Politics
The false narrative at the heart of Trump’s victory over Harris
Since Tuesday night’s election results were tallied, there has been a recurrent refrain as to why Democrats lost so badly — they ignored the working class, both white and nonwhite.
In what amounted to the proverbial act of coming down to the battlefield and shooting the survivors, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., labeled the Kamala Harris campaign “disastrous” and said Democrats should not be surprised that “a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them.”
There are a couple of problems with Sanders’ argument. The most obvious and glaring is that it simply isn’t true that Democrats abandoned the working class.
It simply isn’t true that Democrats abandoned the working class.
During his nearly four years in office, President Joe Biden was arguably the most pro-union president since FDR. He literally walked a picket line, supported union organizing efforts, increased funding for the National Labor Relations Board. He infused $36 billion into the Teamsters Union pension plan (an act that Sanders praised).
Biden’s attention to the working class went far beyond the symbolic. The Inflation Reduction Act, the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the CHIPS Act all led to a fertile job creation environment — and a significant increase in manufacturing jobs, which declined during Donald Trump’s presidency. (It bears noting that all of this legislation passed in the U.S. Senate with the support of the senior senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders.)
Indeed, since Biden took office, the U.S. economy has added more than 16 million jobs — which starkly contrasts Trump’s negative job growth rate. As for wages, the working class saw a higher increase in their pay than any other group of Americans, so much so that it undid one-third of the growth in wage inequality since 1980.
During Biden’s administration, subsidies for Obamacare grew. He forgave billions in student loan debt, much of which went to community college students. His Department of Labor changed overtime eligibility rules, boosting wages for more than 4 million workers and also increased pay for construction workers on federal projects.
Critics like Sanders would likely argue that these successes weren’t messaged properly to working-class Americans. That’s not true either. As the New Republic’s Greg Sargent pointed out earlier this week, the Harris campaign poured $200 million into ads that focused on her economic message. In fact, she outspent the Trump campaign by around $70 million on ads about the economy.
What was the content of these ads? Calls to end corporate price gouging, lower housing costs, cut middle-class taxes and protect Social Security and Medicare. Other Harris ads accused Trump of only looking out for his billionaire pals and corporations and attacked him for enacting tax cuts that were primarily directed at the wealthiest Americans.
This is the definition of an economic populist message.
Critics like Sanders would likely argue that these successes weren’t messaged properly to working-class Americans. That’s not true either.
Yet, Biden’s record and the disparity in the two candidates’ economic messages didn’t increase the party’s support among working-class voters (which are defined here as those without a college degree). Arguably, it improved Harris’ margins in swing states where these ads predominately ran, but according to preliminary exit polls, Trump won them by 14 percentage points over Harris (56%-42%), a 6-point improvement over his performance in 2020.
Harris only did one point worse than Biden among white working-class voters, but she was still mired in the low 30s with them. Instead, her losses came among the nonwhite working class, a group with which she did 16 points worse than Biden — and 26 points worse than Hillary Clinton.
In short, under Biden, Democrats adopted one of the most pro-working class policy agendas in recent political memory, enacted much of it — and accrued no electoral benefit.
As for Trump, his main economic agenda item was a pledge to increase tariffs, which by increasing costs on imported items, would have disproportionately harmed low-wage workers. Did he have a plan for lowering housing or dealing with health care? What about lowering inflation?
What Trump essentially offered the working class were attacks on undocumented immigrants, which his campaign blamed for much of the nation’s ills.
As in 2016, Trump served as a political voice channeling the fears, cultural grievances and resentments of working-class Americans — and, as has been the case for much of the past 60 years for Republicans, it worked.
Of course, it’s not just Trump. The GOP’s attention to the white working class is overwhelmingly symbolic. They offer nothing substantive on policy. They oppose expanding health care access or raising the minimum wage.
