Dear MoveOn member,
We have some very good news to share, and it may surprise you. But history tells us we must seize this moment ... or else.
Here's the news: Federal courts ruled against the Trump administration 96% of the time in May.1 Yes, 96%!
That's why Donald Trump is increasingly attacking the courts and judges. It's straight out of the authoritarian playbook.
Political scientist Adam Bonica describes "the authoritarian script:
- Court rules against leader
- Attack judges as biased/dangerous
- Delegitimize judicial system
- Create permission for threats
- IF NO MASS RESISTANCE → Purge the courts
- IF MASS RESISTANCE → Forced to retreat."2
Bonica warns, "Every authoritarian who successfully destroyed judicial independence did so because civil society failed to unite in time. The key difference? Whether people mobilized."3
Mass resistance is our way out of Trump's authoritarianism. And while there's so much to fight, job No. 1 is to stop Trump's massive budget bill that House Republicans just passed, which would reshape American government and be the largest upward transfer of wealth in American history—at a time when wealth inequality is already at record levels.4
Trump will be at his pinnacle of power if he can twist enough arms to sign this bill into law. We cannot let that happen. Full stop.
But here's the thing: The bill is also a huge opportunity for us to organize, grow our coalition, and mass mobilize. It's truly a horrific piece of legislation that would harm millions—ripping away people's health care, leaving people to go hungry, ending the only plan our country has to curb climate change, and so much more. And it's all to give the ultrawealthy massive tax breaks.5
The Senate is now considering the bill. Trump wants it on his desk by July 4, which means time could be running short. Our first goal is to slow down the bill, giving us crucial time to help Americans understand how it would harm them and their neighbors, organize, grow our numbers, and mobilize like our lives depend on it. Because they do.
We also need to hold accountable House Republicans in moderate or blue districts who voted for the bill, so that they can't possibly vote for final passage once it comes back from the Senate for a final vote.
This work couldn't be more important and urgent. But we need your help. We've been putting up hard-hitting billboards and plastering social media with ads in the districts of six of the most vulnerable House Republicans in Congress, all of whom represent moderate or blue districts. Now we need to expand those ad campaigns to show the harm and chaos these members of Congress would cause to their own constituents. We need to ramp up this work to reach more people and to mobilize at scale.
As a grassroots organization, we can do this work only with you. Will you donate $5 a month to power, continue to build, and sustain this work for as long as it takes to stop Trump’s authoritarianism?
Yes, I'll chip in $5 a month. (If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately.)
No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.
Federal judges are blunting Trump's impact. But they can hold for only so long. The rest is up to us. And time is of the essence. Join us.
Thanks for all you do.
–Nakia, Tes, Corinne, Alex, and the rest of the team
Sources:
1. "May 27, 2025," Letters from an American, May 28, 2025
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/may-27-2025
2. Post on Bluesky by Adam Bonica, May 26, 2025
https://bsky.app/profile/adambonica.bsky.social/post/3lq45lt6pnt2t
3. Ibid.
4. "The Largest Upward Transfer of Wealth in American History," The Atlantic, May 22, 2025
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/05/big-beautiful-transfer-of-wealth/682885/
5. "There’s a reason Republicans want to hide what’s in their newly passed megabill," MSNBC, May 22, 2025
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/republican-house-bill-medicaid-snap-cuts-tax-cut-trump-rcna208380
Want to support MoveOn's work? The MoveOn community will work every moment, day by day and year by year, to resist Trump's agenda, contain the damage, defeat hate with love, and begin the process of swinging the nation's pendulum back toward sanity, decency, and the kind of future that we must never give up on. And to do it MoveOn needs your ongoing support, now more than ever. Will you stand with MoveOn?
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