In the first hours since his inauguration, Trump has offered sweeping pardons to Jan. 6 defendants, declared a national emergency at the southern border, and moved to axe diversity programs that employ hundreds of federal workers.

The flurry of changes had been expected for weeks, with Trump telegraphing in interviews the sort of steps he would take on Day One.

“No one should be surprised by these actions,” Democratic strategist Christopher Hahn told the Washington Examiner. “Trump campaigned on this and he’s doing what he said.”

Still, the sheer volume of executive orders is offering an early indication of how Democrats are recalibrating now that Trump is in office.

Part of their strategy has been to mount legal challenges in the courts, in particular over his attempt to end birthright citizenship. Meanwhile, Democrats have been vocal about the sweeping Jan. 6 pardons, which applied to those who assaulted police officers.

More patchy is how individual Democrats are navigating issues, among them immigration and the economy, that gave Trump an edge and ultimately proved decisive to his success.

“Dems should be focusing on how these actions will be received by voters who chose Trump for economic reasons or stayed home because they felt ignored by the Democrats,” said Hahn.

Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), who won reelection by 2,000 votes last November in a state Trump carried handily, told the Washington Examiner every Democrat should “speak for their own knowledge,” “the people that they represent,” and “what’s fair.”

Kaptur was one of 46 House Democrats who supported the Republican-led Laken Riley Act on Wednesday, handing Trump the first bipartisan political win of his second administration.

The bill allows federal authorities to detain illegal immigrants charged with theft-related crimes and gives states the ability to sue the Department of Homeland Security for harm caused due to illegal immigration.

Swing Democrats have been most sensitive to the outcome of the 2024 election and feel the most pressure to adjust their message with another election year approaching in 2026.

Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA), who represents a safer Democratic seat in the House, denied her party had a messaging problem, particularly regarding immigration, reiterating the accusation Democrats leveled at Trump last year: that he wants to use the border for political gain.

“Whether it’s securing the border, providing a functional immigration system,” Scanlon said, “he’s been resistant to that in the past. He just wants to campaign on it.”

Beyond messaging, part of the challenge for Democrats is simply regrouping, marshaling the resources and grassroots organizing that will be critical to retaking the House or Senate next year.

“They sought to overturn the will of the people,” Kamala Harris wrote in her first fundraising email for the Democratic National Committee since leaving the vice presidency. “They also make it clear as day that it has never been more important that we have a strong Democratic Party that will stand up to President Trump, believes in the rule of law and democracy, and the infrastructure that is capable of flipping one or both branches of Congress in the next election.”

The Progressive Change Institute, a liberal political action committee, remains adamant it has built the “power to fight Trump’s assault on working families,” hosting a networking event last week for new and younger members of Congress, reporters, and social media influencers. 

“Bottom line: we have been preparing for the fights ahead,” Progressive Change Institute co-founder Adam Green wrote in an email to supporters. “Building muscle. Assembling a posse of economic populist fighters. Building teamwork.”

Another active national organization has been the American Federation of Government Employees, the country’s largest federal employee labor union, which has been peppering reporters with statements related to Trump’s executive orders.

Public Citizen, the State Democracy Defenders Fund, and the AFGE filed a lawsuit as well this week to “ensure” that Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, a cost-cutting commission run by X CEO Elon Musk, “complies with the requirements of the Federal Advisory Committee Act.”

“AFGE will not stand idly by as a secretive group of ultra-wealthy individuals with major conflicts of interest attempt to deregulate themselves and give their own companies sweetheart government contracts while firing civil servants and dismantling the institutions designed to serve the American people,” AFGE National President Everett Kelley wrote in a statement. “Federal employees are not the problem — they are the solution.”

At the same time, state-based Democrats are conveying confidence in their ability to counter Trump, again mostly through the courts.

California Democratic strategist Garry South, for instance, cited Gov. Gavin Newsom‘s (D-CA) special legislative session to appropriate $25 million for a litigation fund “to protect California values, the state’s economy, fundamental civil rights, reproductive freedom, clean air and clean water, and working families — including immigrant families,” as described by Newsom’s office. California sued Trump’s administration 123 times during his first term.

“Democrats and Democratic state AGs are more than ready to counter Trump’s craziest moves,” South told the Washington Examiner. “Several lawsuits were filed yesterday to block his executive order disallowing birthright citizenship.”

With regards to birthright citizenship, another far-Left PAC, MoveOn, has been gathering signatures for a petition and simultaneously growing its email list to “stop Donald Trump’s attack on birthright citizenship.”

“This is another inflammatory effort by Trump and MAGA loyalists to divide the American public and scapegoat immigrant families to distract from their own real agenda of enriching themselves and those in their inner circle,” the group told supporters in an email.

Even the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which was highly critical of former President Joe Biden amid the Israel–Hamas war, with many members not voting for Biden or casting a ballot for Trump, is recalibrating to the president.

“Although President Trump did not immediately restore his original Muslim ban, he signed executive orders that could set the stage for a new ban, upend birthright citizenship, embolden Israeli settlers to commit more horrific violence in the West Bank, and spark an unprecedented crackdown on both free speech and legal immigration to silence critics of the Israeli government,” CAIR director of government affairs RobertMcCaw wrote in a statement.

Trump is expected to travel to California, North Carolina, Nevada, and Florida Friday and this weekend, a tour, in part, to troll Biden and Democrats over his election win and what he has called incredibly poor federal and state government responses to the fires in California and floods in North Carolina.