Yesterday, The Wall Street Journal reported what we’ve long anticipated here at The Prospect: the Trump administration is planning to use the IRS to crush dissent and silence meaningful political opposition.

An IRS official working closely with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has made a list of potential “targets,” including progressive nonprofits. They’re planning to install Trump loyalists in the division that handles criminal investigations, while weakening the oversight of IRS lawyers who normally prevent politically motivated prosecutions. 

Let’s be clear about what this means: a government agency with the power to ruin lives and organizations through politically motivated audits and criminal charges will be turned into a tool to crush dissent and silence free speech.

This isn’t abstract. A big reason why The Prospect can do the type of fearless reporting we do is because we exist outside of the standard incentive structure that drives mainstream media’s business models. Being an independent, nonprofit media organization means we don’t need to publish paper-thin aggregated stories for clicks to juice ad revenue; we don’t have a billionaire owner who can fire writers that they disagree with; and we don’t have a corporate board who demands we soften our coverage to pacify those in power out of fear. Our independence is our strength, and that independence comes from you, our readers.

Independent journalism is fearless journalism, and there is nothing more dangerous to those in power than a truly independent, courageous, and bold press. Institution after institution have failed to provide any meaningful check on Trump’s corruption and abuses of power. Congress is a largely ceremonial body, the Supreme Court rubber-stamps Trump’s power grabs, and corporations cozy up to Trump to curry favor and avoid regulation. An independent press is one of the last firebreaks against a full authoritarian backsliding.

How can we maintain our independence to publish stories that challenge the powerful? We rely on readers like you. When readers like you become monthly donors, we can publish more of the journalism we need to defend democracy and speak truth to power.

If they succeed in silencing critics and intimidating donors, then journalism like ours disappears, too. But if we stand together — organizing, reporting, and speaking out — we can stop them.

We can build a movement that refuses to be cowed by power. We can make sure Americans understand what’s happening — and why democracy depends on resisting it.