On Tuesday, 21 House Democrats provided the margin of passage for a funding package that ends a partial government shutdown and bankrolls Trump’s military through September, as he wages war across the globe. The bill also includes a two-week stopgap to fund the ongoing campaign of murder and violence by Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents. Trump signed the $1.2 trillion bill into law the same day.
The House Democrats voted for the bill after it had already cleared the Senate on Friday, 71-29, with the support of Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Minority Whip Dick Durbin and Conference Vice Chair Mark Warner. In all, 23 Senate Democrats voted in favor. Schumer personally negotiated the deal with the Trump White House.
The passage of the spending bill in the House on Tuesday was a carefully calibrated maneuver between the Democratic and Republican leaderships. The bill passed the House by a narrow 217–214 margin. Twenty-one Republicans—primarily from the fascistic House Freedom Caucus—voted against the bill. The Democrats responded by supplying the exact number of votes needed to offset Republican defections.
These votes demonstrate that the Democratic Party functions not as an opposition but as an enabler of the Trump administration. Its priority is to ensure the uninterrupted funding of the US military while diverting popular opposition with calls for meaningless cosmetic changes to the administration’s efforts to establish a presidential dictatorship.
The passage of the spending bill comes amid mass outrage over the killing of Renée Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, by an ICE agent in Minneapolis on January 7, and then the killing of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old VA nurse, by CBP agents on January 24 while he was filming an immigration raid. Tens of thousands have taken to the streets in Minneapolis, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and cities across the country.
Trump has dispatched thousands of soldiers and National Guard troops to Los Angeles, New Orleans and Washington D.C., spending close to half a billion dollars on domestic deployments this year. The Pentagon placed 1,500 soldiers from the Army’s 11th Airborne Division on standby for deployment to Minneapolis.
The bill passed the same day a US Navy F-35C fighter jet from the USS Abraham Lincoln shot down an Iranian drone in the Arabian Sea. The carrier strike group is heading for the Persian Gulf, part of what Trump has called a “massive Armada” aimed at Iran. “Ready, willing, and able to rapidly fulfill its mission, with speed and violence, if necessary,” Trump wrote on Truth Social January 28.
The buildup against Iran follows the US military’s January kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, who were seized and transported to the United States on concocted drug charges.
The defense funding proposal “includes $8.4 billion more than the Pentagon’s request, with hundreds of millions in additional money needed to sustain programs like the E-7 Wedgetail—which the Air Force attempted to cancel—and the Navy’s F/A-XX fighter jet,” Breaking Defense reported. “Despite the $8 billion in added funds, because the Pentagon has submitted more than $50 billion in additional funding requests since its budget request was sent to Capitol Hill in June, the department will still be short some of the money it wants for FY26.” Trump has already announced he will seek $1.5 trillion for the military in fiscal 2027.
Trump urged the bill’s passage on Truth Social Sunday. “We need to get the Government open, and I hope all Republicans and Democrats will join me in supporting this Bill, and send it to my desk WITHOUT DELAY.”
In a January 31 interview with the New York Times, Schumer made clear the extent to which he has been serving as a loyal advisor to the Trump administration as it attempts to establish a presidential dictatorship in the face of mass popular opposition. “The American people hate what is going on in the streets,” Schumer said he told Trump, adding: “Frankly, it’s hurting your credibility in every way.”
“They know that this is hurting them,” Schumer told the Times, “and if these lawless, thuggy bands continue to roll through the streets, it is very bad for them. They have an impetus to reform it, particularly now that Trump sort of gave them green light.” The leader of the Senate Democrats is not opposing Trump’s attack on Democratic rights. He is coaching the administration on how to carry it out more effectively.
Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii, the next in line for Democratic leadership, told Semafor Monday: “Either Trump decides this is a political death spiral for him and he needs to get out of it… or we’re not going to have a deal.”
While the overwhelming majority of US workers and young people would like to see Trump removed from office, tried, and prosecuted for his systematic attack on the Constitution, the concern of the Democrats is to rescue the Trump administration from its “political death spiral.”
This is a continuation of the role the Democrats have played since January 6, 2021. After a fascist mob stormed the Capitol in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election, Democratic leaders rushed to rehabilitate the Republican Party. President Biden declared, “We need a Republican Party. We need an opposition that’s principled and strong.” After Trump won the 2024 election after large portions of the US financial oligarchy swung behind him, Biden shook his hand in the Oval Office and pledged the transition would be “as smooth as it can get.”
The Washington Post editorial board, speaking for a substantial section of the political establishment, published a column Monday titled “Better oversight will help ICE rebuild needed trust.” It declares: “Lawmakers of goodwill in both parties should understand that true accountability won’t impede ICE agents from going after threats to public safety.” By treating ICE’s rampage as a PR problem requiring “better oversight” rather than as a component of Trump’s drive toward dictatorial rule, the Post effectively endorses the crackdown itself.
The mass opposition to Trump—to the ICE killings, the military occupations, the threats of war against Iran and across Latin America—must not be diverted into the Democratic Party. The Democrats are not seeking to stop Trump. They are seeking to manage the political fallout from his fascist policies while ensuring that militarism and domestic repression continue without interruption.
Both parties represent the same financial oligarchy that has massively enriched itself under Trump. In the first year of his second term, the combined wealth of American billionaires grew by $1.5 trillion—a 22 percent increase—to $8.2 trillion. Elon Musk alone gained $305 billion. Both the Democratic and Republican parties serve this class, which demands the expansion of war, dictatorship and social inequality.