January 25, 2025

Dear Friends,

This week, Donald Trump’s second term in the White House began with a stark visual reminder of the priorities he and his party will pursue over the next four years. As he stood in the Capitol Rotunda to take the oath of office and deliver his inaugural address, President Trump was flanked not by ordinary working Americans or even elected members of Congress, but by three of the wealthiest men in the world — whose combined net worth totals more than $891 billion.

Donald Trump and his obedient allies in Congress are determined to build a government of the wealthy, by the wealthy, and for the wealthy, and they have no qualms about trampling on our constitution or endangering our communities to do it. This week’s flurry of executive orders show just how far he is willing to go to implement his dark and dangerous vision for our nation’s future.

During his campaign, Donald Trump hosted some of the country’s top oil executives at Mar-a-Lago, where he asked for $1 billion in campaign contributions in exchange for rolling back critical regulations that prevent corporate profiteering and unchecked pollution in the fossil fuel industry. This week, those executives got their money’s worth as President Trump issued a slew of executive actions that will roll back the hard-won progress we’ve made in addressing the global climate crisis. Among many other devastating impacts, his day one directives will:

• Withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accords, abandoning our nation’s commitment to the international effort to combat climate change;
• Halt the approval of leases, permits, and loans for offshore and onshore wind energy projects nationwide;
• End federal efforts to build out EV charging infrastructure; and
• Expand oil and gas drilling on protected federal lands like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
  
  

The increasing frequency and intensity of severe weather events like the catastrophic wildfires still sweeping across Southern California show us that the climate crisis is already here. We cannot afford to move backward on climate if we hope to leave a cleaner, safer planet for our children and grandchildren.

President Trump also wasted no time in openly flouting the Constitution to wield the full power of the federal government against immigrant communities. On his first day back in office, he suspended the admission of all refugees ­— including scores of relatives of American servicemembers who had already been cleared for entry — while simultaneously barring migrants from exercising their legal right to claim asylum and deploying active-duty troops to patrol the newly militarized southern border.

Most shamefully, President Trump issued a “blatantly unconstitutional” executive order to end birthright citizenship. This order, a clear violation of the 14^th amendment, would prevent federal agencies from issuing citizenship documents to any children born on American soil to parents without permanent resident status — including those legally in the country on temporary work, student, or tourist visas. All parties agree that we need to fix our broken immigration system — but ignoring our Constitution, breaking up families, and terrorizing communities is not the answer.

Of all the dangerous actions President Trump took on the first day of his second term, perhaps none showed more contempt for our system of justice and our democracy than his decision to pardon more than 1,500 criminals who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Many of those who received pardons were convicted of violently attacking law enforcement officers — including David Dempsey, who stomped on one officer’s head and brutally beat other officers with a flagpole, a crutch, and a broken piece of furniture while spraying them in the face with pepper spray.

Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the far-right Oath Keepers militia and another recipient of Trump’s clemency, said just days after the January 6 insurrection that his “only regret is they should have brought rifles” and that he would “hang Pelosi from the lamppost.” The feeble response of his Republican allies to these outrageous pardons was summed up in the words of Speaker Mike Johnson: “The president’s made his decision. I don’t second guess those.” It is a dark day for our nation when the President of the United States gives out a free pass to assault police officers and threaten government officials with assassination — so long as you’re one of his supporters.

Donald Trump came into office promising Americans a new golden era. Instead, we got a new Gilded Age. President Trump’s inauguration and his first week back in office have sent a clear message to the American people — right-wing billionaires are in control of your government and your future, and they don’t care who gets hurt as long as they get their way. Even in the face of this onslaught of vindictiveness and cruelty, my colleagues and I must never stop fighting to protect our communities and put power back in the hands of working Americans.

As always, thank you for reading.

Your friend,

DID YOU KNOW?

My office and I are working to make sure you remain informed with the latest updates and recommendations from federal agencies. With that in mind, here is some information that may be of interest to you:

• Next Friday, January 31^st, the IRS will hold its annual EITC Awareness Day to raise awareness of eligibility for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), which is celebrating its 50^th anniversary this year!
• The EITC plays a crucial role in lifting millions of low- to moderate-income workers out of poverty, evolving over the past half-century into one of the federal government's largest antipoverty programs.
• The income level to qualify for the EITC, as well as to qualify for the maximum amount of the credit, varies depending upon the taxpayer’s filing status and number of children. The amount of the credit is based on earned income.
  • In 2023, approximately 23 million eligible workers and families received about $57 billion in EITC, with a nationwide average of about $2,500 per recipient.
  • However, it is estimated that more than 20 percent of those eligible — an estimated 5 to 7 million people — failed to claim the benefit.
• You can use the IRS’s EITC Assistant tool to check if you qualify for the EITC.
• You can also click HERE for instructions on how to claim the EITC, or click HERE for instructions on how to avoid common errors.