Archive of Trump Law-Breaking and Corruption Tracker from Substack

February 23 – March 01, 2026

Breaking the Law

DHS continues to illegally surveil and threaten legal protestors, Ongoing
Politico reports on a lawsuit by some protesters in Maine who allege that Department of Homeland Security officers are threatening protesters who are merely exercising their First Amendment rights.

Agents working for the Department of Homeland Security used facial recognition and license plate readers to surveil and threaten legal observers watching officers in Maine, activists said in a lawsuit filed Monday.

The plaintiffs, Colleen Fagan and Elinor Hilton, are legal observers in Maine who had confrontations with DHS agents, according to the lawsuit. They alleged that agents used phones to scan their faces and license plates on Jan. 21 and Jan. 23 while the observers were recording ICE operations in Portland, Maine.

“I hope you know that if you keep coming to things like this, you are going to be on a domestic terrorist watchlist,” an officer told Hilton, according to the complaint. “Then we’re going to come to your house later tonight.”

The complaint also cited recent news stories about similar incidents where agents showed up to legal observers’ homes after scanning their faces or license plates. They included accusations that ICE officers had driven to a legal observer’s home and honking aggressively or told another observer outside their home: “This is a warning. We know where you live.”

Yes, these are only allegations, but such allegations have been so ubiquitous there is no need to give DHS the benefit of the doubt. Not to mention that other judges have previously noted the reckless, illegal nature of DHS activities in the continuing immigration sweeps.
DHS accused of using surveillance tech to track legal observers in Maine – POLITICO

Military action against Iran without Congressional approval, February 28, 2026
I discussed it in the intro so won’t belabor here. From a tactical standpoint, the mission has accomplished a number of goals, including killing many of the top Iranian leaders. In that sense, it resembles Israeli military missions of the last two years. Of course, Israel is a partner in this military action so perhaps this should not come as a surprise. Regardless of any tactical success, the Constitution requires prior Congressional authorization. The President continues to act as a king.
Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei killed in U.S., Israel attack, Trump says: Live updates – The Washington Post

Hegseth threatens to invoke Defense Production Act against Anthropic, February 24, 2026
Anthropic, an AI company, which produces Claude, is in a dispute with the Defense Department on how its AI technology can be used. Claude is used by the military in a variety of ways but Anthropic has two red lines on how the technology should not be deployed. Essentially, Anthropic has stated, “its AI model Claude should not be used to power autonomous weapons or conduct mass surveillance of Americans.” The Trump administration, as this Tracker has shown, is not known for its following the law.
Pentagon demands access to Anthropic AI technology – The Washington Post

Corruption

DHS leaves blind refugee in the cold and then lies about it, February 26 2026
In December, Shah Alam, a Rohingya refugee from Myanmar, was arrested for trespassing. He eventually was found guilty of a misdemeanor. According to the Washington Post:

On Feb. 19, bond was posted for Shah Alam, a spokesman for the Erie County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. The sheriff’s office informed Border Patrol that Shah Alam was about to be released, it said, which it described as standard practice in cases where an agency has issued an immigration detainer. Border Patrol then took custody of Shah Alam, the sheriff’s office said. But Border Patrol agents found that Shah Alam was not deportable, the agency spokesperson said.

All well and good so far. The agents offered Alam a “courtesy ride” and claimed they dropped him off in a warm coffee shop. They did not. They left him outside in the cold, knowing the coffee shop was closed. Video footage proved this. Shah Alam is blind and died in the cold thanks to these lying agents.
Refugee released by Border Patrol in Buffalo found dead – The Washington Post

FBI Director Patel fires more staff for having done their jobs, February 25, 2026
When he’s not partying in Italy with the U.S. hockey team, or traveling to his girlfriend’s concerts on a government plane, Patel is busy continuing to extract vengeance on staff who only did their jobs when investigating possible wrongdoing by Trump. CNN reports:

FBI Director Kash Patel ordered the ouster of at least 10 employees involved in the investigation of President Donald Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate, four people briefed on the matter told CNN.

The ousters are part of a wider internal investigation into the actions taken in the probe that resulted in criminal charges against Trump and two of his employees, three people briefed on the matter said.

The ouster of FBI employees is the latest in a series of Patel pushing out agents and other employees who worked on cases related to the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol and on the Trump Mar-a-Lago documents cases.

These staff were involved in a legitimate legal inquiry that led to criminal charges. They were doing their jobs. There is very little evidence that Patel does, other than doing the bidding of his king.
FBI Director Kash Patel ousts personnel tied to Trump classified documents probe | CNN Politics

February 16 – February 22, 2026

Breaking the Law

Justice Department trying to purge state voter rolls, Ongoing
The Trump administration’s Justice Department, which acts as an appendage of the Trump political team rather than as an independent, impartial judicial agency, has been requesting voter files from every state. Fortunately, many states have said no way. But ten states have shared this data with the Trump administration. The Trump administration also asked states to agree to a memorandum of understanding that would allow the Justice Department, and its private contractors, to review the files, and then instruct the states to purge certain voters from the voter roll. The Brennan Center notes:

…the federal government does not have the tools or the expertise to conduct such list maintenance, and it is anyone’s guess how it will undertake its “analysis” of the voter rolls it obtains, creating a real risk of voters being improperly flagged for removal.

The agreement says that states must remove voters named by the DOJ within 45 days — but following through may violate federal law. The National Voter Registration Act requires states to undertake a specific process to remove voters who have moved. That process involves sending a notice to the voter and — if the voter does not respond and does not vote — the jurisdiction must wait two federal election cycles to remove the voter from the rolls. That’s far longer than 45 days. Additionally, the National Voter Registration Act has a “quiet period” of 90 days before any federal election (primary or general), during which time a state may not conduct systematic removals of voters who have become ineligible.

In other words, the Trump administration could easily try to discard voters not because they aren’t eligible to vote but because they don’t like the way they vote. I’ll keep saying it: the next 9 months are critical.
“Confidential” Agreements Show Trump Administration’s Plans for States’ Voter Data | Brennan Center for Justice

Multiple deaths in detention centers, Ongoing, more reports on February 19, 2026
The Texas Tribune headline is jarring: “Last year was the deadliest year in ICE detention in two decades. Nearly a quarter of those deaths occurred in Texas.” A number of these deaths have turned out to be homicides. In addition, some are likely due to bad conditions in the facilities, to not taking care of the needs of those detained in them.

The expansion of ICE detention is “coupled with a dissolution of oversight, a reduction in detention standards, and draconian restrictions on releases,” said Claire Trickler-McNulty, a former senior ICE official during the last three administrations. “That appears destined to lead to more deaths, medical issues and trauma for detainees.”

Thirty-two people died in ICE custody nationwide last year, surpassing the previous high of 20 in 2005, according to federal data. Nearly a quarter of last year’s deaths occurred in Texas.

Without adequate planning and care for detainees, these detention centers become concentration camps.
What you need to know about Texas ICE detention deaths

Board of Peace meets, has no legal authorization, February 19, 2026
Trump held his first Board of Peace meeting this week with 40 or so countries in attendance. The meeting was held in Washington, D.C. Trump said the United States will provide $10 billion for this new organization. He did not say where the money would come from. He has not asked, nor has the U.S. Congress volunteered, to authorize such funding. Trump refers to the Board of Peace as if it is a treaty organization, but Congress has not approved any such treaty or created any such organization. As we wrote in a previous Tracker edition, there are no accountability measures for the Board of Peace. This is an organization designed for corruption.
Trump gathers Board of Peace for first meeting, with some U.S. allies wary : NPR

Continued killings in the Caribbean, February 15, 2026
The U.S. military continues to carry out strikes against alleged drug runners in the Caribbean. Three people were killed in the most recent attack. The Southern Command claims they were traveling “known narco-trafficking routs in the Caribbean and engaged in narco-trafficking operations.” We blew up the boat which is essentially instituting the death penalty for an alleged crime sans judge and jury. According to the Hill:

The fatalities from the latest strike raises the death toll from the Trump administration’s strikes on alleged drug boats to 133 people since September. Friday’s attack was the second this week after Southcom conducted a strike in the Eastern Pacific that killed two “narco-terrorists” and left one survivor.

Likely these operations will have the same effect on drug supply as all the other measures in the drug war of the past 60 years.
US military strikes another alleged drug-smuggling vessel in Caribbean, killing 3

Corruption

Using Military Lawyers in Immigration Cases, Ongoing
I considered for a long time whether this belongs in the Tracker. I don’t put bad policy into the list, only actions that break the law or corrupt the Republic. Ultimately this falls in the latter category. Federal prosecutors have been resigning and the inept, illegal and immoral immigration crackdown has led to chaos in the legal system. The Trump administration’s response to address the resultant shortage of prosecutors is to reassign military lawyers, the judge advocates general (JAGs), to immigration cases. In addition to JAGs not being trained in this area of the law, using the military to prosecute civilian cases is a troubling precedent. It is not unheard of but has never been done on this scale. As The Bulwark writes:

Using military lawyers to prosecute or adjudicate cases because civilian lawyers are resigning over ethical or legal concerns crosses a line. It transforms the armed forces from a support instrument into a workaround for institutional dissent. It militarizes the American government, and at the same time politicizes the military. That should trouble Americans regardless of where they stand on immigration policy, or on the political spectrum

The Trump administration’s mass deportation policy is perverting many facets of America, including its military.
JAGs Shouldn’t Be Civilian Prosecutors – by Mark Hertling

Lutnik’s sons making money off of tariffs, February 20, 2026
Before becoming Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnik announced he was handing over control of his firm Cantor Fitzgerald to his sons. In the administration, Lutnik has worked with Trump to implement his tariff policy, including those conducted under IEEPA. WIRED Magazine reports that:

Cantor Fitzgerald purchased rights to tariff refunds from affected companies, paying 20-30% of what companies paid out in tariffs. The firm now stands to reap returns of up to five times its initial investment. Cantor Fitzgerald denied involvement in positioning against the tariffs.