During Trump’s tenure in office, his major legislative accomplishments were a tax cut for the wealthy and the further tilting of the economic playing field in favor of corporations and not workers. While some working-class voters drifted away from him in 2020, he easily won them back in 2024 (and of course, won the majority of such voters in both elections). None of his policy positions mattered much at all.
During Trump’s tenure in office, his major accomplishments were a tax cut for the wealthy and further tilting the economic playing field in favor of corporations, not workers.
Take, for example, what happened in Missouri on Election Day. Voters in the Show Me State didn’t just narrowly support a referendum enshrining a right to abortion in the state constitution by a 58%-42% margin, they backed a ballot measure raising the minimum wage and requiring employers to provide paid sick leave. Yet, at the same time, only 40% of the state’s voters cast a ballot for Harris, who, unlike Trump, supports both policy initiatives.
Democrats are a party of “doing stuff” with an electorate utterly indifferent to the stuff they do.
As Larry Mishel, former president of Economic Policy institute, who has written extensively on politics and the working class, said, there is a glaring lack of connection between material reality, even material gains, and recognition or appreciation for such gains. “Partisanship shapes perceptions. There is simply a disconnect between policy, outcomes, and political rewards.”
Is there a path for Democrats to reverse their declining support with the working class? The short and depressing answer is that they likely can’t.
Appeals to the working class might have worked for Democrats when the Republican presidential nominee was a blue blood like Mitt Romney or even a creature of Washington like George H.W. Bush or Bob Dole. But when facing off against a racist demagogue like Trump, it’s a nearly insurmountable challenge.
Moreover, the Democrats’ political coalition is liberal and overwhelmingly Black (even with the inroads Trump made on Tuesday), which only compounds the challenge. The party can’t run against undocumented immigrants or retreat on cultural issues like guns, LGBTQ and civil rights, or abortion, which are such powerful political drivers among the working class.
In 1992, Bill Clinton could get away with naked appeals to white voters, like when he attacked the rapper Sister Souljah. Back then, the Democratic Party was around 80 percent white. Today, the number is closer to 56 percent.
Quite simply, the Democratic coalition as presently constructed doesn’t allow for the kind of political appeal that might (but probably wouldn’t) win back the working class.
Indeed, when I recently asked a red state Democrat what the national party would need to do to win over working-class Republicans, he joked, “Firebomb an abortion clinic.” The cultural divide is so intense — and Republicans are so hostile toward the left — that it’s hard to see any reasonable way for Democrats to bridge it.
If there is any path for Democrats to return to national power, it might be in doubling down on what produced such significant political gains for the party in 2018, 2020 and 2022 — college-educated suburban voters. At the same time, they need to find ways to arrest their slide with minority voters. Or considering the fact that the last four presidential elections have gone Democrat, Republican, Democrat, Republican —which hasn’t happened in America since the late 19th century — maybe they should just wait for an inevitable anti-Trump backlash.
But if Democrats think they can win back the loyalty of the working class, they likely should think again.
Michael A. Cohen is a columnist for BLN and a Senior Fellow and co-director of the Afghanistan Assumptions Project at the Center for Strategic Studies at the Fletcher School, Tufts University. He writes the political newsletter Truth and Consequences. He has been a columnist at The Boston Globe, The Guardian and Foreign Policy, and he is the author of three books, the most recent being “Clear and Present Safety: The World Has Never Been Better and Why That Matters to Americans.”
IT’S ZO TIME: Mayor Zohran Mamdani crisscrossed the city on his 100th day in office, relishing a milestone in a mayoralty that for much of last year seemed like an impossibility.
He started the day in Queens at a graduation ceremony for Department of Correction recruits, hopped over to the Bronx to celebrate trash cleanup efforts with a youth cheerleading squad and a garbage-can mascot, and then scooted to Harlem to perform home lead inspections.
But Day 100 was also marked by a budding scandal. Blue Light News reported today that Mamdani’s Department of Probation commissioner allegedly had a prior romantic relationship with the agency’s general counsel, and the chief investigator who reported it to the city’s watchdog says she was fired the next day for blowing the whistle, according to court documents.
