Donald Trump's crime spree is starting to go very badly.

This past week has shown that defiance not only makes a difference; it may be what saves our democracy.

Donald Trump is staying up late and posting angry screeds at all hours of the night. He’s obviously spiraling. And I know why.

A few days ago, I wrote to remind you of everything we’ve built together over these past months in our community of defiance, and why it matters. If you haven’t read it, start here because it’s the foundation for what I want to tell you this morning.

Today, I don’t want to talk about months. I want to talk about a SINGLE WEEK. This past week.

If y’all didn’t sense it, something shifted these past few days, and you can measure it by the headlines. The past week has delivered setback after setback for Donald Trump and the people carrying out his abuses of power. None of it happened by accident. The universe didn’t just correct itself. Karma isn’t coming out of nowhere to pay a visit to the aging autocrat in the White House.

You’ve chipped away at the edifice of Trump’s corruption. And now the cracks are visible to the world.

To be sure, that wasn't inevitable. I didn’t know if people would stand up to this administration or cower, and I’ve never promised that defiance was the easy or safe route. Only that it was the right one. Yet most of you reading this, in little ways and big ways, have taken risks in standing up to an administration that has characterized people going to NO KINGS protests as “domestic terrorists.” We’ve been told by our own government in a hundred different ways that we better stay home, stay quiet, and stay scared because they have the power and we are the villains.

In response, you all told them to pound sand. And here’s what Trump and his allies are starting to see: our defiance is working.

Just look at the past week alone.

I’m going to start with the slush fund. The cash-for-criminals scheme that Trump’s Justice Department unveiled is one of the most nakedly corrupt announcements we’ve ever seen a presidential administration make. So we funded and crowd-sourced support for the lawsuits against it, including officially backing the work of the Democracy Defenders Fund, whose filing on behalf of more than 35 judges forced the court in Florida to reopen the case and got the fund paused outright. This week the team went further, filing a new suit designed to drive a stake through the heart of the thing for good. The administration is already signaling retreat.

I want you to understand exactly what your support did. Because of the DEFIANCE.org community, when this controversy broke into the open, I was able to message Norm Eisen directly and say: How can we help? We want to support you in fighting back… and then deliver within hours. That determination and that capacity to show up (the moment a fight begins, no less) are something you made possible. It’s allowing us to respond to Trump’s corruption in real time.

Then there’s the Kennedy Center. For months, we’ve been sketching the vision of removing Trump’s name from the building. Hell, there’s even a video about it on our site, DEFIANCE.org, imagining exactly what it would look like to chip Trump’s name off the marble of an American institution. Reposted below for your viewing pleasure. We co-sponsored a protest in front of the Kennedy Center to keep the pressure on, and then we helped fund one of the organizations that sued to force his name down.

This week they won. A federal judge, Christopher Cooper, ruled that the board had no authority to rename a building Congress named for John F. Kennedy, ordered Trump’s name stripped from the facade and the website within two weeks, and blocked the administration’s plan to shutter the place for a two-year “renovation.” Trump’s response was to angrily announce he’d hand the whole thing off to Congress and no longer wanted to care for the building. The lawsuit, it’s worth noting, was also carried by the courageous Norm Eisen and his Democracy Defenders team. There’s a reason we keep funding their efforts; we know they can win. You played a real part in that.

Now consider the FBI. This administration has spent months trying to fire and silence the agents who refused to bend to the Trump team’s politicized investigations, including purging dozens for their perceived disloyalty and punishing people for doing their jobs. This week, former bureau officials launched the FBI Support Network, offering free legal defense, mental health support, and a landing pad for agents forced out for keeping their oath. And guess what? You helped fund that launch. We’ll be talking with the organizers in the days ahead. I know how hard it can be to blow the whistle, which is why since Day One of DEFIANCE.org I’ve urged us to help launch efforts with groups like WhistleblowerAid.org and Justice Connection to protect them. I hope you’re seeing why this matters.

Then there’s the gag order. The hits kept coming for Trump. This past week, the White House hoped to quietly move to require every single federal employee to sign a nondisclosure agreement — basically a blanket attempt to silence the entire civil service. But they didn’t get to do it quietly. The DEFIANCE community has roared to life over this. In fact, I’m thrilled to tell you that you’re responsible for a great many of the 1,000-plus blistering public comments that have now been officially submitted to the government against the proposal. I’m genuinely proud of your courage on this one. If you haven’t added your voice yet, do it here. It takes minutes, and it goes on the permanent record that will, ultimately, help our friends who sue this policy out of existence. Because it is illegal. And you are planting a flag against it now.

This week we also saw the law-breakers get put in handcuffs. An ICE agent reportedly responsible for a January shooting during Trump’s Minnesota crackdown was arrested this week in Texas. He was charged by Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, one of the founding members of FAFO, which is the network DEFIANCE.org launched to hold federal agents accountable when this administration refuses to police its own. That arrest sent a loud signal, in part, because of a structure you helped build. And Mary is not alone. Prosecutors across the country are taking note and stepping up to stop the federal invasions. We are proud to stand behind every one of them. Nothing like this has been done before.

And finally, there are the secret prisons. News broke this past week that Florida may be forced to shut down Alligator Alcatraz (the cruel, makeshift detention camp in the Everglades) under the weight of spiraling costs and relentless public pressure. We have helped fund the effort to close it, including direct grants and crowd-sourced support from tens of thousands of DEFIANCE.org Members to The Workers Circle, the group which has been protesting that facility and is now a featured partner of GTFOice.org, our campaign to drag these prisons into the light wherever they’re built.

That’s six different fronts in the anti-corruption fight in one week. A slush fund paused… a president’s name ordered off a national landmark… a lifeline thrown to purged FBI agents… a thousand voices on the record against a Trump gag order… a federal agent in handcuffs for Trump’s unconstitutional crackdown… and a detention camp on the brink of closure.

They tried. We defied.

This is why Trump is staying up late and night and having social-media meltdowns. He sees what’s happening, and he can’t believe that an all-powerful, would-be king is being thwarted like this. It’s possible that many of Trump’s henchmen don’t see it yet, as they’re incentivized to give the boss “good news.” So they’ll pretend the tide is still with them. But on this Tuesday morning, I can confidently say: “It isn’t.” And if they keep looking the other way, sooner or later they’re going to be washed out to sea.

Your friend, in defiance,

Miles Taylor

Special Announcements

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