It’s always about the money.
Commerce Secretary Lutnick’s family set to profit from Supreme Court’s ruling: report

Trump banner hung on Department of Justice building, February 19, 2026
As many people have noted, hanging large photos of yourself on the outside of government buildings is a classic move of authoritarians. Trump’s mug is increasingly on buildings around the nation’s capital, and on Thursday a large banner with his photo and the words “Make America Safe Again” was hung from the exterior of the Department of Justice. Trump has turned the Department into his own legal plaything. All of this is deeply corrupting. None of it is likely to stop any time soon.
Large banner featuring Trump’s face is displayed on Justice Department headquarters | The Seattle Times

Trump posting discredited election denial stories, February 18, 2026
Trump reposted to social media an old, discredited story that Dominion voting machines discarded Trump votes and switched them to Biden votes. As Aaron Blake at CNN notes, the folks who made these false claims had to settle a lawsuit with Dominion. Too bad the U.S. Supreme Court in July 2024 placed the president above the law.
Aaron Blake on X: “Trump is now posting years-old clips of alleged voter fraud/Dominion coverage from OAN, which had to settle a lawsuit over that coverage. https://t.co/h2xsZPujye” / X

Trump’s top economist calls for economists to be punished for accurate study, February 18, 2026
Kevin Hassett is the director of the White House’s National Economic Council, and either a man with no morals or with no economic understanding, maybe both. Federal Reserve economists published a paper showing American companies and consumers pay around 90 percent of the cost of tariffs. This squares with numerous other studies, and common sense regarding Trump’s flotilla of tariffs imposed over the past year. But Hassett didn’t just criticize the study, he said in an interview on CNBC, “It’s the worst paper I’ve ever seen in the history of the Federal Reserve system. The people associated with this paper should presumably be disciplined.” So now we’re calling for the punishment of economists doing their job. One small silver lining is that Hassett was not nominated for the Fed, as many people expected.
WH adviser Hassett urges ‘discipline’ for FED economists over tariff study

Hegseth invites Christian nationalist to lead worship service at Pentagon, February 18, 2026
This is not surprising news since Hegseth himself is a Christian nationalist, or at least plays one on TV. It’s distressing nonetheless. So who is this Doug Wilson that Hegseth arranged to come to the Pentagon to lead prayers? The Washington Post reports he has argued, “that wives should submit to their husbands, women should be denied the vote and Christian enslavers were on ‘firm scriptural ground.’” He also apparently makes fun of the pope, criticized Muslims and Hindus, and is a fan of slavery. In fact, he once said, “slavery produced in the South a genuine affection between the races that we believe we can say has never existed in any nation before the War or since.” Kind of makes you wish he’d get on a fishing boat in the Caribbean.
Hegseth invited Christian nationalist Doug Wilson to preach at Pentagon – The Washington Post

February 9 – February 15, 2026

Breaking the Law

DOJ can’t get grand jury to indict senators and representatives, February 10, 2026
When a grand jury refused this week to indict the senators and representatives who posted a video last fall urging troops to obey the law, we vaguely remembered the quote “If a district attorney wanted, a grand jury would indict a ham sandwich.” That’s how wrong, illegal, and immoral the Trump administration’s attempt to criminalize free speech was—they couldn’t even get a grand jury to indict. But when we looked up the quote, it turns out some New York lawyer named Sol Wachtler (Better Call Sol?) said it in 1983. Wachtler himself went to jail for, well, go read his Wikipedia entry which recounts a remarkably complicated life. Our world has more twists and turns than a ride designed by a sadist. The one thing that is not complicated is the continued unconstitutional actions of the Trump Justice Department: prosecuring political opponents for exercising free speech is a direct attack on democracy.
Prosecutors Fail to Bring Charges Against Democrats Involved in Illegal Orders Video – The New York Times

Deporting nine people to Cameroon in contradiction of courts, Revealed February 14^th, took place in January
The New York Times reports that the Trump administration “secretly deported nine people to Cameroon, despite many of them having U.S. court protections against such action and none of them hailing from that African nation.” At some point there needs to be consequences to those individuals who defy court orders.
US deports 9 to Cameroon despite court protections, NYT says | Reuters

Corruption

Noem says she will make sure the right people are elected, February 14, 2026
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem repeatedly appears in the Tracker this week. Yesterday, at a press event she said, “When it gets to Election Day, we’ve been proactive to make sure we have the right people voting, electing the right leaders to lead this country.” Interesting that she views the job of Secretary of Homeland Security is to ensure the “right leaders” are elected. The Trump administration will do anything it can get away with to steal the midterm elections.
Noem’s “Right people voting” comment sparks concern over DHS role in elections

Trump holds campaign rally at Fort Bragg, February 13, 2026
Presidents make speeches to troops all the time, including on military bases. What they don’t do, what they aren’t supposed to do, is be hyper- partisan at these events, to try to make them into campaign rallies. That’s what Trump does, of course, including on Friday at Fort Bragg. The Washington Post (or what’s left of it) reports:

On Friday, Trump shared the stage with Michael Whatley, a former Republican National Committee chairman now running for Senate who holds no government position. Trump used the platform to boost Whatley, attack Democrats and repeat previously announced military spending plans.

“You have to vote for us,” Trump told the troops, citing his restoration of the Fort Bragg name after Congress directed the Pentagon to rename military installations honoring Confederate officers. (The Trump administration avoided the law by renaming the base after Pfc. Roland L. Bragg, rather than the original Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg.)

“If we don’t win the midterms, they’ll take it off again,” Trump said. “They’ll take it off again. You can’t let that happen.”

According to reports, service members refrained from cheering (or booing) during the speech—Defense Department policy prohibits active-duty service members from participating in partisan political activity. The troops are definitely more disciplined than the president.
Trump delivers partisan appeal to uniformed soldiers at Fort Bragg – The Washington Post

Noem fires Coast Guard pilot over…a blanket, February 13, 2026
Hey, what do you know, here’s another Noem-related Tracker item. Nothing should surprise us about Noem given she killed her own dog, but eyebrows certainly can be raised when The Wall Street Journal and others reported that Noem fired the pilot of her plane over a blanket:

A maintenance issue on one of her planes had forced her to land and deboard to another aircraft, The Wall Street Journal reported late Thursday. The sudden switch inspired Lewandowski to fire the U.S. Coast Guard pilot from the first plane, though the pilot’s abilities weren’t the problem: Noem was upset that her blanket had not followed her to her second plane…But moments later, Noem had to backtrack on the pilot’s terminated employment, though she didn’t do so in any admission of wrongdoing. Instead, Noem tapped the pilot to fly her around again because “no one else was available to fly them home.”

Yeah, the country is completely safe with Noem in charge of Homeland Security.
https://newrepublic.com/post/206562/kristi-noem-fired-rehired-pilot-blanket

Budget Director uses USAID money for his security, Revealed February 13, 2026
Russell Vought is the head of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and the main architect of the plan to overhaul government, including the elimination of USAID. Turns out OMB has reallocated “$15 million of what remains of USAID operating expenses to cover the costs of his protection by the U.S. Marshals Service through the end of 2026.” We understand the need for protecting government officials, even ones we vehemently disagree with, even ones whose policies, including the destruction of USAID, are needlessly leading to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. Nobody should be threatening Vought. But we should be working overtime to defeat him and his cronies politically.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/white-house-uses-usaid-funds-budget-director-voughts-security-documents-show-2026-02-13/

Trump trying to decree voter ID, February 13, 2026
Trump continues to try to rule through decree. On Friday night in a social media screed he declared, “There will be Voter ID for the Midterm Elections, whether approved by Congress or not!” Yeah, that’s not the way the Constitution works, guy. But Trump’s social media posts are another warning that he plans on subverting the midterm elections. Whether you are in favor of some sort of voter ID law or not (Jessica Riedl and Cato have good assessments of what makes sense for new voter ID laws), Trump does not have the power to change these election laws.
Jessica Riedl 🧀 🇺🇦 on X: “I’m fine with easy voter ID (ie, drivers licenses), but MAGA demands more complicated processes (with illegal poll taxes) because so many are convinced – against all overwhelming evidence – that non-citizen voting is very common and tilting elections. Its just not true.” / X

February 2 – February 8, 2026

Breaking the Law

Condition of Detention Centers, Revealed throughout the week
Reports continue to emerge on the bad conditions at detention centers. One leaked video from a detention center in Baltimore “shows 50 people crammed in a cell with no beds or bathrooms—including U.S. citizens.” The El Paso Times reports on a Texas detention center where:

“Every single woman had been in the facility about three weeks and had been living in the same articles of clothing for three weeks…Their clothes had not been washed. They had not been offered fresh underwear or fresh clothing. Some of them were literally still in their snow boots from Minnesota.”

What we see on the streets via cell phone cameras is bad enough. What is hidden from us is as bad or worse.
Post by @peoplesfabric.com — Bluesky

Use of Administrative subpoenas against U.S. citizens, Revealed February 5, 2026
It’s been known that the Department of Homeland Security has been using administrative rather than judicial warrants and subpoenas in its efforts to detain immigrants. However, the Washington Post reports that DHS is increasingly using administrative subpoenas to obtain Americans’ personal data from tech companies, “raising alarms about intimidation of protected speech.” In one detailed case, a retired U.S. citizen (“Jon”) was flagged after sending a mild email urging humane treatment in an immigration matter; DHS then served Google with an administrative subpoena seeking sweeping account metadata (including IP/address history and identifying/billing details), and agents later showed up at his home despite acknowledging he’d broken no law. The ACLU has moved to quash the subpoena, and notes DHS has been using similar subpoenas aimed at universities and social-media posters who publicize ICE activity. Let’s be clear: these practices are an assault on the First Amendment.
Homeland Security is targeting Americans with administrative subpoenas – The Washington Post

ICE/Border Patrol abuse U.S. citizens, February 1, 2026
Agents pulled over a couple who they accused of “staring” at them. Not sure what law that violates. Oh wait, it is not against the law to stare at anyone, including ICE/Border patrol agents. Then, as the video tweeted by @WarMonitor shows, “Agents demand the car keys, a Fourth Amendment violation, and falsely claim the driver must be registered to the vehicle.”
WarMonitor on X: “Video shows ICE pulling over a couple for “staring,” who immediately prove they are U.S. citizens. Agents demand the car keys, a Fourth Amendment violation, and falsely claim the driver must be registered to the vehicle. ICE is not authorized to conduct traffic stops in this https://t.co/Dk4DPBAVq9” / X

Corruption

Urging the Nationalization of Voting, February 2, 2026
We warned last week that we expected an increase in the Election Interference/Voting Rights Violation category now that the midterms are only ten months away. And voila, in an interview, Trump said,

“These people were brought to our country to vote, and they vote illegally. The Republicans should say, we should take over the voting in at least 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting. We have states that I won that show I didn’t win. You’re gonna see something in Georgia.”

The cold civil war has begun.
Aaron Rupar on X: “Trump: “These people were brought to our country to vote, and they vote illegally. The Republicans should say, we should take over the voting in at least 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting. We have states that I won that show I didn’t win. You’re gonna see https://t.co/H5hT3OvtLE” / X

Trump talks with FBI agents who searched Fulton County Elections Office, February 2, 2026
After the FBI took away materials from the Fulton County Elections Office, Trump had a phone call with them. It was arranged by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. Neither of those things are normal. The Director of National Intelligence should have nothing to do with this so-called investigation. And the president has no business talking with law enforcement about an operation dealing with his political opponent. This is an overt attempt to taint a past election and prepare to corrupt upcoming elections.
Tulsi Gabbard arranged Trump call with FBI agents after Georgia election raid: Sources – ABC News

January 26 – February 1, 2026

Breaking the Law

Judge states ICE has violated nearly 100 court orders, January 28, 2026
Federal Judge Patrick Schlitz attached a list of 74 cases in which he asserts federal authorities have violated court orders more than 90 times. During the session, Schlitz said, “ICE has likely violated more court orders in January 2026 than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence.” ICE has broken the law so many times it’s impossible to register them accurately in our Tracker spreadsheet.
More than 74 cases where ICE violates orders, according to chief judge

ICE/Border Patrol Transgressions

Like last week, we could list dozens of abuses by ICE and Border Patrol. Here are a few representative examples.

· Border Patrol Agents point guns at press and people. While leaving a hotel, Border Patrol agents pointed their guns at media and Americans filming them. They are masked, of course, so there is no way to identify and ultimately punish them for their abuse.

· Officer threatening an American. As you can see in the video at this link, a border/ICE officer says to a protester, “You raise your voice, I erase your voice.”

· Trying to enter Ecuador’s Consulate. Yep, they tried to enter a sovereign country’s consulate. If someone tried to do that to an American consulate overseas, MAGA’s minions would be calling for air strikes.