“I take any allegations of misconduct incredibly seriously,” Mamdani said this morning, with cheerleaders behind him. “New Yorkers should rest assured that there is an investigation.”
In April 2025, New Yorkers were still confused whether the “ZM” they intended to vote for went by Zellnor or Zohran: “A woman came up to me at a forum and said she was so excited to vote for me, and then referred to me as Zellnor Mamdani,” Mamdani told Playbook last year. (The other ZM in question is past mayoral hopeful and current state Sen. Zellnor Myrie.)
Now in City Hall, the festival of 100 days is in full swing. The mayor has been on a media tour of sorts leading up to today, doling out interviews to the The New York Times, POLITICO, City & State, THE CITY — and even a 20-minute sit-down with Al Jazeera — as he reflects on the milestone.
“The first feeling is that of gratitude that I get to have 100 days as mayor,” Mamdani told us. “This is truly the dream of a lifetime, to have this position and to be trusted by New Yorkers to deliver on it.”
The ritual significance of 100 Days — highlighted by Mamdani’s advance team, which places a flippable day-counter in the background of his press conferences — has also led to some blunt evaluations.
The New York Post — which seemingly was not given an interview — marked the day with a laundry list of ways the mayor has backtracked on the lefty (and lofty) promises he made on the trail. The tabloid even got the president to weigh in on Mamdani’s milestone: “Gotta lower taxes or everyone’s leaving. It’s very simple,” President Donald Trump said.
The New York Times more soberly analyzed the status of Mamdani’s campaign promises: free buses? (stalled); rent freeze? (TBD); free child care? (on track); Department of Community Safety? (try Office of Community Safety); city-owned grocery stores? (unstarted); taxing the rich? (stalled); fighting for an expanded rental assistance program? (reversed). We’re also tacking on one more to the list: relinquishing mayoral control of city schools (abandoned).
But, according to his own accounting, the mayor still has lots of time to fulfill his biggest promises — frozen rent, free buses and free child care — possibly even until 2034. Earlier this week, we asked him if he thinks he has one or two terms to complete those three goals.
“Inshallah, it’s two terms,” he said. — Jason Beeferman
From the Capitol
LETTER TO CMS: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services admitted Friday that its analysis of fraud in New York’s Medicaid program included errors, according to reports from the Associated Press.
The admission comes in response to a 78-page letter Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration sent to the federal agency criticizing its miscalculation of state Medicaid data.
State officials rejected claims from CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz that the state’s $124 billion Medicaid program is riddled with fraud, waste, and abuse. In a lengthy response shared with Playbook last night, the state Department of Health accused the federal government of conflating increasing Medicaid costs as proof of foul play.
The dispute reflects a broader tension over how aggressively the federal government should police state Medicaid programs as costs rise. CMS has flagged several high-cost areas — including personal care, behavioral health and transportation — as particularly susceptible to fraud. But the agency’s glaring miscalculation in New York represents a hit to the Trump administration’s “fraud-busting” campaign.
“CMS wildly overstates utilization in areas like personal care. CMS also appears to conflate critical investments with fraud, misconstruing New York’s historic commitment to expanding access to behavioral health,” state Health Department spokesperson Cadence Acquaviva said in a statement to Playbook.
READ MORE from Blue Light News Pro’s Katelyn Cordero here.
100-FOOT RULE REPEAL: Hochul is signing a chapter amendment today to delay implementation of the so-called 100-foot rule repeal for a year.
For decades, New York required ratepayers to subsidize gas hookups for new residential buildings. If a new building was within 100 feet of a gas main line, utilities would connect the building and pass the cost onto other consumers.
In 2021, extending gas service to new residential customers cost ratepayers about $500 million, according to an analysis by the Public Utility Law Project of New York.
“I have made affordability a top priority and doing away with this 40-year-old subsidy that has outlived its purpose will help with that,” Hochul said in a statement last December when she signed the legislation.
