John,

Donald Trump's inauguration today is a coronation of our country's descent into oligarchy: billionaires and corporations spending hundreds of millions of dollars lining the pockets of another billionaire—now President—to usher in a presidency governed for and by the wealthy elite.

Billionaire Elon Musk funded Trump's campaign and now they are on track to raise up to $250 million from Wall Street, Crypto, Big Tech, Big Pharma, and others to fund his Inaugural Committee, which has no oversight or regulation.

Crypto corporation Ripple is giving Trump $5 million, and stock trading app Robinhood is giving $2 million, as did Uber and its CEO. Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, Apple's Tim Cook, OpenAI's Sam Altman, Coinbase, Kraken, PhRMA, and Goldman Sachs have all given $1 million each.

They're buying influence.

And they can expect a massive return on their investment. Crypto is already seeing one with Trump promising an executive order handout to the Wall Street-backed Big Tech corporations on Day 1. Banks and developers are already winning out as Trump and Republicans put conditions on aid to desperate Americans who have lost their homes and need immediate disaster relief in California.

This administration will be a boon for the already wealthy few and will be crushing to everyday people struggling to get by. Bipartisanship with the Trump administration looks like doing the bidding of billionaires and abandoning the needs of working-class communities.

Donald Trump's Day 1 plans include mass deportations, blank check permits for fossil fuel corporations, lining the pockets of Crypto CEOs, and cutting funding for public schools.

Democrats should be forcefully fighting back for the working class, but they choose not to. The Democratic Party must reckon with its leadership and consultant class’ coziness with these same Big Tech and Wall Street CEOs, which has helped pave the way for Republicans to manipulate the narrative.

Joe Biden’s warning against oligarchy was welcome, but it’s too little, too late. We must show the American people what an alternative to oligarchy looks like. This is a moment to usher in a new era in the Democratic Party that is governed by and for the working class, not billionaires and corporations.

Democrats must empower working-class people to lead the ranks within their own party and embrace a vision that grabs the attention and imagination of the American people – with an agenda that matches the scale of the crises they’re facing.

Ending the stranglehold of billionaires over this party and government once and for all must be a first step for that vision to be taken seriously. With an incoming administration so blatantly for the billionaire class, Democrats should be able to expose that corruption.

But Democrats can’t do that if they keep taking millions from the same millionaires as Republicans—or different ones for that matter.

The Democratic Party must show voters what standing up to the wealthy on behalf of the working class looks like — not on singular policies but across the Party's entire agenda. Stop daring Republicans to vote against right-wing immigration bills that betray our values, and instead dare them to vote against raising the minimum wage, raising taxes on billionaires, or passing Medicare for All. Dare Republicans to be economic populists, not billionaire fascists.

Everyday people want to see a Party that they believe will fight for them against the people who are keeping their costs high and their paychecks low. Only by rejecting corporate influence, will working-class people finally have the promise of a party that actually serves them.

If Democrats refuse to do so, then we will be ready to challenge them in the 2026 primary elections next year. Justice Democrats is already searching for working-class progressives to run in open seats or against out-of-touch corporatists, but we need more resources to find and support as many candidates as possible.

Please pitch in $5 or more to our Candidate Recruitment Fund to help us raise $100,000 by February 1 so we can hire another staff member to focus on this critical work.

Contribute $5

These next four years will be hard, but we will not be silent. As we resist Trump once more, let’s give it our all to elect the working-class leaders we deserve who will truly represent the people and change our Party and country for the better.

In solidarity,

Justice Democrats