Several Democratic donors said this week that they have paused their contributions to the party, citing its growing weakness and ineffectiveness since President Donald Trump returned to office. “I’ll be blunt here: The Democratic Party is f***ing terrible. Plain and simple,” a major Democrat donor told The Hill. “In fact, it doesn’t get much worse.” The donor added that the 2024 loss was much worse than the loss in 2016 because the party is currently “so weak and so diminished.”
A second donor expressed similar discontent regarding the party. “They want us to spend money, and for what? For no message, no organization, no forward-thinking,” the donor told the outlet. “The thing that’s clear to a lot of us is that the party never really learned its lesson in 2016. They worked off the same playbook and the same ineffective strategies and to what end?”
Democrat strategist Steve Schale, who led a pro-Biden super PAC during the election, stated that there is significant burnout among donors who have lost confidence in the party after the recent elections. “Frankly, a lot of donors I’ve talked to don’t think their voice mattered in 2024, so I’ve been doing more listening than talking,” he said.
Democrat strategist Jamal Simmons said that over time, donors are likely to resume their contributions—possibly before the 2026 elections—as they recognize that Trump’s hostile stance toward their values will eventually spur them to open up their pocketbooks. “For a lot of Democrats, it’s like we had a heartbreak and one way to deal with heartbreak is to curl up on your couch and eat ice cream,” he said. “But one way that will help them get over the heartbreak is how infuriating the new guy is.”
Former DNC National Finance Committee member Lindy Li announced her departure from the Democratic Party last month, citing dissatisfaction with the spending practices of the Harris-Walz campaign. During an appearance on Fox Business Network’s Varney & Co., Li revealed she is considering attending the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, stating that his team “was kinder to me and more humane than the DNC ever was.”
“This has been a long time coming. My initial disillusionment became clear when I realized that they spent, they essentially set $2.5 billion on fire. They raised $1.5 billion through the campaign, another billion through the super PAC Future Forward, and there’s been no accountability. We still haven’t gotten any answers as to why Oprah, Oprah, a billionaire, got $2.5 million through her production company. Why couldn’t she pay for it? She’s an oligarch,” Li noted.
“And this is our hard-earned money. This is the money that I worked so hard to raise. I raised millions of this, and donors are feeling burned. And let me tell you, although I might be the only one coming forward, I haven’t met a single donor who disagrees with me,” Li explained, leading host Stuart Varney to ask, “So what’s been the response, Lindy, since you made your announcement?”
“Vitriolic. And they say they’re not a cult, but look at how they behave when one of their own dares to think for herself. The excommunication, the defamation, the public shaming, the boycott campaigns, the psychological terrorism, I no longer have comments on any of my social media because it’s just too much. I don’t need that. It’s just endless. And as soon as you step out of line, they will get you,” Li replied.