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Brian Stewart, MoveOn.org, press@moveon.org, 319-936-3901
Stacey Mink, Working Families Party, smink@workingfamilies.org, 410-790-9913
Kathy Mulady, People’s Action, k.mulady@peoplesaction.org, 206-992-8787
More than 10,000 activists and concerned people are holding more than 200 #ResistTrumpTuesday peaceful rallies outside in-district Congressional offices nationwide today, urging Senators to Stop Trump's #SwampCabinet.
More than 10,000 activists and concerned people are holding more than 200 #ResistTrumpTuesday peaceful rallies outside in-district Congressional offices nationwide today, urging Senators to Stop Trump's #SwampCabinet.
The rallies were planned by activists with MoveOn.org, the Working Families Party, and People's Action to urge the Senate to delay Cabinet confirmations until Americans can learn more about each nominee and the real threat they pose. Activists also held rallies outside offices of House members and corporations to protect the Affordable Care Act and other issues.
*** See photos and videos from the #SwampCabinet rallies here: #SwampCabinet ***
At these rallies at U.S. Senate local district offices, activists delivered a clear message that Trump's Swamp Cabinet of billionaires, racists, and climate-change deniers are unacceptable choices to lead important federal agencies and is not what Americans want or need.
Activists urged Democrats to use every tool in their toolbox to delay and stop these dangerous nominees, including praising all of the Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for voting against Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson, who has well-documented ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, marking the first time a nominee for Secretary of State doesn't have support from both parties in decades.
At Republican offices, activists conveyed the need to oppose these nominees -- marred by conflicts of interest, potential ethics violations, and extremism -- or else prove that the promise to "drain the swamp" was a lie.
"Millions of people marched against Trump on day one of his administration. Senators who wish to be seen as leaders had better do everything they can to block Trump's dangerous nominees," said Nelini Stamp, membership director of the Working Families Party, which originated the #ResistTrumpTuesdays actions. "People are going to keep showing up to demand their lawmakers stand up to Trump and his agenda."
"From the women's march to Resist Trump Tuesdays, something big is brewing that is only going to grow," said George Goehl, co-director of People's Action. "The Trump agenda is not normal and we will not let it be normalized. His actions out of the gate against women, working people, and the planet demonstrate that he is the extreme, dangerous, and should be challenged at every single turn."
"Most Americans didn't vote for Trump, but nearly all of us will suffer under his administration," said Seong-Ah Cho, who joined the People's Lobby event in Chicago on Tuesday. "It's on us to use this crisis, and all our fear and anger, to come together in a powerful movement that will not only resist Trump's agenda, but also fight for our progressive future."
" Donald Trump riled up crowds claiming he'd 'drain the swamp' in Washington," said MoveOn.org Organizing Director Victoria Kaplan. "But so far his politics have only furthered a culture of corruption, and nowhere is that clearer than in the greed and hate embodied by the nominees to his Swamp Cabinet. No wonder the Republicans are rushing them through and hoping the American people don't get a good look at these nominees, who have built their own power and wealth at the expense of the rest of us."
Here are just three of the #SwampCabinet nominees activists are opposing:
The rallies build on more than 500 recent community organizing meetings across the country, where more than 13,000 members of MoveOn.org, Working Families Party, People's Action, and other allies joined with neighbors to plan how to fight for progressive values at every level of government and defend our communities from the Trump administration. On Sunday, more than 24,000 people joined an emergency call with MoveOn.org, Indivisible, and the Working Families Party on how to organize locally and effectively to stiffen Democratic spines and weaken pro-Trump Republican resolve, in order to defend our communities and our democracy.
MoveOn is where millions mobilize for a better society--one where everyone can thrive. Whether it's supporting a candidate, passing legislation, or changing our culture, MoveOn members are committed to an inclusive and progressive future. We envision a world marked by equality, sustainability, justice, and love. And we mobilize together to achieve it.
“Every antitrust case in front of the Trump Justice Department now reeks of double-dealing," said Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
US Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Thursday raised alarm over what she described as the highly suspicious circumstances surrounding Gail Slater's ouster as the Trump administration's top antitrust official, a move that was cheered by Wall Street investors and lobbyists working to shield corporate monopolists.
