Marc Elias on Trump's Attack on ActBlue and Weaponization of Government

Trump's Attack on ActBlue

• 🚨 Donald Trump has targeted ActBlue, the primary online fundraising platform for Democratic campaigns and progressive organizations.
• 🎯 This move is seen as an attempt to criminalize and shut down a crucial piece of Democratic and progressive infrastructure.
• 🛡️ The strategy involves weaponizing the federal government to target political opponents, a tactic discussed for months.

The Playbook of Targeting Opposition

• 🎯 Trump's playbook includes targeting individuals and large institutions, but now extends to specific machinery that allows opposition movements to flourish and hold him accountable.
• 📰 The legacy media is criticized for not being aggressive enough in identifying this as a deliberate political strategy.

Executive Orders and DOJ Investigations

• 🏛️ Trump's missives, like executive orders, can be more than just press releases, especially when directing the Department of Justice to conduct investigations.
• 🚫 This action breaks a long-standing norm against the President directing the Attorney General to investigate political opponents.
• ⚖️ While not automatically self-executing, Trump expects his appointee, Pam Bondi, to follow his command, hoping to intimidate users and donors of ActBlue.

Potential for Legal Recourse and Precedent

• ❓ It is unclear if ActBlue must wait for a judge to validate the executive order, but the system is not built for bad faith initiations of investigations.
• 🧑‍⚖️ Courts typically intervene if charges are brought, but the Trump administration's approach is politicized and directed by the White House.
• 💡 There is a possibility that Democratic AGs could investigate Republican platforms like WinRed in response, though this is debated.

The Cost of Political Attacks

• ⏳ Campaigns operate under the constraint that time is money, and any time spent dealing with these attacks is time not spent campaigning or fundraising.
• 💰 ActBlue and its lawyers are encouraged to challenge the executive order in court, as Trump often loses such challenges.
• 📈 The current actions signal the beginning of the politicization of the Department of Justice and the targeting of perceived opponents.