Dear MoveOn member,
Donald Trump posted and pinned this to the top of his X account, the White House X account, and his Truth Social account on Saturday:1
Absolutely appalling.
There are numerous cases throughout history when previously democratic countries fell to fascism—a government where the country is led by a single far-right leader. Now we have Trump declaring to the world that his actions are above the law if he “saves his country.”
Make no mistake, his ludicrous claim will resound through future tellings of this time period and what happened to our country. The only question that remains is: What will history say we did about it?
We won’t pretend this is business as usual. And we cannot allow the media or our representatives to act as if it is, either. We are reaching a critical turning point in the Trump administration, and we must speak out and organize powerfully to stop Trump and Elon’s takeover.
Trump has already signaled in so many ways that he doesn’t care what Congress or the judiciary has to say when it comes to his DOGE-ing of our federal government.
Dozens of lawsuits against everything from his federal funding cuts to his birthright citizenship executive order have moved forward, and yet Trump continues to double down on these policies. The president is already refusing to comply with a court order to release federal funds.2
Vice President JD Vance floated the White House’s position by saying, “Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.”3 And if there was any doubt, Trump’s post on Saturday made it crystal clear.
And his actions have followed his words. Thousands of government workers have lost their jobs or have been ordered to stop work. People in charge of overseeing air traffic control and our national security have been removed from their posts.4 Information about outbreaks of life-threatening illness has been limited.5
On top of all of that, it’s incredibly too many media outlets and members of Congress are acting like these are ordinary times.
It might be tempting to give in to the “shock and awe.” It might feel hopeless in moments such as when the Senate approved Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a known anti-vaxxer and health conspiracy theorist.6 Nothing can be further from the truth.
We at MoveOn have more than 25 years’ experience in changing the narrative of the media and the direction of government, and it’s going to take all of our grassroots power and skill to ensure that we don’t lose this fight.
We need to continue to focus on the needs of the people and the truth about Trump when the media refuses to do so. When the media is focusing on the stock market and the statistics about government funding, we will elevate the stories of the millions of people who will lose health care, the millions of kids who will lose access to school meals, the teachers who will lose their jobs en masse while elementary class sizes soar, and the urgent and lifesaving research into curing and treating cancer lost if Trump, Musk, and Republicans push tax cuts for billionaires over all of us. We will highlight the National Parks workers, the scientists and health care workers, and the veterans’ support workers who can’t provide essential services because of Trump’s actions.
And we need to demand that our legislators use every tool at their disposal to stop Trump from pushing his tax cuts for the wealthy and his drastic slashing of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security into the upcoming budget bill. One Democratic member of Congress was quoted as saying, “People are concerned that they’re saying we’re not doing enough, but we’re not in the majority.”7 That’s just not a good excuse. With the Republican majority razor thin (and fractured) in the House and not filibuster-proof in the Senate, Democrats have incredible power to hold firm against a Trump budget. Trump can’t get his cuts passed without Democrats’ support, and we are not going to let that happen.8
We are rallying outside our representatives’ offices during this week’s congressional recess, and we will continue to use billboards, flood Congress with phone calls, and do more to let our legislators know where the people stand on Trump and his march to fascism. Our effort is working, and what happens in the next few weeks could make all the difference.
Thanks for all you do.
–Britt, Amanda D., Kelly, Olga, and the rest of the team
Sources:
1. “Donald Trump Just Shared A Very Ominous Post, And People Are Calling It ‘One Of The Worst Statements Ever Made By A Sitting US President,'” BuzzFeed, February 16, 2025
https://www.buzzfeed.com/michaelabramwell/reactions-trumps-tweet-about-law-violation
2. “White House Failed to Comply With Court Order, Judge Rules,” The New York Times, February 12, 2025
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/10/us/trump-unfreezing-federal-grants-judge-ruling.html
3. “According to Musk and Vance, checks and balances on Trump are … bad now? | Opinion,” USA Today, February 15, 2025
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2025/02/15/trump-courts-musk-vance-judge/78571931007/
4. “Trump administration begins mass firings across government,” NBC News, February 14, 2025
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/doge/government-layoffs-trump-firings-department-probationary-employees-rcna192307
5. “‘Suppressing essential health information’: Some officials frustrated by Trump administration’s limits on health agencies,” CNN, February 17, 2025
https://www.cnn.com/politics/suppressing-health-information-trump-administration-invs/index.html
6. “Senate confirms RFK Jr. as Health and Human Services secretary,” CNN, February 13, 2025
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/13/politics/rfk-jr-senate-confirmation-vote/index.html
7. “Scoop: Dems ‘pissed’ at liberal groups MoveOn, Indivisible,” Axios, February 11, 2025
https://www.axios.com/2025/02/12/democrats-jeffries-move-on-indivisible-trump
8. “Democrats in Congress see potential shutdown as leverage to counter Trump,” The Guardian, February 15, 2025
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/15/democrats-congress-federal-shutdown-trump
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