Latest news with #ActBlue-funded
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
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 ActBlue, 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. "Trump is using the full force of the federal government to go after his political enemies — just like he promised he would. He's doing it at the exact moment he's at his weakest," Democratic strategist Mike Nellis said, pointing to the financial uncertainty around tariffs. "They're trying to spin up a fake scandal because they've got nothing else," he added. 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. This article was originally published on
NBC News
24-04-2025
- Business
- NBC News
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.
Yahoo
31-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Elon Musk Mocked for Wild Crowd-Heckle Conspiracy Theory
Elon Musk faced more ridicule on Sunday evening after he accused two protesters at a rally in Wisconsin of being paid to attend by rival billionaire George Soros. The Tesla CEO, who was himself there to pay those in attendance for voting in the state's Supreme Court election, broke into a smile after he was interrupted on stage and claimed the 'operatives' had been planted by Soros. 'It was inevitable that at least a few Soros operatives would be in the audience,' Musk said as the protesters were escorted from the venue. 'Give my regards to George!' As they were led away, Musk started chanting 'U-S-A! U-S-A!' which was picked up by the crowd. Soros, who uses his money to fund progressive causes, has long been a bogeyman in right-wing circles, where he is often accused of using his wealth to buy elections. But Musk, who spent $291 million during the 2024 election cycle and a further $20 million to endorse Republican nominee Brad Schimel for the Wisconsin Supreme Court, failed to notice the irony of his words as he handed out two checks worth $1 million each to attendees at the rally who pledged to support his agenda. Former MSNBC host Krystal Ball responded on X: 'Pretending like they are paid Soros operatives while you are LITERALLY THERE TO BRIBE PEOPLE TO VOTE!' This is not the first time Musk has taken shots at Soros in recent memory, with the tech billionaire accusing his counterpart of harboring a 'hatred of humanity' and orchestrating the recent protests at Tesla showrooms—rhetoric that has since been echoed by President Trump. In March, Musk tweeted 'An investigation has found 5 ActBlue-funded groups responsible for Tesla 'protests'. ActBlue funders include George Soros, Reid Hoffman, Herbert Sandler, Patricia Bauman and Leah Hunt-Hendrix.' When questioned if Soros was behind the attacks on Tesla during a recent interview with Newsmax, Trump said: 'I believe that that is part of it, yeah. There are some of them that were involved with my trials that were, I think, probably involved with that also.' Speaking at the rally, Musk described the upcoming Supreme Court election as crucial not just for advancing Trump's agenda, but also the 'future of humanity'. 'Thank you for coming out in support,' he said. It's important for the country and the world. The Supreme Court can redraw the districts, which could result in the House shifting to a Democratic majority. If that happens, they will try to block all the reforms we are working on for you, the American people.' Shortly before Sunday's rally, the state's Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal by the state's Democratic attorney general to stop Musk from handing over checks to voters, who argued it violated state law. 'Wisconsin law prohibits offering anything of value to induce anyone to vote,' said AG Josh Kaul argued in his filing. 'Yet, Elon Musk did just that.' The court, which is currently controlled by liberal judges in a four-to-three balance, declined to give a rationale for their decision to reject the motion. A previous court filing made by Musk's attorneys claimed he was exercising his free speech rights with the gesture, and that any attempts to stop him from handing out the checks would violate his constitutional rights. The payments were 'intended to generate a grassroots movement in opposition to activist judges, not to expressly advocate for or against any candidate,' they argued. Schimel, who wore a 'Make America Great Again' hat while campaigning on Sunday, said he was asked to 'reject activist judges' by Trump and that he 'does not control any of the spending from any outside group, whether it's Elon Musk or anyone else'.
