Democratic Leader Jeffries says Trump's 100 days filled with 'chaos,
cruelty and corruption'
[May 01, 2025]
By LISA MASCARO
WASHINGTON (AP) — Bringing the kind of punch many voters are demanding,
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Wednesday that President
Donald Trump's 100 days in office have been an assault of Americans'
very way of life and promised Democrats in Congress are fighting as hard
as they can to stop more " bad things” from happening.
In a major address on the milestone of Trump’s time at the White House,
Jeffries, who could become House speaker if Democrats regain power, also
put Republicans in Congress on notice that their days as a "rubber
stamp” to Trump's agenda of “chaos, cruelty and corruption” won’t last.
“The Trump administration has been a disaster,” Jeffries of New York
told the packed crowd at a historic theater in Washington.
“Donald Trump and the Republicans thought they could ‘shock and awe’ us
into submission,” he said, adding they were wrong. “We're just getting
started.”
The leader’s speech stood as an assessment not only Trump’s return to
the White House, but also of the strength of the Democratic resistance.
Americans are registering a weariness with the president, with just half
saying he's focused on the right priorities. The Democratic leadership
in Congress is being tested over how best to confront the speed, scope
and scale of the Trump administration’s unprecedented, and at times
unlawful, actions.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has mocked the attempt by Democratic leaders
to find their political footing as Trump blazes through the start of his
second term at the White House, which the GOP leader celebrated with
four words: “Promises made, promises kept.”
Johnson cited the Trump's achievements in deporting immigrants,
reversing the government's diversity programs and others, arguing the
president has as accomplished more during this period than many do “in
their entire careers.”
Jeffries has at times been seen a cautious leader, known for his ability
to stay cool under enormous pressure. But standing later on the steps of
the U.S. Capitol with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, Jeffries
and other lawmakers sought to assure Americans, and their own voters,
they were up for the job, and ready to fight back.
Schumer chalked up Trump’s first 100 days as defined by “one big F word
– failure.”
The leaders warned of more to come. Republicans in Congress, who hold
majority control of both the House and Senates, are rushing ahead to
deliver on Trump’s priorities, including his “big, beautiful bill” of
tax breaks and spending cuts.
Republicans are “complicit,” Schumer said, in failing to hold the
president responsible, even when he is breaking the laws.
One Democrat, Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock, encouraged GOP lawmakers to
peel away from Trump, imploring them with a message of the Civil Rights
era: “It's never too late to be on the right side of history.”
Warnock, who also was pastor of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s
historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, said Trump and the GOP are
trying to “weaponize despair” of the American people.
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House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, of N.Y., speaks during an
event with House and Senate Democrats to mark 100 days of President
Donald Trump's term on the steps of the Senate on Capitol Hill,
Wednesday, April 30, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark
Schiefelbein)
“They’re trying to so beat us down that we will be too so weary to
fight," Warnock said, “and it’s our job to prove them wrong.”
It may be just 100 days into the new presidential administration,
but the congressional leaders are already mapping the political
races ahead in the 2026 midterm elections. In the House, where
Johnson holds only the slimmest GOP majority, Jeffries is working
vigorously to win back the few seats needed to flip control to
Democrats.
Jeffries appears increasingly in command of his role, as the leader
of the Democratic minority in the House, but also as the rising
party leader on the national stage.
He told dad stories, shuttling his family on trips for his son's to
travel baseball game, and of his own understanding of the nation's
tax code seeing his wages on his first paycheck as a teenager in a
minimum wage job drawn out for Social Security and the safety net
programs he came to appreciate as Americans' earned benefits.
“You work hard for those benefits, pay into those benefits,” he
said, scoffing at Republican efforts to dismiss them as entitlement
programs.
Jeffries name-checked billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of
Government Efficiency for the “cruel” way they are slashing federal
spending that halts medical research and cuts employees' jobs. He
said Trump and Musk have failed to make life safer or more
affordable.
“Trump’s unconstitutional assault on the American way of life is
unprecedented. But the so-called dictator on day one is learning an
important lesson: Americans don’t bend the knee to bullies,”
Jeffries said.
“We will not rest until we end this national nightmare,” he said.
Jeffries stumbled slightly in his opening remarks about Trump’s
first 100 “years” — before quickly correcting himself to “days” —
saying the quiet part out loud for many Democrats and allies
exhausted by it all.
“Republicans in Congress could put a stop to this insanity at any
time,” Jeffries said. “Since they won't, next November, we will.”
Over the next 100 days, Jeffries says House Democrats will be laying
out their own blueprint for what they would do if they were in
charge — and it won’t be about Trump but “all about you.”
___
Associated Press writer Matt Brown contributed to this report.
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