San Diego Congressional reps say public pressure is key to fighting Trump

It's clear the last two months since President Donald Trump took office have brought big changes at breakneck speed. KPBS spoke with three members of San Diego’s five-member congressional delegation — Sara Jacobs, Juan Vargas and Mike Levin — to understand what it all means for San Diegans.

Congressman Scott Peters was unavailable due to a scheduling conflict. Congressman Darrell Issa did not respond to requests to join.

Congresswoman Jacobs, the Trump administration and Elon Musk have packed in a lot of cuts, layoffs and orders into the past two months. Break down the impacts of all of this for San Diegans.

Jacobs: Whether it's the immigration raids that we are seeing happen — there was just one last week in City Heights where a man was deported in front of his small kids while he was taking them to school. Whether it's the cuts we're seeing to NIH (National Institutes of Health), which is going to have a huge impact on our ability to do research and science at UCSD, at SDSU, at other places. Here in San Diego, we're already seeing prices go up from the uncertainty around tariffs — especially around the things we need to build housing, like lumber and steel that come from Canada. The last thing we need here in San Diego is for our housing costs to go up when we need to be bringing them down.

Congressman Vargas, you're a trained lawyer, a student of history. Really, how significant is the Trump administration's defiance of that court order to turn around two planes full of alleged Venezuelan gang members last weekend?

Vargas: Usually, when it gets to a court order, obviously the government — whomever is in power — doesn’t like it, but they abide by it. I mean, that’s the separation of powers. That’s the rules of the game. But here, you see Trump really trying to get to a confrontation with the judiciary. And that’s why I think you see even someone as mild-mannered as the Chief Justice saying, “Hey, that’s not what you do. You don’t try to impeach the judge. You appeal it. That’s the way we’ve done it for 200 years.” But in this instance, you see that Trump really does want to, I think, get to this constitutional issue.

If this all goes to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court rules against the Trump administration, President Trump has said he will abide by a court order. Do you believe him?

Vargas: No, I don't. I think it's the old, “The courts made their decision, let's see how they enforce it“ — the old historical rule. So I don't think so. I think he may say, “Oh yeah, we're abiding by it,“ but they don't. I mean, in history, this is a big deal — when you have a president like this thinking he's a king, and you have the Congress sort of sitting on their hands. Not all of us, obviously — we're not — but the people who are in charge, the Republicans, are. It's very dangerous.

So more on the rule of law and court orders. Congressman Levin, you spent part of your career as a lawyer. The Trump administration arrested a green card holder who led some of the pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University last spring and deported a Brown University med school professor to Lebanon. And now we're getting news that a Georgetown University academic was picked up by masked immigration agents. What's the message that the public should take from all of this?

Levin: Well, I see it as a huge reversal from where Republicans were just a few years ago, when they were staunchly advocating for the First Amendment — when they were talking about cancel culture and saying that somehow their free speech rights were being impeded at universities and across the country. And clearly, now they do not have that same desire to protect free speech for those whose views they disagree with.

I was just on the phone earlier today with the daughter of a couple constituents of mine, Gladys and Nelson Gonzalez. They came to the United States in 1989 from Colombia. They were here for 35 years, and they paid their taxes — they never so much as got a speeding ticket in 35 years. The only mistake they made is they went to their recent immigration appointment. They’d gotten bad legal advice about their status, and they were just deported. These are people who have not committed any kind of crime.

And it seems that the people who are dispensing legal advice are a target too. Congresswoman Jacobs, the Trump administration is going after law firms that have defended its perceived enemies. One of those law firms is Perkins Coie. They've got an office here. What does this mean for the democratic right of defense?

Jacobs: I am very concerned that what we are seeing is a systematic dismantling of our rights as citizens, and as people living here in the United States, and a dismantling of the separation of powers, where we have three coequal branches of government. Coequal, but Congress is preeminent. And we are seeing the Trump administration just completely erode all of what has made American democracy what it is.

Congressman Vargas, a CNN poll found that only 29% of Americans hold a favorable view of the Democratic Party. An NBC poll showed those numbers at 27%. People believe the Dems have no fight. What's your take on these numbers?

