U.S. Sen. John Fetterman has some advice for Democrats: Stop being so mean to Donald Trump.

In an interview with CNN’s Manu Raju on “Inside Politics Sunday,” the Democratic senator from Braddock said his party needs to stop focusing on progressive issues and pull back on some of the criticism levied at the president.

“They have forgotten one of the reasons why we lost in 2024,” he said.

“We can’t just be, ‘Trump is always wrong!’ ” Fetterman argued. “A lot of Americans happen to disagree with you. That does not mean that they are fascists, or that they want to shred the Constitution.”

Similarly, Fetterman was dismissive of voters and politicians who continue to promote what he regarded as progressive ideals.

“Some people think now we have to double down on those things or we must become more progressive or more extreme,” he said. “That’s absolutely not true. The seven or eight states that are going to determine who’s going to be our next president, you know, we have to win in those states, and I understand what that takes.

“We’ve really lost our connection with American voters in ways.”

Fetterman also said the rhetoric directed toward Trump should be turned down.

“We have to turn the temperature down,” Fetterman said. “It’s like we can’t compare people to these kinds of figures in history. And this is not an autocrat. This is a product of a democratic election. It’s like, I participated in that. It was safe, and it was secure. We lost, and the American people put us in the minority. That’s democracy.

“Don’t ever compare anyone to Hitler, and those kinds of extreme things. Look what happened to Charlie Kirk — a man was shot. We can’t compare people to these kinds of figures in history.”

Fetterman’s remarks come in the wake of Trump sending National Guard troops into Washington, D.C., ostensibly to help fight crime, even though violent crime has been trending downward in the city.

Critics say Trump’s occupation is an illegal use of the military, but the former mayor of Braddock said he would have been appreciative to have the National Guard’s help.

“I didn’t have the resources to do that. I was grateful to get all the kinds of help for those kind of things, absolutely,” he said. “Just because … if Trump is calling for something X, Y and Z, then that doesn’t mean we have to necessarily oppose that.”

Fetterman, however, was critical of Trump’s immigration policy, saying, “We shouldn’t target otherwise hardworking migrants that are, just effectively, making a significant contribution to our economy.”

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