Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is embracing her role as one of her party’s sharpest critics of President Trump as other Democrats workshop a softer approach to him.

The “squad” member skipped Trump’s inauguration, marking the first in a series of public back-and-forth exchanges with some of the president’s most loyal defenders on social media. After declaring that she doesn’t support “rapists” to explain her absence, the firebrand congresswoman later directed her ire at Elon Musk for making what many Democrats perceived to be a “Nazi salute” while giving a political speech. Now, she’s calling the early days of Trump's presidency a “billionaire feeding frenzy.”

Her actions come as Democrats are struggling to coalesce around a unified message against Trump just two weeks into his second term, with some high-profile figures in the party, such as Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), even opening the door to working with him.

“She understands the importance of being seen doing and saying something,” said one progressive Democratic commentator in New York. “The alternative is letting Trump suck up all the media oxygen again, and that has proven disastrous for Dems.”

Instead, she has become “the party’s most aggressive member,” the source said.

Democrats have reacted to the bullhorn of Trump’s second term in a much different way from his first. Beyond being more disjointed, critics say they lack an effective counterattack. Trump’s already set off a wave of actions in January that........

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