50501 FRIDAY BRIEFING | DECEMBER 12, 2025
From “record” Black Friday sales to a Congress quietly heading for the exits, a surprise win in Miami, and a full year of Trump’s sh*tposting presidency in one place.
📌 NOTE FOR NEW READERS:
The 50501 Movement organizes peaceful action across all 50 states to defend democracy. 80,000 subscribers strong and growing. If this resonates with you, hit subscribe.
TL;DR
Black Friday wasn’t a buying spree. People bought fewer items while spending more, and an estimated $100+ billion shifted toward small and local businesses.
Congress isn’t standing up to Trump. Dozens of lawmakers are walking away instead, creating a record pace of congressional retirements.
The map is not as fixed as it looks. Miami just elected its first Democratic (and first woman) mayor in nearly 30 years, and Illinois passed a law that dares DHS to test it in court.
We now have a fully sourced 2025 Trump Truth Social archive. Every major post, all 12 months, documented in one place for organizers, journalists, and everyday voters.
BY THE NUMBERS
1% fewer items in the average Black Friday cart with about 7% higher prices.
$100+ billion projected shift toward small businesses this holiday season.
40 House members already not running again in 2026 including 23 Republicans.
1 Trump-won county that just elected a Democratic mayor in a landslide.
12 months of Trump Truth Social posts, documented with receipts in one archive.
The Black Friday Boycott, Did it do Anything?
Headline news screamed “record sales.”
The underlying numbers told a different story:
Americans bought about 1% fewer items than last year but paid roughly 7% more thanks to inflation.
An estimated $109 billion shifted from the biggest corporations to small and local businesses during the “We Ain’t Buying It” boycott campaign.
Target is down more than half from its 2021 peak and shedding jobs. Home Depot is still facing boycotts over ICE raids in its parking lots.
Progressive directories like Little Blue Cart saw record traffic as people asked, “Where else can I spend?”
The shift: people aren’t just complaining about corporate behavior they’re quietly re-routing their dollars.
▶ Read the full analysis:
Record Sales, Empty Carts: How Black Friday Hid a Quiet Consumer Rebellion
Why Are Trump’s Own House Members Leaving?
40 House members have announced they’re not running again in 2026, the fastest early retirement pace since 2018.
23 of them are Republicans.
Reporting based on GOP insiders says as many as 20 additional GOP retirements may be coming on top of that.
Even Marjorie Taylor Greene walked:
After Trump turned on her over the Epstein files, she told 60 Minutes that Republicans are “terrified to step out of line.”
Trump still has structural power, gerrymandered maps and friendly courts, but insiders who know him best are quietly choosing the exit door over another term at his side.
▶ Read the full breakdown:
They’re Not Fighting Him. They’re Fleeing Him.
What Does Miami’s “Impossible” Win Tell Us About 2026?
In a county Trump carried, Miami just elected:
Eileen Higgins, a Democrat, as mayor
By roughly 19 points
As the city’s first Democratic mayor in about 30 years and first woman mayor ever
She ran openly pro-immigrant and won big.
Meanwhile in Illinois, Governor JB Pritzker signed HB 1312, which:
Restricts civil immigration arrests in and around courthouses
Extends protections to places like hospitals, campuses, and day cares
Gives people the right to sue immigration officers who violate their constitutional rights
DHS called it dangerous. Pritzker essentially replied: see you in court.
The message: Trump-flipped counties can flip back when policy hits real neighborhoods and blue states don’t have to just complain. They can pass laws that create legal guardrails.
▶ Read the full story:
Miami’s “Impossible” Win and the Law That Dares DHS to Sue
How Bad Was Trump’s 2025 Truth Social Activity?
We pulled together a 12-month archive of some of Trump’s posts as president on Truth Social:
AI images of himself as action heroes, religious icons, and movie characters
Publicly posted “instructions” about prosecuting enemies and critics
Conspiracy barrages, sometimes more than a hundred posts in just a few hours
Racist deepfakes, targeted harassment, and posts flirting with direct threats
Tariff tantrums and policy signals blasted out at 2 a.m. that shook markets
Every post is sourced, linked, and archived.
Authoritarian creep works by demanding we “move on” and forget. This archive makes it harder to memory-hole what happened.
▶ Read the full archive:
Trump’s 2025 Truth Social Hall of Shame: An Unfiltered Archive
Layer 1: Economic rebellion
The “We Ain’t Buying It” campaign wasn’t performative. Money moved. Stocks fell. Small businesses saw new customers.
