Senator Elissa Slotkin on Donald Trump cozying up to dictators: “Reagan must be rolling in his grave”

Donald Trump’s Joint Address to Congress was the longest in U.S. history and was followed by a much shorter response from Democratic Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan.

Senator Slotkin was elected in November after serving in the House of Representatives for over five years. Considered a rising star within the party, she provided a younger, fresh-faced voice for Democrats.

Before seeking office, Slotkin worked in national security as an analyst at the CIA. With concerns about their image on crime and international security, Democrats saw the freshman senator as a strong counter to the president. However, the opposing party’s response to a presidential address is always a tricky task—many will recall last year’s awkward edition featuring Alabama Senator Katie Britt speaking from what appeared to be her home kitchen.

Democrats return to the same playbook

Nevertheless, Slotkin pressed forward, criticizing Trump’s foreign policy approach and appealing to moderate voters by invoking Ronald Reagan. While this centrist strategy failed to secure Democratic majorities in any of the seven key swing states, Slotkin’s victory in Michigan over her Republican challenger keeps it alive. Political commentators to the left of the Democratic party called out Slotkin’s approach, which got her elected in Michigan, but failed to win Vice President Kamala Harris any of the seven critical swing states in November.

Slotkin pointed out that “peace through strength,” a frequent refrain from the Trump White House, was originally borrowed from Reagan. She also referenced last Friday’s explosive Oval Office meeting between President Trump, Vice President Vance, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, remarking that “Reagan must be rolling over in his grave” after what transpired.

“We all want an end to the war in Ukraine, but Reagan understood that true strength required America to combine our military and economic might with moral clarity,” Slotkin argued. "As a Cold War kid, I’m thankful it was Reagan and not Trump in office in the 1980s. Trump would have lost us the Cold War‚" said Slotkin.

Recent polling from CBS and YouGov shows only a slim majority of Americans support the continued funding of Ukraine. While Republicans and Democrats shared a bipartisan view on the need to provide weapons to Ukraine after Russia’s fulls scale invasion, some factions within the GOP began to notice the public’s waning support and have moved the party’s position to one of hostility towards the wartorn country.

This position was on full display in the Oval Office on Friday, and Slotkin’s speech was an attempt to demonstrate the dangers of that approach. The Senator accused the president of "cozying up to dictators like Vladimir Putin and kicking our friends, like Canada, in the teeth."

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