Corruption

UAE Government secretly giving Trump money, Last year, revealed February 1, 2026
The Wall Street Journal reports,

A UAE-backed investment vehicle quietly agreed to buy nearly half of World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency startup linked to President Donald Trump, just days before he returned to the White House. Aryam Investment 1, an Abu Dhabi entity backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, signed a deal in January 2025 to purchase a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial for $500 million

Half of that amount was paid upfront, sending $187 million to Trump family-controlled entities, with additional tens of millions flowing to entities tied to co-founders, including relatives of US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff,

Tahnoon, the brother of the United Arab Emirates president and the country’s national security adviser, has been central to Abu Dhabi’s push to become a global leader in artificial intelligence. Under the Biden administration, his efforts to secure advanced US-made AI chips were limited amid concerns that sensitive technology could reach China, particularly through companies such as G42.

Following Trump’s election, those efforts gained momentum. Tahnoon met multiple times with Trump and senior US officials, and within months the administration committed to granting the UAE access to hundreds of thousands of advanced AI chips annually.

Trump has enriched himself in multiple was through the power of the presidency. The corruption itself is worrying enough. But the effort to make money through power also effects policy. Should a decent opposition party ever regain power in Congress, new laws will need to be passed to prevent such corruption in the future. Clearly the current legal structure does not work to protect Americans and America from a corrupt leader.
UAE firm bought 49% of Trump-linked crypto startup for $500M: WSJ

Further politicizing the Department of Justice, January 31, 2026
Chad Mizelle, the acting counsel at the Department of Homeland Security is recruiting prosecutors by posting on social media,

“If you are a lawyer, are interested in being an AUSA, and support President Trump and anti-crime agenda, DM me. We need good prosecutors. And DOJ is hiring across the country. Now is your chance to join the mission and do good for our country.”

Andy McCarthy, conservative legal analysis at the National Review, points out,

“If support for incumbent the president is now a condition of enforcing federal law, Congress should defund DOJ. DOJ should only exist if it’s nonpartisan. Too dangerous to liberty otherwise. If AG Garland’s office had posted this, MAGA & GOP would be calling for impeachment.”

Andy McCarthy on X: “If support for incumbent the president is now a condition of enforcing federal law, Congress should defund DOJ. DOJ should only exist if it’s nonpartisan. Too dangerous to liberty otherwise. If AG Garland’s office had posted this, MAGA & GOP would be calling for impeachment.” / X

Trump Sues IRS for $10 billion, January 29, 2026
Trump is suing the IRS for $10 billion claiming the agency didn’t prevent an employee from improperly disclosing his tax returns. Trump asserts he is doing this in his personal capacity, not as president. Is that even possible? This is a grand shakedown scheme—and you and I are the ones being robbed.
Trump sues the IRS and Treasury Department for $10 billion over leaked tax records

Executing a search warrant at the Fulton County elections office, January 28, 2026
FBI agents executed a search warrant at the Fulton County Elections Hub and seized/collected 2020-election materials including ballots and related election records. It’s possible we will recategorize this to the law-breaking section if we find out the affidavit contains false information, the warrant was not backed by a court or some similar finding emerges. In the meantime, not only is it highly corrupting that Trump continues by every means possible to propagate the lie that the 2020 election was stolen, but it’s possible this search warrant is pretext for ways to disrupt the coming mid-term elections. It should also be noted that it is completely improper for the Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to be involved. Even worse, after the FBI executed the warrant, Trump posted, “This is only the beginning. Prosecutions are coming.” If so, then we will be in a cold civil war. Prosecuting fake election crimes is a war on democracy. The Minneapolis fiasco and other news has overshadowed it, but the Trump-ordered operation against Fulton County Elections is likely the most foreboding news of the week.
FBI searches Fulton County elections office as it investigates alleged voter fraud | CNN Politics

Trump continuing to repost election denial claims, January 28, 2026
Throughout the night after the raid on the Fulton County elections office hub, Trump posted or reposted crazy conspiracies about the 2020 election. One of them was, and we’re not making this up, “a claim that Italian military satellites had been used to hack into U.S. voting machines to flip votes from Trump to Joe Biden.” That claim, which Trump reposted on Truth Social, continued, “China reportedly coordinated the whole operation, The CIA oversaw it, the FBI covered it up, all to install Biden as a puppet.” The United States is ruled by a crazed maniac.
Trump posts discredited conspiracy theories following seizure of 2020 ballots in Georgia – ABC News

Trump says Rep. Omar staged attack, January 28, 2026
Trump, when asked about the attack on U.S. Rep Ilhan Omar at her town hall, said, “I don’t think about her. I think she’s a fraud. She probably had herself sprayed, knowing her.”
Donald Trump alleges Ilhan Omar staged spraying attack: ‘I think she’s a fraud’

Posting lyrics from a white supremacist song, January 27, 2026
We’ll let Richard Hanania (a former white supremacist who has admirably reformed) tell the story:

DHS posted a meme with the phrase “We’ll have our home again,” a phrase from a white supremacist song. When asked about it by the NYT, Tricia McLaughlin denied that the phrase was related to the song: “There are plenty of references to those words in books and poems.” A NYT reporter points out that when you open the post on Instagram, the white supremacist song itself starts playing. McLaughlin denies this is true and accuses the reporter of spreading a left-wing conspiracy theory! She says he is the one “mainstreaming racism.” They then delete the post 40 minutes after the interview.

The sad truth is a significant part of the federal government is staffed by white supremacists.
Richard Hanania on X: “A hilarious example of how much the administration lies and just how lacking in virtue these people are. DHS posted a meme with the phrase “We’ll have our home again,” a phrase from a white supremacist song. When asked about it by the NYT, Tricia McLaughlin denied that the https://t.co/2OywYaOtkv” / X

January 19 – January 25, 2026

Breaking the Law

Murder of Alex Pretti in broad daylight, January 24, 2026
Covered above but it should be noted that a federal judge, appointed by Trump, is blocking the federal government from destroying evidence in the murder of Pretti. This tells you all you need to know about the state of the federal government. It believes it can murder a U.S. citizen in broad daylight in front of witnesses and then try to destroy the evidence. We’re at war. Fight it non-violently and smartly.
Judge blocks feds from destroying evidence in Minnesota shooting

ICE Memo Claims the Right to Violate Fourth Amendment, January 21, 2026
It is revealing that an agency puts its intentions to violate the Constitution in writing. The AP and many others reported:

Federal immigration officers are asserting sweeping power to forcibly enter people’s homes without a judge’s warrant, according to an internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo obtained by The Associated Press, marking a sharp reversal of longstanding guidance meant to respect constitutional limits on government searches.

The memo authorizes ICE officers to use force to enter a residence based solely on a more narrow administrative warrant to arrest someone with a final order of removal, a move that advocates say collides with Fourth Amendment protections and upends years of advice given to immigrant communities.

Let’s hope the courts prevent this pronto.
Memo tells ICE officers they can enter homes without a warrant | AP News

DOGE accessed and shared Social Security data, revealed January 20, 2026
People warned this was happening at the time but it has now been verified in court documents. The Washington Post reports:

The Trump administration has acknowledged for the first time in a court filing that members of the U.S. DOGE Service accessed and shared sensitive Social Security data without the awareness of agency officials.

The admission comes months after a whistleblower raised concerns that members of DOGE — the government cost-cutting operation founded by Elon Musk — had obtained one of the government’s most protected databases, risking the security of hundreds of millions of Americans’ private Social Security information. The agency had previously denied the whistleblower’s allegations.

But the Justice Department submitted a court filing Friday in an ongoing case saying that the Social Security Administration had discovered a secret agreement between a DOGE employee and an unidentified political advocacy group. The agreement called for sharing Social Security data with the aim of overturning election results in certain states, according to the filing.

The people responsible need to be prosecuted. What are the odds of that happening?
Trump administration admits DOGE accessed personal Social Security data – The Washington Post

ICE Illegally Breaking Into a U.S. Citizen’s Home, January 19, 2026
You’ve probably seen the photos of ICE forcibly taking ChongLy “Saly” Scott Thao, a U.S. citizen, out of his home into the frigid snow in his underwear. ICE had no judge-signed warrant to do this. Again, Thao is a U.S. citizen who was committing and has committed no crime. ICE is again breaking the law—the Constitution—with this action. Of course, the Department of Homeland Security lied afterwards to try to justify all of this by saying Thao lived with two convicted sexual offenders. Thao lives with his son, daughter-in-law, and grandson, none of whom are convicts of any kind. In fact, the sex criminal ICE claimed they were looking for when they illegally burst into Thao’s house was…already in jail. There are some ICE officers and DHS officials who should join him there.
Family of Hmong man arrested by ICE says DHS justification for raid is false

Additional ICE incidents this week, All week
Like last week, the number of incidents and violations of law by ICE (in addition to the murder of Alex Pretti) stacked up higher than we can reasonably record them. Here are a few of the lowlights:

Arresting a child walking home
David Bier of the Cato Institute tweeted, “Photographer @mostafabassim1 photographed this boy walking home alone with a snack being ‘randomly’ approached by DHS. After he was unable to produce documentation proving his citizenship, agents informed him that he was under arrest. He said, ‘Can I just go home?’ Answer:’ No.’ In a free society, you should be allowed to go get a snack without worrying about being detained by masked men from the government.”

Another Tribal Member Arrested
Rebecca Nagle tweeted out a report by Arizona Central: “A citizen of Navajo Nation was detained by ICE in Phoenix. Peter Yazzie was reportedly carrying a tribal ID, but was still violently arrested. An officer put a knee on Yazzie’s back, which can be lethal because it can cut off a person’s breathing.”

ICE Stopped Paying Third Party Medical Providers for Ice Detainees
Jedd Legum reports that ICE “has not paid any third-party providers for medical care for detainees since October 3, 2025. Last week, ICE posted a notice on an obscure government website announcing it will not begin processing such claims until at least April 30, 2026. “Some of these providers are no longer providing services since they are not being paid. As a result, some detainees are being denied medical service.

Denying Detainees Constitutional Right to an Attorney, Revealed January 18, 2026
Denying detainees, including U.S. citizens, access to an attorney is against the law—in fact, violates the Constitution. But that is what is happening in the ICE round ups. ABC News reports:

Thousands of people have been arrested during ICE operations in Minneapolis over the past two weeks. Multiple attorneys allege that for some of those detained, including at least one U.S. citizen, the Department of Homeland Security is denying their constitutional right to see an attorney.

Four attorneys told ABC News they have been denied access to their clients at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, where they are being held, which they say would violate 5th and 6th Amendment rights to due process and the right to consult with counsel.

“ICE agents were physically restricting me from seeing them,” said one immigration attorney, who asked not to be identified. “I stood outside the attorney visitation room for about four hours on Thursday, trying to see one of my clients who had been there for multiple days. I kept saying, you got to let me see my client. And they just kept repeating, we don’t do attorney visitation.”
Lawyers allege Dept. of Homeland Security is denying legal counsel to Minnesota detainees – ABC News

Corruption

Homeland Security Doctors an Image of Arrestee and posts it, January 22, 2026
The social media posts by Trump and his associates have become crazier and crazier in recent months. Now they are also doctoring photos. According to the Washington Post:

In a photo posted to X on Thursday morning by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem, the attorney, Nekima Levy Armstrong, appears in handcuffs with a blank expression on her face.

