There has been a momentum shift in all narratives surrounding the Trump administration. To try to pick an exact turning point may not be exactly a science, but I’ll say if it didn’t start there, the shift hit its stride with the left’s fake anger over the White House ballroom project.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation warned that President Trump’s planned 90,000-square-foot ballroom would “overwhelm the White House itself,” which spans just 55,000 square feet. https://t.co/iRY6cgoK7c pic.twitter.com/zTfL9CsLqO
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) October 22, 2025
That gave the left something to use as a cudgel with which to attack President Donald Trump. It’s not important that the left’s arguments had any merits or that they were even honest. All that mattered was cause-and-effect: “Trump did a thing, now let’s make him defend it.”
The federal government shutdown was another major development in this sense. Never mind that Trump had nothing to do with the shutdown and that it was Democrats in the Senate who controlled whether the shutdown would happen and when it would end. Never mind that the reconciliation bill that the Democrats refused to sign was not much different from the one they had signed previously, yet all of a sudden they had a problem with it, and that problem was the man who had nothing to do with it — Trump.
Wes Moore, Democrat Governor of Maryland, held a press conference as the Schumer Shutdown commences.
He tells Trump to “stop this shutdown. You are the one causing it.”
That’s false. Demcorats had the ability to vote to keep the government open, and they didn’t. Full stop. pic.twitter.com/A7JKVAUXoF
— Media Lies (@MediasLies) October 1, 2025
The Facts and the Truth Do Not Matter to the Left
As with all of this, the specifics and the truth do not matter. The Democrats and their allies in the media decided that there would be a shutdown, and that shutdown would be pinned on Trump. So they attacked him and Republicans throughout. This gave the Democrats momentum in the November elections, contributing to increased anger among the general electorate in key cities and states where the Democrats needed turnout: Virginia, New Jersey, and New York City.
One issue that arose out of the successful Zohran Mamdani campaign for mayor of New York was “affordability.” Mamdani campaigned against the cost-of-living in New York (an age-old problem) and the high cost of rent and property in New York (another age-old problem). He promised he’d change all of that in the same way a middle schooler runs for class president by promising free lunch in the cafeteria. It’s a promise he can’t keep, but it sounds good, and it got him elected.
That carried over into attacks on Trump and the Trump tariffs, pinning higher costs on him to the point where the left’s attacks centered on that word – affordability – thus, leftists used another narrative to push momentum against Trump.
The strategy in every case — specifics be damned — has been to put Trump on the defensive and force him to explain himself.
While the left has Trump on his heels, it’s much easier to take smaller issues and throw them on the pile to try to keep that momentum against him going.
The latest is where you have this rather disturbing video the Democrats have put out, where actual members of Congress are encouraging active military to disobey orders and disrespect the chain of command all the way up to the Commander in Chief.
They were literally asking service members to BREAK their oath.
To break the chain of command and go against orders they’ve been given.
You are breaking your oath by endorsing it and encouraging this talk.
This is not just free speech. It is not just reminding them of the… pic.twitter.com/9zLEBGY50M
— 🇺🇸Mighty Magnet🇺🇸 (@TheMightyMagnet) November 20, 2025
This is a slam dunk for the Trump administration. The most effective response came from White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
🚨 HOLY CRAP! Karoline Leavitt just went NUCLEAR on the Democrat officials who called on US service members to DEFY Trump’s orders
“You have SITTING MEMBERS of the United States Congress who conspired together to orchestrate a video message to members of the United States… pic.twitter.com/xhMby93LVL
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) November 20, 2025
But instead of this having the effect of putting the Democrats on the defensive, it’s brought out their passive-aggressive strategy of blaming Trump for victimizing them because he noticed what they said and put them on blast for it.
I never thought that clearly stating federal law would ever cause the President of the United States to threaten violence against me and Members of Congress.
But that’s exactly what Donald Trump did. pic.twitter.com/CedWwe2Ax5
— Congresswoman Maggie Goodlander (@RepGoodlander) November 21, 2025
And did I mention the Epstein files? Leave it to Stephen A. Smith to call his own party out on that.
🚨NEW: Stephen A. Smith *RIPS INTO* Dems for only caring about Epstein Files under TRUMP🚨
“The Epstein Files were in existence and free to have been open during the Biden Administration! You were there for 4 years! How come you didn’t open it as a Democratic party then!? What… pic.twitter.com/Rxi6sslx7C
— Jason Cohen 🇺🇸 (@JasonJournoDC) November 13, 2025
Now, anytime you hear the Democrats play the role of victim to “mean orange man,” take it as an admission of wrongdoing on their part, and take it as a sign that they will likely not face consequences for their actions or words.
Let’s pause right here and take a breath.
Instead of plowing forward in the current direction at the current pace as set by the left, let’s move forward at our pace on the issues we want to talk about. Let’s retake the momentum by retaking the agenda.
Let’s realize what the Democrats and the left are doing going into the midterms. They are playing the momentum game, and that’s all it is. The goal with every story is to find a way to force Trump to defend himself, to explain himself and his policies.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a ballroom, tariffs, the government shutdown, the Epstein files, or their own instigation of insubordination in the military; it all has to be framed as “Trump’s fault.” The left has to hit this so hard and so consistently that the media can’t let go, and Trump has to answer for it, whatever “it” is.
If there is one thing Trump has done so well in his second term is not to give the left an opportunity to take control of the narrative and to establish their own momentum. He came out of the gates like lightning and hit the left on multiple fronts every day, forcing them to defend themselves, forcing them to explain themselves, forcing them to take the 20% position on every 80/20 issue.
The Trump administration needs to get back to this. It needs to set the news cycle every 48 hours. It needs to decide what the media will focus on and how the Democrats will need to answer for themselves. Trump has been very disciplined in this way, and he needs to return to that discipline.
Pick the issues, set the agenda, and attack, attack, attack. That’s how he’s been winning, and that’s how he’ll continue to win. It’s also how he’ll consolidate his party and create a sense of unity across state borders and congressional district lines going into the midterms.
No matter what day it is, you can count on the left to try to gaslight you and everyone else into thinking what’s real isn’t, and what isn’t real is. PJ Media’s VIP membership gives you the best way to see through all of it, and we will give you some great arguments if you find yourself in a friendly debate with your leftist brother-in-law. Join the fight! Use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your VIP membership.
