Pollster Frank Luntz said Tuesday that Democrats’ strategy of attacking President Donald Trump by highlighting fired federal employees is bound to fail.
Democrats plan to take fired federal employees to Trump’s Tuesday night congressional address and the party has criticized his administration for its firings, according to The Hill. When asked by host Brianna Keilar on “CNN News Central” if the party’s focus on federal workers will be effective, Luntz said it would not resonate with the American public.
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“It’s not going to work for them because people see through it. They see the politicization of it. And I saw this for the first time back in the Enron days, when they tried to pin the Republicans for the behavior of corporate America,” Luntz said. “If you look like you’re doing it for political reasons, they will reject you. If you look like you’re doing it for the genuine health and safety and wellbeing of the American people, they will embrace you.
“These Democrats who proudly proclaim that they’re the resistance, they’re not helping their party,” he continued. “In fact, they’re helping their party fail. They’re causing the party to focus on the wrong issues, in the wrong language, in the wrong way.”
Luntz said in February that voters who previously backed Democratic presidential candidates, but supported Trump in 2024, were responding positively to the rapid pace of his second administration.
“They’re reacting to it because they love the pace of change. They were very fed up over the last four years. They wanted action. They wanted results. They looked at prices,” Luntz said at the time. “They looked at affordability. They looked at immigration. And they didn’t see anything happening. They still don’t like what he says, but they like what he does. ”
“They wanted to see a reduction in wasteful Washington spending. And they’re seeing that. So what they tell me is, ‘I wish he would be a little bit less rude,’ but at the same time, they like what he’s doing,” he added. “They believe he’s serious about it.”
Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) claims on its website that it has cut an estimated $105 billion in government spending, including workforce reductions.
When Keilar said during the February segment that Luntz’s remarks signaled “a big wake-up call for Democrats,” the pollster retorted that he was “waiting for them to get a message.”
“I’m waiting for them to unify and to understand that to oppose and to be the resistance, which is what some of them use that phrase, that’s not what Democrats in grassroots areas want from them,” he continued. “They may not want the approach that Trump is doing … but they do want action and they don’t see action from the Democrats.”
In 2019 there were approximately 800,000 federal employees. In 2024 there were 3,000,000. Plenty of fat to cut.
Donald Trump is doing exactly what he was elected to do (both times)! He is exposing the corruption within our government and the bad actors on both sides of the isle. The main reason that a lot of republicans, and definitely the Dems, do not want him in office! I entirely agree with his implementation of DOGE and the cuts, firings and cleaning house of the current corrupt wasteful spending of Our tax dollars. Are we going to feel some pain, absolutely, but in the end the American People will prosper from a Donald Trump presidency.
Like an old building, you have to tear it down or gut it to rebuild it! I agree with everything his administration is doing to “Make America Great Again.”