But in an edited version of the photo posted a half-hour later by the White House, Levy Armstrong appears to be openly weeping, with tears streaming down her face. The post did not disclose that the image had been changed.
White House shares doctored image of church protester – The Washington Post

Trump Lying About Denmark, U.K., Canada and other allies in Afghanistan, January 22, 2026
Trump has repeatedly lied in recent days about allies’ roles in the war in Afghanistan, claiming they were there for the United States. Trump said during an interview, “They’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan and they did, they stayed a little back, a little off the front lines.” In fact, these countries all had troops killed and wounded helping the United States in Afghanistan. Trump, remember, found a way to not serve in Vietnam. Yesterday, after British Prime Minister Keir Starmer castigated Trump for his comments, Trump posted not an apology but at least an acknowledgement of the bravery of British soldiers. Americans, world leaders, and others need to push back on Trump. Giving in to him, praising him, playing to his vanity, is not an effective strategy. Standing up to him usually is—that’s how to deal with bullies and fools.
UK PM, others outraged at Trump’s comments downplaying NATO role in Afghanistan war

Stephen Miller telling local law enforcement to “surrender”, January 19, 2026
Stephen Miller might deserve his own tracker. In an X post, he wrote, “Only federal officers are upholding the law. Local and state police have been ordered to stand down and surrender.” Federal officers have been caught repeatedly on camera breaking the law, not upholding it, even arresting local officers for no reason at all.” When this administration has been cast to the dustbin of history, Miller’s name should live in infamy forevermore.
Jay Nordlinger on X: “That is an interesting word, “surrender.” These are interesting times. https://t.co/nFv90sebCT” / X

Trump Linking Greenland to his not receiving the Nobel Prize, January 18, 2026
It was easy to make fun of but at its root, Trump lashing out at the Prime Minister of Norway for his not receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, and stating that this was why he was trying to take Greenland from Denmark, is deeply corrupting to, well, just about everything. Re-read the first sentence of Trump’s letter:

Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America.

Put aside for the moment that the government of Norway is NOT who decides who receives the Nobel Peace Prize. Instead, think about how Trump’s reasoning works that because he did not receive the prize, he won’t be thinking primarily about peace. That such a mind is president of the second most powerful country in the world should be all you need to proceed into insomnia.
Nick Schifrin on X: “NEW: @potus letter to @jonasgahrstore links @NobelPrize to Greenland, reiterates threats, and is forwarded by the NSC staff to multiple European ambassadors in Washington. I obtained the text from multiple officials: Dear Ambassador: President Trump has asked that the” / X

Board of Peace: Trump tries to rule the world, January 16, 2026
We wrote about this in this week’s International Need to Know so I won’t belabor it here but Trump’s Board of Peace is a crazed scheme to give Trump powers beyond his presidency and to control billions of dollars. The U.S. Senate needs to nix this.
https://open.substack.com/pub/samintn/p/international-need-to-know-january-b19?r=u92&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

January 12 – January 18, 2026

Breaking the Law

ICE in Minnesota, All Day Every Day
Since we last convened, there have been countless instances of ICE abusing its power, violating the Fourth Amendment, and generally being a bad actor. Rather than listing all these instances separately, which would take up more pixels than we have, I’ll list some of the more representative examples, understanding that new ones crop up by the hour.

• Raiding houses without judge-signed warrants
  Vance said they would do this and indeed they are. But this violates the Fourth Amendment. Here is video of one such illegal raid
• Arresting a teenager without letting him show his ID
  This is one of many incidents of arresting people and then sorting out their identity later. This particular case is alarming because they did so to a kid, as you can see in this video. The person posting this video notes, “In the video, the teenager calmly tells agents he can go inside and get his ID to prove who he is. The agents refuse. Instead, they say they’ll ‘take pictures at HQ’… and then force him into their SUV anyway.”
• Tear-gassing a family driving home causing their six-year-old to be hospitalized
  Senator Amy Klobuchar tweeted, “A Minneapolis family driving home from their son’s basketball game in their car with six kids, including a six-month-old, was hit by tear gas & flash-bangs from ICE agents, leaving their baby struggling to breathe and hospitalized.” It’s all in the story by a local news station.
• Detaining Oglala Sioux Tribal Members
  The Oglala Sioux Tribe says ICE is currently detaining 3 tribal members (U.S. citizens arrested at a homeless encampment) and refused to release any details about their detention to the Tribe unless the Tribe agreed to “enter into an immigration agreement with ICE.” ICE is violating the Constitution in these detentions. They should be the ones being arrested.

We could go on and on and on but let’s end by showing a CNN compilation of video of ICE physically abusing protesters.

Holding Revenue from Venezuelan Oil Sales in Bank Accounts in Qatar, January 14, 2026
As you may remember, Trump said the U.S. will control the sale of revenue of up to 50 million barrels of its oil. The first sale was made last week, bringing in revenue of $500 million. The legality of taking the money is dubious. But what is the Trump administration doing with the money? Semafor reports:

Revenue from the oil sales is currently being held in bank accounts controlled by the US government, as indicated in Friday’s order, according to the administration official. The main account, according to a second senior administration official, is located in Qatar.

The second official described Qatar as a neutral location where money can flow freely with US approval and without risk of seizure. Trump’s order noted that at least some of the revenue would be held in US Treasury accounts.

As Senator Ed Markey points out, these actions are “untethered from statutory authority.” There are legal paths the Trump administration might take to seize the revenue, depending on what they plan to do with it, including using the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control under specific sanctions laws. But neither in the Executive Order nor in any of the public statements by Trump or other public officials, have any of the legalities been specified. Perhaps under an ordinary presidential administration observers would not need to worry about such details but as we’ve documented in this Tracker, there are numerous instances of Trump, his family, and his supporters enriching themselves through their government power. It could be a good idea or a bad idea to seize revenue from the sale of Venezuelan oil, but it needs to be done under a legal framework. So far, there is no evidence it has.
US gets first $500 million Venezuelan oil deal, holding some proceeds in Qatar | Semafor

Disguising military as civilian aircraft in attack on boat in Caribbean, Revealed January 12, 2026, strike on boat took place in September
In the first U.S. attack on a boat in the Caribbean back in September, the U.S. aircraft were disguised to look like civilian aircraft. These aircraft previously were used in surveillance and reconnaissance missions. In those kinds of missions, it’s fine to disguise the aircraft. But using such a plane, as the administration did, in an attack is against the law.
Painted plane used in 1st military strike in Caribbean was part of fleet disguised as civilian aircraft: Sources – ABC News

DOJ criminal probe of Fed Chair Jerome Powell, January 11, 2026
Powell in a video last Sunday night confirmed prosecutors opened a criminal investigation tied to his prior congressional testimony, amid a broader White House pressure campaign on the Fed. It has become routine for the Trump administration to use groundless legal investigations against political opponents and in policy disagreements. You can’t really call yourself a democracy or republic under such circumstances. Benjamin Franklin and his pals gave us a republic. After 250 years we’ve thrown it in the wastebasket.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/list-individuals-including-lisa-cook-targeted-trump-administration/story?id=124968309

Corruption

Trump Trying to Control Media, January 18, 2026
Earlier today, Trump said he plans to sign an executive order preventing any football games being played and broadcast during the Army-Navy game next December. He will create a four-hour window when no games can be played. I can’t believe I had to write those last two sentences. It’s a minor transgression in some ways—4 hours of prohibition during the Army-Navy game pales in comparison to other misdeeds of Trump and his administration. But a) the president doesn’t have the power to do this; and b) what if Trump decides to put restrictions on other programming in the future? I’m now busily creating my own college football extravaganza to begin exactly at kickoff of the next Army-Navy game.
Trump plans executive order to block CFP from overlapping with Army vs. Navy – CBS Sports

Continued Abuse of Pardon Power, January 16, 2026
As I’ve written before, all presidents have issued some shady pardons. But the scale of Trump’s pardons and the pay-to-play nature of many of the pardons distinguishes Trump from all his predecessors. Late this week, he issued a flurry of pardons, including ones for large contributors to his PAC and for someone he had already pardoned but who has committed new crimes.
Trump Just Pardoned a Convicted Fraudster He Previously Freed from Prison for a Different Fraud in 2021

Miller Making Up International Law, January 16, 2026
On Thursday, during an appearance on Fox News, Stephen Miller said:

Denmark is a tiny country with a tiny economy and a tiny military. They cannot defend Greenland… Under every understanding of law that has existed about territorial control for 500 years, to control a territory you have to be able to defend a territory…

Yeah, that’s not how international law works. But this is the new world order that Miller and Trump want to fashion. Might makes right, as folks used to say. Welcome back to the 19^th Century.
Acyn on X: “Stephen Miller: Denmark is a tiny country with a tiny economy and a tiny military. They cannot defend Greenland… Under every understanding of law that has existed about territorial control for 500 years, to control a territory you have to be able to defend a territory… https://t.co/u6nR9wE6Cl” / X

Investigating Senator Elissa Slotkin As Retribution for Video She Made, January 13, 2026
Senator Slotkin was one of the seven senators and representatives who spoke in a video informing troops they should uphold the constitution and defy illegal orders. The Trump administration has retaliated against Senator Mark Kelly for participating in the video as we documented last week. This week, the New York Times reported federal prosecutors are also investigating Senator Slotkin. The Trump administration in a myriad of ways is attacking the First amendment and manhandling separation of powers. Increasingly we are ruled by a rogue state.
The New York Times on X: “Breaking News: Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan said that federal prosecutors are investigating her after she urged service members to resist illegal orders. https://t.co/Cd5f8CgS09” / X

Straight Out Racist Returns to Work as ICE Prosecutor, January 13, 2026
Recent weeks and months have revealed for all with eyes to see what the immigration crackdown is really about. James Rodden epitomizes it. Who the hell is he, perhaps you ask? He is an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) assistant chief counsel who acts as a prosecutor for ICE in immigration cases. He also, according to extensive reporting by the Texas Observer, “operates a white supremacist X account named GlomarResponder… The account has over 17,000 followers and has routinely posted hateful statements, including that ‘America is a White nation,’ that ‘Migrants’ are all criminals,’ and that ‘All blacks are foreign to my people,’ in addition to posts with apparent praise of Adolf Hitler.” The Observer reported all this last spring and Rodden was pulled from cases. However, once the media smoke cleared, he was back on the job. Rodden still runs his X account though he’s made it private. However, the Observer notes:

On September 28, 2025, the account responded to the question “Can anyone point to me exactly where America started going downhill?” The account responded: “November 6, 1860”—the date that President Abraham Lincoln, the president whose administration ended slavery, was elected.

