House Democratic leadership privately confronted the roughly dozen progressive members of their caucus for apparently disregarding requests for decorum during President Donald Trump’s terrible speech to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday.
According to Axios, the three most senior House Democratic leaders—Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, Minority Whip Katherine Clark, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries—gathered the group of disruptors on Thursday morning. The trio was reportedly “very unhappy” with the cadre of leftist lawmakers who (gasp!) coordinated outfits or refused to clap during Trump’s nearly two-hour speech.
Reps. Jasmine Crockett of Texas, Maxine Dexter of Oregon, Maxwell Frost of Florida, and Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico, were among the progressive lawmakers called into the “come to Jesus meeting.”
A source familiar with the gathering stressed that the lawmakers were “not getting yelled at” nor were they “being talked to like they are children.” Instead, House Democratic leadership said they wanted the affected legislators to “understand why their strategy is a bad idea.”
Rep. Nydia Velazquez of New York and fellow Democrats protest President Donald Trump’s speech to Congress on March 4, 2025.
“It doesn’t surprise me leadership is very upset. They gave specific instructions not to do that,” another source said, seemingly referring to a “dear colleague” letter that Jeffries sent to the caucus before Trump’s address.
In the letter, Jeffries urged his colleagues to have a “strong, determined, and dignified Democratic presence in the chamber.” Democrats were also privately told not to use props during the president’s speech.
But some rank-and-file Democrats ignored both requests.
Stansbury, for instance, held a sign reading, “This is NOT normal,” which was yanked out of her hands by GOP Rep. Lance Gooden of Texas. And Frost wore a shirt donning the phrase, “No Kings Live Here,” an apparent reference to Trump’s description of himself as a “king” in a recent post on Truth Social.
Democrats don’t seem to know how they plan to protest Trump—assuming they even want to at all. Those who vote in favor of the president’s agenda, even if they later admit that they screwed up, face few consequences. Meanwhile, silent protesters are admonished behind closed doors while those who object to Trump’s lies more blatantly—such as Rep. Al Green of Texas—get censured by the House, including by 10 fellow Democrats.
Perhaps Democratic leadership wanted all protests to occur outside of the chamber. But considering that the bulk of their caucus has struggled to find an effective way to call out Trump, it’s shameful to pull aside the few members who have directly pushed back against the Trump administration.
Surprising no one, other “Democrats”—like Rep. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania—have also admonished dissenters. On the day of Trump’s speech, Fetterman called the protests “a sad cavalcade of self owns and unhinged petulance” in a post on X.
Notably, Democrats’ takedown of their own caucus’ protesting methods isn’t all that different from what Trump himself said shortly after Green was kicked out of the chamber.
“This is my fifth such speech to Congress,” he said, “and once again, I look at the Democrats in front of me, and I realize there is absolutely nothing I can say to make them happy or to make them stand or smile or applaud.”
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