Repealing the 100-foot rule was a priority for environmental advocates last session. The provision was originally included in the NY HEAT Act, legislation that aimed to transition the state off of gas infrastructure. That bill would have amended gas utilities’ “obligation to service” and put a 6 percent income cap on utility bills for low-income customers. But when it became clear the bill would not become law, advocates spun out the 100-foot rule provision as a standalone bill that had the support to make it across the finish line. — Mona Zhang
FROM CITY HALL
MORE DOIMAGE CONTROL: Mamdani is scrambling to shore up support for a key appointment whose fate rests with the New York City Council — another twist in the mounting tensions between the mayor and the body of lawmakers meant to be a check on his power, POLITICO Pro reports this afternoon.
Mamdani’s team has been working behind the scenes to set up one-on-one meetings between Council members and his pick to lead the Department of Investigation, Nadia Shihata, according to four people with knowledge of the outreach granted anonymity to discuss private conversations.
The hope is the meetings will assuage lawmakers’ concerns about her past political support for the mayor and a longstanding social relationship with Mamdani’s top legal adviser.
The administration’s overtures — which come just days before lawmakers are set to vote on the nomination next week — indicated to at least one Council member that the mayor and his staff are worried about Shihata’s path to confirmation for the DOI commissioner post.
“Otherwise they don’t call,” said Council member Gale Brewer, who was among at least four lawmakers who received offers to meet with Shihata.
The sudden obstacle for Shihata’s nomination lands in Mamdani’s lap amid a broader and increasingly pitched budget feud between Mamdani and Council Speaker Julie Menin, as the mayor grapples with a $5.4 billion funding gap with few palatable options to close it.
The revelations about the tug-of-war over Shihata also come as POLITICO’s scoop about the DOI probe into Mamdani’s Department of Probation commissioner put a damper over what the mayor had hoped would be a celebratory weekend to mark his 100th day in office.
Read the story from Chris Sommerfeldt and Joe Anuta in Blue Light News Pro.
FROM THE BALKANS
THE ADAMS OF ALBANIA: Former Mayor Eric Adams is now a citizen of Albania.
His spokesperson Todd Shapiro confirmed the former mayor received an “honorary Albanian citizenship” and said the mayor thanks the country’s prime minister, Edi Rama, for the distinction.
“The decision by the Republic of Albania to grant Mayor Adams citizenship reflects that enduring relationship and mutual respect,” Shapiro said. “Leaders around the world — including mayors and presidents — have historically been recognized with honorary or dual citizenships as a symbol of international partnership and shared values.”
Adams was indicted on foreign bribery charges — which he denies — during his time as mayor, but the charges were dismissed after Trump’s Department of Justice intervened.
In an interview with Fox News that aired last week, Adams reflected on his life as a private citizen and said there’s “a great world out there waiting for me.”
“Because of my time as mayor, I spent a lot of time inviting foreign dignitaries to the city,” he said. “Now all of that has turned into some good communications and relationships.” — Jason Beeferman
FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL
YOU’VE GOT A FRIEND IN ME: Rev. Al Sharpton isn’t ruling out an endorsement for Jack Schlossberg in the crowded Democratic primary for NY-12.
Schlossberg and Sharpton met for breakfast last week where they talked about the Kennedy family, politics and faith — but not an endorsement, Page Six reported.
“I told him that what Trump is doing is trying to overturn everything his grandfather, President John Kennedy started in the early 1960s,” Sharpton wrote on social media. “It’s in Jack’s blood to fight this backlash.”
Playbook caught up briefly yesterday with Sharpton on the second day of his National Action Network conference, where he reemphasized that Schlossberg didn’t ask for an endorsement in the race and their meeting was to get to know each other.
When asked if he would endorse Schlossberg, Sharpton said it isn’t off the table.
“I like guys that show up,” Sharpton said. “None of his opponents have.”
