What is ActBlue? Understanding the Democratic fundraising platform targeted by Trump
President Donald Trump has signed an executive memorandum directing an investigation into ActBlue, the primary Democratic fundraising platform, over alleged illegal contributions and fundraising practices.
On Thursday, April 24, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive memorandum directing the investigation of ActBlue, a leading online fundraising platform for Democratic candidates.
The memo instructs Attorney General Pam Bondi to look into allegations regarding illegal political contributions, such as "straw" or "dummy" donations and foreign funds. Trump claims that ActBlue's practices may be improperly influencing U.S. elections.
Trump targets ActBlue: investigating alleged fundraising fraud
One of the allegations from the White House includes a document along the memo suggesting that Democrats evaded federal restrictions by breaking their contributions down into smaller ones and attributing them to many different people. Democratic leaders allege that Donald Trump's real goal is to stifle small-dollar donations from their supporters
In response to the accusations, ActBlue denounced the move as a spokesperson of the organization called it a "brazen attack on democracy in America." The spokesperson also stated that ActBlue plans to challenge the directive in court.
What is ActBlue?
ActBlue is widely considered a pioneer of the Democratic Party's digital ecosystem, as is the primary fundraising tool for its candidates and sometimes even the default donation option on Democratic campaign websites.
ActBlue is the primary fundraising tool for Democratic candidates. Photo: ActBlue
The platform takes a 3.95% processing fee on most donations and, as several Democratic groups, including the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Governors Association, said in a joint statement this move is further "empowering corrupt billionaires who already control his administration".