Since April 2025, internet users have shared a letter calling on the Democratic Party to do more to fight what it described as U.S. President Donald Trump's "coordinated, authoritarian machine." Many users attributed the letter to former Republican U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney.
The beginning of the 1,400-word letter read:
Dear Democratic Party,
I need more from you.
You keep sending emails begging for $15,
while we're watching fascism consolidate power in real time.
This administration is not simply "a different ideology."
It is a coordinated, authoritarian machine — with the Supreme Court, the House, the Senate, and the executive pen all under its control.
And you?
You're still asking for decorum and donations. WTF.
That won't save us.
I don't want to hear another polite floor speech.
I want strategy.
I want fire.
I want action so bold it shifts the damn news cycle — not fits inside one.
Every time I see something from the DNC, it's asking me for funds.
Surprise.
Those of us who donate don't want to keep sending money just to watch you stand frozen as the Constitution goes up in flames — shaking your heads and saying,
"Well, there's not much we can do. He has the majority."
I call bullshit.
In August, the text appeared with attribution to Cheney in multiple posts (archived) on Facebook (archived). Snopes readers emailed to ask if Cheney actually wrote the text.
However, all evidence pointed to the letter appearing for the first time in a post (archived) by a Facebook user in a group formerly called Liz Cheney/Adam Kinzinger Against Trump. That user, "Pru Pru," posted the text on April 15, claiming authorship at the top of the post.
(Facebook user Pru Pru)
Pru Pru posted the letter again on May 13, 2025, explicitly stating that Cheney did not write it.
Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, who served in former president Bill Clinton's administration, shared the letter on his Substack in June 2025, titling the post "A remarkable message." He later updated the post to read, "I'm told that the following message, [...] purporting to be from Liz Cheney, is a hoax. She didn't send it. It's an excellent and important message nonetheless."
Cheney herself had posted no such letter on her Facebook, X or Bluesky accounts. We found no credible reports naming her as the author on popular online search engines. Therefore, we determined it was incorrectly attributed to Cheney. (We attempted to reach Cheney through the University of Virginia Center for Politics, where she is a professor, and a number of campaign email addresses to double-check, but we had not received a reply at the time of publication.)
Pru Pru's post bore an introduction reading: "Written by Dr. Pru Lee (Pru Pru)." At the time of this writing, Pru Pru had also commented below the text claiming to be the author. It was unclear if these attributions were added before or after users started incorrectly attributing the letter to Cheney.
Moreover, the text itself cast doubt on claims that Cheney wrote it. For example, toward the end of the letter, a sentence read: "I've only got 6,000 followers — but the groups I'm in? The networks I touch? Over a quarter million. Often when I speak, it echoes."
But Cheney had more than 700,000 followers across her Facebook, X and Bluesky accounts at the time of this writing, though only her Bluesky account, with 165,000 followers, appeared to be active.
Though it was clear Cheney did not write the April 15, 2025, letter, the former Wyoming Republican representative had gone through somewhat of a political shift in recent years. Cheney said in 2024 that she did not consider herself a "member" of President Donald Trump's Republican Party and reportedly voted for Kamala Harris in that year's presidential election. Cheney's political action group, Our Great Task, donated almost exclusively to Democratic candidates in the 2024 presidential election.