"It looks like corruption," Warren (D-Mass.) said in a statement after Slater announced her departure on Thursday following a behind-the-scenes power struggle with pro-corporate Trump officials. "A small army of MAGA-aligned lawyers and lobbyists have been trying to sell off merger approvals that will increase prices and harm innovation to the highest bidder."
“Every antitrust case in front of the Trump Justice Department now reeks of double-dealing," the senator added, noting that Live Nation—the owner of Ticketmaster—saw its stock price surge following news of Slater's removal.
“Americans’ top concern is affordability, but one of Trump’s few bipartisan-supported nominees—the top law enforcement official responsible for stopping illegal monopolies and protecting American consumers—was just ousted," said Warren. "Congress has a responsibility to unearth exactly what happened and hold the Trump administration accountable.”
In recent weeks, Live Nation has been in talks with top Justice Department officials to avoid an antitrust trial that's supposed to begin next month. The negotiations have reportedly bypassed the DOJ antitrust division previously headed by Slater, who was once viewed as the leader of a supposedly burgeoning "MAGA antitrust movement" but was abandoned by her top ally within the Trump administration, Vice President JD Vance, and forced out.
Influence peddlers reportedly on Live Nation's payroll include Mike Davis—who welcomed Slater's departure in a post on social media—and Kellyanne Conway, a former adviser to President Donald Trump. The American Prospect noted that Davis "reportedly earned a $1 million 'success fee' for getting DOJ to drop its challenge to the $14 billion Hewlett Packard Enterprise-Juniper Networks merger," a settlement in which Attorney General Pam Bondi's chief of staff overruled Slater.
"Davis also earned at least $1 million by persuading the Justice Department to allow a merger between Compass and Anywhere Real Estate, the two largest real estate brokerages by volume in 2024, despite objections from antitrust division attorneys," according to the Prospect.
One of Slater's deputies who was fired from the antitrust division last year later alleged that lobbyists are effectively dictating antitrust policy at the DOJ under Bondi's leadership.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), the former chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights, said Thursday that Slater's removal represents "a major loss for bipartisan antitrust enforcement."
"She received significant bipartisan support in the Senate and has continued important cases brought by administrations of both parties, including winning a landmark monopolization case against Google and preparing the vital case to break up Live Nation-Ticketmaster for trial next month,” said Klobuchar. “Her departure raises significant concerns about this administration’s commitment to enforcing the antitrust laws for the betterment of consumers and small businesses, including seeing through its cases against monopolies.”
One senior DHS official said the program "is just the first step in breaching people’s privacy settings in ways that they are not even aware of.”
US Department of Homeland Security agents are increasingly infiltrating social media platforms to monitor users, collect intelligence, and target people, according to new reporting based on leaked documents.
Ken Klippenstein exposed the open source monitoring program, which DHS calls "masked engagement," with new reporting Thursday that details how agents "assume false identities and interact with users—friending them, joining closed groups, and gaining access to otherwise private postings, photographs, friend lists, and more."
"A senior [DHS] official tells me that over 6,500 field agents and intelligence operatives can use the new tool, a significant increase explicitly linked to more intense monitoring of American citizens," Klippenstein wrote.
The so-called "masked engagement" by DHS operatives online comes as actual masked federal agents are engaged in the Trump administration's deadly deployments in communities nationwide.
Important to note that "Authorized" here means that DHS/ICE have given *Themselves* permission to do this "masked engagement" bullshit, not that either congress or the courts say it's okay.Challenge this everywhere & every way possible, & in the meantime, keep ourselves & each other safe as we can
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— Dr. Damien P. Williams can't think of a fun display name right n (@wolvendamien.bsky.social) February 12, 2026 at 4:46 PM
Masked engagement adds a new level to DHS' open source intelligence (OSINT) collection regime, which previously consisted of overt engagement, overt research, overt monitoring, masked monitoring, and undercover engagement. Masked engagement, in which agents conceal their government affiliation without assuming a false identity while interacting with a target, is a step below undercover engagement, in which DHS operatives use false identities and cover stories.
According to Klippenstein:
Masked monitoring allows officers at agencies like [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and Border Patrol to use alias accounts to passively observe public online activity. Crucially, this level of monitoring bars DHS representatives from interacting with other users directly. Under masked monitoring, officers are not allowed to ask an admin for entry into a private group or to “friend” a target to see non-public posts.
