Senator Amy Klobuchar's First 100 Days of Trump 2.0
Senator Amy Klobuchar (D), the senior senator from Minnesota is well liked and quite popular with her constituents. She is a strong leader, the 3rd top-ranking Democrat in the U.S. Senate. She has held this seat since 2007.
Since becoming a Minnesota resident in 2016, I have supported her with my votes, my time and my money. When she announced her run for President on a snowy day in February of 2019, I could not have been more thrilled. I actually cried with happiness.
I have been in the same room with her, I have been on calls with her, I have spoken to her and even hugged her one month ago at the Hands Off Rally in St. Paul. As one of the leaders of Indivisible Twin Cities (ITC) and one of the organizers of the Hands Off Rally, I sometimes get to meet and have discussions with famous and not-so-famous politicians. I rarely get star struck, especially by elected officials. They are our employees and we do well to continue to remind ourselves of that often - especially now.
As we have all watched as Donald Trump and all of the people in his administration, helped along with sycophant congressional Republicans, have quite literally taken a chain saw to our government, our institutions, our norms, and most terrifyingly, to our laws, it is quite clear that no Democrat elected official should pretend that anything going on is “business as usual”.
This is not normal. And Amy Klobuchar said that herself in her speech at the Hands Off Rally on April 5th in St. Paul in front of ~43,000 people.
I wanted to believe she meant it but deep down, I knew it was just a passionate line in a hastily-written speech. Our senator is proud of her ability to work across the aisle in the name of bi-partisanship.
Old habits die hard.
With every “Yay” vote that Senator Klobuchar has made in favor of Trump’s cabinet nominees and executive nominees, she is showing us … what, exactly? The Republicans have the majority and if there is a tie vote, Vance breaks the tie. The nominees will get confirmed no matter what. So why would any Democrat have it on record that they voted in favor of any of these Trump enablers?
Anyone who thinks this is a “strategic move” is delusional. I never pegged Amy as delusional but now I just don’t know.
I decided to lay it all out in a timeline to see if maybe I was over-reacting each time I heard that she had voted “Yay” for yet another nominee. Here is what I found.
Amy Klobuchar’s first 100 days under the Donald Trump regime and his planned destruction of the United States government, as we know it.
January 20th Trump Inauguration
Klobuchar was the first speaker in her role as the chairwoman of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies.
January 20th Senator Marco Rubio confirmed as Secretary of State
Rubio was confirmed by the Senate unanimously with Klobuchar and Smith both voting Yay. Within days Rubio froze any passport applications that requested “X” sex markers keeping trans applicants in limbo. This was followed by his enactment of a 90-day freeze on all U.S. foreign aid which basically shut down USAID’s humanitarian programs worldwide.
In February, Rubio met with El Salvador president Bukele and reached an agreement for the country to take in foreign nationals, in addition to jailed U.S. citizens and permanent residents.
Also in February, Rubio supported Trump’s proposal for the U.S. to take over the Gaza Strip.
January 23rd John Ratcliffe confirmed as director of the CIA
Klobuchar voted to confirm Ratcliffe as director of the CIA. Smith voted no.
In early February the CIA sent the White House an unclassified email identifying the first names and last initials of all employees the CIA had hired in the previous two years.
In early March, Ratcliffe was one of the national security leaders conducting a group chat on Signal that included a journalist where they discussed confidential military operations details. In that chat Ratcliffe mentioned the name of an active undercover female CIA officer.
January 28th Sean Duffy confirmed as Secretary of Transportation
Klobuchar voted to confirm Duffy. Smith voted no.
Duffy is a former reality TV star who served in congress from 2011 to 2019, when he resigned to become a lobbyist and a Fox Business television co-host.
On his first day in office, he rescinded all existing corporate average fuel economy standards and eliminated the electric vehicle tax incentives instituted by the Biden administration.
January 28th ITC Action Hour Call to Action
We called on the Senator regarding her cabinet votes (shortly after the Hegseth and Rubio votes). We said "If any Democratic senator is hoping to appear reasonable by cooperating with dangerous and unreasonable people now running our government, all they are really doing is normalizing Trump and his actions and behavior. Our Senators need to disrupt, delay and deny. They need to say NO!"
