In April 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump purportedly called on the U.S. Justice Department to investigate ActBlue, an online fundraising platform for Democratic electoral candidates. The inquiry allegedly was looking into possible illegal donations made by people in someone else's name and money coming in from supposed foreign donors.
Numerous posts claimed Trump was attempting to shut down the platform by targeting it specifically in his memorandum.
On April 24, 2025, Trump did indeed sign a presidential memorandum calling for the above investigation. Titled "Investigation into Unlawful 'Straw Donor' and Foreign Contributions in American Elections," the memorandum highlighted purported illegal donations specifically to ActBlue. An accompanying "fact sheet" also said the administration would crack down on illegal fundraising done through "ActBlue and other online fundraising platforms."
As such, we rate this claim as true.
"Straw" donations occur when donors funnel their political contributions through another person or entity, like a shell company. Such donations are illegal, as are donations from foreign citizens to American federal election campaigns.
We reached out to the White House to learn more about why it was focusing on ActBlue and whether it would investigate other platforms, such as the Republican fundraising organization WinRed. We also reached out to ActBlue for a response. We will update this story as more information becomes available.
The memorandum cited a U.S. House of Representatives investigation into ActBlue as evidence of "significant fraud campaigns." The memo stated (emphasis ours):
Notwithstanding these laws designed to protect American democracy, press reports and investigations by congressional committees have generated extremely troubling evidence that online fundraising platforms have been willing participants in schemes to launder excessive and prohibited contributions to political candidates and committees.
[…]
Further, there is evidence to suggest that foreign nationals are seeking to misuse online fundraising platforms to improperly influence American elections. A recent House of Representatives investigation revealed that a platform named ActBlue had in recent years detected at least 22 "significant fraud campaigns", nearly half of which had a foreign nexus. During a 30-day window during the 2024 campaign, the platform detected 237 donations from foreign IP addresses using prepaid cards, indicating that this activity remains a pressing concern.
Trump then directed U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate, over 180 days, "allegations regarding the unlawful use of online fundraising platforms to make "straw" or "dummy" contributions or foreign contributions to political candidates and committees, and to take all appropriate actions to enforce the law."
The accompanying "fact sheet" released by the White House singled out ActBlue, while acknowledging "other online fundraising platforms" that may also commit unlawful activities. However, the document highlighted only examples from a Republican-led investigation into ActBlue and did not name any other fundraising platforms. (In 2022, a federal judge allowed several states to investigate fundraising tactics by WinRed after those states received many complaints of fraud.)
On April 2, 2025, the House investigation shared "preliminary findings" of the investigation conducted since at least August 2024, which claimed ActBlue's internal documents showed "a fundamentally unserious approach to fraud prevention … [leaving] the door open for large-scale fraud campaigns on Democrats' top fundraising platform."
Republicans also wanted to look into the many resignations within ActBlue's general counsel and leadership, internal turmoil that The New York Times reported on in March 2025. The reasons for these resignations remain unknown as of this writing, but internal documents revealed employees' concerns about the departures.
The House investigation stated the organization maintained a "culture of complacency towards potential fraud [leading] to low-quality work by the fraud-prevention team." However, the report noted fraudulent credit card donations shown in the investigation were returned to the donors
An ActBlue spokesperson told Snopes over email that such audits of employees covering fraud detection are part of the company's regular practice and were not done in response to the House investigation.
The Republican-led investigation stated: "ActBlue has detected foreign fraud attempts emanating from Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, India, Iraq, Jordan, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Saudi Arabia." The investigation said it was uncertain how much of these donations were returned, despite ActBlue's internal documents stating the opposite.
Internal documents sent by ActBlue to a House committee investigating potential foreign donors' fraud showed that in September 2024 the organization implemented "updated policies to "automatically reject donations that use foreign prepaid/gift cards, domestic gift cards, are from high-risk/sanctioned countries,
The House committee's investigation acknowledged that ActBlue stopped such campaigns: "
The ActBlue spokesperson told us that every contribution made to the platform was rigorously reviewed, and if it failed to meet the organization's standards, it was rejected. Trump's memo acknowledged ActBlue itself "in recent years detected at least 22 'significant fraud campaigns.'" However, the spokesperson noted how the memo did not mention that ActBlue also halted such fraudulent activity.
In response to our questions about the detection of "237 donations from foreign IP addresses using prepaid cards," the ActBlue spokesperson directed us to federal law that permits U.S. citizens to donate to campaigns while living abroad and using prepaid cards. Nonetheless, ActBlue told us it took action that was even stricter than federal law required when, in September 2024, it blocked all campaigns contributions from prepaid cards.
In 2025, ActBlue banned all contributions from foreign IP addresses. ActBlue updated its protocol on its website in February 2025: "To process a political donation through the ActBlue platform, an individual must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident and donate from the U.S."
The spokesperson highlighted Trump's assertion that such activity "remains a pressing concern" as being incorrect, given that ActBlue had implemented strict rules for donations right after detecting the issues.
The ActBlue spokesperson also emphasized that all the actions the organization took to detect and stop foreign "fraud campaigns" were part of the company's regular practice and done before it gave the House committees internal materials for their investigation.
According to a New York Times analysis of the House investigation, the claim that ActBlue allowed straw and foreign donations remained unsubstantiated. An ActBlue spokesperson told The New York Times:
ActBlue plays a vital role in enabling all Americans to participate in our democracy, and the organization strictly abides by all federal and state laws governing its activities. We will always stand steadfast in defending the rights of all Americans to participate in our democracy, and ActBlue will continue its mission undeterred and uninterrupted, providing a safe, secure fund-raising platform for the millions of grass-roots donors who rely on us.
Campaign finance lawyer Brendan Fischer, who is also a deputy executive director at investigative watchdog group Documented, told Fast Company in October 2024: "These are not serious allegations, and I'm surprised that people who otherwise present themselves as serious are treating them as such."
Prominent Democrats said Trump's memo was an attempt to "undermine democratic participation" and "block lawful grass-roots donations from supporters giving just $5 or $10 to candidates who oppose him while further empowering the corrupt billionaires who already control his administration."
It is clear that Trump specifically called for an investigation into ActBlue. While the memorandum also references other fundraising platforms, ActBlue is the only one named as an example, thus making the above claim true.