The Democrats can’t lay a glove on Trump – because they lack what Australia has

What is missing for the Democrats is a critical tool that makes the Westminster system work in Australia: the existence of an opposition leader. The Republicans have a president. There is a Republican Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, and a Republican Majority Leader in the Senate, John Thune.

While there are strong Democratic leaders – Hakeem Jeffries in the House and Chuck Schumer in the Senate – the absence of the role of opposition leader is an infirmity in the American system. Neither of these men will cede to the other the power to serve as an opposition leader to speak to what the Democrats will do in both the House and Senate. They will not appoint an outsider to do the job either. Many have called for someone like Pete Buttigieg, a former candidate for president and cabinet officer who has been aggressive in the media in attacking Trump, to take on the role. But he is not in Congress and the leaders will not turn to an outsider.

In Australia, no matter how strong or weak the opposition is in parliament or the polls, its leader is always able to front the media to tell the country where his or her party stands.

In the American system, all members of Congress are free agents. They cross the floor all the time. They are not bound by the Westminster convention to vote with their party. But Trump is acting like a prime minister under Westminster expectations, with the power to command his Republican members in parliament to ram his programs into law. He has no intention of seeking bipartisan compromises on his trade wars against America’s allies, his tax cuts, his immigration programs or his alignment with Russia.

Even with all his power, Trump faces a government shutdown later this week. He is still short of a supermajority – 60 votes, 7 more than the 53 Republicans in the Senate – required by the Senate’s rules to vote to fund the government. But Trump is ceding nothing to the Democrats to keep the government open. If the Democrats force a shutdown, they may well be blamed for the harm that will affect the entire country.

The Democrats in Washington cannot be effective fighters without a powerful cut-through voice that can make sense of Trump’s deluge and rise to the moment every day with a compelling program of stopping what is occurring.

For now, only Trump can truly stop Trump. He has promised an economy going up and inflation going down. Trump promises to make America rich again through tariffs and trade wars. He promises no cuts to social security and Medicare. He promised to end the wars in Gaza and Ukraine. Let’s see how he delivers.

The reckoning on all those issues will not come through the courts or by the multiple voices and efforts of the Democratic leaders in Congress, but when Americans vote on all that has occurred with Trump 2.0. That moment of judgment and accountability will not come until the midterm congressional elections in November next year, when all that Trump has done will be on the ballot. But the Democrats will go into that battle missing an opposition leader to seal the deal with the voters.

Bruce Wolpe is a senior fellow at the University of Sydney’s United States Studies Centre. He has served on the Democratic staff in the US Congress and as chief of staff to former prime minister Julia Gillard.