's not acceptable and we're going to fight hard to make sure it never happens,” railed Jeffries.

Schiff said his office has received calls from Head Start providers all over California that wanted to know if they could continue to remain open, as well as from homeless shelters trying to find out whether they could continue to provide rental subsidies.

“They issue this executive order, a series of executive orders, they issued a memorandum of freezing off funding, and then they said they were rescinding the memorandum, but not the executive orders. Nobody knows what to make of that, except it's created great confusion, and for average Americans, it has deep impacts,” said Schiff, who added this is part of the Trump playbook. 

“They want to kind of flood the zone; ‘hey, if we freeze all funding, maybe you won't notice that we just fired the inspector general as a violation of law. So some of it is deliberate, but it's causing real harm.”

The stay by the federal judge is set to run through Monday, but a separate judge has indicated he will also rule to further block the order after 22 state attorneys general sued for the temporary stay.