Democrats don’t know how long they’ll be able to keep up the pace of protests against President Donald Trump — and they’re worried Trump and his team are counting on them to run out of energy before the White House does.

Two weeks into the Trump administration, party leaders have already reached a frantic, fevered pitch, throwing around talk of constitutional crisis and raising the specter of impeachment.


“The thing that we don’t want to do is anesthetize the public with dozens and dozens of press conferences and marquee events,” said Seattle Mayor Ed Murray. “Then it’ll just become background noise. I’m worried that’s exactly what they’re trying to maneuver us into doing.”

Democrats are having as much trouble defusing Trump now that he’s in the White House as they did all through last year’s campaign. Murray said he’s seen neither a clear understanding among leaders in Washington of how far left their base has careened in just the past few weeks nor the emergence of any infrastructure among progressive groups for turning what’s going on in the streets into concerted opposition.

“The question is: How do we respond beyond that?” Murray said. “I’m a little worried that we’re not there.”

House Democrats head to their retreat in Baltimore this week trying to come up with an answer.

“Some people on social media are already saying, ‘Yes! Impeach the guy.’ No. I think any time you’re talking about impeachment, which is historically extremely significant, that is not something you do on a whim,” said Rep. Joaquín Castro (D-Texas), explaining that he used the word himself earlier in the week as a warning of where things might go. “I think our response should be reasonable, it should not be exaggerated — but we fundamentally have to protect the integrity of the republic.”

Some of his colleagues will boycott Trump’s address before a joint session of Congress at the end of the month. Others are planning to go but come up with a way to protest that makes a splash. They’re trolling, referring to “President Bannon” in the hopes of goading Trump into sidelining Steve Bannon, his chief strategist, if he thinks people are seeing him as a puppet.

“I plan on being there at this point in time, I think it’s part of my responsibility,” said Rep. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Democratic Caucus. “I’m there to witness and hear what he has to say, and respond in kind.”

“We are going to continue to be the bulwark against the man. We’re going to stop him at every opportunity we have,” Crowley added. “This is going to be a gift that keeps on giving in some respects.”

Democrats are mobilizing around Republican members' town halls to protest Obamacare repeal. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) is demanding that Mar-a-Lago, Trump's exclusive club in Florida, release its members list.

Some are trying other strategies of chipping away at Trump’s authority. Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-Ill.) says he’s looking to hit the House staffers who worked with the White House on crafting the travel ban and signed nondisclosure agreements that he says made them into employees of the administration too. “Sounds like double-dipping to me,” Gutiérrez said in an interview off the House floor on Wednesday. “There might be a law against that.”

But Democrats readily acknowledge Trump won last year in part by sparking so many simultaneous outrages among the left that they all blended together. Trump’s White House so far is following that model.

“I don’t know whether we can count on him to do that for the full four years, but if he keeps it up, folks aren’t going to go away,” said Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy, chairman of the Democratic Governors Association. “Quite frankly, this is Vietnam at its height. The only thing that resolved Vietnam was America leaving Vietnam. I suspect in some ways, the only thing that’s going to resolve this is when Donald Trump leaves Washington.”