In a separate action, our members contacted Klobuchar to thank her for voting no on the Laken Riley Act.
January 30th Doug Burgum confirmed as Secretary of the Interior
Klobuchar voted to confirm Burgum. Smith also voted yay.
During his confirmation hearing he stated that America’s public lands and waters were part of the nation’s “balance sheet” and he advocated for extracting trillions of dollars’ worth of oil, gas and minerals via mining and drilling.
His first act as secretary was sending an email to the entire staff of the interior department calling for reduced regulation and the expansion of natural resource extraction on public lands.
He also led the efforts to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
February 2nd ITC Urgent Call to Action
Our members contacted the Senator to do whatever was in her power to push back against the Treasury Department Data Security leak by DOGE.
February 3rd ITC Urgent in person Call to Action
ITC planned in person visits to both Senator’s local offices to demand they obstruct, delay and deny the Trump agenda. This had to be cancelled as neither office was staffed at the time.
February 4th Doug Collins confirmed as Secretary of Veteran Affairs
Klobuchar voted to confirm Collins. Smith voted no.
As a member of the House, in December of 2020, Collins officially contested the results of the 2020 election which Joe Biden had won.
He openly rejects scientific consensus on climate change.
On March 5th, Collins announced 72,000 jobs would be cut from the VA.
February 5th ITC joined with Indivisible West Metro for a virtual Town Hall
The virtual town hall was planned with both Senators staff in less than 24 hours. At the last minute both Klobuchar and Smith attended the meeting for a short time to address over 1,000 constituents from across the state.
February 6th Follow up letter sent to both senators
A letter was sent to both Klobuchar and Smith to clarify the expectations of those who attended the town hall the day before. This included a strongly worded message that yes votes on nominees was unacceptable.
February 11th ITC Call to Action
Our members contacted the Senators as a follow-up to our "demand letter" after the town hall, imploring "I need you to block, delay, and obstruct everything this administration is trying to do. No cooperation, no easy votes, no fast-tracking Trump’s takeover. We need to defeat every attempted policy, law, and appointment we can. Defeating Trump’s agenda starts with individual members of Congress standing up and saying “No.”
February 13th Brooke Rollins confirmed as Secretary of Agriculture
Klobuchar voted to confirm Rollins. Smith voted no.
Rollins was president and CEO of the America First Policy Institute founded in 2021 to plan and promote Trump’s public policy agenda, as well as file election lawsuits in battleground states. Many of the positions held by this group can be found in Project 2025.
February 13th Urgent CTA sent to all members of ITC and posted to social media
Based on her yes vote to confirm Rollins, our members called and emailed Klobuchar to demand that she stop voting for the nominees.
February 25th Daniel Driscoll confirmed as Secretary of the Army
Klobuchar voted to confirm Driscoll. Smith voted no.
He served in the U.S. Army for three and a half years serving as a lieutenant. During law school he interned for the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs.
March 10th Lori Chavez DeRemer confirmed as Secretary of Labor
Klobuchar voted to confirm. Smith voted no.
Chavez DeRemer was once a proponent of the Protecting the Right to Organize Act which would give workers more advantages when organizing or joining unions. She walked back her support of the act during her confirmation hearing.
March 11th Abigail Slater confirmed as Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division
Klobuchar and Smith both voted yay.
March 11th ITC Call to Action
Save the VA - on the heels of the confirmation of Doug Collins, our members called on the Senator to oppose H.R. 740, the Veterans Access Act, which would contribute to dismantling the Veterans Health Administration. And to oppose the cruel cuts to the VA made by Doug Collins.
March 11th ITC Call to Action
We called on the Senator to do everything she could to get Mahmoud Khalil released. "The Trump administration is making moves from a well-worn fascist playbook, and we need our members of Congress to start fighting back. They are trying to remove a legal permanent resident for his political speech in support of human rights and justice."
March 11th ITC Call to Action
We called on the Senator to vote NO on the GOP Continuing Resolution.
March 24th Christopher Landau confirmed as Deputy Secretary of State
Klobuchar voted to confirm. Smith voted no.
