Trump signs directive targeting Democrats' ActBlue platform

Bill Allison, Bloomberg News on Apr 24, 2025

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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed a memorandum targeting ActBlue, accusing Democrats’ online campaign donation platform of violating federal election laws and calling on the U.S. attorney general to take action.

The memorandum signed Thursday, according to a White House fact sheet, directs the attorney general to investigate and take action over allegations that online funding platforms have used contributions from “straw” or “dummy” donors to allow foreign money to go to U.S. political candidates. The directive calls on the attorney general to report the results of the investigation to the president.

The fact sheet doesn’t cite any evidence of wrongdoing, but references a congressional investigation led by Republican lawmakers that claimed to have discovered potential illegal schemes on ActBlue.

ActBlue has raised more than $16.8 billion for Democratic candidates and causes since its founding in 2004. Republicans have said that ActBlue’s platform makes it possible for foreign donors to make fraudulent donations.

Federal election law allows only U.S. citizens and permanent residents to contribute to political campaigns. Campaigns and committees that take foreign money or from individuals hiding their true identity can face civil or criminal penalties.

Though Republicans have criticized ActBlue and accused it of funneling illegal donations to Democrats, they’ve also sought to emulate it. When the GOP launched its own WinRed platform in 2019, Trump said that offsetting ActBlue’s fundraising prowess had long been a priority for him.

Republicans haven’t found evidence of widespread fraud at ActBlue. An investigation led by three committees in the GOP-led House alleged in a report earlier this month that the platform took steps twice during the 2024 election to make its fraud-prevention measures more lenient.

There are recent examples of donors to Republican entities facing prosecution for violating laws. Lev Parnas, an associate of Rudy Giuliani, was found guilty in 2021 of giving money from a Russian oligarch to US political groups, including $325,000 in 2018 to a Trump-linked super political action committee.

The Federal Election Commission took no action against the super PAC, America First Action, that accepted the donation. It disgorged it in 2021.

The move against ActBlue is the latest in a string of actions by Trump to use the powers of the presidency to target political and ideological opponents.

Trump has stripped security clearances from former national security officials who have been critical of him and also targeted law firms with ties to his political opponents and the prosecutions against him after his first term.

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(With assistance from Laura Davison.)

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