The Trump administration is all about white nationalism.
ICE Prosecutor Who Runs Racist X Account Returns to Dallas Immigration Court

January 5 – January 11, 2026

Breaking the Law

Threatening Greenland and Denmark, All Week
From Stephen Miller to Trump himself, this week the administration again threatened both Denmark and Greenland. I’ve read some analysts who claim this is just classic Trump negotiating tactics to try and get America greater access to Greenland. Even if that were true, its breaks international law to threaten another country’s sovereignty. Plus, there is every reason to believe Trump wants to seize Greenland. As we wrote in International Need to Know last week, it’s part of the Make the 19^th century great again movement. Like many things that are stupid, it is also dangerous.
Trump threatens to take Greenland ‘the hard way’ | The Seattle Times

Capping Credit Card Interest Rates at 10 Percent for One Year, January 9, 2026
Trump announced a one-year cap on credit card interest rates at 10 percent. You may believe this is a good idea (it’s not), you may think it’s a bad idea (it is), but either way Trump does not have the power to unilaterally do this. He is not a king.
Alex Tabarrok on X: “Guy thinks he is a King.” / X

By Fiat Denying Dividends or Stock Buybacks for Defense Companies, January 7, 2026
Continuing his penchant for trying to enact law through social media posts, Trump said “I will not permit Dividends of Stock Buybacks for Defense Companies until such time as these problems are rectified.” He claims that the issuing of dividends and buying stock back is at the expense of investing in plants and equipment. The defense industry is definitely bloated and inefficient and that is endangering our country. But the president does not have the power to do this. I’m all for radically reforming the procurement process and much of the military industrial complex. But this is not how you do it. And for Trump Tracker purposes, it is not legal.
The Kobeissi Letter on X: “BREAKING: President Trump says executives of US defense contractors will no longer be allowed to make more than $5 million unless they build “new and modern production plants.” Trump also says he is banning dividends and stock buybacks for defense companies until these problems https://t.co/0pDiWBZbXz” / X

Freezing Social Services Funding for Five States with Democratic Governors, January 6, 2025
The Trump administration froze “$10 billion in funds for social services and child care in five Democratic-led states, according to a Department of Health and Human Services official, with the agency suggesting without evidence that the funding has been used fraudulently.” The Trump administration claims some of the funds might have been given to ineligible immigrants. They did not provide any of proof. The five states filed a lawsuit and on Friday a judge put a hold on the freeze while the case winds its way through the courts. There is certainly room for reforming federal funding for states, but targeting states based on which party controls the governorship is against the law.
Judge halts Trump freeze of social assistance and child care funds in five Democrat-led states for now

Corruption

Vance Asserting ICE Will Go “Door To Door”, January 8, 2026
In an interview on Fox, a mere few hours after the ICE officer murdered Nicole Good, Vice President Vance extolled the efforts by ICE and then said, “I think if we’re to see those deportation numbers ramp up as we get more and more people online working for ICE going from door-to-door making sure if you’re an illegal alien you’re going to have to get out of this country and if you want to comeback apply through the proper channels.” Funny thing about that is the Fourth Amendment says you can’t do that:

“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

Vance is dressing up as an authoritarian again.
JD Vance warns ICE will be going ‘door-to-door’ just hours after woman shot in face and killed

Lying About the Constitution and Mike Pence, January 6, 2026
On the fifth anniversary of the attempted insurrection, the White House posted the following on social media:

Everything in that statement is a lie. Everything in that statement is an assault on the Constitution and American democracy. The U.S. Senate should have acted responsibly in January 2021 and convicted Trump, thus sparing the current carnage on our country and world.
Ramesh Ponnuru on X: “A lot of risibly false statements in one paragraph from the White House. Most obviously, neither the Constitution nor any statute gave Pence any such “opportunity” or “power.”“ / X

Hegseth Retaliates for Democratic Lawmakers’ Video By Censuring Kelly, January 5, 2026
You may remember that Senator Mark Kelly participated in a video in November with five other Democratic lawmakers — all veterans of the armed services and intelligence community — in which they called on troops to uphold the Constitution and defy illegal orders. Trump and Hegseth were irate about this and Hegseth ordered the Defense/War Department to investigate Kelly. On Monday, Hegseth announced that he censured Kelly for telling troops in the video to resist unlawful orders. We’ll let the AP take it from here:

Hegseth said the censure — by itself simply a formal letter with little practical consequence — was “a necessary process step” to proceedings that could result in a demotion from Kelly’s retired rank of captain and subsequent reduction in retirement pay.

Investigating and now punishing a sitting U.S. senator is an extraordinary move for the Pentagon, which until President Donald Trump’s second term had usually gone out of its way to act and appear apolitical. A legal expert says the choice to go after a lawmaker will complicate an already unique case.

Indeed it will. It also complicates the First Amendment, separation of powers and a bunch of other things once near and dear to America.
Hegseth censures Sen. Kelly after Democrats’ video urging troops to resist unlawful orders | The Seattle Times

December 29, 2025 – January 4, 2026

Breaking the Law

Military Operation in Venezuela, January 3, 2026
Trump is carrying on a decades-long tradition of executive overreach in the use of military force. Obama, Bush I and II, Clinton, they’ve all done this. But this is a particularly egregious example. Vance and Rubio claim this was a law enforcement action, merely arresting Maduro and his wife and bringing them to New York to face trial. This was not a mere arrest; this was regime change, or at least a change in presidents. Such a maneuver is by definition a military action and requires congressional approval. Indeed, Trump himself said it was a “military operation.” White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles in defending U.S. military action against alleged Venezuelan drug boats said a few weeks ago, “If he were to authorize some activity on land, then it’s war, then [we’d need] Congress.” Trump during his Saturday press conference spoke about Venezuela’s oil infrastructure and said the U.S. would be running Venezuela. This is not some fine line that the Trump administration inadvertently crossed. It stomped all over the law. We’ll discuss what all this means in a larger context in this week’s International Need to Know, but it’s clearly against the law.
This wasn’t an arrest in Venezuela. This was an unauthorized regime-change war

Corruption

Homeland Security Wants to Deport 100 million people, December 31, 2025
So on New Year’s Eve, the official X account of Homeland Security posted this:

Essentially the official Homeland Security account says it wants to deport nearly a third of Americans. Guess which ones they would choose?
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/dhs-s-social-media-post-sparks-fresh-outrage/ar-AA1TnqyJ

Interfering in Colorado’s Judicial System, December 31, 2025
You might remember the case of Tina Peters, the former Mesa County, Colorado clerk who let unauthorized people access secure election-system equipment during a 2021 breach tied to false 2020-election fraud claims. She was convicted in Colorado state court in the summer of 2024 on multiple charges related to that breach and sentenced to nine years in prison in October of that year. She’s pursued appeals and release efforts since then. She is a criminal and her crimes attacked the foundation of America—democracy. Trump, of course, loves her, because she perpetuates the lie that the 2020 election was stolen. And so, on New Year’s Eve he posted on social media that she was being persecuted for “trying to stop the massive voter fraud that goes on in her State.” He also attacked the elected officials in Colorado, referring to the “Scumbag Governor, and the disgusting ‘Republican’ (RINO!) DA, who did this to her.” Trump, like Peters, as Jack Smith detailed in his deposition, should also be in jail.

Spiro’s Ghost on X: “What an absolutely demented lunatic. This is not a sane person.” / X

Appointees Gaining Security Clearance Without Background Checks, Revealed December 30, 2025
MS Now reports that Trump’s transition didn’t follow the normal early FBI background-check process so that appointees such as Tom Homan weren’t flagged for concern. You may remember that Homan was the subject of an undercover FBI bribery investigation in which agents allegedly recorded him accepting $50,000 in cash in exchange for help steering border-enforcement contracts in a future Trump administration. That’s the kind of behavior that comes up in a background check and could preclude a person from getting security clearance. But not in the case of Homan and perhaps others. The article notes it’s unclear how Homan ultimately received a security clearance.
Border czar Tom Homan didn’t receive normal background check during bribery probe

December 22 – December 28, 2025

Breaking the Law

Using Fake National Security Concerns to Stop Wind Energy, December 22, 2025
I don’t list policy mistakes in this Tracker, though make no mistake, the Trump administration’s attacks on solar and wind energy are a policy mistake. The world is electrifying, especially through installation of solar panels and batteries and if the U.S. doesn’t do so then the economy will be damaged and nationals security weakened. Which makes the Trump administration citing national security in suspending leases for five offshore wind projects all the more darkly ironic. The Trump administration searched for a way around a federal judge’s ruling that struck down Trump’s efforts to block wind energy projects and settled on national security, the first refuge of the incompetent and corrupt. The AP reports, “The administration said the pause will give the Interior Department, which oversees offshore wind, time to work with the Defense Department and other agencies to assess the possible ways to mitigate any security risks posed by the projects. The statement did not detail the national security risks. It called the move a pause, but did not specify an end date.” Quick, call that federal judge.
Trump pauses 5 offshore wind projects | AP News

Corruption

Threatening to Revoke Broadcast Licenses Again, December 24, 2025
If Trump were in a romantic relationship with the First Amendment, I would have long ago taken the First Amendment to a domestic violence shelter. This week, on Christmas Eve no less, Trump posted, “If Network NEWSCASTS, and their Late Night Shows, are almost 100% Negative to President Donald J. Trump, MAGA, and the Republican Party, shouldn’t their very valuable Broadcast Licenses be terminated? I say, YES!” Later, after calling Stephen Colbert a “pathetic trainwreck,” Trump wrote, “CBS should, ‘put him to sleep,’ NOW, it is the humanitarian thing to do!”
Trump Lashes Out At Colbert, Late Night Hosts And ‘Negative’ Newscasts

Pardon for Pay, Ongoing
Both the Wall Street Journal and New York Times published articles this week detailing the corrupt pardon process under the Trump administration (which was not particularly clean under prior administrations but Trump, of course, pushes the corruption to 11. The Wall Street Journal article described a “fast track” clemency ecosystem with lobbyists quoting very high fees to pursue pardons—essentially setting up a pay-to-play system for pardons. America needs to reform pardon powers of the presidency.
Inside the New Fast Track to a Presidential Pardon – WSJ

December 15 – December 21, 2025

Breaking the Law

TikTok Joint Venture Agreement, December 18, 2025
The long-awaited (illegal) TikTok deal was signed this week. AP reports, “TikTok has signed agreements with three major investors — Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX — to form a new TikTok U.S. joint venture, ensuring the popular social video platform can continue operating in the United States.” Please remember that the multiple extensions Trump gave this year were not allowed under the law passed overwhelmingly by Congress, signed by the president, and upheld in a unanimous ruling by the Supreme Court. It’s also not clear this deal meets other requirements of that legislation, which preclude any “operational relationship” between TikTok’s U.S. operations and any formerly affiliated foreign-adversary-controlled entities. In the signed deal as reported, it sure looks like China will continue to have operational control of the algorithm. Reuters and others also flag uncertainty over whether the algorithm is truly transferred or controlled by the new U.S. structure or merely “monitored” or otherwise still tied to ByteDance/China. Remember, the statute calls out algorithm cooperation specifically. Trump broke the law on the first day of his presidency with the TikTok extension. It was a harbinger of many more laws to be broken and of Congress and the courts ignoring these violations.
TikTok signs agreements with investors to form new US venture | AP News

Blockading Venezuela, December 16, 2025
Much of what the Trump administration is doing in the Caribbean and to Venezuela is illegal. News media by its nature has to paint an “objective sheen” onto the stories by framing the illegality as a question. However, if one reads the relevant laws, the Trump administration’s actions are clearly illegal, including the blockade. On December 16, Trump ordered a blockade of oil tankers under U.S. sanctions entering and leaving Venezuela. A naval blockade is generally treated in modern international law as a coercive military measure—not just “sanctions enforcement,” as Trump officials portray it. Congress has not authorized any of these actions and while I get that presidents for decades have used the military in ways that the Constitution didn’t anticipate, this is of a whole other magnitude. The blockade also violates U.S. commitments to the UN Charter. The U.S. is not under threat from Venezuela. Branding the people in these boats “terrorists” is not satisfactory under the law. Add to all of this that the blockade and assaults on Venezuela are due to Stephen Miller’s white nationalist assault on immigration by non-whites, rather from any threat from Venezuela, and the media should really call Trump administration actions against Venezuela what they are: illegal. None of this is a defense of Maduro, who is a dictator, but Maduro being a brutal dictator does not make the U.S. actions legal, under U.S. or international law.
Trump orders blockade of ‘sanctioned oil tankers’ into Venezuela, ramping up pressure on Maduro

Corruption

Department of Justice Confidential Agreements with States on Elections, December 18, 2025
According to Stateline:

The U.S. Department of Justice has sent a confidential draft agreement to more than a dozen states that would require election officials to remove any alleged ineligible voters identified during a federal review of their voter rolls.

