Hi Reader,
ProPublica’s summer member drive begins today. For the next two weeks, we’ll be checking in with you, explaining how we operate as a newsroom, highlighting some of our best stories and hopefully convincing you to join us with a donation to support our critical work.
It has been a little over four months since President Donald Trump’s second administration began rapidly reshaping the government and its mission, with significant consequences for the country and the world. ProPublica is committed to helping readers understand this pivotal moment in our nation’s history, and to chronicling the effects of what promises to be a drastic change in the role of the federal government in all of our lives.
Journalism like ours is a public service mission. When change is sweeping and rapid, we know readers need a trusted news source that will take a step back from the breaking news cycle to account for the context, and the consequences. For instance, when the Department of Government Efficiency was launched, little was known about who was working behind the scenes. So we compiled the backgrounds of the key figures working alongside Elon Musk at DOGE in a database that has continued to generate critical insights into DOGE staffers and potential conflicts of interest, the agency’s funding, and its moves to shrink the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Since January, ProPublica has also reported on the wholesale closure of federal agencies created by Congress; a buried measles forecast; dropped consumer protection investigations; the elimination of offices focused on civil rights or equity for veterans and schoolchildren; how the full force of the federal government came down on Maine because of its policy on trans children playing sports; and cutbacks at Social Security, despite Trump saying it “wouldn’t be touched,” among many, many other stories.
This administration’s actions may be unprecedented, but ProPublica is resourced and ready. Over the past 17 years, we have closely covered the actions of the federal government, from disaster rebuilding programs that inadvertently punished poor people to the failings of regulators to curb the presence of formaldehyde even though it causes more cancer than any other toxic air pollutant. As we have done for each presidential administration since our founding, our reporters will keep getting answers to the fundamental questions about new government policies: Who is benefiting? Who is suffering? What are the unintended consequences?
As someone who values ProPublica’s journalism and its impact, I’m asking you today to invest more deeply in this work by making a donation of any amount. With a gift to ProPublica, you’ll be joining over 80,000 members who help power our journalism and the real-world change it creates. Your support will immediately be put to good use, paying for the investigations we’re knee-deep in right now.
There is a critical need for more independent, investigative journalism — the kind that demands accountability, protects the vulnerable and ensures that powerful institutions serve the public, not their own interests. It’s the kind of journalism we have been producing for nearly two decades. Our nonprofit newsroom has no ultrawealthy owners, no corporate interests and no government contracts to protect. Donors fuel our journalism. And in these unprecedented times, we are ready to meet the moment. Stand with us.
Thanks so much,
Jill Shepherd
Proud ProPublican