During his confirmation hearing he supported the dismantling of USAID and proposed it be replaced by private sector investment.
March 25th Michael Kratsios confirmed as Director of the Office of Science and Technology
Klobuchar voted to confirm. Smith voted no.
Kratsios was a principal at Thiel Capital and served as chief of staff to billionaire Peter Thiel.
March 25th ITC Call to Action
We called on the Senator to call for an investigation into the security breach which was revealed when an Atlantic reporter was accidentally added to a Signal chat in which high-ranking government officials were making war plans.
March 25th ITC Call to Action
We called on the Senator to oppose proposed elimination of the Education Department.
March 25th ITC Call to Action
We called on the Senator to speak out against illegal and unconstitutional "deportation" of people who are in the US legally.
April 5th Hands Off Rally, St. Paul, 43,000 attendees
During the two weeks of planning for the April 5th mass mobilization, the decision was made by the programming team to not extend an invitation to Senator Klobuchar based on her continued support of some of Trumps nominees.
Several days before the rally her staff reached out to us asking if she could speak. After much deliberation we decided to insert a slot for her to address the rally. It was not clear until 30 minutes before the rally started that she could get there after an all-night senate session on the budget bill.
She arrived and spoke for over 11 minutes. As she came off the stage, we spoke for a few minutes and I emphasized that she needed to fight harder by not voting for the nominees. She told me that she would continue to fight. She was clearly tired from her time on the Senate floor until 3:00 a.m., followed by one hour of sleep and then a 6:00 a.m. flight to Minneapolis in order get to the rally. She seemed emotional too. We hugged and my last words were, “go get some sleep.”
April 8th George Glass confirmed as Ambassador to Japan
Klobuchar voted to confirm. Smith voted no.
April 8th ITC Call to Action
We called on the Senator to demand justice for those who have been unlawfully removed from the United States and that they be returned immediately such as in the case of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia. People who are here legally have been forcibly removed from their homes often without due process.
April 8th ITC Call to Action
We called on the Senator to support the Trade Review Act of 2025 to reclaim Congress’s authority over US trade policy and block Trump’s destructive and nonsensical tariffs.
April 9th Peter Hoekstra confirmed as Ambassador to Canada
Klobuchar voted to confirm. Smith voted no.
Hoekstra was a founding member of the Tea Party Movement.
April 22nd ITC Call to Action
Again, we called on the Senator to speak out and request a Congressional fact-finding mission for Kilmar Abrego Garcia and others sent to El Salvador.
April 24th ITC meeting with Klobuchar staff
Six members of ITC met via Zoom with four members of the Senator’s staff: Chief of Staff, State Director, Deputy State Director and Political Advisor.
This topic was again discussed, and we were told by the Chief of Staff that sometimes these votes are done as “strategic moves”. We pushed back and stated clearly that these are not normal times, and the only strategy right now is to deny any votes going forward.
April 28th Thank you email
In an email to the Senator’s deputy state director we passed along our thanks for her participation at the “sit in” on the Capitol steps with Leader Jeffries and Senator Booker.
April 29th David Perdue confirmed as Ambassador to China
Klobuchar voted to confirm. Smith voted no.
Perdue supported a lawsuit by Trump allies seeking to overturn the 2020 election results. He was also linked to a 2020 congressional insider trading scandal.
April 29th Tilman Fertitta confirmed as Ambassador to Italy
Klobuchar voted to confirm. Smith voted no.
April 29th Thomas Barrack confirmed as Ambassador to Turkey
Klobuchar voted to confirm. Smith voted no.
A major Trump fundraiser, he recommended that Trump hire Paul Manafort as his campaign manager in 2016. In 2021 he was indicted for foreign lobbying and was later acquitted.
_________________
I agree with Senator Klobuchar - this is not normal. And she is putting all of us in harm’s way by acting like it is.
Share only the truth,
Lisa
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Is she pandering to big donors? If not, she’s obviously unable to shift her paradigm. And that is not a quality of a good leader. Thank you for putting this summary together.
Well, this was effective. I knew, but I didn't actually know the details. Thanks for taking the time to lay this out so clearly.