The agreement — called a memorandum of understanding, or MOU — would hand the federal government a major role in election administration, a responsibility that belongs to the states under the U.S. Constitution.

A Justice Department official identified 11 states that have expressed an interest in the agreement during a federal court hearing in December, according to a transcript reviewed by Stateline. Two additional states, Colorado and Wisconsin, have publicly rejected the memorandum of understanding and released copies of the proposal.

The states signing the MOU are all led by Republicans: Alabama, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Tennessee, Utah and Virginia. As the Stateline article notes, “The Justice Department memorandum, if implemented, would mark a significant departure from how election officials typically maintain voter rolls. States, often in coordination with local election officials, check lists for changes in address, deaths and other reasons for ineligibility, such as a felony conviction. States typically perform this task with little to no federal involvement.”
Trump’s DOJ offers states confidential deal to remove voters flagged by feds • Stateline

Trump Media Merger with TAE Technologies, December 18, 2025
Trump Deux has not been very profitable for America but has been tremendously so for Trump and his family. The Trump Media merger with TAE Technologies is a conflict of interest on the face of it and even worse as one digs into the details. As Reuters reports, “U.S. President Donald Trump is getting into the fusion power business through a $6 billion merger of his social media firm and Google-backed TAE Technologies, announced just days after industry leaders met with U.S. Energy Department representatives to urge federal funding.” The merger will need regulatory approval, but jeez, I wonder who will be doing the approving?
Trump Media bets on fusion energy with $6 billion TAE deal | Reuters

DOD Investigation of Mark Kelly, December 15, 2025
The Trump administration continues to abuse power by investigating political opponents. In this case, the Defense (War) Department is opening an investigation of Senator Mark Kelly “over possible breaches of military law.” This is all about Kelly being one of the senators who made a video telling soldiers they can disobey illegal orders. In light of the pretty obvious war crimes being committed by the U.S. in the Caribbean, this was sage advice. The AP reports, “In its statement Monday, the Pentagon suggested that Kelly’s statements in the video interfered with the ‘loyalty, morale, or good order and discipline of the armed forces’ by citing the federal law that prohibits such actions.” This investigation is obviously retaliation by Hegseth, Trump and his administration for Kelly’s appearance on the video. If anyone should be investigated it’s Hegseth and Trump.
Pentagon says it’s investigating Sen. Mark Kelly | AP News

Department of Homeland Security Using the Word “Remigration”, December 15, 2025
On Monday, the official X account of the Department of Homeland Security tweeted, “All America wants for Christmas is remigration.” It’s not the first time they’ve used the word “remigration.” What’s the big deal, you might ask? Well, as Wikipedia writes, “Remigration is a European far-right concept of ethnic cleansing^[1] via the mass deportation of non-white minority populations, especially immigrants and sometimes including those born in Europe and holding European citizenship, to their place of racial ancestry.” The Trump administration is not against immigration, they’re against non-whites. There is a large white nationalist contingent—led by Stephen Miller—working in the Trump administration and their policies aim to Make America White Again.
Post by @wajali.bsky.social — Bluesky

December 8 – December 14, 2025

Breaking the Law

Another Case of Detaining a U.S. Citizen Over Immigration Charges, December 10, 2025
This isn’t the first case and it won’t be the last of ICE going after U.S. citizens. CBS Minnesota reported, “Minneapolis city leaders say a U.S. citizen was wrongfully arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents because he looks Somali.” Mubashir, the U.S. citizen in question, who only provided his first name out of concern for his safety, stated during a press conference, “that he was on his lunch break Tuesday when a masked man running full speed tackled and pushed him into a Cedar-Riverside restaurant.” The agent never identified himself. Mubashir says he tried to tell the agent he was a U.S. citizen and offered to show his passport. Instead, he was taken away and put into detention in a facility a few miles away. Hours later he was finally allowed to show his passport and he was released. It is not okay to swoop in, detain a U.S. citizen with no cause whatsoever. In fact, it’s against the law to do so.
ICE agents wrongfully detained US citizen in Minneapolis for looking Somali, city leaders say

Putting Trump’s Photo on America the Beautiful Pass, December 7, 2025
Congress passed a law many years ago that created a contest where Americans submit photos to the National Park Service. The winner’s photo is featured on the America the Beautiful Pass, which is used to gain entry into national parks. However, the 2026 card instead features a photo of Donald Trump. As always, dictators and wannabe dictators work to put their ugly mug and name on everything possible.
2 new Trump-branded cards sully 2 of America’s best ideas | The Seattle Times

Corruption

Justice Department Sues Fulton County over 2020 Election, December 12, 2025

Trump’s Moby Dick is the 2020 election that he lost. He will forever attempt to discredit the election using every tool at his disposal. Unfortunately, one of the tools he now controls is the Justice Department which on Friday filed suit against Fulton County. The Washington Post reports, “Citing a need to investigate compliance with federal election law, the lawsuit demands Georgia election officials turn over ‘all used and void ballots, stubs of all ballots, signature envelopes, and corresponding envelope digital files from the 2020 General Election in Fulton County.’” Fulton County, you may recall, is where Trump desperately tried to pressure the Secretary of State in 2020 to find more votes for him in a blatant attempt to overturn a fair and free election. Trump’s election denial and attempts to overturn the election should have disqualified him from running in 2024. The system failed.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/12/12/justice-department-lawsuit-fulton-county-2020-election/

Trump Inappropriate Interference in Warner Bros. Merger, throughout the week
Netflix is attempting to buy Warner Bros. Many have questions about the deal. There is a regulatory process that was designed to address such questions. But Trump interjects himself into the process in inappropriate ways. For one, Trump wants CNN transformed, which is a blatant attack on the First Amendment. Trump says, “I think any deal it should be guaranteed and certain that CNN is part of it, or sold separately. But I don’t think the people that are running that company right now and running CNN, which is a very dishonest group of people, I don’t think that should be allowed to continue.” Paramount is attempting to mount a hostile takeover of Warner Bros. Guess who is a part of that bid? Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, that’s who. Axios reports, “Affinity Partners, the private equity firm led by Jared Kushner, is part of Paramount’s hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros Discovery, according to a regulatory filing.” In fact, Paramount’s argument for why Warners should be sold to them is because they will have a smoother path to regulatory approval. That’s essentially an admission of corruption, that they can be approved because the president’s son-in-law is involved. Plus, Paramount has already said it will radically change CNN. In fact, the Wall Street Journal reported that David Ellison, the CEO of Paramount, assured Trump he would “make sweeping changes to CNN.” Maybe Netflix would too in order to have its bid approved. As I’ve written before in the Tracker, Trump and his allies are systematically working to take control of news media, something all authoritarians do. Oh, and by the way, the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Qatar are all part of the Paramount bid. We await more information on what Trump said to the leaders of these places during his various talks with them in recent months.
Jared Kushner is part of Paramount’s hostile bid for Warner Bros Discovery

Trump Administration Helped Andrew Tate Go Free, Revealed this week

Andrew Tate and his brother were facing criminal investigations and charges in both the UK and Romania for rape, human trafficking and a variety of other crimes. They were being held in Romania until the investigations were complete. But the New York Times reported that Trump administration members, Donald Trump, Jr., and Barron Trump pressured the Romanian government to release the Tates, which they did. The two deviant brothers flew to Florida earlier this year. Fortunately, Ron DeSantis is no fan of the Tates. Florida has launched its own investigation of the two brothers. In the meantime, while the Trump administration detains U.S. citizens, it helps accused rapists flee from prosecution.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/investigation-delves-into-the-tate-brothers-and-their-connection-to-the-trump-family

Trump Threatened Indiana If It Didn’t Gerrymander, December 11, 2025
Trump wanted Indiana to gerrymander so the Republicans could gain more seats there. So much so that he threatened to pull federal funding if the legislature didn’t pass the gerrymandering plan. A variety of places, citing anonymous sources, reported this. Additional evidence of Trump threats came from Republican Indiana Lieutenant Governor Micah Beckwith who posted on social media this was the case, though he has since deleted the post. The Heritage Foundation also said this was true, writing, “Roads will not be paved. Guard bases will close. Major projects will stop. These are the stakes and every NO vote will be to blame,” the official account for the Heritage Foundation wrote.” This is not how federal funding is supposed to be disbursed. This is against the law and blatant political corruption.
https://newrepublic.com/post/204357/indiana-republican-deletes-post-trump-threat-funding-gerrymandering

Dropping of FIFA Bribery Charges After Trump Given Peace Prize, December 10, 2025

What happens when two of the most corrupt institutions in the world—FIFA and the Trump administration—get together? Corruption, of course. You might remember that two weeks ago when FIFA was in Washington D.C. to make an announcement about next year’s World Cup taking place in the United States, FIFA President Gianni Infantino gave Trump the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize. Less than a week later, Trump’s Justice Department announced it was dropping charges against FIFA officials as part of an international bribery case. Now, we can’t prove that FIFA bribed Trump with the peace prize to get him to drop these charges, but c’mon, is there any action more on point by both these institutions than Trump taking a bribe to drop bribery charges?
FIFA bribery charges dropped after Trump given peace prize under scrutiny

December 1 – December 7, 2025

Inspector General Confirms Hegseth Put Troops at Risk, December 4, 2025
The surprising thing about the Defense Department’s Inspector General report on Pete Hegseth is not that it determined our Defense Secretary acted irresponsibly. It’s that there’s still a functioning, honest inspector general left in the government after the Trump administration’s firing so many of them. The report finds that Hegseth “violated internal Pentagon rules about handling sensitive information that could put service members or their missions in danger.” Turns out discussing military plans on Signal is not a good idea. Who knew? The report states, “If this information had fallen into the hands of U.S. adversaries, Houthi forces might have been able to counter U.S. forces or reposition personnel and assets to avoid planned U.S. strikes.”
Read the full report on Hegseth’s use of Signal from the Pentagon inspector general | PBS News

Corruption

Trump Birthday Added to List of Free National Park Days, December 5, 2025
I honestly didn’t believe it when I first saw the article. I assumed it was a mistake or a misplaced Onion headline. It was too on the nose. Adding Trump’s birthday to the list of days Americans get free entry to national parks while subtracting Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth? C’mon, Saturday Night Live writers, you’re getting lazy. But, no, it was true. A hallmark of authoritarian regimes is the elevation of the dear leader, including his birthday, to a hallowed state. Displaying blatant racism in eliminating the other two holidays from free visit days of national parks is now standard operating procedure of the administration. The move captures the essence of what Trump Deux is about.
National parks cut free entry for MLK Day, add Trump’s birthday

Adding Trump’s Name to Nonprofit, December 3, 2025
On Wednesday, Marco Rubio, whose spine MRIs conducted at Walter Reed have determined to be made of Jello, and whose dignity has been deported to an undisclosed nation overseas, announced that the Institute of Peace has been renamed the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace. This renaming is not against the law but it’s such a hallmark of corrupt, authoritarian regimes throughout history to rename buildings and organizations after dear leaders, that it deserves a place in the corruption wing of the Tracker. It should be noted that Trump’s name is already affixed to the building, in gold (here’s a photo). It should also be noted that a battle for control of the nonprofit is currently winding its way through the courts.
Trump is fighting the Institute of Peace in court. Now, his name is on the building

November 24 – November 30, 2025

Breaking the Law

Hegseth Order to “Kill Them All” in Boat in Caribbean, November 28, 2025
The continued attacks on boats in the Caribbean have already appeared in the Tracker but this week we learned of a specific war crime committed by U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and those who carried out his order. According to the Washington Post, after attacking a boat with 11 people who were allegedly drug traffickers, the commanders saw two survivors clinging to the wreckage. But Hegseth had verbally given an order to “kill them all.” So that’s what the commanders did, ordering a second strike, which killed the two survivors. To be clear, this is a war crime, and Hegseth and the commanders should be prosecuted for it. As Matthew Yglesias points out below, this kind of behavior was prosecuted at Nuremberg. Fortunately, committees with jurisdiction in both the Senate and the House are saying they will exercise oversight on these reports. As well they should. Update: Former military lawyers point out the illegality of Hegseth’s order and its being carried out of the commanders and troops.

