Dems grudgingly admit Trump's political savvy at Hill Nation Summit

Some top Democrats at the Hill Nation Summit on Wednesday paid grudging compliments to President Trump’s political moves as the party looks to learn from its November losses and chart a new path forward. 

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) lauded the Republican as a “very talented politician” despite their disagreements, while Rep. Jim Himes (Conn.), the leading Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, offered praise for Trump’s foreign policy. 

The lawmakers’ careful acknowledgements come as the Democratic Party broadly tries to learn from their 2024 losses and build momentum for the 2026 midterms, when they’ll be looking to cut into the GOP’s narrow 220-212 majority. 

“Donald Trump's a very talented politician, right? I don’t agree with him as a leader. He's a very talented politician,” Khanna said at the Summit. He praised the president alongside progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, despite their stark political split.

Later in the conversation, Khanna also contended that Democrats have been “way too judgmental” of Americans who voted for Trump.

“We acted as if the problem was the voters; the problem was the party, and we acted with a condescension and a judgment on voters,” Khanna told NewsNation contributor Chris Cillizza. The Hill and NewsNation are both owned by Nexstar. 

Democrats have struggled to redefine the party in the wake of last year’s big losses, when the GOP flipped the White House and took control of both chambers of Congress. The party is now pulling in its lowest favorability ratings in decades, and prominent activists within the party have called for a new generation of leaders, stoking intraparty frustration.

Frank assessments of both 2024 and the current political landscape are critical, strategists said, to helping Democrats find their footing. 

“You can't understand how to win by repeating losing behavior; you have to study winners. And the reality is that Trump has won two of his three elections,” said Democratic strategist Fred Hicks. “I think it's prudent to understand how Republicans have earned the votes of so many people.” 

Khanna, a prominent House progressive who’s been mired in speculation about potential presidential ambitions, also criticized that his own party “has not had a compelling economic vision for years.” He said at the Summit that he hasn’t yet made a decision on whether to run for president in 2028, but notably suggested that he could bring a better economic vision forward. 

Himes, also speaking at the Hill Nation event, gave Trump rare kudos on his foreign policy moves, even as he stressed his disagreement on other issues. 

“I could spend the next hour talking about things I don't like about this presidency or about MAGA, but I will give him some real credit on foreign policy,” Himes said. 

He pointed to Trump’s “practical approach” in the Middle East, including the signing of an executive order in January to end sanctions against Syria after the unexpected collapse of Bashar Assad’s regime. 

“I mean, the opening to Syria, I did not anticipate that. That’s pretty amazing…. I give the president and his administration credit for this — to build up and support the Syrian regime,” Himes said.

The Connecticut lawmaker has previously scoffed at Trump’s claims of success following U.S. strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites, but told the Summit that there’s “no question” that between the Israelis and the United States, the Iranian nuclear program has been “meaningfully” set back.  

"Now, whether 'meaningfully' is six months or six years is still very much open to question," he added.

Public acknowledgements of GOP wins could serve Democrats, strategists suggested, by helping to rebuild credibility and signal a desire to work across the aisle. 

“The problem in American politics right now is that if your team runs the play, then it's OK; if the other team does it, then it's not. What that has done is that's created a deficit of trust in our system, amongst voters, everyday people,” Hicks said. 

Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D) at the Hill Nation Summit touted her bipartisan work with Republican Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and other Republicans on the “Take It Down” Act, criminalizing deepfake revenge porn, which Trump signed into law this spring.

“We have worked together despite having major disputes over judges and other things. We’ve worked together on a number of these issues. He’s been willing to stand up,” Klobuchar told The Hill’s Alex Bolton. 

Next year, Democrats will be vying to take advantage of traditional headwinds against the president’s party in midterm years and claw back ground lost in key blue and swing states — and with core demographics — during the presidential election.

To that end, Democratic campaign arms are ramping up efforts to generate party enthusiasm — while top Washington figures are leaning in on controversy around Trump’s immigration raid protests, Medicaid cuts in the recently signed megabill and other issues as they try to amass fodder for midterm races. 

Broadly, there’s “a lot” for Democrats to learn from Trump’s approach to politics, which has allowed him to “hypnotize his base” along the campaign trail and in office, said Democratic strategist Antjuan Seawright.

“Two things happen with elections: You win or you learn,” Seawright said of the 2024 results.

“I think there's certainly a lot to learn from Trump's political career and his style, and I think more than anything, to learn that we don't have to continue this idea of doing business as usual, but we must master doing unusual business.”

Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Md.) at the Summit stressed that Democrats need to keep up with the changing media landscape as Republicans dominate online arenas. 

But the Maryland lawmaker told The Hill’s Judy Kurtz that he’s optimistic about Democrats’ chances to win back the House next year, pointing to the president’s slipping approval numbers. 

“He’s hurting himself a lot,” Ivey said of Trump. “If we later on – we being the Democrats – layer on top of that an affirmative message … we could really have very strong gains.”

Trump has seen mixed reviews in recent weeks, even on some of his stronger issues, like immigration. The latest Economist/YouGov polling put Trump’s disapproval rating at its highest since the start of his second term. 

“If you want to turn voters out, get ‘em angry, get ‘em excited," Ivey said. "We’ll see if we can sustain it, but it’s certainly heading in the right direction for us at this point.”