Jack, wow. What a f—ing year.

We survived the first year of another Donald Trump presidency, but we’ve seen a familiar pattern take hold again: protections rolled back, cruelty normalized, and power concentrated in the hands of the wealthy and well-connected. Immigrants attacked. LGBTQ+ people targeted. Federal agencies hollowed out. Disinformation was elevated while truth was treated like an inconvenience—or dismissed as "stupid."

None of this is accidental. It’s Trump’s same authoritarian playbook—just louder, faster, and more shameless.

And yet, we’re still here.

What I think about most from Trump’s first administration—and from this past year—isn’t just the damage he’s done. It’s what we did anyway.

While Trump empowered extremists, the Daily Kos community elevated organizers, whistleblowers, and journalists telling the truth. While his allies attacked democracy, you helped build and sustain independent media that refused to sanitize what was happening—and held him fully accountable. While corporate media chased access and “both sides,” Daily Kos named corruption, bigotry, and abuse of power for exactly what they are.

And that’s because we don’t answer to billionaires; we answer to you. So we get to tell the truth. We must tell the truth—it's our right and our obligation.

That independence matters even more now, one year into Trump’s authoritarian regime. But this work is only possible because readers like you fund it.

Nearly everything we do is powered by this community. We rely on you, report to you, and fight alongside you. If you’re able, can you chip in $5 or $10 today to help sustain this work through the road ahead?