Hegseth order on first Caribbean boat strike, officials say: Kill them all – The Washington Post

Detaining Spouses Legally Here Who Have Followed Procedures, November 27, 2025
The New York Times reports on green card interviews that end up with spouses of U.S. citizens in handcuffs and being sent to detention centers. According to the article, “In recent weeks, immigration lawyers in several cities have seen a surge in arrests of foreign spouses of Americans during interviews at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services offices.” So, you might be thinking these spouses broke the law, entered the U.S. illegally or overstayed their visas. Nope.

But the couples and their lawyers said they had followed the required steps: They had submitted extensive paperwork and paid fees. The foreign spouses had been fingerprinted and passed medical exams. None had criminal records. None had entered the country illegally. They had already been granted employment authorization.

Green-card applicants’ temporary visas often lapse while their “adjustment-of-status” proceeds over several months or longer.

An immigration statute passed by Congress in 1986 allows a spouse who entered the country lawfully to be eligible for a green card through marriage even if the person’s visa has expired.

“Congress was unambiguous — these people are eligible for green cards,” said Doug Rand, who was a senior official at Citizenship and Immigration Services during the Biden administration.

While federal law does not prohibit spouses with expired visas from being detained and placed in deportation proceedings, in the past they have rarely been detained while applying for green cards.

The Trump administration is carrying out such detentions without having announced any change in policy.

The Trump administration, which wants to force as many foreign-born people out of the country as possible, is defying law and congressional intent. It is, of course, purposefully cruel to do this at the green card hearings. The New York Times quotes one of the spouse’s victims “’I had to take our baby from my crying wife’s arms,’ Mr. Paul, 33, said, recalling the moment that agents said they were arresting his wife, Katie.” Cruelty is the willing mistress of corruption and law-breaking.
For Spouses of U.S. Citizens, Green Card Interviews End in Handcuffs – The New York Times

Corruption

Trump Buys Intel Debt After Government Becomes Largest Shareholder, November 25, 2025
We were unaware until reading a New York Times article that Trump bought Intel debt after the U.S. government became Intel’s largest shareholder. “A month later, the Commerce Department became the largest shareholder of Intel, the beleaguered U.S. chip giant. A public filing from the Office of Government Ethics shows that, shortly after that agreement was made, President Trump personally purchased between $1 million and $5 million of Intel’s corporate debt.” This creates so many conflicts of interest that we need a new CPU chip from Intel to make sense of them all. Trump’s personal financial interests will drive government policy as Intel tries to get back on its feet. Whether it’s a good idea or a bad idea for the U.S. government to acquire shares of numerous companies, one can debate. But no president should have a personal financial stake in this effort. This is madness.
Trump Administration Is Taking Billions in Stakes in Firms Like Intel – The New York Times

Sending Detainees to Torture, November 24, 2025
We basically knew that when the Trump administration made it a policy to deport Venezuelans to El Salvador we were condemning them to torture. Now this suspicion has been confirmed. Conor Friedersdorf, in an article in The Atlantic, writes:

Earlier this year, the United States deported 252 Venezuelans to El Salvador and paid its government to imprison them, despite clear evidence of human-rights abuses in the country’s prison system and forceful warnings that the men would suffer cruel and unusual treatment. Now two human-rights organizations, Human Rights Watch and the Central America–based Cristosal, have found that all of those men were physically abused.

At least three of these men were sexually violated by guards. The reports by these two organizations were vetted through interviews, including of other prisoners, as well as through forensic evidence. As Friedersdorf writes, “If even a fraction of the allegations are true, the U.S. is complicit in sadistic acts that our own laws forbid.
What the Deported Venezuelans Went Through in El Salvador – The Atlantic

November 17 – November 23, 2025

Breaking the Law

Likely someone in the Trump administration broke the law this week, but if so, we missed it.

Corruption

Threatening Death Penalty to U.S. Senators, November 20, 2025
After six U.S. Democratic Senators with military backgrounds released a video telling U.S soldiers they don’t have to obey unlawful orders, Trump posted on social media, “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” And he shared someone’s post that stated, “HANG THEM GEORGE WASHINGTON WOULD !!” Whatever one thinks of the video of the six Democratic Senators, it was not seditious. Trump’s calling for the death of elected senators for legally posting a video is treasonous to democracy. But unfortunately all too typical.
Trump calls Democrats ‘traitors’ for ‘seditious behavior’ in video to military – The Washington Post

CDC Changes Website Regarding Vaccines and Autism, November 19, 2025
Even though during confirmation hearings, U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy claimed he received assurances that RFK Jr would not change the CDC website that stated there is no link between vaccines and autism should he become Secretary of Health, on November 19, our crazy uncle secretary did just that. The Washington Post reports, “A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website has been changed to contradict the longtime scientific conclusion that vaccines do not cause autism, spurring outrage among a number of public health and autism experts.” The CDC website now reads, “‘Vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim.” Here’s an evidence-based claim—Robert Kennedy Jr. should never have been confirmed to be Secretary of Health.
CDC website changed to contradict scientific conclusion that vaccines don’t cause autism – The Washington Post

Making Money from the Saudis, November 18, 2025
Reporting by The New York Times revealed that President Donald Trump held national-security talks with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman while a major Saudi construction project overseen by the prince was in negotiations with the Trump family business. No president and his family have abused the office like the Trumps to make billions of dollars. U.S. foreign policy is conducted to enrich Trump, not help America.
Trump Family’s Business Ties to Saudi Arabia Raise Ethics Worries – The New York Times

Misconduct in Comey Prosecution, November 17, 2025
In the least surprising news of the week, even if it’s hard not to be amazed by the level of incompetence, a federal magistrate judge in Virginia found “profound” missteps and potential government misconduct in the Trump Justice Department’s case against former FBI Director James Comey, brought by Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan. The headline grabbing problem was that Halligan never showed the full revised indictment to the grand jury. Because of these and other issues, the judge ordered the extraordinary step of releasing Grand Jury materials to Comey’s defense team—explicitly citing concerns about the integrity of the prosecution. A district judge has temporarily paused that order while it’s reviewed. It was obvious from the beginning this was a vindictive indictment ordered by Trump, not one driven by evidence in a legitimate prosecutorial process.
Judge finds ‘profound’ missteps in US probe of ex-FBI chief James Comey | Reuters

November 3 – November 16, 2025

Breaking the Law

U.S. Citizen Detained for taking pictures of ICE, November 7, 2025
OregonLive reports that “An Oregon woman who is a U.S. citizen was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for about seven hours last Monday after taking pictures of agents’ unmarked cars near a Gresham Chick-fil-A.” It is legal to take such photos. The woman, Berenice Garcia-Hernandez, is a U.S. citizen. Yet ICE detained her by physically pulling her from her car, according to Garcia-Hernandez. The Department of Homeland Security claims Garcia-Hernandez drove recklessly and obstructed ICE officers. But note that since being released from custody, Garcia-Hernandez has not been charged with any crime. To do so would subject ICE to facing evidence in a courtroom. Its crimes would be exposed. The U.S. government continues to break the law in these kinds of incidents. Garcia-Hernandez should sue.
ICE detains U.S. citizen for 7 hours after she photographed agents at Chick-fil-A in Gresham, Oregon – oregonlive.com

Corruption

Noem (again) Steers Contracts to Friends, November 15, 2025
You may have seen the advertisements showing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on a horse bad mouthing immigrants. Turns out, as ProPublica reports, “Firm Tied to Kristi Noem Secretly Got Money From $220 Million DHS Ad Contracts.” In fact, DHS has tripled its ad budgets this year which is handy if you are a friend and business associate of Noem. ProPublica further reports, “Her agency invoked the ‘national emergency’ at the border as it awarded contracts for the campaign, bypassing the normal competitive bidding process designed to prevent waste and corruption.” Noem also did this kind of corruption in South Dakota when she was governor. She fits right into the Trump administration ethos—feed yourself, screw everyone else. Read the full article for the tawdry details.
Kristi Noem-Tied Firm Secretly Got Piece of $220 Million DHS Campaign — ProPublica

Ordering Investigation of Democrats with Ties to Epstein, November 14, 2025
As the Epstein walls close in on Trump,* he predictably abuses his power by ordering investigations of prominent Democrats who had ties to Epstein. The Washington Post reports, “President Donald Trump called on the Justice Department on Friday to examine the relationships between deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and several prominent Democrats, including former president Bill Clinton, and Attorney General Pam Bondi quickly tapped federal prosecutors in Manhattan to take on the job.” So, Trump posts on social media that Clinton, former Treasury secretary Lawrence H. Summers and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman should be investigated and the Attorney General immediately does so. At the federal level, we have a developing country’s justice system. Rule of law has been vanquished.
*As we’ve noted before, we don’t follow the Epstein case particularly closely, so we don’t have any idea what Trump’s involvement with Epstein is, but a lot of headline writers seem to think the walls are closing in on something nefarious. We’ll wait and see.
Trump asks Justice to examine Democrats’ ties to Epstein; Bondi complies – The Washington Post

Accepting Expensive Gifts from Swiss as Part of Tariff Negotiations, November 14, 2025
The U.S. reduced tariffs on Switzerland from 39 percent to 15 percent after Switzerland agreed to reduce trade barriers and made promises to invest in the United States. However, Axios reports that when Swiss negotiators came to town they also came bearing gifts, including a special Rolex desktop clock and a 1-kilogram personalized gold bar worth $130,000. The White House says this is legal because the gifts are going to the Trump library. But let’s be clear, this amounts to an illegal bribe to help in trade negotiations. It follows on enormously expensive gifts from Qatar and others. Banana, meet Republic.
How to lobby Trump with Swiss precision: gifts, gold and gab

