Long-Time Dem Operative Says Dems Fear Trump’s Success As They’ll Have Nothing To Sell To The Public

A long-time Democratic Party operative appeared Wednesday on Fox Business to criticize Democratic leaders and said the party fears that President Donald Trump will enjoy success implementing policies that are popular.

Democratic lawmakers held a rally Tuesday outside the Treasury Department to protest Elon Musk’s access to that agency’s data. That operative, Julian Epstein, said on “The Evening Edit” that the rally looked like a bad “Saturday Night Live” skit. Epstein went on to say that the real fear for Democrats is the potential loss of their core political offerings — big government and identity politics.

“What the Democrats and caterwauling really fear is that Trump is going to be successful in cutting out waste and unpopular policies like DEI from the federal government and is gonna have public support for it,” Epstein told Elizabeth MacDonald. “Why are they so scared about that? Because if big government and the sort of, you know, neo-Marxist ideas like the DEI and race preferences, if those things fall with public support then Democrats have nothing to sell to the public. That’s what they’re really scared about.”

Epstein added that the Democratic objections to Musk’s audits lack legal grounding.

“It was just so pathetic, and then you sort of get to the statements that Musk doesn’t have the authority to do it. I mean these guys, I would say need not just to go back to first-year law school class but to high school civics. The president and his representatives have all of the legal authority they need to go into the federal agencies and cut out waste and cut out policies that aren’t popular. This is perfectly legitimate. There’s nothing mildly illegal about it but Democrats are talking about lock him up for Elon Musk,” Epstein said.

Several Democrats rallied after the Treasury Department gave the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) access to the treasury system, including Democratic California Rep. Maxine Waters who had a meltdown expressing her disapproval of both President Donald Trump and Musk.

In response to these developments, Democratic lawmakers vowed to block Trump’s legislative initiatives, and party strategists have set up a new war room at Democratic headquarters. This move follows Trump and Musk’s move which led to significant changes at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Early Monday, during a discussion on X Spaces, Musk disclosed that he and Trump had decided to dissolve USAID.

After Musk’s announcement, the Trump administration instructed USAID personnel to shift to remote work, according to an overnight email reported by NBC News. By Monday afternoon, Secretary of State Marco Rubio had taken over as the acting director of USAID. Supporting this overhaul, Republican Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst supported Musk’s and Trump’s decision, criticizing USAID for inefficient fund management and the ineffective distribution of resources to designated recipients.