People are learning that spending is a form of power.
Layer 2: Political cracks
Forty House members walking away (with more likely). A Trump-won county giving a pro-immigrant Democrat a landslide. A blue state telling DHS “test this in court.” The structural map looks red—but behavior underneath is shifting.
Layer 3: Accountability demands
From a Trump archive to receipts on boycotts and retirements, people are done with “that’s just how he is.” They want evidence.
Does any of it connect?
People are refusing to accept the stories they’re told. They’re voting with wallets, ballots, and documentation, and institutions are reacting.
Quick FAQ
Q: Is the Black Friday boycott even making a difference?
A: Yes. Major retailers are seeing weaker unit sales, stock pain, and reputational damage while directories of small, values-aligned businesses hit record traffic. The point isn’t one weekend; it’s teaching people that their spending has leverage.
Q: Why should I care about House retirements?
A: Because incumbents win reelection almost all the time. When they retire, they leave open seats that flip at much higher rates. A wave of GOP retirements is a wave of new opportunities.
Q: Can state laws actually slow federal immigration enforcement??
A: States can’t ban ICE, but they can restrict where civil arrests happen (courthouses, hospitals, schools) and give people a right to sue when their constitutional rights are violated. Illinois is betting that those protections will stand up in court.
Q: Why bother documenting Trump’s posts if nothing changes right away?
A: Documentation is how democracies remember. Especially in the times of AI. It creates a factual record for future investigations, historians, journalists, and everyday people who will eventually ask, “Was it really like that?” Now there’s a link with sources instead of an argument.
Q: What’s the most useful action I can take after reading this?
A: Pick one: keep shifting your spending to small businesses, adopt an open House seat to follow and support, back state-level organizers in your region, or share the Truth Social archive with someone who still isn’t sure if Trump is as great as they might think.
What You Can Do This Week To Help The Movement
Keep the economic pressure on
Don’t let “We Ain’t Buying It” stop at Cyber Monday. Keep tracking which companies cave on democracy, workers, and basic rights and keep redirecting your money. Consider Little Blue CartAdopt an open district
Use tools like the Cook Political Report or Ballotpedia to find one open House seat that matters to you. Learn the candidates’ names. Follow their race. Even $5 and a few conversations can matter in those contests.Support state-level resistance
If you live in a state with a governor willing to fight federal overreach, call and thank them. If you’re in a purple or red state, find the local groups building power and legal defenses now.Share the documents
Use the Trump archive and the Black Friday post as “receipt folders” in your own life, family group chats, local organizing, or conversations where people still think 2025 was “normal.”Watch Races like Miami
A Trump-won county just chose a pro-immigrant Democrat by nearly 20 points. This is progressive organizing. Study it. Copy what works and apply it where you live.
The Connection
“Black Friday boom”- actually a consumer rebellion
“Trump’s permanent GOP hold”- insiders fleeing and Miami flipping
“Blue states will just complain”- Illinois writing legal guardrails into law
“2025 was fine”- a year of documented presidential Truth Social posts.
We’re the people:
Tracking where the money moves
Noticing who walks away
Celebrating the local wins
Keeping documentation when others want to forget
Let’s keep doing that.
It’s working.
💙 Thank You
Whether you’re a paid subscriber, free subscriber, or reading this for the first time, thank you.
This work exists because you keep showing up. You read, share, and comment to build community. You’re the kind of person who checks on your neighbors because you care.
Blue | The 50501 Movement | 80,000+ Subscribers | fiftyfifty.one
Did you change how you spent money this week (even a little)? What did you swap out and why? Or one sentence: what was your biggest “wait…that’s real?” moment this week?
The State Senators in Indiana standing up to Trump last night was huge. My great grandparents were very active in Democratic politics in Indiana in their county and our family learned to pay attention, vote, organize, support unions, support New Deal policies, as a result. Watching the conventions of both parties was must see TV in their basement in the summer. They taught us to vote what was best for our local community. To reach across the aisle to at least understand what was important to them and find common values. Progressive solutions can work for centrist needs. So what's happening in Indiana, Tennessee, Florida, Illinois, Georgia, that all matters. My mom and husband and I all cheered last night and feel hopeful. That matters.
Thanks for the update. Good idea to keep the archive. Alot of us buy for ourselves during the black Friday events. I bought warm clothes.