We wanted to make sure you saw our note — copied below in case you missed it — about how Public Citizen will continue fighting Donald Trump and his authoritarian regime in the coming year.

And, since today is Giving Tuesday, please consider making a donation if you can.

Thanks again for being part of this shared project called Public Citizen!

Onward,

Lisa & Robert

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The American people are confronting an authoritarian onslaught with no precedent in our nation’s history and no guarantee that our democracy will survive in any meaningful form.

In pursuit of his dictatorial ambitions, Donald Trump and his regime are prosecuting and seeking to imprison opponents. They are deploying thousands of masked agents to abduct “immigrants” (and people they think look or sound like certain kinds of immigrants). They are putting heavily armed military personnel on our nation’s streets to intimidate American citizens. They are in effect extorting the media, major law firms, and universities. They are conducting illegal military strikes that they seem hellbent on turning into a reckless and unconstitutional war. They are forcing through unprecedented congressional gerrymanders and actively undermining the voting rights of millions of citizens.

The Trump regime has stripped healthcare from 17 million people to fund even more tax cuts for the ultra wealthy, blocked job-creating investments in renewable energy and showered benefits on Big Oil, all but shuttered the agency designed to protect consumers from financial ripoffs, gutted our public health institutions, and buddied up to the Big Tech goliaths it once claimed to oppose.

Along the way, Trump and his family have cashed in on the presidency to add billions to their personal wealth. Trump tore down an entire wing of the White House — which had stood for almost 125 years — so that he can erect a gilded ballroom sponsored by corporate titans eager to prostrate themselves before a wannabe king.

In one particularly obnoxious and revealing example of Trump’s perception of himself as some kind of “great leader,” a giant banner of Trump now hangs down the front of the Department of Labor, overlooking Capitol Hill here in Washington, D.C. It’s the kind of thing you associate with Big Brother from Goerge Orwell’s classic dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.

We could go on about the countless cruel, stupid, and destructive things that the Trump regime — along with its adherents in other branches of government at the national, state, and local levels — are doing, or attempting to do, as they try to distort America into a grotesque version of what it could and should be.

But the real point of this note is to give you a quick recap of what Public Citizen has been up to since Trump was re-elected and a brief(ish) outline of how we’re going to build on that work to continue fighting Trump throughout 2026.

Public Citizen is marshalling all our resources in a multifaceted, interdisciplinary, “soup to nuts” strategy to prevent a worsening authoritarian slide and to pave the way for a more democratic, just, and sustainable future.

A FEW HIGHLIGHTS OF PUBLIC CITIZEN’S WORK IN 2025

We’ve been emailing all year to keep you updated on our ongoing work to confront the Trump regime’s authoritarianism, corruption, cruelty, and greed. So we won’t take up too much space here with that, but we did want to highlight some of the areas where we’ve concentrated our time and energy:
As you’ll see below, we have much, much more planned in the coming year. All of this work adds up. Together, we are blocking some of Trump’s worst abuses and building the power to defeat Trumpism once and for all.

CONFRONTING THE AUTHORITARIAN MOMENT

This is a scary time. It helps to acknowledge that. But it is also a time when we can’t let our fears overwhelm us or lead us to withdraw, become isolated, or give up. We must combine a strategic savvy with an empowering hopefulness.

As we meet the authoritarian challenge, these are some of our guiding principles:

1. There is no single, definitive solution to defeat authoritarianism and defend democracy. We need lots of approaches.

2. Authoritarians are driven and so too must we be persistent, relentless, and resilient. We won’t win every battle, but even those we lose can serve to further inform and inspire our broader resistance.

3. Like authoritarians before them, key figures in the Trump regime are spreading fear, despair, and hopelessness with the intent to isolate, divide, and disempower pro-democracy forces. Our job must be to bring people together — figuratively and, as much as possible, literally — so that we feel our collective strength and power.

4. Our anti-authoritarian, pro-democracy movement needs as many people — and as many different kinds of people, from all sectors of society — as we can possibly get.

5. Political leadership is vital, but politicians tend to follow more than lead. It is up to us to make our political leaders stand strongly against Trump’s authoritarianism.

6. Our values and policies are not just moral, they are also good politics, supported by overwhelming majorities of Americans (even if it sometimes feels otherwise).

7. Solidarity is perhaps our most important virtue in confronting authoritarianism. That means aggressively supporting those targeted by the regime, building unified responses to authoritarian impositions, and being fully committed to caring for each other.

These understandings underpin our anti-authoritarian program, which aims to wield the considerable strengths of Public Citizen in every way we can to defend democracy.

TAKING THE TRUMP REGIME TO COURT AGAIN AND AGAIN

We are challenging a lawless regime that disregards the Constitution with a bevy of lawsuits to uphold basic American values and the rule of law. Public Citizen has unmatched expertise and skill in areas relating to constitutional and administrative law. We are responding to the moment with an aggressive litigation strategy.