Russia Today
10-03-2025
- Politics
- Russia Today
X under ‘massive cyberattack'
Tech tycoon and billionaire Elon Musk has said that his X social media platform came under a 'massive cyberattack' on Monday. In a post on his personal account, he wrote that 'we get attacked every day, but this was done with a lot of resources,' surmising that 'either a large, coordinated group and/or a country is involved.' Musk also replied in the affirmative to a suggestion by an X user that 'they want to silence you and this platform." Downdetector, a website that monitors outages of online services, claimed that there were at least two waves of reports concerning X throughout Monday, with more than 60,000 users in total flagging issues. Some X users reportedly saw error messages from Cloudflare, a content delivery network and cybersecurity services provider, that read, 'Web server is returning an unknown error,' when they tried to access the site. A previous massive outage affecting X happened last August. In another post on X earlier in the day, Musk accused ActBlue, a major Democratic fundraising platform funded by such figures as billionaire George Soros, of staging a coordinated attack on his Tesla car company. 'An investigation has found 5 ActBlue-funded groups responsible for Tesla 'protests': Troublemakers, Disruption Project, Rise & Resist, Indivisible Project and Democratic Socialists of America,' the tech entrepreneur wrote. His claim followed a slew of protests targeting electric car dealerships in over 50 locations across the US over the past few weeks. While most incidents were limited to demonstrators demanding that Musk 'go,' several dealers suffered property damage. The latest case occurred overnight in Seattle, where several Cybertrucks were torched. A similar attack took place on Saturday in Loveland, Colorado. Last month, that same business was targeted by an arsonist who spray painted 'Nazi cars' on the vehicles and hurled Molotov cocktails at them. Police later detained a transgender suspect, Lucy Grace Nelson, who was booked on a $100,000 cash bond and released the following day, much to the chagrin of local law enforcement. Although critical of Democrats for several years now, Musk completed what some call a swing to the right when he endorsed Donald Trump for president after the failed assassination attempt on him last July. Musk has since become one of Trump's closest confidants, leading a new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which aims to address waste and poor staffing in government agencies.
Russia Today
10-03-2025
- Business
- Russia Today
Musk blames Tesla protests on Soros
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has accused ActBlue, a major Democratic fundraising platform bankrolled by several powerful figures, including billionaire George Soros, of staging a coordinated attack on his company. Musk made the accusations against the platform and its backers in a post on X, urging users with knowledge on such activities to share more evidence online. 'An investigation has found 5 ActBlue-funded groups responsible for Tesla 'protests': Troublemakers, Disruption Project, Rise & Resist, Indivisible Project and Democratic Socialists of America,' Musk wrote. 'ActBlue funders include George Soros, Reid Hoffman, Herbert Sandler, Patricia Bauman, and Leah Hunt-Hendrix,' he added. The Democratic fundraising platform is currently 'under investigation for allowing foreign and illegal donations in criminal violation of campaign finance regulations,' Musk said. Over the past week, seven senior officials, including its associate general counsel, have resigned from their posts, he added. Tesla has been targeted by intensified protests over the past few weeks, with over 50 locations across the US hit by demonstrations. Protesters have urged Musk to 'go,' with the rallies using slogans like 'We need clean air, not another billionaire' and so on. Apart from that, multiple Tesla dealerships have been targeted by arson attacks. This is crazy The latest incident occurred overnight in Seattle, where a number of Cybertrucks were torched at a local dealership. Before that, on Saturday in Loveland, Colorado, an unknown suspect attacked a local Tesla dealership, with several cars sustaining damage from what appeared to be thrown rocks and fire. The same business was attacked by an arsonist last month, with the suspect spray painting 'Nazi cars' and hurling Molotov cocktails at them. The transgender suspect, Lucy Grace Nelson, who formerly identified as Justin Thomas Nelson, was booked on a $100,000 cash bond and released the next day. Local police bemoaned the release of the suspected attacker, warning that failures of the criminal system were bound to encourage similar attacks in the future. 'It's incredibly challenging to keep our citizens safe from copycat behavior when there are no repercussions to lawlessness,' Loveland police chief Tim Doran said in a statement.
