Another Democrat fizzle after Black Friday boycott results in record-breaking shopping

Following the government shutdown boomerang and the efforts of the now-disgraced "Seditious Six," Democrats' call to undermine President Donald Trump and interrupt Black Friday shopping is another "Get Trump" attempt that has fizzled.  

This year's Black Friday and the following weekend produced record-breaking numbers for businesses across America, both online and in-person, much to the chagrin of Democrat-led boycott efforts like #WABIT (We Ain't Buying It).

Boycotts boomerang

The WABIT campaign, backed by the Soros-funded Indivisible.org and routed to Act Blue for donations, spread online and on social media leading up to the year's biggest shopping weekend and urged consumers to refrain from patronizing three specific businesses: Target, Home Depot and Amazon, for "colluding" with the Trump administration on a number of polices like deportations and corporate tax cuts.

This year's Black Friday sales shattered previous records, with U.S. online spending reaching an unprecedented $11.8 billion, marking a 9.1% increase from 2024 and fueled by AI-driven deal hunting and mobile purchases that accounted for over 55% of the total. Overall retail sales for the day surged 4.1% year-over-year, blending robust e-commerce growth of 10.4% with modest in-store gains of 1.7%, as shoppers navigated economic uncertainties with value-focused buys in categories like apparel and electronics. 

The weekend's momentum continued unabated, with projections for Saturday at $5.5 billion and Sunday at $5.9 billion in online sales alone, setting the stage for a record-breaking Cyber Monday peak of $14.2 billion and pushing total holiday spending toward a trillion-dollar milestone.

Just The News spoke to Tom Sullivan, Senior Vice President of Small Business Policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and he stressed how boycotts of these big-box stores hurt small businesses, another unintended consequence of a liberal boycott. 

"When you order a grill to pick up at your local Home Depot, which is not a small business, what people don't realize is what goes into shopping online, hitting click, purchase, and then driving your pickup truck to pick up the grill that is fully assembled and is waiting for you in the Home Depot lot. There are dozens of small businesses in that transaction, whether they're hired directly by Home Depot or by an assembly company."

Schumer Shutdown

The recent 43-day government shutdown, the longest in U.S. history, backfired on Democrats by failing to secure any concessions on Affordable Care Act subsidies, instead leaving the party battered economically and politically as public frustration mounted without clear gains. 

The debacle fractured the Democratic caucus when eight centrist senators defied party leadership to join Republicans in advancing a bare-bones funding bill, igniting a firestorm of infighting that pitted progressives against moderates and exposed deep rifts over strategy. 

Claims that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and other establishment Democrats ultimately caved to Trump's pressure have fueled calls for Schumer's resignation from figures like Rep. Ro Khanna and progressive groups, portraying the leadership as weak and beholden to donors rather than voters.

The "Seditious Six"

The "Seditious Six" —  comprised of Democratic Senators Mark Kelly and Elissa Slotkin, along with Democrat Representatives Jason Crow, Chris Deluzio, Maggie Goodlander, and Chrissy Houlahan — released a provocative video in mid-November urging U.S. military and intelligence personnel to refuse any "illegal orders" from the Trump administration, a message that critics argue directly defied lawful presidential directives on deployments for crime control and immigration enforcement. 

Their efforts backfired tragically when, just days later on November 26, 2025, two West Virginia National Guardsmen — 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom, who succumbed to her injuries on Thanksgiving, and another soldier who remains critically wounded — were ambushed and shot in a targeted attack near the White House by a 29-year-old Afghan national who reportedly shouted "Allahu Akbar," an incident widely perceived as retaliation against National Guard troops enforcing Trump's policies. 

This shocking violence has unleashed a torrent of backlash against the Seditious Six, with Trump allies and social media users branding their video as inflammatory rhetoric that painted service members as complicit in supposed atrocities, effectively placing a bullseye on American troops and amplifying anti-military sentiment that may have emboldened the assailant.

Epstein implications

Democrats' aggressive push to release the Epstein files, initially aimed at implicating Trump, has now ricocheted as the documents reveal deep ties between Epstein and prominent party figures like House Minority Leader, Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., Stacey Plaskett, D-V.I., Larry Summers and Reid Hoffman, sparking resignations and internal probes that have shifted public scrutiny onto their own ranks. 

The White House seized on these revelations to launch a DOJ investigation into Democratic associations with Epstein, framing the entire episode as a partisan hoax and rallying Trump's base while forcing Democrats into a defensive posture they had not anticipated. What began as a moral high ground for transparency has now quieted Democratic voices on the issue, with media allies dropping coverage and the party regretting the unintended spotlight on their vulnerabilities, allowing Republicans to portray them as hypocrites entangled in the very scandals they decried.