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“You can’t ‘work’ with crazy,” John Fetterman wrote. “You must call it what it is. Anything less is spineless appeasement.”
It was mid-2016, and Fetterman, then running in the Democratic primary for a US Senate seat in Pennsylvania, was responding to a Politico article about how Democrats may work with Donald Trump.
Fetterman, an early supporter of Bernie Sanders’ bid for the presidency, was gaining a reputation as an outspoken progressive in the Sanders mold. He held similar positions to the democratic socialist Vermont senator: on the campaign trail Fetterman spoke often about income inequality and legalizing marijuana. He supported universal healthcare – a litmus test for progressives.
In those days, as Fetterman attracted a growing number of fans among the left wing of the Democratic party, he was also a fierce Trump critic.
“Also, @realDonaldTrump saw his shadow- 4 more years of fascism,” Fetterman wrote in early February 2017, along with a gif from the film Groundhog Day.
Things are different now.
In 2025, Fetterman, who lost his 2016 Senate bid but was elected in 2022, is a fierce critic of the exact type of politician he himself was a few years ago. He has condemned Democrats who call Trump “fascist”, claiming that the party’s brand has grown toxic. His support for universal healthcare was dropped long ago.
And, despite his belief that one cannot work with crazy, Fetterman is proving to be the Democrat most willing to collaborate with Trump, claiming his colleagues need to stop “freaking out” over the president. It’s a pretty dramatic turnaround for a man whose campaign once sold T-shirts with the slogan “Trump is a jagoff”.
In early January, he became the first Senate Democrat to visit Trump since the election, after praising the then president-elect as a “singular political talent” in an interview with ABC News.
“I’m the senator for all Pennsylvanians – not just Democrats in Pennsylvania,” Fetterman said of the Trump meeting at the Florida health club where Trump lived for four years.
“I’ve been clear that no one is my gatekeeper. I will meet with and have a conversation with anyone if it helps me deliver for Pennsylvania and the nation.”
After the meeting, he appeared to defend some of Trump’s border policies, and notably avoided criticizing Trump’s decision to pardon 1,600 people convicted in relation to the January 6 insurrection, including some convicted of assaulting police officers. He was the last Democrat to sign on to a resolution condemning the pardons in late January.
There are other signs of a warmth towards Trump that is almost never seen from elected Democrats. Fetterman joined Trump’s Truth Social network in December, one of the first from his party to do so, and immediately used it to call for Joe Biden to pardon Trump of the 34 federal crimes he was convicted of related to hush-money payments to a pornstar.
“The Trump hush-money and Hunter Biden cases were both bullshit, and pardons are appropriate,” Fetterman wrote. “Weaponizing the judiciary for blatant, partisan gain diminishes the collective faith in our institutions and sows further division.”
His complaints about the weaponization of the judiciary don’t quite seem to tally with his vote – the sole Democratic “yea” vote – to confirm Pam Bondi, Trump’s choice for attorney general. In one of her first days in the job Bondi sent out an ominous email to justice department employees stating that anyone who “refuses to advance good-faith arguments on behalf of the administration” will be “subject to discipline and potentially termination”, while scores of prosecutors who worked on cases related to the insurrection have been fired.
Fetterman has been a lone Democratic voice, or one of very few, in support of other Trump cabinet nominees, and in some cases the votes have contradicted his past statements.
“Nixon founded the EPA. Trump wants to dissolve it,” Fetterman wrote in a tweet in 2017. He was able to move past that belief when he backed Lee Zeldin to be administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, apparently overlooking Trump’s plans to gut the EPA. Days after Zeldin took office about 1,000 members of staff were told they face being immediately fired, while career staff who oversee the enforcement of pollution laws and hazardous waste cleanup have already been reportedly demoted.
Other Trump picks have also been backed. Fetterman was among seven Democrats who voted to confirm Kristi Noem to be secretary of homeland security, and one of two who backed Eric Turner to be secretary of housing and urban development.
More troubling for some is the way Fetterman has seemed willing to indulge Trump’s plan for the US to take over the Gaza Strip. Trump has said the US would “own” the Gaza Strip under a plan he proposed on 4 February and said Palestinians would be moved to neighboring countries.
Capitol on 25 January 2024. Photograph: J. Scott Applewhite/AP
It was a plan that shocked many in both parties, with Tim Kaine, the Democrat from Virginia, calling the proposal “deranged” and “nuts” and even the longtime Trump sycophant Lindsey Graham describing it as “very problematic”. Fetterman, whose staunch support for Israel is among the things that have put him at odds with the Democratic party’s progressive wing, was among the few voices not outraged.
“It’s a provocative part of the conversation, but it’s part of the conversation, and that’s where we are,” Fetterman told Jewish Insider, adding that he would “fully support” US forces being deployed under Trump’s scheme.
His actions have not gone unnoticed in his home state. Last week a Trump protest in Pittsburgh segued into a loud critique of Fetterman, with scores of people chanting “Fetterman! Fetterman! Do your job!” Public Source reported.
As recently as 2022, Fetterman was clinging to some of his progressive credentials. In his Senate primary, he talked up his early support for Sanders and accused his opponent, Conor Lamb, of being similar to Joe Manchin – the centrist Democrat-turned-independent senator who repeatedly thwarted Democrats’ efforts to pass legislation.
Ironically, after two years in the Senate, that is now the accusation being leveled at Fetterman in some quarters, as rumors and commentary on social media have suggested he could also switch to an independent senator or even change parties. Fetterman doesn’t appreciate that kind of talk.
“That’s amateur hour shit,” he told Semafor in January. “If they think: ‘Oh, it’s going to be like a Manchin or a Sinema play,’ that’s just not true, and that’s not going to happen.”
For now, it seems that Democrats will have to take Fetterman as he comes: a progressive turned not-at-all progressive, who is more open to working with Trump than anyone else in his party and who seemingly now believes that it is possible to work with crazy.
