Hey Robert,

The full, devastating impact of Trump’s Big Bullshit Bill ("BBB") will not be felt for years, but some of the impact will be felt very soon.

Usually, I use these newsletter intros to give a general overview of the news of the week, but I want to zero in on one aspect of this bill that is, oddly enough, not in the news very much: the creation of an American Gestapo.

I do not think the media, political commentators, or the public at-large understand just how enormous and society-changing this part of the bill is. And I think it would be good for all of us to get real smart real fast on what’s coming soon to a community near you.

This is the part of the BBB that will become immediately visible. The drastic Medicaid and Food Stamp cuts largely don’t take effect until after the midterms, and the tax cuts for billionaires and corporations will be largely invisible to the public. But the American Gestapo is funded now -- right now. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) annual budget balloons to $37.5 billion.

This makes ICE the largest federal law enforcement agency in the history of the republic. To put this in perspective, here are the sizes of other federal law enforcement agencies, many of which have entire TV dramas devoted to them:

Why do they need all this funding? Simple. They want to take the terror and militarization that they brought to Los Angeles and do the same thing in communities around the country. They’ve wanted to do this for a long time, but they haven’t had the money. Now, they’ve got the money.

When does this money flow? Now. This means a hiring spree of 10,000 goons for Kristi Noem and Tom Homan, 100,000 new detention beds, and mega- detention camps around the country. My home state of Texas is already preparing for one mega-camp site.

I don’t know why the broader political and media ecosystems aren’t yet focused on this. There is almost an instinctual pivot to bland political analysis: “How is this going to affect the midterms?” But we can’t wait 16 months for the midterms to start pushing back against this federal overreach. We cannot afford to wait. We have to organize against this in our own communities.

We’ll be getting into this more on Thursday’s What’s the Plan with me and Leah. And next week, we’ll be kicking off our One Million Rising training series to coach up a million volunteers on how to productively, effectively, and as safely as possible engage in non-violent non-cooperation.

This was already a harrowing time to be organizing in defense of our democracy, and this bill only cranks up the threat level. But remember: they have no mandate for this agenda.

Americans do not want a national Gestapo terrorizing their communities. As much as Trump wants to appear all-powerful, he is an unpopular, lame-duck president who just signed into law the worst piece of legislation in modern American history.

And we don’t just have to sit back and take it. Instead, we choose to organize. So please read on for this week’s action items.

In solidarity,
Ezra Levin
Co-Executive Director
Indivisible

Your weekly to-dos

1. Sign on to One Million Rising: our campaign to train one million Americans to lead a local resistance movement. We're undertaking this new effort to dramatically ramp up defiance and non-cooperation tactics society-wide, whether it be at corporations, education, the media, or neighborhoods. Scroll down to learn more about One Million Rising in this week’s updates.
2. Contact state and local Dems to demand action against masked ICE abductions. If you live in a blue state or city, your Democratic governor, mayor, and lawmakers have the power to stop secret police tactics like abductions by masked ICE agents. Our Blue State Defiance toolkit helps identify who to contact and what to call for.
3. Call your Republican representative as we hold the GOP accountable for slashing Medicaid and SNAP. Congressional Republicans betrayed the people they represent and passed the biggest upward transfer of wealth in American history. The backlash must be swift and loud. If you have any, call your GOP senators as well.
4. Register for the Truth Brigade July campaign launch this Wednesday, July 9, at 6:30pm ET / 3:30pm PT. Authoritarians fear dissent, so they spread lies to crush or suppress it on all fronts. Join this message kick-off and new member orientation to learn how to break through the propaganda noise and get our voices heard.
5. Join our “What’s the Plan?” call on Thursday to hear Leah and Ezra answer your questions about fighting back after passage of the megabill. Every Thursday at 3pm ET (12pm PT), our co-founders jump online to break down the news of the week and answer your questions directly! Be part of a free-flowing, interactive chat about what’s next in our fight for democracy.

A new plan to defy Trump's tyranny: One Million Rising

Across the country, authoritarian forces are growing bolder and more dangerous. Trump and his allies are not hiding their agenda: mass deportations, rollbacks of civil rights, weaponized courts, and full-scale attacks on our democracy.

We can stop this, but it’ll take all of us -- not just on single days of mass action, but by organizing every day, in every community. That’s why Indivisible is launching One Million Rising, a nationwide effort to train one million people to lead effective non-cooperation at every level.

Sign up for the One Million Rising virtual sessions on July 16, July 30, and August 13 to join 1,000,000+ Americans training to lead the fight against fascism!

The next nationwide day of action

We’re facing the most brazen rollback of our civil rights and fundamental freedoms in generations. It’ll take sustained, united, peaceful pushback to salvage our liberties from the fascist MAGA agenda.

We’re proud to participate in and support our allies leading the next national day of action: Good Trouble Lives On! On July 17, the fifth anniversary of Congressman John Lewis’ passing, tens of thousands of Americans will come together to “make good trouble” in response to the Trump Administration’s attacks on our civil and human rights.

Click here to find Good Trouble Lives On demonstrations that you can join on Thursday, July 17 -- and make a plan to march in peace and act in power!

Our final weekly update on the Republican Tax Scam

As you’ve heard, Trump and congressional Republicans rammed their Medicaid-slashing, billionaire-enriching megabill into law last week. Despite immense pressure from their constituents and their own, well-documented objections to the bill, GOP lawmaker after GOP lawmaker folded like a broken beach chair.

They sided with Trump and billionaires over the people they’re supposed to represent. And they showed us once again that, given the chance to slash healthcare or shovel even more money to billionaires, they will never do what’s right for the people they represent.

Those corrupt bastards don’t deserve the offices they hold, and the fight to kick them out of Congress starts now.

If you can, please chip in to fund campaign work to hold Republicans accountable at the ballot box and elect Democrats to undo some of the damage this bill will cause.

We don’t typically emphasize fundraising in our weekly updates, and moving forward, we’ll ask you to take some actions that help the folks most harmed by this horrific bill. But ultimately, the only way we’re going to stop or reverse these policies is by defeating the goons responsible and winning back power.

Follow us on Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads to keep up on the latest information, and text “INDIVISIBLE” to 59798 to opt-in to our text messaging program, where we send rapid response actions a few times a month.