Dem
47
GOP
53
The first page of the required text for Fascism 101 points out that the would-be fascist must silence their enemies. And so, it is hardly unexpected that Donald Trump is going after the Democrats' campaign apparatus. The only surprise is that it took him so long.
What we are referring to here is
an executive order
Trump issued yesterday in which he instructs his caporegime AG Pam Bondi to conduct an investigation into
ActBlue, the Democrats' online fundraising platform. Here's the reasoning, in Trump's own words (well, in the words of
whatever person or ChatBot writes his XOs for him):
Notwithstanding these laws designed to protect American democracy, press reports and investigations by congressional committees have generated extremely troubling evidence that online fundraising platforms have been willing participants in schemes to launder excessive and prohibited contributions to political candidates and committees.
Specifically, these reports raise concerns that malign actors are seeking to evade Federal source and amount limitations on political contributions by breaking down large contributions from one source into many smaller contributions, nominally attributed to numerous other individuals, potentially without the consent or even knowledge of the putative contributors. The reports also raise concerns that such "straw donations" are being made through "dummy" accounts, potentially using gift cards or prepaid credit cards to evade detection.
Further, there is evidence to suggest that foreign nationals are seeking to misuse online fundraising platforms to improperly influence American elections. A recent House of Representatives investigation revealed that a platform named ActBlue had in recent years detected at least 22 "significant fraud campaigns", nearly half of which had a foreign nexus. During a 30-day window during the 2024 campaign, the platform detected 237 donations from foreign IP addresses using prepaid cards, indicating that this activity remains a pressing concern.
One cannot help but think of the old line: "In every accusation, there is a confession." In any event, let us pause for a moment to note that the primary basis for these claims—that ActBlue is facilitating widespread campaign finance fraud—is "A recent House of Representatives investigation." Do we really need to tell ANYONE reading this site that the paper that Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) used to report the results of that "investigation" is useful for one thing, and it involves parrots and their cages?
There's no way around it; this is a direct assault on the opposition political party. And it's a key cog in the whole operation. Political parties need money, and ActBlue is the most important way in which the Democrats raise that money. Incidentally, ActBlue is far more successful than the Republicans' equivalent, which is WinRed. Last year, ActBlue brought in $3,821,173,165, while WinRed brought in $1,686,456,166. That's over $2 billion more for ActBlue. Surely that fact has absolutely nothing to do whatsoever with Trump's decision to target ActBlue. No, sir!
That said, we think it's also a pretty stupid decision by him. There is just no chance that Trump somehow achieves some sort of legal victory here. Again, there's no evidence for any of the claims being made. And beyond that, as Trump himself has demonstrated, it's really hard to punish campaign finance irregularities. Even if Pam Bondi comes up with something, and persuades a court or persuades 4 of 6 FEC commissioners, all that happens is that ActBlue has to give the dirty money back.
What that means is that the only real benefit here is to produce some "Democrats are crooks" headlines and propaganda for the MAGA base. OK, fine, but there is such a thing as the Streisand effect. The DNC is pitching a very loud fit about all of this and, as readers can certainly guess, is already fundraising off of it. The first solicitation went out about 20 minutes after the XO was announced. We would bet large sums of money that ActBlue had a great day yesterday, and will have a great week. And we would also guess, with some confidence, that "Donald Trump is literally trying to shut us down" will resonate more with voters and donors on the blue side of the aisle than Manufactured Story #13,378 about alleged Democratic malfeasance will resonate with voters and donors on the red side of the aisle. (Z)