To date, we have filed 22 lawsuits against the administration since Trump returned to power (with several more imminent). These lawsuits have:
Others of our cases aim to preserve the jobs of the independent members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission; protect the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; block wrongful sharing of immigrants’ personal information between the IRS and the Department of Homeland Security; preserve the civil rights office at the Department of Homeland Security; and more.

We have many more cases in the works, and we are prepared to litigate against the just-beginning deregulatory blitz involving everything from environmental to worker safety protections.

As we look to the coming year, we anticipate filing even more lawsuits than we did in 2025.

Of course, exactly what we do will follow from the administration’s abuses, but these are some of the areas we are monitoring for more litigation, investigation, and advocacy:

Trump’s Grift
Trump’s shady business dealings in this term are even more egregious than in his first term. We are exploring litigation opportunities around a range of schemes that benefit Trump and his family financially, including a possible plan to siphon off a share of government drug purchases.

Health Care
We are adding staff to monitor the chaos at the Department of Health and Human Services under Robert F. Kennedy Jr. We anticipate even more health policy-focused litigation in the coming year. We are tracking efforts to weaken Medicare and shovel money to for-profit insurers, among other key issues.

Corporate Subsidies
The cronyism of the Trump regime and its readiness to deploy taxpayer dollars to subsidize allied corporations knows no bounds. We are monitoring a major new initiative to throw massive subsidies at coal plants, tech companies, and more.

Immigrant Rights
The regime’s rabid cruelty toward immigrants means that anti-immigrant animus is informing all kinds of governmental activity — not just involving ICE, but also at the IRS, the Department of Education, the Department of Labor, and more. We’ll build on our existing docket of cases challenging the administration’s illegal and unconstitutional actions targeting immigrants.

Open Government
We expect to file a significant number of lawsuits under the Freedom of Information Act, forcing the disclosure of information that the regime is trying — illegally — to keep secret.

In the almost two dozen cases we have filed so far, we have a strong record of success at the district court level and a more mixed record on appeal. We know we are going to lose cases we should win, and we know it would not be enough even if we won every case.

At the same time, we know these cases make a difference. We are scoring substantive wins that mitigate the authoritarian overreach perpetrated by the administration, protecting rights, blocking deregulation, overcoming censorship, and preserving agencies.

Along with the substantive wins, these lawsuits are inspiring hope — hope that authoritarianism can be stopped, that fighting makes a difference, that something can be done. In this way, our litigation is about more than the cases themselves. It is about overcoming fear, isolation, and hopelessness — so that people connect and mobilize and build the power we need to defeat Trump and Trumpism.

MOBILIZING THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

Some 7 million people took part in over 2,700 “No Kings” rallies in October. Millions and millions more were there in spirit and participating remotely by watching coverage on television or online. It was, remarkably, the largest single day of protest in American history.

Public Citizen played a central role in making it happen, as one of the core “No Kings” organizing groups. We did everything from identify and assist local protest leaders to recruit co-sponsoring organizations (nearly 300!). We helped develop the protest themes, drive turnout, manage logistics, and speak to the national media.

This was just one of more than a dozen national days of action we have helped lead, plan, and coordinate — including the two previous major nationwide mobilizations against Trump’s authoritarianism, “Hands Off” (in April) and the initial “No Kings” (in June).

We provided the organizational backbone for the July 17 “Good Trouble Lives On” actions on the anniversary of Rep. John Lewis’s death. More than 100,000 people participated in 1,600 events across the nation. We played similar roles for worker-led Labor Day actions, nationwide protests against Texas’s extreme gerrymandering, snap events around the country to support the demand for health care and an end to illegal impoundments in the government shutdown fight, and more.

In parallel, we are carrying out other organizing activities. These include a “Disappeared in America” campaign around people kidnapped by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, state-based efforts to win policies pushing back against Trump’s authoritarianism, and the mobilization of health workers.

As we look toward the coming year, we are coordinating with allies on nascent plans for new mobilizations that will demonstrate the growing power, energy, and reach of the anti-authoritarian movement.

We are also organizing to energize and mobilize diverse sectors of society in the fight against authoritarianism through all kinds of creative approaches. We have invested in a new campus organizing effort, with the objectives of massively increasing visible youth opposition to the Trump regime and of pressing universities not to capitulate to Trump’s authoritarian demands. We are coordinating with faith leaders, attorneys, veterans, farmers, and more to display their communities’ opposition to Trump.

Does all this organizing and protesting matter? You bet it does.

We know that organization and mobilization are crucial to building and expressing opposition to authoritarianism; to creating a sense of empowerment, hope, and solidarity; to pressing elected officials and civil society leaders to stand stronger against authoritarian encroachments.

With “No Kings” and other actions, the American people are showing that resistance to the Trump regime is coming from every corner of this great country. We are demonstrating our commitment to nonviolence, our patriotism, our anger at the needless harm Trump is inflicting on the nation, our rejection of his dictatorial ambitions, and — not least — our sense of humor.

The Trump regime wants to intimidate opponents and chill dissent. They want people to be scared and isolated. With “No Kings” and other actions, we join together to feel, and feed, our power — in overwhelming numbers.

