Re: Trump's strategy is to make us feel powerless to fight back. But our collective power is immense—if we use it.

Trump's strategy is clear: overwhelm us with outrage after outrage until we feel powerless to fight back. But we're already stopping his authoritarian actions.

Dear MoveOn member,

Just days into his presidency, Donald Trump has unleashed an unprecedented number of extreme executive actions—from pardoning violent January 6 insurrectionists to unilaterally attempting to end birthright citizenship to withdrawing from global climate agreements. His strategy is clear: overwhelm us with outrage after outrage until we feel powerless to fight back.

But we're already stopping Trump's authoritarian actions. Our public outrage today forced Trump to rescind his sweeping order freezing federal funding for everything from schools to veterans' health care, though he appears determined to fight in the courts to push the cuts through, undermining our families and communities to line billionaires' pockets.¹ Also, last Thursday, a federal judge blocked his attack on birthright citizenship, calling it "blatantly unconstitutional."²

These early victories show that when we stand together and fight back strategically through the courts and with sustained public pressure, we can defeat Trump's most dangerous overreaches.

We've been here before—and won. When Trump was in the White House and Republicans controlled both chambers of Congress in 2017 and 2018, MoveOn members and allies successfully blocked major parts of his agenda. Together, we:

• Saved the Affordable Care Act
• Forced Trump to end family separation at the border
• Prevented some of his most extreme policies from being implemented
• Protected key democratic institutions through sustained resistance

Now, with Republicans holding only a razor-thin majority in the House and by using every political and legal tool at our disposal, we can again stop Trump's most dangerous plans to undermine our freedoms, pollute our planet, and empower his billionaire friends at our expense. But we must act swiftly and strategically, showing Trump and MAGA forces that:

• There will be immediate, highly visible public opposition to any attempt to take away our freedoms
• Our movement will not be distracted by Trump's chaos and misdirection
• We can focus our collective power where we have the most leverage

That's why your support for MoveOn is so critical right now. We're building a powerful nationwide movement to challenge Trump's actions where we have the most leverage, mobilize massive public opposition, and hold accountable those enabling his attacks on our freedoms, justice, equal economic opportunity, and our planet. But we can do this work only with grassroots support from members like you.

Will you start a monthly donation to help MoveOn lead the fight against Trump's extreme agenda, day after day and month after month? Every dollar helps us build the strategic, sustained resistance needed to protect our freedoms and stop Trump's worst abuses of power.

If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately:

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With your help, MoveOn will:

• Encourage states to stand up to Trump. State attorneys general have already sued to stop Trump's birthright citizenship order, which a federal court has also blocked, and we'll need to push states to take far more actions like these.³
  
• Fight to protect Social Security. The far-right Cato Institute has prepared a report for Elon Musk's so-called "Department of Government Efficiency," which calls Social Security a Ponzi scheme and says that cost-of-living adjustments should be frozen, the eligibility age must be raised to 70, and benefits overall should be cut back—all so that billionaires and corporations can receive more tax cuts.⁴
• Work to save Medicare and Medicaid. Project 2025's "antiscience, antidata, and antimedicine" agenda is poised to "upend medical practice," push seniors onto managed care programs that enrich corporate executives at the expense of health care access and quality, and bring back the old days, before the Affordable Care Act, when insurance companies could deny coverage to people with preexisting conditions.⁵
  
• Work to protect public media by pushing Congress to keep funding for NPR and PBS. For years, Republicans have been trying to eliminate NPR and PBS but have failed. Now, we expect these pushes to reach a fever pitch, and we'll need to pull out all the stops to fight back.⁶
  
• Fight for the most vulnerable Americans with clear moral opposition, protests, and efforts in states across America to beat back policies that attack immigrants, pregnant people, LGBTQ+ people, and others.

Please, start a monthly donation to MoveOn to help stop some of the worst parts of Trump's Project 2025 agenda. We can do it only with you.

If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately:

Donate: $25 monthly

Donate: $12 monthly

Donate: $5 monthly

Donate another amount monthly

Or make a one-time gift

Together, we can and will defeat Trump's attempts to overwhelm and silence us. We've come up against seemingly impossible odds before and prevailed by staying focused, strategic, and united. But we must act together.

Our collective power is immense—if we use it.

Thanks for all you do.

–Nakia, Emily, Eric, Alex, and the rest of the team

Sources:

1. "Trump White House rescinds freeze on federal grants, reversing course," The Washington Post, January 29, 2025
https://act.moveon.org/go/201946?t=22&akid=422875%2E53570607%2ElxUzrM

2. "Judge blocks Trump's 'blatantly unconstitutional' executive order that aims to end birthright citizenship," CNN, January 23, 2025
https://act.moveon.org/go/201882?t=24&akid=422875%2E53570607%2ElxUzrM

3. "Twenty-two States Sue to Stop Trump's Birthright Citizenship Order," The New York Times, January 21, 2025
https://act.moveon.org/go/201831?t=26&akid=422875%2E53570607%2ElxUzrM

4. "Cato Institute Report to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)," Cato Institute, December 11, 2024
https://act.moveon.org/go/201025?t=28&akid=422875%2E53570607%2ElxUzrM

5. "Project 2025 Could Become a 'Political Reality That Would Upend Medical Practice,'" BU School of Public Health, September 26, 2024
https://act.moveon.org/go/201745?t=30&akid=422875%2E53570607%2ElxUzrM

6. "NPR and PBS Stations Brace for Funding Battle Under Trump," The New York Times, December 27, 2024
https://act.moveon.org/go/201738?t=32&akid=422875%2E53570607%2ElxUzrM

Want to support MoveOn's work? Donald Trump and his MAGA allies expect us to give up. But we will not give them what they want. We will never stop working to defend our fundamental freedoms and protect our democracy. MoveOn has been leading the movement against right-wing extremism for 26 years, and we promise you that we will still be here every step of the way forward.

Will you start a monthly donation to sustain MoveOn's work to protect our freedoms and democracy under Trump's administration?

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