No Dem Should Help Trump Build His Regime— Every Vote For A Trump Nominee Is A Vote For His Agenda

Let's Stop Pretending His Cabinet Picks Are Normal

There are a handful of Senate Democrats who continue giving Trump’s nominees the patina of bipartisan support, generally led by John Fetterman and Jeanne Shaheen. Yesterday, the Senate confirmed Climate Change denier Lee Zeldin as head of the EPA 56-42. Even the conservative Shaheen couldn’t pull herself to vote for this one but there were still 3 Democrats who did:

• John Fetterman (PA)

• Rubin Gallego (AZ)

• Mark Kelly (AZ)

Cory Booker (NJ), who voted to confirm Scott Bessent Treasury Secretary this week and Jon Ossoff (GA) didn’t vote on this one. Even crackpot extremist Kristi Noem wound with 7 Democrats voting for her: Fetterman, Shaheen, Maggie Hasan (NH), Andy Kim (NJ), Gary Peters (MI), Elissa Slotkin (MI) and Tim Kaine (VA). 

In Zeldin’s case, his job in the Trump regime will to be “to dismantle major environmental regulations, and possibly parts of the 55-year-old agency itself,” reported Coral Davenport. He’s “a former House member with little experience in environmental regulation. He is expected to work to erase rules to fight climate change and chemical pollution, while shutting down programs designed to help poor and minority communities that are disproportionately affected by pollution… [He] has been directed to dismantle the largest climate rule ever enacted by the federal government. The rule, finalized last year, would cut tailpipe emissions of greenhouse gases, the nation’s largest source of planet-warming pollution, by compelling automakers to increase sales of hybrid and all-electric vehicles.”

The conservative Kelly plus Fetterman and  Gallego— each of whom once pretended to be vaguely “progressive”— will have that tagged to their political legacy.

CBS News reported that “Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island called Zeldin the wrong man for the job. ‘We need an EPA administrator who will take climate change seriously, treat the science honestly and stand up where necessary to the political pressure that will be coming from the White House, where we have a president who actually thinks (climate change) is a hoax, and from the huge fossil fuel forces that propelled him into office with enormous amounts of political money and who now think they own the place,’ Whitehouse said in a Senate speech. Trump is ‘under the thumb of the fossil fuel industry,’ Whitehouse said, adding that the EPA administrator ‘has to be truthful and factual and support and defend our environment and our safety from climate change.’ He has nothing against Zeldin personally, Whitehouse added, ‘but the likelihood of him standing against that fossil fuel bulldozer that is coming at him is essentially zero. And in that context, this is very much the wrong guy.’ The League of Conservation Voters, a national environmental advocacy group, has panned Zeldin's lifetime environmental record, giving him a 14% score. Like all Republicans at the time, he voted against the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act aimed at boosting renewable energy and manufacturing and fighting climate change.”

Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy, who would like to run for president, voted against confirming Zeldin— as well as the rest of Trump’s clown car cabinet. He told Greg Sargent that  “It is hard for us to argue that our democracy is falling if we’re helping to confirm all of his nominees. Taking too much of an à la carte approach to Trump’s abuses of power also risks squandering leverage… People will not take us seriously if we don’t do our jobs every day like we’re in the middle of a constitutional crisis. Today, everybody understands that he’s trying to seize power for corrupt purposes. But tomorrow, we have to start acting with purpose to stop what he’s doing.”

Yesterday, Murphy told his followers that he doesn’t “stoke fear or fan flames for the sake of attention or political points, but there’s no way around what is happening right now. We are in the midst of a constitutional crisis. Our democracy is being lit on fire while one man tries to use the government to enrich himself and his billionaire friends at our expense, dragging our democracy down with him… Trump is trying to seize power. Kings use the money in a nation’s treasury to reward friends and punish enemies. That’s what Donald Trump wants. It’s blatantly unconstitutional. Only Congress has the power to allocate funding. He’s normalized political violence done in his name. He’s fired a dozen inspector generals in federal agencies— independent watch dogs who make sure the rules are followed and your money isn’t stolen. And if he takes from Congress its constitutional power to decide where taxpayer money goes, guess who does not have to worry about their funding being turned off? The companies owned by his billionaire friends and red states run by those loyal to him. And with faith in our courts— packed by Trump-approved politicians in robes— at an all time low, how can we expect anyone to trust that there will be legitimate checks on his actions? This is how we go from democracy to oligarchy.” 

He concluded that “Democrats need to stand up and fight back, and I’ve spent the last two days trying to model the kind of action and talk that can help win the day. Republicans have abdicated their responsibility and are telling the country that they intend to let Trump run roughshod over our government and seize unlimited power. The Senate has meaningful leverage. Not a single nominee should even get a vote until it’s clear that this will never happen again. Any one of us can slow down Trump’s cabinet nominations and block business from proceeding as usual. That’s exactly what I did last week with the CIA director, and I know that my Democratic colleagues are now prepared to join me in these efforts. But let us not ignore the absolute insanity of Republican Senators fully deferring the job they were elected to do to Trump.”

Democrats should understand by now that every confirmation vote for a Trump nominee is a vote to normalize an administration that is actively working to dismantle democracy. Murphy hit the nail on the head— Democrats can’t credibly argue that Trump is an existential threat while simultaneously helping to staff his regime. This isn’t just about bad policy; it’s about legitimizing an administration that is openly corrupt, authoritarian and hostile to the rule of law.

Zeldin’s confirmation is a perfect example of how bipartisanship, in this case, is complicity. His role isn’t just to weaken environmental protections— it’s to destroy them. And every Democrat who voted to confirm him is now politically tied to that destruction. Fetterman, Gallego and Kelly may try to justify their votes as pragmatic, but there’s nothing pragmatic about helping Trump gut the EPA. That’s not a compromise; it’s an endorsement of his anti-environment, pro-corporate agenda.

The stakes go beyond individual nominees. Every vote to confirm a Trump cabinet member is a step toward legitimizing a regime that is openly trying to consolidate power and erode democratic institutions. As Murphy put it, Trump is treating the government as a tool for enriching himself and his allies while punishing his enemies. His nominees aren’t independent actors— they’re handpicked enforcers of that agenda. When Democrats vote for them, they give away one of the few tools they have to slow down his consolidation of power.

Senate Democrats have the ability to grind Trump’s governing apparatus to a halt. They should use it. No nominee should be approved unless Republicans agree to real guardrails against Trump’s abuses of power. If they refuse, then every Trump nominee must be blocked. This isn’t about policy differences— it’s about whether the Senate will be complicit in enabling an authoritarian power grab.

I don't mean to sound overly dramatic but history won't look kindly on those in Congress who choose to help Trump dismantle democracy in the name of bipartisanship.