But with masked engagement (separate from masked monitoring), that firewall has now been dismantled. The only restriction imposed on masked engagement is that DHS officers [note] the threshold of “substantive engagement”—a term the rules leave conveniently ill-defined.
"By labeling this a 'middle ground' between monitoring and full-blown undercover work, the DHS allows agents to infiltrate private digital spaces without the rigorous internal approvals and legal checks required for a formal undercover 'sting,'" Klippenstein explained.
Sources told Klippenstein that DHS has been using masked engagement tactics to infiltrate pro-Palestine groups in the United States and to compile databases of suspected Mexican and Mexican American transnational criminals.
“Open source monitoring has become so ubiquitous that we even have databases of identities used by the department to track our own online engagements,” the senior DHS official said.
“Yes, we have safeguards against violating people’s privacy, but masked engagement is just the first step in breaching people’s privacy settings in ways that they are not even aware of," they added.
Rachel Levinson-Waldman, director of the Brennan Center for Justice's Liberty and National Security Program, told Klippenstein that “CBP’s expansion into what they’re calling ‘masked engagement’ is cause for real concern."
“This new capability is being shoehorned in one step below undercover engagement (which already allows for a lot of overreach), it appears CBP believes that friending someone, following them, or joining a group is not as invasive as directly engaging or interacting with individuals," she continued.
“In addition, doing so through an alias account—an account that doesn’t reveal the user’s CBP affiliation, and pretends to be someone else—will weaken trust in government and weaken the trust that is critical to building community both online and off,” Levinson-Waldman added.
A DHS spokesperson told Klippenstein that the agency "has utilized its congressionally directed undercover authorities to root out child molesters and predators for years."
“We will continue using every tool at our disposal to protect the American people as our agents and officers Make America Safe Again," they added.
Those tools include an error-plagued mobile facial recognition application, mass phone surveillance technology, data broker platforms that allow operatives to circumvent warrant requirements, forensic extraction to bypass phone locks, artificial intelligence and predictive analytics, and more.
Civil liberties groups, digital rights advocates, and some Democratic lawmakers are pushing back.
Last week, Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) introduced the ICE Out of Our Faces Act, legislation that would ban ICE and Customs and Border Protection "from acquiring and using facial recognition technology and other biometric identification systems."
The bill would "also require the deletion of all data collected for use in or by biometric identification systems and allow individuals and state attorneys general to seek civil penalties for violations."
"President Trump has given up on caring about protecting working class Americans and has given the keys to our economy to billionaire scammers."
Alarms are being raised amid reports that President Donald Trump is stacking a key regulatory committee with CEOs of online prediction markets, cryptocurrency firms, and sports betting apps.
As reported on Thursday by the right-wing Daily Wire, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is launching a new initiative called the Innovation Advisory Committee, which CFTC Chairman Michael Selig said would be tasked with ensuring "the CFTC’s decisions reflect market realities so the agency can future-proof its markets and develop clear rules of the road for the Golden Age of American Financial Markets."
Among the members of the committee are Tarek Mansour, CEO of online betting market Kalshi; Brian Armstrong, CEO of cryptocurrency hub Coinbase; Christian Genetski, president of the FanDuel sports betting app; and Matt Kalish, president of sports betting app DraftKings North America.
Emily Peterson-Cassin, education fund policy director at Demand Progress, said the committee's composition has deeply concerning implications for the future of the US economy.
"The corruption couldn’t be more obvious," said Peterson-Cassin. "It’s hard to see the CTFC succeeding at its mission to prevent a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis when it is influenced from the inside by a rogues’ gallery of billionaire CEOs responsible for monetizing and gamifying virtually every aspect of everyday life."
Peterson-Cassin added that the latest move shows that "President Trump has given up on caring about protecting working class Americans and has given the keys to our economy to billionaire scammers.”
The creation of the Innovation Advisory Committee wasn't the only news made by CFTC this week, as Barron's reported on Monday that the commission's enforcement division based in Chicago has now been completely gutted, as its entire litigation team has either resigned or been laid off.
One laid-off former CFTC attorney told Barron's that the gutting of the office will make it much easier for financial scammers to rip off Americans.
"If I was a different person I would launch a crypto scam right now," said the attorney, "because there’s no cops on the beat."