Some top Democrats at the Hill Nation Summit on Wednesday paid grudging compliments to President Trump’s political moves as the party looks to learn from its November losses and chart a new path forward.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) lauded the Republican as a “very talented politician” despite their disagreements, while Rep. Jim Himes (Conn.), the leading Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, offered praise for Trump’s foreign policy.

The lawmakers’ careful acknowledgements come as the Democratic Party broadly tries to learn from their 2024 losses and build momentum for the 2026 midterms, when they’ll be looking to cut into the GOP’s narrow 220-212 majority.

“Donald Trump's a very talented politician, right? I don’t agree with him as a leader. He's a very talented politician,” Khanna said at the Summit. He praised the president alongside progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, despite their stark political split.

Later in the conversation, Khanna also contended that Democrats have been “way too judgmental” of Americans who voted for Trump.

“We acted as if the problem was the voters; the problem was the party, and we acted with a condescension and a judgment on voters,” Khanna told NewsNation contributor Chris Cillizza. The Hill and NewsNation are both owned by Nexstar.

Democrats have struggled to redefine the party in the wake of last year’s big losses, when the GOP flipped the White House and took control of both chambers of Congress. The party is now pulling in its lowest favorability ratings in decades, and prominent activists within the party have called for a new generation of leaders, stoking

© The Hill