Schlossberg spoke at the conference Wednesday, with Sharpton introducing him as a “new friend.”
“You are doing so much more than anyone that I know to advance the cause of civil rights,” Schlossberg said as he stood on stage next to the reverend. “You’ve been doing it my whole lifetime. You did it a whole lifetime before I was born, and you’re still doing it. It just gives us all — young people especially — someone to look up to, an example to learn from.”
A Sharpton endorsement would be a prominent boost for Schlossberg, who already has former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s backing — and could help further legitimize his candidacy beyond his celebrity. Some have criticized his lack of political experience compared to opponents like state Assemblymembers Micah Lasher and Alex Bores. Despite that, sparse polling has shown Schlossberg with a lead. — Madison Fernandez
IN OTHER NEWS
— LANDER SAYS NO TO ISRAELI AID: Congressional candidate Brad Lander now says he opposes all aid to Israel, including for its missile defense system, as he seeks to represent NY-10. (The Forward)
— GREEN COSTS BITE: New York City business leaders are urging the state to scale back parts of its climate law, saying compliance costs are becoming unsustainable. (CBS News)
— ICE COLD: A Poughkeepsie landlord is facing charges after threatening tenants with immigration enforcement officials. (Times Union)
— REP. ENGEL PASSES: Eliot Engel, who represented areas of the Bronx and Westchester in Congress for over 30 years, has passed away at age 79. (LoHud)
Missed this morning’s New York Playbook? We forgive you. Read it here.
After the Democratic National Committee punted on two resolutions in August that highlighted the party’s deep divide on Israel, DNC Chair Ken Martin convened a task force “to have the conversation” and “bring solutions back to our party.”
Seven months later, the Middle East working group — meeting today in-person for the second time — still has work to do.
The group, composed of eight DNC members with backgrounds in Jewish and Palestinian advocacy, has struggled to meet consistently or coalesce around shared objectives. Part of that is due to the difficulties of coordinating across schedules and time zones, with at least one member actively running for office. But atop those hurdles come the challenges of productive discourse about one of the party’s most contentious debates among a cohort with sharp ideological divides.
“People aren’t comfortable with being uncomfortable,” Steph Newton, a DNC member from Oregon who’s part of the working group, told Blue Light News. “These uncomfortable discussions are how we’re going to be able to move the party forward and find a solution.”
The working group met for the first time in December at the DNC’s winter meeting in Los Angeles, and convened virtually two more times, on March 1 and March 18. Those meetings mostly centered on figuring out what the group should be working on in the first place. “Most of the time, what we’ve talked about is, ‘What are we supposed to be doing?’” said James Zogby, another member from D.C.
The working group comes as divides over support for Israel remain a persistent liability for Democrats, and as AIPAC’s involvement in midterm primaries presents a new purity test for candidates. “No one gets anywhere by trying to shout the other side of the room — as a matter of fact, I think that would be harmful politics,” Andrew Lachman, another working group member from California, said.
A DNC spokesperson emphasized the group’s goal is to figure out how to talk to voters about the Middle East in a way that ultimately helps the party build coalitions and win elections.
The group’s inaction so far came into sharper focus yesterday at the DNC’s spring meeting in New Orleans, when the party’s resolutions committee considered one brought by Joe Salas, another member of the working group from California, to recognize Palestinian statehood.
“It is necessary for the Democratic National Committee to address the ongoing heinous and illegal acts against the Palestinian people. Some here may say that there is a working group. To that, I say that we are in a midterm year and they are yet to produce any results in a moment where anger has only grown amongst the American people,” said Cameron Landon, VP of the College Democrats of America, who spoke on behalf of Salas.
Salas, who wasn’t at the meeting, submitted the resolution without discussing it with the other members of the Middle East working group, according to Zogby and Newton, who said she was “surprised” to see it in the resolutions packet.
“I would assume that if we’re on a work group together discussing these issues, you say, ‘Hey, work group members, teammates, I want to submit a resolution on X, Y and Z. I know we’re working toward something like this together. Is this something that we can discuss?’” Newton said.
