THE ROILED OPPOSITION

Democrats can't agree on what to do next

- PHILIP ELLIOTT

WHEN SENATOR JOHN FETTERMAN got word that President-elect Donald Trump wanted to meet, the Pennsylvania Democrat didn't have to think it over too long. Even though Trump had savaged Fetterman during the 2022 campaign-going so far as to allege he had an affinity for cocaine, heroin, crystal meth, and fentanyl-Fetterman reasoned that he represents all Pennsylvanians, including the 3.5 million who had just voted for Trump.

"If the President invites you to have a conversation and to engage, I'm not sure why anybody would decide not to," Fetterman tells TIME. "I'm in the business of creating wins for Pennsylvania." And so, the weekend before Trump returned to the White House, Fetterman jumped on a plane to Florida to spend about an hour with Trump at Mar-a-Lago. The two talked about immigration, the sale of Pittsburghbased U.S. Steel, and the detention of Pennsylvania native Marc Fogel in Russia on drug charges. For Fetterman, it was about starting the next four years on productive footing. "There's plenty of things that we can work together on, and there are parts where we aren't agreeing," Fetterman says. "And I am going to avoid just jumping online and just dropping a lot of cheap heat." Eight years earlier, such a meeting would have drawn outrage in Democratic circles. This time the response to Fetterman's pilgrimage, which caught most senior Democrats by surprise, was more ambivalent. Some party officials believe working more closely with Trump this time will be necessary as the 47th President takes office with political capital to spend and a Republican Congress lined up behind him.