Dem claws come out when Trump cracks down on SHADY donations, ActBlue in crosshairs

President Donald Trump’s signing on Thursday of an order cracking down on illegal election fundraising activities has upset Democrats.

Why? Because their chief fundraising platform, ActBlue, is named in the order on account of recent reports that it’s been illegally accepting donations from “straw donors,” as well as foreign nationals.

“President Donald J. Trump signed a Presidential Memorandum to crack down on illegal ‘straw donor’ and foreign contributions in American elections, following reports and congressional investigations regarding potentially unlawful activities through ActBlue and other online fundraising platforms,” a White House fact sheet explains.

The order specifically directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate these allegations further and then “take appropriate action” to rein it in.

President Trump has directed the DOJ to investigate ActBlue and its alleged “significant fraud campaigns” and “straw donations” from “foreign IP addresses” in a newly signed memorandum. The AG should report on the “findings” in 180 days.https://t.co/urfy7Is6em

— Olga Nesterova (@onestpress) April 24, 2025

Democrats and their drooling media allies have responded to the memo by doubling down on an oblivious and conspiratorial narrative that Trump is purposefully targeting his political opponents.

“It was the third time in three weeks that Mr. Trump has directed the government to target a perceived political enemy,” The New York Times breathlessly reported.

“He has drastically expanded the use of his powers to try to damage domestic opponents, eroding a post-Watergate norm of Justice Department independence far more than he ever did in his first term,” the reporting continued.

Democrats and their allies have also cast doubt on the legitimacy of the otherwise well-evidenced allegations against ActBlue.

“To me it looks like the continuance of peddling this lie that Democratic small-dollar fundraising is actually coming from foreign nationals, which it obviously is not,” Democrat Party consultant Kenneth Pennington whined to Politico.

“This is the latest in a line of attacks from the far right that tries to basically use lies to affect people’s confidence in ActBlue,” Democratic Party strategist and fundraiser Jack Yao added.

Yet the evidence is clear and includes video testimonials recorded last summer from Americans who’d become unwitting Democrat Party donors on account of ActBlue’s shady actions.

‘No way I could afford that’: Dems accused of money laundering when donors deny hefty contributions https://t.co/EINQHBx4Jv

— BPR (@BIZPACReview) July 25, 2024

The video testimonials were obtained by O’Keefe Media Group (OMG) boss James O’Keefe, who, after obtaining data showing certain citizens had donated to the Democrat Party via ActBlue, visited these citizens to confirm that the donations were legit. What he found was disturbing.

For example, he spoke with a guy in Annapolis who allegedly donated $217,000 “made through 12,000 different contributions in a three-year period of time” to ActBlue.

“Now sometimes these contributions have been made in variations of his name and variations of his address,” O’Keefe revealed. “We’re wondering if these donors are victims of what appears to be a money-laundering scheme.”

When confronted by O’Keefe, the man said he hadn’t been aware of so many contributions being sent under his name.

Next up was Cindy, an Annapolis woman who in 2022 contributed $18,000 over 1,000 times to ActBlue.

“That means Cindy would have had to donate three times a day for a whole year,” O’Keefe noted.

When asked whether she ever donated to ActBlue, the woman, to her credit, fessed up that she had indeed but stressed that she only donated “once in a while.”

Then, when asked if she’d donated over $18,000, she admitted, “I doubt that — no, I don’t think so!”

The evidence against ActBlue includes a New York Post report claiming that the fundraiser “approved ‘more lenient’ standards [for donations] during the last presidential campaign cycle,” leading to “hundreds of dubious contributions — including ones from ‘foreign IP’ addresses.”

There’s also a report from the House Oversight Committee noting that “despite repeated instances of fraudulent donations to Democrat campaigns and causes from domestic and foreign sources, ActBlue is not demonstrating a serious effort to deter fraud on its platform.”

And according to the Post, “[u]ntil last year, the liberal fundraising juggernaut did not [even] mandate a card verification value (CVV) for debit, credit or prepaid gift card transactions.”

“Also, in the middle of the election year, ActBlue employees were told to ‘look for reasons to accept contributions,’” the Post further notes.

ActBlue has, for its part, decided to play victim.

“The Trump administration and GOP’s targeting of ActBlue is part of their brazen attack on democracy in America,” the fundraiser said in a statement. “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.

Congressional Republicans strongly disagree.

ActBlue has been caught funneling money from foreign countries, blatantly exploiting our campaign finance laws.

This is not only unethical—it’s ILLEGAL.

With his new memorandum, President Trump is building on the House’s efforts to hold ActBlue accountable by cracking down on… https://t.co/EauePWjmGZ

— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) April 24, 2025

Senior Staff Writer
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V. Saxena is a staff writer for BizPac Review with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University.

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