Neera Tanden, a longtime fixture of Democratic politics in Washington, is taking back her old post leading the party’s top think tank, where she served as one of President Trump’s most energetic and vocal antagonists during his first term.
The group, the Center for American Progress, announced on Thursday that Ms. Tanden would return as its chief executive. Since its founding more than two decades ago, the center, which is based in Washington, has served as a locus of Democratic opposition whenever Republicans have held the White House.
Ms. Tanden takes over the organization at a moment when many Democratic donors are withholding contributions, party leaders are struggling to develop a coherent message and no obvious figures have emerged to lead the pushback to Mr. Trump.
Now, Ms. Tanden said, is the time for Democrats to not just fight back against Mr. Trump but also offer ideas of their own before the 2026 midterm elections and the 2028 presidential contest.
“We should have reflection for sure, but a level of self-doubt that basically puts people in catatonic positions is not helpful in a moment where Trump is threatening this level of harm to millions upon millions of Americans,” she said in an interview on Wednesday. “A critical purpose of the Center for American Progress is to develop an alternative, not just a critique.”
Ms. Tanden has served on Democratic presidential campaigns dating to 1988, when she volunteered for Michael Dukakis. She was a dogged aide to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama — roles in which she was often at odds with more progressive Democrats — before becoming the Center for American Progress’s president in 2017. From that perch, she helped lead the Democratic fight to preserve Mr. Obama’s signature health care law and was among the party’s leading voices of anti-Trump resistance.
Her proclivity for expressing unvarnished opinions online about Republicans helped sink her nomination to serve as the director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
She called Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, “the worst,” and to Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, she wrote that “you’re high on your own supply.” At the time, Ms. Tanden apologized, but that was not sufficient to maintain support from Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, who doomed her nomination when he announced he would not support her.
Mr. Biden subsequently made Ms. Tanden a senior adviser, and later his staff secretary and director of the Domestic Policy Council, key White House positions that did not require Senate confirmation.
These days, her social media presence consists mostly of reposts of others on X and Bluesky.
“I’m still going to tweet,” Ms. Tanden said in the interview on Wednesday, “but less.”
She is returning to C.A.P. alongside its founder, John Podesta, who was Mr. Biden’s global representative on climate. Mr. Podesta was recently named chairman of the group’s board. Patrick Gaspard, who has been serving as the organization’s president, will shift to a senior adviser position.
C.A.P. is one of several liberal groups plagued by financial troubles in the early days of the Trump administration. This month, the center laid off 22 employees, a cut of about 8 percent of its staff. Ms. Tanden said she was confident that there would not be additional layoffs.
Ms. Tanden said it was important for Democrats to remember that while the current political moment might feel extreme and dire, it was not unprecedented.
“We have been at moments — Trump’s first term, Bush’s second term — where people were like, ‘Democrats are in the wilderness, and they don’t have a response, and the country is radically changed,’” she said. “We have to get up, dust ourselves off, criticize what we think is wrong and offer better alternatives.
“There is a competition for ideas, and maybe some of Trump’s strength is, if we’re not solving a problem, he will offer a radical solution,” she continued. “And that just makes it more incumbent upon us to offer solutions.”
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