President Donald Trump has ordered the Justice Department to go after the Democratic fundraising juggernaut ActBlue.
In a presidential memorandum signed Thursday, Trump ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to probe election-related foreign contributions and possible illegal donations sent through ActBlue and other online fundraising platforms.
“ActBlue has become notorious for its lax standards that enable unverified and fraudulent donations,” the White House claimed in a fact sheet.
ActBlue blasted the memorandum as a “brazen attack on democracy in America.”
“This administration continues to weaponize the instruments of federal power in an unprecedented assault on our democracy,” it said in a statement. “ActBlue will immediately pursue all legal avenues to protect and defend itself.”
In a Wednesday letter obtained by Punchbowl News, ActBlue CEO and President Regina Wallace-Jones told Democrats that they heard rumblings of an executive order that would soon be issued by Trump targeting the organization.
“Our team sprung into action and made every preparation from a legal and communications perspective,” Wallace-Jones wrote. “However, we were unable to proactively share with our community because we did not know what would be in the EO, nor did we have confirmation that it was, in fact, happening.”
ActBlue takes individual contributions from small-dollar donors and funnels them to Democratic campaigns. The group has collected over $16.8 billion since its founding in 2004, according to its website. In the first three months of 2025, the group raised $400 million—the most in any first quarter in its history.
Republicans have long been suspicious of the Democratic fundraising machine, which has been the subject of a congressional investigation into whether it receives money from bad actors or foreign nationals.
In January last year, ActBlue began tightening its policies against fraud to address lawmakers’ concerns, according to a congressional report. This included requiring the three- or four-digit security code for most card transactions and refusing donations from foreign prepaid credit cards.
But the GOP-led committees on House Administration, Judiciary, and Oversight and Government Reform said “major gaps” remained.
“While ActBlue boasts about its recent changes requiring CVVs and banning certain donations made using gift cards and prepaid cards, internal documents confirm that these rule changes were carefully calibrated to minimize the effects on ActBlue’s donation volume and reputation,” the report argued.
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