Trump’s Attack on ActBlue Just Blew Up in His Face

The Trump administration’s decision to target ActBlue has instead resulted in the left-leaning platform’s biggest fundraising day of the year.

On Thursday, Donald Trump ordered the Justice Department to investigate the online donations platform, directing Attorney General Pam Bondi to look into Republican allegations that ActBlue had allowed “‘straw’ or ‘dummy’ contributions or foreign contributions to political candidates and committees.” ActBlue is a crucial fundraising tool for Democrats, as almost all party candidates use it in both primary and general elections.

The announcement inspired donors across the country to open their wallets, handing the Democratic Party a massive financial boost as some PACs more than quadrupled their fundraising within 24 hours of Trump’s memorandum.

“PACs that typically raise $3,000 to $6,000 on a message raised $25,000 and counting,” Turn Left PAC senior adviser Randy Jones told The New Republic Friday.

Prior to Thursday, ActBlue had raised $400 million within the first three months of 2025.

But anxiety over the future of ActBlue under a second Trump administration persists. Despite assurances from ActBlue that service would continue, Democratic strategists and their teams are “drafting contingency plans and evaluating other options,” wary of a president who has expressed complete disregard for the rule of law, according to Jones.

Nixing the platform would deplete the donations pipeline to Democratic candidates. Cory Archibald, communications director at Turn Left PAC, described the open field of Democratic campaign tech as the party’s “Achilles’ heel.”

“There is no other fundraising platform that comes even close to the functionality, security, and stability of ActBlue,” Archibald told TNR. “Democrats need to democratize their campaign tech, and they need to do it yesterday.”

ActBlue has said it will use all the legal means at its disposal to continue its work, denouncing the Trump memorandum as an “oppressive use of power.”

“The Trump Administration’s and GOP’s targeting of ActBlue is part of their brazen attack on democracy in America. Today’s escalation by the White House is blatantly unlawful and needs to be seen for what it is: Donald Trump’s latest front in his campaign to stamp out all political, electoral and ideological opposition,” ActBlue said in a statement.

Conservatives have repeatedly claimed that ActBlue was acting as a conduit for foreign contributions. In December, an analysis of the fundraising network’s records by Republican Representative Bryan Steil not only failed to advance the theory but instead found proof that the platform’s automated program to reject donations from foreign nationals was working effectively.