Dear MoveOn member,
It’s barely been a week since the election, but Donald Trump has already made more than a dozFen appointments—and they’re exactly the staff envisioned by Project 2025.1 Some of the appointees even wroYte Project 2025.
A white nationalist in charge of immigration policy. An insurrectionist and misogynist as Defense Secretary. An evangelical Christian and staunch opponent to Palestine as ambassador to Israel. A climate change denier as head of the Environmental Protection Agency.2
And Trump named Elon Musk as the co-head of the effort to “pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy” and hand our country’s future over to corporations and billionaires.3
This wave of extremist appointees—who are rife with extraordinary conflicts of interest—is antithetical to American values. It’s overwhelming. It’s depressing. That’s exactly MAGA’s point.
Trump is dumping this deluge of awful appointees and plans for his administration on us in hopes that we will be so exhausted that we won’t fight back. He couldn’t be more wrong. We are already fighting back—in fact, we just had an amazing victory we’ll tell you about in a minute—and we are preparing for four years of nonstop campaigning to stop Trump’s anti-democratic, anti-civil-rights agenda.
The only way through Trump 2.0 is together. Will you start a $5 monthly donation to help MoveOn be fully prepared to meet this challenge now and through the hard years ahead?
No, I’m sorry, I can’t make a monthly donation.
Trump’s appointees are a veritable Who’s Who of right-wing extremism, racism, and hate.
To no one’s surprise, white nationalist and architect of Trump’s “kids in cages” plan Stephen Miller is now deputy chief of staff for policy—ready to implement Trump’s mass deportation plan.4
Trump appointed “Fox & Friends” host Pete Hegseth, famous for cheering on the January 6 insurrection and saying that women don’t belong in combat, as secretary of defense. Trump also announced plans for appointing a board to weed out any military generals who are not sufficiently loyal to him.5
Other appointees include Mike Huckabee, who believes that Gaza should be eradicated, as ambassador to Israel.6 Climate change denier Lee Zeldin as Environmental Protection Agency administrator.7 John Ratcliffe, who weaponized secure data against Trump’s opposition during his first term, as CIA director.8
These appointees are all bad news—but they are not all-powerful. In his first term, we defeated Trump’s attempts to destroy the Affordable Care Act, we stopped his Muslim Ban, and we ended his migrant family separation policy. We can do it again, but only if we are united and strong.
Will you start a $5 monthly donation to help power and sustain MoveOn’s work to stop Trump’s Project 2025 plans?
No, I’m sorry, I can’t make a monthly donation.
MoveOn just this week proved that Trump will not be able to stomp over our rights unchallenged.
His MAGA House of Representatives tried to fast-track a bill through Congress—H.R.9495—that would have granted Trump unilateral power to strip organizations of their nonprofit status if they were accused of “supporting terrorism.” His administration would have no burden of proof or standard to meet—just a stroke of the pen would take down any organization (such as MoveOn!) that he perceived as an enemy.9
The bill had bipartisan support and was assumed to be a done deal, but MoveOn fought back. Thousands of our members called their representatives, and our voice was heard in the halls of Congress as well. Because of the work of MoveOn and others in our coalition, H.R.9495 failed.
The American government is one of checks and balances, and we can rein in Trump’s assault on us if we are willing to hold our leaders accountable to those checks. As an organization of millions of voices, we are strong. We are powerful. And as long as we keep speaking out together, we can stop Trump’s attack on our civil rights, on our economy, and on our democracy.
But we must be prepared to campaign around the clock and use every tool at our disposal, which takes vast resources—resources that are depleted in the wake of the most expensive election in history. Will you help ensure that we are at the ready?
Help MoveOn be the front line of our people-powered movement by starting a $5 monthly donating today.
No, I’m sorry, I can’t make a monthly donation.
Thanks for all you do.
–Britt, Jaira, Noor, Aliya, and the rest of the team
Sources:
1. “What White House picks tell us about Trump 2.0,” BBC, November 13, 2024
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2m1ey10rxo
2. “Trump Picks New EPA Head Guaranteed to Destroy the Environment,” The New Republic, November 11, 2024
https://newrepublic.com/post/188268/trump-epa-head-lee-zeldin-destroy-environment
3. “November 12, 2024,” Letters from an American, November 13, 2024
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/november-12-2024
4. “Trump Brings Back White Nationalist Stephen Miller for Second Term,” The New Republic, November 11, 2024
https://newrepublic.com/post/188254/trump-white-nationalist-stephen-miller-second-term-policy
5. “November 12, 2024,” Letters from an American, November 13, 2024
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/november-12-2024
6. Ibid.
7. “Trump’s EPA Pick Is a Climate Skeptic. What It Means for EVs.” Barron’s, November 12, 2024
https://www.barrons.com/articles/zeldin-epa-ev-electric-vehicle-b9939cdb
8. “A running list of all the people Trump has picked to serve in his administration,” MSNBC, November 13, 2024
https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/trump-appointees-list-administration-cabinet-white-house-rcna179749
9. “US House fails to pass anti-NGO bill that could target pro-Palestine groups,” Al Jazeera, November 12, 2024
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/11/12/us-legislators-to-vote-on-bill-targeting-terrorist-supporting-nonprofits
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.
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