Trump expected to target ActBlue, a major Democratic fundraising platform
President Donald Trump will sign an executive order or memorandum Thursday aimed at ActBlue, the leading Democratic fundraising platform, a senior White House official told NBC News.
The source said the action is related to how the platform verifies and reports its donors and users.
Politico was the first to report on the move.
ActBlue is the primary fundraising tool for Democratic candidates and, in many cases, the default donation option on Democratic campaign websites. It is widely considered one of the pillars of the party's digital ecosystem.
The platform works as a conduit, facilitating individual donations for campaigns and nonprofits and taking a 3.95% processing fee on most donations.
Megan Hughes, a spokesperson for Act Blue, said the organization "strictly abides by all federal and state laws governing its activities."
'ActBlue plays a vital role in enabling all Americans to participate in our democracy and the organization strictly abides by all federal and state laws governing its activities," Hughes said. "We will always stand steadfast in defending the rights of all Americans to participate in our democracy and ActBlue will continue its mission undeterred and uninterrupted, providing a safe, secure fundraising platform for the millions of grassroots donors who rely on us.'
A spokesperson for the Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In early April, the heads of three Republican-led House committees released a report detailing what they characterized as "illegal activity" on ActBlue and accused the platform of failing to take action against alleged fraud.
"ActBlue's internal turmoil, lack of a functioning legal team, possible retaliatory actions, and failure to take fraud seriously raise new questions about the platform's ability to deter fraud and comply with federal election law," the three GOP lawmakers said in a joint statement accompanying the report.
Meanwhile, Trump ally Elon Musk has repeatedly blasted ActBlue on his social media platform, X. In a post on March 8, for example, Musk appeared to suggest that "ActBlue-funded groups" were behind the recent wave of nationwide protests against his electric car company, Tesla.
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The Independent
14 minutes ago
- The Independent
Elon Musk was no match for Donald Trump – but his humiliation might only just be beginning
Was he right? A few days ago, Elon Musk declared of his war of words with Donald Trump that 'the most entertaining outcome is the most likely'. Does a capitulation count? Surely not. The world found a kind of grim solace in the great Trump-Musk falling out, and was greatly looking forward to further shocking developments in social media's first soap opera. Would Elon tell us more about why, he alleged before he deleted his post, Trump was in the Epstein files? What did Musk see going on in the Trump White House? Is Trump as deranged as he seems, or, as Donald alleges, is Elon suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome? More important, would Elon block access to his rockets and satellite network (apparently installed in the White House), and fund Democrats to 'crush' Maga candidates in next year's midterm elections, as has been rumoured? Or would Donald cancel the lucrative government contracts and deport Elon to South Africa, where he would surely face a mixed reception? Would Trump use the tanks on his birthday parade to crush his new Tesla? That lot would certainly have been entertaining, if possibly dangerous to the stability of the world. Like so many disappointments from this pair, it seems likely we'll be deprived of what we expected. Instead, we have a highly ironic lesson in the power and inevitability of cooperation, even between the richest person on the planet, and the most powerful politician on earth. Turns out that two men who think they don't need anyone else actually do really rely very much on one another, much more than they thought, and, in the end, found their civil war was doing them more harm than good. The fear of mutually assured destruction was sufficiently strong to prompt a truce. In fairness to Musk, it has to be said that it was Trump who started to ease the tensions in recent days, playing down the threats and muting the insults; but it's Musk who stared commercial ruin in the face and publicly backed down: '"I regret some of my posts about President Donald Trump last week. They went too far." In the end, the brilliant techbro was no match for the old school New York real estate bully. Without the US government contracts and support for his electric-autonomous car business, Musk would soon be a much diminished figure, if not ruined. While the loss of paper wealth has never bothered him that much – his bravado is part of the reason why he is where he is today – his sincere, if batty, desire to colonise Mars on behalf of humanity must have been the ambition that he simply could not sacrifice for the sake of a feud with a mad orange old bloke. Musk's second biggest motivation in life, war on the 'woke mind virus', would also be best served by keeping Trump in the White House? How will Trump react? As ever, hard to predict, but the signs are he won't restart hostilities. Things will just go quiet. It will never be bold, confident morning again for this pair, unless Musk commits certain acts of obeisance, in which case a reconciliation would be in play. After all, JD Vance once called the now-president Trump 'America's Hitler', Marco Rubio bitterly resented and resisted the 'con man' winning the White House, and Robert Kennedy Junior called the guy a 'sociopath'. They have all since renounced their own posts, become sycophants and been richly rewarded. So, it may well turn out, will Musk. Which would, as he predicted, be an entertaining, if humiliating, outcome.
