If there is ever going to be a Resistance movement 2.0, it might have gotten a much-needed jolt of energy this week.

Gathered on the eastern steps of the US Treasury Department’s DC headquarters Tuesday evening, some two dozen Democratic members of Congress rallied a few hundred protesters against Elon Musk. Specifically, they were protesting his disassembly of the federal workforce and rapid takeover of access to the government’s payment systems, at President Donald Trump’s behest. “Nobody elected Elon!” the posters they brought read.

“The crisis is here,” declared US Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas. “I know some of y’all have been frustrated and you’ve been saying, ‘Where are the Democrats, where are our leaders?’ Well I’m here to tell you that we ain’t never left y’all. We are here. We are also going to make sure that they uphold the law. We are not going to sit around while you go ahead and desecrate our Constitution.”

While the protesters remained outside, the group of senators and representatives tried to enter the building. They were denied.

The stunt wasn’t the first time this week that Democrats have tried pick fights with Trump and Musk — which is quite different from how they’ve been behaving.

For at least the last three weeks, those embarrassing questions that Crockett called out have dogged the Democratic Party. Where has the opposition’s response to Donald Trump been?

As he took office, Democrats seemed to flounder. When he signed a flurry of controversial executive orders — directly challenging Congress, the Constitution, and the courts — the Democrats held press conferences, went on cable news, or tried to cooperate and find common ground. But Trump was dominating the media coverage and public’s attention. As he tried to consolidate power, ordered freezes in government spending, and delegated power to Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency, routine Cabinet hearings and confirmations continued.

If Democrats felt a sense of urgency, it wasn’t coming across to the general public. And the absence of any large-scale, well-organized anti-Trump protests only added to the uncertainty that a new resistance would ever show up. Those trying to organize the Democrats’ activist base wondered if any leaders would decide to make a stand.

That first weeks of Trump’s second presidency have been a far cry from 2017. Buoyed by mass outrage and massive public demonstrations, like the Women’s March, Democrats felt a stronger imperative to fight back. It was around this time eight years ago that large-scale protests developed in DC and around the country in response to Trump’s first “Muslim........

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