President-elect Donald Trump’s White House return is just three days away, yet a California-based company specializing in providing on-demand crowds for protests is seeing a surprising dropoff in enthusiasm among Democrats compared to years before.
Adam Swart, CEO of California-based publicity firm Crowds on Demand, said it’s a stark contrast from previous election cycles.
“We have had less inquiries than in 2017 when Trump was first elected for his first term, and I attribute that to a real lack of passion right now on the part of many Democratic Party donors and operatives,” he told Fox News Digital.
“A lot of them are dejected, and they are understanding that the tactics that they have tried have been ultimately unsuccessful, and they are attempting to recalibrate their approach as we enter the second Trump era.”
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Anti-Trump protesters gather as people line up to see former President Donald Trump speak at Madison Square Garden during a campaign rally on October 27, 2024, in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
By nature of the business, the losing – or opposing – party tends to enlist Crowds on Demand’s help, meaning Democrats would typically be flocking to the company following President-elect Donald Trump’s decisive victory and as his inauguration nears.
But residual malaise from Democrats’ November loss and a desire to chart a path forward with a message that resonates may be partially to blame.
Swart largely credits the shift to “outrage tactics” that have, in his words, largely “failed” the Democratic Party.
“It’s something that I’ve been telling my Democratic Party friends for a long time, that the so-called Trump Derangement Syndrome, whereby you oppose with ferocity and outrage every single thing that he does, you get mad at everything single thing he says has ultimately been unsuccessful, as evidenced by the landslide victory that Trump has achieved,” he said.
“He didn’t win the landslide because people were not aware of who he is. People were aware of who he is.”
He cited Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., who, in June 2018, called on members of the public to openly confront and harass members of the Trump administration.
“They’re not going to be able to go to a restaurant, they’re not going to be able to stop at a gas station, they’re not going to be able to shop at a department store,” Waters said at the time. “The people are going to turn on them, they’re going to protest, they’re going to absolutely harass them.”
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Swart says the tactic worked for Democrats during the first Trump administration, when many members of the administration were “socially ostracized.”
“They were banned from restaurants. They were banned from social clubs. They were not invited to important parties,” he said.
“The idea inherent in that tactic was to put a social cost in place for affiliating with Trump. Now, when you see titans of Silicon Valley and of Wall Street openly affiliating with Trump in a way that you’ve never seen before and to an extent never seen before, extracting that social price on Trump’s supporters is no longer possible.”
Though Waters later denied she had encouraged violence against Trump officials, other Democrats have faced similar scrutiny for inflammatory rhetoric, including instances in which multiple party members branded Trump as a “threat to democracy.” Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman of New York, for instance, once said Trump is so “dangerous” to democracy that he “has to be eliminated,” but apologized for the remark soon after.
Swart warned Democrats that if the Waters-style rhetoric continues, the party will only “lose more” in the next election, swing moderate Republicans further to the right and drive moderate Democrats away from the left.
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“What my advice to the Democrats in terms of protesting and advocacy in the Trump era is to be very specific in your advocacy and be positive in your focus. Given the fact that the Democrats are in a narrow minority in the Senate and the House of Representatives, there are opportunities to bring in moderate or bipartisan-minded Republicans to their way of thinking, but the tactics of outrage and attack and social ostracization are not going to work,” he said.
“The better tactic is to focus very much on their constituents and what the constituents want, number one. Number two, making emotional but positive appeals. And number three, relentless but respectful pressure. What I mean by that is you’re outside the office every day. You’re smiling. You’re engaging. You’re making your views heard. You’re not going away, but you’re not in any way creating any kind of menacing atmosphere. Because, ultimately, when you go, when what we found is our most effective campaigns are the ones where we’re applying positive pressure. We’re standing in good humor, but we’re relentless, and that is exactly the strategy that is going to work because that is going to bring folks who are independent-minded Republicans to vote with the Democrats.”
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Fox News’ Yael Halon, Greg Wehner and Emma Colton contributed to this report.