Daily Mail
16 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
'These animals proudly carry other countries' flags but only burn the American flag': Trump condemns 'foreign invasion' as he prepares full anti-immigration assault on five US cities and LA enters lockdown
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The riot-ravaged Downtown area will be a no-go zone from 8pm to 6am on Tuesday and will continue indefinitely after violent demonstrators set fire to cars, looted buildings and attacked officers with rocks, fireworks and cement bricks in harrowing scenes of destruction. LAPD squads in riot gear began storming the streets immediately surrounding the Federal Building on Los Angeles St. in downtown Los Angeles shortly after Mayor Karen Bass's 8pm curfew went into effect. Police cars blocked off streets and uniformed officers fast marched to the location. Agitators were forced back half a block from the location but still swarmed the area. The intense tactical operation continued as officers, including mounted police, created so-called skirmish lines to push rioters away from other federal buildings on the same block. witnessed cars with their lights off pulling up a block away. 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'Federal antagonization, through the presence of soldiers in the streets, has already caused real and irreparable damage to the City of Los Angeles, the people who live there, and the State of California,' the filing stated. 'They must be stopped, immediately.' A judge denied the motion and instead granted the Trump administration an extension of time to respond to Newsom's filing. The federal government now has until 2pm on Wednesday to file its response. Newsom will then have an opportunity to file its opposition ahead of a hearing at 1.30pm Thursday. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told lawmakers the deployment of National Guard troops and Marines to Los Angeles will cost at least $134 million and last 60 days. 'We stated very publicly that it's 60 days because we want to ensure that those rioters, looters and thugs on the other side assaulting our police officers know that we're not going anywhere,' he said. 'Thankfully, unlike the previous administration, we've got a 13 percent increase in our defense budget, and we will have the capability to cover down on contingencies, which is something the National Guard and the Marines plan for. 'So we have the funding to cover down on contingencies, especially ones as important as maintaining law and order in a major American city. As far as training, all of the units on the ground have been fully trained in their capabilities of what they're executing on the ground.'
Reuters
24 minutes ago
- Reuters
Trump wants to 'liberate' Los Angeles, residents say 'no thanks'
June 11 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump says he sent in the National Guard and Marines to "liberate" Los Angeles from the violence of protesters, but some residents of Little Tokyo, a neighborhood hit hardest by the unrest say "no thanks" Mr President. A dozen people who live, work or frequent the neighborhood, where Japanese is heard spoken as frequently as English in shops and restaurants, on Tuesday told Reuters that Trump's use of the military was inflaming the protests against recent immigration raids in Los Angeles. "The president sending in the National Guard and Marines has only made things worse, it's made the protesters go crazy," said Sulieti Havili, who lives nearby and helps run a Pokemon club with over 6,000 members that routinely plays in Little Tokyo. "They are doing nothing to protect this community." Havili, 25, who was out picking up trash in Little Tokyo with her Pokemon club partner Nolberto Aguilar, 42, said it was clear to her that Trump sending in thousands of military personnel had "brought out the worst in the protesters" and only served to aggravate the situation. Aguilar added that Trump's deployment of troops was thwarting the will of most Los Angeles citizens and local leaders, fanning the flames created by ICE immigration raids, that he said targeted law-abiding immigrants. The Trump administration says its immigration raids are rounding up de facto criminals for lacking proper documents to stay in the United States. California Governor Gavin Newsom has said the use of military personnel to combat the protests had "inflamed a combustible situation" and warned that "democracy is under assault." Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has said that Trump's use of troops was a deliberate effort to create "chaos." The Trump administration strongly rejects the accusations and says their actions were needed in the face of local and state leaders inability to get the situation under control. Little Tokyo, a charming neighborhood with shops selling Japanese goods and restaurants serving up some of the city's finest sushi, abuts the federal buildings where protesters have gathered for five nights in a row. For the past two nights, when police and National Guard troops have forcibly dispersed protesters in the early evening, demonstrators scatter into smaller groups into Little Tokyo, which has been covered with anti-ICE and anti-Trump graffiti. Running skirmishes well into the night in the neighborhood has seen police use booming flash-bangs and firing other "less lethal" munitions at protesters. Several of those interviewed in Little Tokyo asked that they not be named, saying they feared reprisals - from the federal government. Many were immigrants themselves or had family members who were not born in the U.S., and feared making themselves or their loved ones targets of ICE. One of those was Anthony, who works at a tea shop in the neighborhood. "There is no question that the president sending in thousands of National Guard and 700 Marines has done nothing but make the protesters more aggressive," he said. "It's instigating the protesters and making things worse." Samantha Lopez, a descendent of Filipino immigrants who works at a Korean ice cream parlor in Little Tokyo, said she felt empathy for the demonstrators but rejected any acts of vandalism or violence they carry out. Still, she blamed the use of military personnel for creating the unrest. "It's just poor handling of protests that stay peaceful until they're confronted by officers," Lopez said. "It's bad for business, and it's bad for this neighborhood."