Politicians pay attention. The nationwide demonstrations increasingly stiffen their spines to resist Trump. Even the politicians who kiss up to Trump are starting to have doubts, because they know the massive turnout and overwhelming energy demonstrates the growing rejection among the American people of Trump and the MAGA agenda.

Ultimately, mass mobilizations remind us of the power of solidarity and love. We have great challenges ahead to defeat Trump’s authoritarianism. But — animated by the spirit and energy of “No Kings” — we will prevail.

BUILDING MASSIVE NATIONWIDE COALITIONS

One of Public Citizen’s strengths is as a convening organization — we help bring together and spearhead literally dozens of coalitions, with the understanding that we build power when we join together. This has never been more important than it is right now.

We are one of the co-founders of the Not Above the Law coalition with 150-plus organizations. And we co-founded and house staff for the Declaration for American Democracy (DFAD) coalition, which comprises over 260 organizations. The Not Above the Law coalition brings together not only advocacy organizations and grassroots activists, but policy experts, legal minds, faith organizations, and others from across the political landscape to lead the charge against authoritarianism. DFAD is helping lead efforts against Trump’s schemes to subvert elections and is one of the key grouping laying plans to win transformative democracy legislation.

We have helped to bring groups together to stand in solidarity against the Trump regime’s efforts to attack nonprofits that oppose authoritarianism. Under the guise of attacking “domestic terrorism” and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), the White House has issued presidential proclamations signaling plans to strip away tax-exempt status, cancel government grants, and even criminally prosecute organizations opposing it. In response, with other leading organizations, we created a solidarity statement that over 3,700 discrete organizations joined — demonstrating that nonprofit groups will stand together against threats from the regime. It stands in notable contrast — unfortunately — to the responses from some law firms, universities, and others.

Other examples of our coalition work include wide-ranging efforts to educate and organize allies around deregulatory plans of the administration; to coordinate among multiple tables opposing the tax and budget reconciliation bill; and to challenge an administration proposal to enable churches to participate directly in electoral politics.

As we move into the next year, and Trump’s authoritarianism intensifies, our coalitions will be more important than ever. We will invest in and strengthen these diverse coalitional efforts across and connecting multiple sectors. At a time when no organization alone can hope to do enough and when isolation equals vulnerability, these permanent and ad hoc coalitions and networks build civil society power and enable coordination and solidarity.

EXPOSING AND CONFRONTING CORRUPTION

Impeccable investigative research is a Public Citizen calling card. And there has never been more to investigate than there is now. Our research team is laser focused on administration conflicts of interest and corruption, as well as the soft treatment given to corporate wrongdoers. Our intent is to pierce Trump’s populist facade.

We’ve published cutting-edge investigative reports showing (just to list a few examples):
In November, we released a blockbuster report on the corporate and mega-wealthy “donors” to Trump’s ballroom bonanza. That report showed, among other things, that the 24 known corporate sponsors of the ballroom received a combined $279 billion in federal contracts in the previous five years. This was a front-page story in The Washington Post and reverberated nationwide.

The importance of these investigative efforts is that they illustrate the lie of the Trump administration (and authoritarians generally). Trump is not fighting for everyday Americans. He is advancing an agenda of cronyism and corruption, in service of himself and his super-rich donors.

AN AGENDA FOR EVERYDAY AMERICANS

Alongside our efforts to counter Trump’s authoritarianism, corruption, and cronyism, Public Citizen is zooming forward with our traditional, pre-Trump campaigns on issues like:
We have detailed work plans in each one of these areas and dozens more.

Part of Trump’s appeal has been his claim that he understands people’s economic pain and sense of disempowerment. His remedies are a fraud, but he is tapping into a legitimate sense that the system is rigged against everyday Americans. We need to provide a real and heartfelt agenda — policies, tone, and messaging — that recognizes the pain and offers real solutions.

IN CONCLUSION

This is a moment with no parallel in American history. Not only are the stakes as high as they could possibly be, but there is also no proven script to follow. We hope this note helps you get a sense of our plans and our ongoing work, but of course we can only do so much in a single (very long) email.

Please know that our team is working relentlessly across more projects, on more issues, and in more coalitions than we can recount here. We face this moment humbly but also with a sense of gravity and recognition that Public Citizen — that’s the two of us, our staff, and some 1.5 million fellow Americans from all walks of life and every corner of this country — can make, and is making, a real difference.

What you and Public Citizen are doing together matters. What hundreds of other organizations, big and small, are doing matters. What millions upon millions of our fellow Americans are doing matters. We believe that to our core. We take solace in that. And we draw inspiration from that. We hope you do, too.

If you can, please donate today to support Public Citizen’s work standing up to the Trump regime.

Anything you can chip in — $5 or $25, $50 or $100, $500 or even more — will help at such a critical moment.

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For progress,

- Lisa Gilbert & Robert Weissman, Co-Presidents of Public Citizen
 
 
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