Slotkin discussed the despair that many Americans are feeling and their anger over leaders who have not stood up to Trump and his administration.

"Hold your elected officials, including me, accountable. Watch how they're voting. Go to town halls and demand they take action. That's as American as apple pie," she said.

The senator also pushed Americans to organize.

"Pick just one issue you're passionate about and engage. And doomscrolling doesn't count. Join a group that cares about your issue and act. And if you can't find one, start one. Some of the most important movements in our history have come from the bottom up," she said.

Democrat Elissa Slotkin slammed Trump over last week's Oval Office dust-up between Trump, Vance and Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy, saying Ronald Reagan "must be rolling in his grave."

"We all want an end to the war in Ukraine. But Reagan understood that true strength required America to combine our military and economic might with moral clarity," she said. "And that scene in the Oval Office wasn't just a bad episode of reality TV. It's summed up Trump's whole approach to the world."

Slotkin said Trump "believes in cozying up to dictators like Vladimir Putin and kicking our friends like the Canadiens in the teeth."

Slotkin criticized DOGE and Trump for the "mindless" mass firings of federal workers, only to hire some of them back days later.

"No CEO in America could do that without being summarily fired," she said.

"Is there anyone in America who is comfortable with him and his gang of 20 year olds using their own computer servers to poke through your tax returns, your health information and your bank accounts?" Slotkin asked while delivering remarks on economic security.

While she agreed that America needs a more efficient government, she argued that there is "no oversight" with Musk's efforts.

Since entering office, Trump has promised to promptly end the three-year-old war between Russia and Ukraine. But his approach to doing so has alarmed many U.S. allies, as his administration recently opened up talks with Russia and signalled openness to peace talks that could potentially embolden Russian President Vladimir Putin and sideline Ukraine. Plus, a disastrous meeting in the White House with Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week has left the U.S. alliance with Ukraine in question, once again putting Trump at odds with European leaders.

That would be a shift not only from U.S. policy under Biden, but from the outcome most Americans say they want: Americans have been sympathetic to Ukraine since Russia invaded the country three years ago. A strong bipartisan majority of Americans, 70 percent, said the U.S. should call for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine that “guarantees Ukrainian security,” per an Ipsos poll from Dec. 13-15. Meanwhile, a Morning Consult poll in December found that while a growing number of Americans (as well as Europeans) believe the war could end soon, 47 percent said the U.S. should not push Ukraine into territorial concessions, even if that means lengthening the war.

Of course, there’s always been a limit to what Americans think the U.S. should do to aid Ukraine: Fifty-eight percent in the Ipsos poll said the U.S. can’t afford to take any military action in Ukraine, and polling by Pew Research Center has found that a growing percentage of Americans think we’ve committed too much support to Ukraine as the war dragged on. Unsurprisingly, that split has grown especially along party lines: A plurality of 47 percent of Republicans said the U.S. is providing too much support to Ukraine while a plurality of 35 percent of Democrats said we weren’t providing enough, in a Pew Research Center survey from Feb. 3-9.

Partisan splits are likely to keep shaping U.S. opinion on the issue as well. A Morning Consult poll from Feb. 21-24 found that only 26 percent of Republicans viewed Zelenskyy favorably and 39 percent view him unfavorably, while in contrast half of Democrats viewed him favorably and 14 percent viewed him unfavorably. And 37 percent of Republicans thought the U.S. should push Ukraine to let Russia keep the territory it’s gained in order to end the war, a jump up from the 28 percent who said the same in December; the numbers for Democrats were 20 percent and 18 percent, respectively.

—Monica Potts, 538