Deborah Cunningham-Skurnik, another member of the group from California, told the resolutions panel yesterday that there were “some parts of it I would like to go bit by bit over with” Salas.
Salas said in an interview ahead of the vote he wouldn’t attend the New Orleans meeting because “I’m just gonna let them have those words and reject them, accept them, modify them, whatever they want to do.” He didn’t respond to further requests for comment about why he didn’t tell the working group he submitted the resolution.
The panel ultimately referred those resolutions back to the working group — with a warning. “As a body, we recommend this going back to the task force,” said Ron Harris, the resolutions committee co-chair. “But then we can put some — I don’t want to say ‘constraints,’ but expectations that we hear back.”
John Verdejo, a DNC member from North Carolina, was more direct. “It can’t just be we have a task force and then the next time we have a DNC meeting, it just comes up again. No, we want to see your progress. You want to have a task force? You want to make the hard changes, have the hard discussions? Then do it,” he said.
Allison Minnerly, another working group member from Florida, said after the snafu that “so long as the party does not prioritize this conversation, you will see what happened today, which is that DNC resolutions committee members have many questions on the inaction and the results of the working group. It’s really clear that this issue will keep coming up at every subsequent DNC meeting until there’s a clear direction, solution, talking points.”
Now that the party has referred the resolutions to the working group, it finally has a clear, near-term objective for its meeting today.
“I actually am pleased that we will now have a very specific charge that we must accomplish in a defined period of time,” Zogby said. “We have not had a defined agenda, and it’s been difficult to get people together. Now we have to get this done, and there’s just no way we can duck it at this point.”
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Pope Leo XIV on Friday issued a sweeping condemnation of war, continuing to reject the idea that military action can bring about peace or freedom as the Trump administration and other leaders use religion to justify the U.S.-Israel war in Iran.
“God does not bless any conflict,” Leo wrote on X. “Anyone who is a disciple of Christ, the Prince of Peace, is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs.”
Military force, he added, will not result in peace or freedom — that “comes only from the patient promotion of coexistence and dialogue among peoples.” He did not mention President Donald Trump or other leaders by name in the post on X.
Trump, who describes himself as a Christian, but not Catholic, has invoked faith several times throughout his term as a means to justify his actions.
Trump on Monday told reporters at a White House press briefing that he believes God supports the Iran war “because God is good” and wants to “see people taken care of.”
Leo had previously condemned Trump’s threat from earlier this week to destroy Iranian civilization.
He called the threat “truly unacceptable” and urged that the conflict in the Middle East “is only provoking more hatred.”
At a Palm Sunday mass, Leo insisted that no one could use God to justify war, telling the tens of thousands of people gathered before him that God “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has framed the Iran war, which reached a temporary ceasefire Tuesday after six weeks of fighting, as divinely sanctioned — often turning to prayer and belief that God is on the side of the U.S. military.
At a Pentagon church service held weeks after the Iran war began, Hegseth, who is also a Christian, but not Catholic, read a prayer that called for violence against military enemies.
“Let every round find its mark against the enemies of righteousness and our great nation,” he prayed during the livestreamed service. “Give them wisdom in every decision, endurance for the trial ahead, unbreakable unity, and overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.”
- Trump endorses ‘focused’ immigration enforcement funding bill
- Mamdani’s 100th day
- Inside the DNC’s Middle East (not) working group
- Pope Leo XIV condemns war, rejects claims of divine backing
- Harris gives her clearest signal she is mounting a 2028 presidential bid
- Newly created Polymarket accounts bet big on US-Iran ceasefire in hours before Trump’s announcement
- These Republican-on-Republican disputes are keeping Congress frozen
- Why Trump’s endorsement hasn’t been a ‘close out move’ for Louisiana Senate
- Candidate security costs up in era of political violence: Research
- CDC delays COVID vaccine benefits report
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