Vargas: I'm surprised it's that high. No, you know, the truth of the matter is, people are angry right now, and they're angry at the Democrats. They don't think we're doing enough. We have to push back harder. But I think one of the frustrations that people have, really, is with politics in general, and that is, they don't feel like the politicians and government are doing anything for them.

But one of the things I think, as Democrats, we have to do a much better job of is listen to people. Go out there and listen to your constituents: what they want, what they need, what their desires are. I think that's important. Listen to what they say. I have to say, I did fairly well in my district. I always do well, because I try to listen to them.

Congresswoman Jacobs, the Trump administration, the GOP, with the help of the Heritage foundation, have Project 2025. Why doesn't the Democratic Party have a blueprint like that for its vision?

Jacobs: I think it's a really good question, and I think it goes to why people are frustrated with the Democratic Party right now. I'm one of the youngest members of Congress, and I spent a lot of time talking about the experience of my generation, and I feel like the Democratic Party became the party of the status quo when, for many people, the status quo just wasn't working.

If you're a millennial, we've lived in the shadow of the "forever wars" our whole adult lives. We graduated college during the Great Recession. Right as things were getting better, COVID happened. Of course we don't trust institutions or people in power to look out for us because that hasn't been our experience.

And then what I hear from my peers is that they were given a choice of, change everything, maybe not exactly how we want, but at least some change, or keep things the same. And it was hard for them to choose that.

So I think what we need, as a Democratic Party and as leaders, is to put forward an affirmative agenda: Here’s what we want this country to look like, here’s how we’re gonna get there, and here’s how it’s gonna make your life better.

Now, you've actually made a point to reach out to younger audiences. You've produced these Get Ready With Me TikTok videos, which were the target of some mockery by Jon Stewart. What was the thinking behind producing these videos? And what kind of response have you gotten from the public?

Vargas: Yeah, and no offense to Jon Stewart, but he is not my target audience here. I'm happy to teach him how to do eyeliner if he would like. But look, what we found in a lot of the research around this election is, if you watch cable news, if you read the newspaper, you voted for Democrats. Even if you say you follow social media to get your news, it was a tie. The people that we lost are the people who say they don't follow politics at all. They don't feel engaged at all, and they don't want anything to do with politics. And so to me, as one of the younger members, I'm trying to find new, creative ways to reach out to those people.

Congressman Levin, you've been out there talking to constituents. You held a town hall. I know Congressman Issa has not held a town hall. Would you consider holding one in his district?

Levin: Well, we just had our 121st town hall in our district, and I was shocked that the head of the Republican Congressional Committee told all the members, don't do town halls. Because at the end of the day, if you're not interested in listening to your constituents and showing up, I think you should find a different line of work.

But would you hold a town hall in Congressman Issa's district?

Levin: Well, I think plenty of my colleagues are going to do that. I'm going to stay focused on my district and doing the work that I need to do, because I have a lot of very exuberant constituents that want to be heard from.

Congressman Vargas, there is this perception that the Trump administration and its agenda is unstoppable, even if laws and norms are broken. Is that a valid perception?

Vargas: No, I don't think so at all. In fact, one of the things I think you're going to see is that they're going to fall on their face pretty hard, pretty soon. These guys don't know how to run the government. I mean, they got involved because they hate the government. And you're seeing that all over the place where they're closing things down. Well, people are going to understand pretty soon, "wow, I didn't know it affected my Social Security. I didn't know it affected my health care." Everyone's going to find out that these guys don't know how to run the government.

Congresswoman Jacobs, if threatened cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security go through, the funding and focus of university scientific research is changed dramatically and curriculum in public schools is reshaped, what might life look like in six months or a year in San Diego and across the country?

Jacobs: We're going to see a government that only works for some people and leaves so many others behind. But the thing is, I actually don't know what it will look like in six months or a year, because I don't think they're actually going to be able to do it. They aren't unstoppable. None of this is inevitable.

They're trying to make us feel helpless. They're trying to make us feel overwhelmed. It's a strategy, but it's not working.

And House Democrats have a four-part strategy for how we're pushing back: We're pushing back with laws, we're pushing back with court cases, we're pushing back with our oversight job. But the most important part of the four-part strategy is public pressure.