Confidential Housing Information Leaked, Whistleblower Fired, November 13, 2025
The AP reports, “A confidant of Bill Pulte, the Trump administration’s top housing regulator, provided confidential mortgage pricing data from Fannie Mae to a principal competitor, alarming senior officials of the government-backed lending giant who warned it could expose the company to claims that it was colluding with a rival to fix mortgage rates.” Malloy Evans, senior vice president of Fannie Mae’s single-family mortgage division, wrote an email his bosses, pointing out such information is not to be released. The response to that email? Evans “and the senior Fannie Mae officials who called the conduct into question were all forced out of their jobs late last month, along with internal ethics watchdogs who were investigating Pulte and his allies.” The Trump administration abuses power like we complain about Seattle’s winter weather.
Fannie Mae officials ousted after concerns over confidential data | AP News

Racist Tapped for Government Position, November 13, 2025
Paul Ingrassia, a conservative activist who withdrew his nomination to oversee a government watchdog agency after his racist texts were revealed, has instead been tapped by Trump to become deputy general counsel at the General Services Administration. One of Ingrassia’s texts reads, “I do have a Nazi streak in me from time to time, I will admit it.” Ingrassia in the past also said Trump should declare martial law and called for secession if efforts to overturn the election failed. In this administration, these texts and statements are an asset to getting a job, not a disqualifying factor.
Trump taps Ingrassia for new role after texting scandal – POLITICO

Bald Faced Lying, November 12, 2025
We could place such incidents of bald faced lying in the Tracker from every hour of every day of the week but the one this week about tariffs was particularly hairless. The White House official X account tweeted, “Tariff revenues SMASH records—slashing the U.S. deficit by over 25%! Shrinking government spending, downsizing bloated bureaucracy, and unleashing a wave of American jobs.” The U.S. deficit is not 25 percent smaller, and no jobs have been unleashed in a wave or otherwise. Unfortunately, millions of Americans will believe this nonsense, further damaging public discourse and the ability to make sensible policies.
The White House on X: “Tariff revenues SMASH records—slashing the U.S. deficit by over 25%! Shrinking government spending, downsizing bloated bureaucracy, and unleashing a wave of American jobs. 🔥 https://t.co/CNzp5soKJ5” / X

Trump Pardons More Folks involved in January 6 Insurrection, November 7, 2025
Trump continues to tarnish democracy by absolving all involved in the January 6^th insurrection. On November 7, he pardoned 70 people involved in trying to overturn democracy, including Rudy Giuliani. Trump in his proclamation wrote:

I, Donald J. Trump do hereby grant a full, complete and unconditional pardon to all United States citizens for conduct relating to the advice, creation, organization, execution, submission support, voting, activities, participation in, or advocacy for or of any slate or proposed slate of Presidential electors, whether or not recognized by any State or State official, in connection with the 2020 Presidential Election, as well as for any conduct relating to their efforts to expose voting fraud and vulnerabilities in the 2020 Presidential Election.

Giuliani was one of the leaders in falsely asserting the 2020 election was stolen. The AP notes that, “Giuliani has been disbarred in Washington, D.C., and New York over his advocacy of Trump’s bogus election claims and lost a $148 million defamation case brought by two former Georgia election workers whose lives were upended by conspiracy theories he pushed.” Fortunately, this pardon will have no effect on any state-level cases against these Americans who are against democracy.
Trump pardons Rudy Giuliani and others, official says | AP News

Trump Wine Sold at PXs, Reported on November 7, 2025
Forbes reports that “The Trump Organization’s second-term push to monetize Donald Trump’s presidency has reached the aisles of military exchanges, as Coast Guard-run stores, which provide service members and their families with access to tax-free consumer goods, have stocked Trump-branded wine and cider.” The kleptocracy continues.
Trump Wines Sold At Coast Guard Stores On Federal Property

October 27 – November 2, 2025

Breaking the Law

More Killing of People in Caribbean, October 29, 2025
The U.S. military continues to kill people in boats in the Caribbean, claiming that they are involved in drug running but offering zero proof. Not to mention they are killing them rather than arresting them, so essentially imposing the death penalty without trial. America is not safer from these illegal operations conducted by the Trump administration; it is less safe by contributing to a lawless international order.
https://x.com/secwar/status/1983676996220588093?s=61&t=t6N8qw9dfJ3m7pXwd4QmCg

Corruption

FBI Director Patel Fires FBI Official Over Patel’s Use of FBI Plane, November 1, 2025
Kash Patel, who has about as many qualifications to be the head of the FBI as I do to be a second baseman for the Seattle Mariners, fired Steven Palmer, a 27-year FBI agent and senior official, because Patel blamed him for revealing Patel had used the FBI jet to fly to see his girlfriend sing at a wrestling match. Bloomberg Law reports that “Patel was angered this week by social media posts and news stories calling attention to his use of an FBI jet that arrived in State College, Pennsylvania, where his girlfriend, country music artist Alexis Wilkins, sang the national anthem at a wrestling match.” No evidence has been offered that Palmer revealed Patel’s use of the FBI jet, and the flight was easily trackable via public sources. Bloomberg Law notes, “The people familiar with the matter said they were baffled as to why Patel might’ve blamed Palmer for the travel details.” Patel wants to use government property for personal use and does not want to be criticized for it. It’s all part of the great Trump administration kleptocracy.
FBI Ousts Leader as Patel Fumes Over Attention to Agency Jet Use

Two Federal Prosecutors Suspended for Calling January 6 Attacks a Riot, October 29, 2025
In the words of George Orwell, “The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became the truth.” It’s not good that the Trump administration views 1984 as an instruction manual. This week, the Washington Post reported, “The Justice Department has placed two federal prosecutors in Washington on leave a day after they filed a document in court that referred to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol as a ‘riot’ carried out by a ‘mob.’” Like the Soviet Union scrubbing out-of-favor leaders from photos, the Trump administration is trying to disappear the past. The Washington Post reports, “By Wednesday afternoon the filing had been removed from public court dockets and replaced by a new sentencing memo. All references to Jan. 6, Trump’s social media post, Valdivia or White, had been removed. The replacement filing was signed by two new prosecutors.” Good morning, Mr. Brezhnev.
Two U.S. prosecutors suspended after describing Jan. 6 attack as carried out by ‘mob’ | The Seattle Times

October 20 – 26, 2025

Breaking the Law

Raising Tariffs Because of Canadian Ad, October 25, 2025
While watching our beloved Seattle Mariners lose to the Toronto Blue Jays last week, we admit there was a moment during Games 6 and 7 when our brain stopped fixating on the possibility of the Mariners making their first World Series ever. It was when the anti-protectionism ad featuring Ronald Reagan came on. The ad was paid for by the government of Ontario. Despite what Trump and the Reagan Foundation (whose current CEO is a Trump sycophant) claim, the ad accurately represented Reagan’s views of protectionism and tariffs. Trump promptly canceled trade talks with Canada because of the ad. Then, yesterday he said he is raising tariffs on Canada by 10 percent because of the ad. Trump is again instituting tariffs using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). An advertisement, a truthful one at that, does not constitute an emergency. We’ve noted for months that Trump has illegally used IEEPA. The U.S. Supreme Court will soon rule on whether Trump’s tariffs using IEEPA are legal. Any lawyer or non-lawyer who is capable of reading words on a page knows they are illegal. But I hear from people who follow the Supreme Court that the justices may rule otherwise. If they do, make no mistake what that means. The U.S. Supreme Court will upend the Constitution, essentially negating separation of powers and neutering one-third of the three branches of government, Congress. Certainly, Congress has spent the last 10 months negating itself. But that’s a political problem. If the Supreme Court negates Congress, then America is no longer living in the same kind of democracy under which it’s operated for the last 250 years and the Constitution will no longer be operative. We will enter a long fight to restore constitutional democracy to America. Yes, those are the stakes of the upcoming Supreme Court decision. Are you frightened?
Trump raises tariffs on Canada by 10 percent over Ontario’s Reagan ad – The Washington Post

Corruption

Trump Jr. Drone Company Awarded Contract, October 24, 2025
The Trump family is the Los Angeles Dodgers of family presidential graft. An unstoppable, well-financed machine. As a tech website explains, “On November 27, 2024, Unusual Machines announced that Donald Trump Jr. had joined its advisory board—bringing his name and 331,580 shares valued at roughly $4 million in the company. Less than a year later, the once-obscure Florida-based drone company has landed a multimillion-dollar Pentagon contract—its largest deal yet with the U.S. military—and its stock is soaring.” In normal times this would be a huge story with congressional hearings but now it’s just another day in the new American kleptocracy.
Trump Jr.–backed little-known drone company wins multimillion-dollar Pentagon contract – Tech Startups

Trump Pardons Binance Founder Changpeng Zhao, October 23, 2025
You gotta pay to play. And that’s what Changpeng Zhao, founder of Binance, did. Binance listed the Trump-family backed World Liberty Financial stablecoin, the first major exchange to do so. World Liberty rallied 20 percent after the pardon. Trump pardoned Zhao because Zhao supports and helps Trump and makes him richer. All in a day’s work in the Trump world.
Trump pardons crypto billionaire Changpeng Zhao – POLITICO

Political Favoritism for Media Mergers, October 23, 2025
Skydance wants to buy Warner Bros. Skydance’s CEO is David Ellison, the son of Larry Ellison who is a pal of and contributor to Donald Trump. Other companies, such as Apple and Netflix, have an interest in Warner Brothers, whose media properties include CNN and HBO (or HBO Max or Max or whatever the hell it’s called now). But multiple news outlets report that Skydance has the inside track. Why? Well,

David Ellison also enjoys a unique advantage over rival bidders — his father’s close ties with U.S. President Donald Trump. Larry Ellison has long been a Republican mega-donor and one of the few high-profile tech executives who were openly supportive of Trump before last November’s election. Analysts say that could help ease regulatory concerns arising from Paramount’s potential buyout of Warner Bros Discovery – a deal that would hand control of a big swathe of U.S. cable networks as well as two crucial studios to Ellison.

As we write in this week’s introduction to the Tracker, it’s clear Trump and the MAGA movement are trying to take control of the media, through crook and hook.
Paramount Skydance is in the lead for Warner Bros Discovery deal – Fast Company

Trump Seeks $230 Million from Justice Department, October 21, 2025
Trump is seeking $230 million from the Justice Department for its investigation into his alleged Russia ties and classified information he kept at his home in Mar-a-Lago. This was revealed in an article in The New York Times earlier this week. When asked about the report, Trump said, “It’s interesting, because I’m the one that makes a decision, right?” And you know that decision would have to go across my desk, and it’s awfully strange to make a decision where I’m paying myself. In other words, did you ever have one of those cases where you have to decide how much you’re paying yourself in damages?” So Trump recognizes this is smelly as the socks on his swollen feet. Of course, given the colossal amount of evidence we have about Trump’s lack of morals, it would be surprising if he didn’t pay himself $230 million out of taxpayer money.
Here’s what Trump has said about seeking $230M settlement from DOJ

October 13 – 19, 2025

Breaking the Law

Murdering People at Sea, October 18
The Trump administration killed more people at sea, claiming, without providing any evidence, that they were drug runners. There were a couple of survivors of the latest U.S. attack. But, according to the New York Times, “The Trump administration has decided to repatriate two survivors of a deadly U.S. strike on suspected drug runners in the Caribbean Sea rather than prosecute or hold them in military detention.” Seems likely Trump folks didn’t want their flimsy evidence to be scrutinized in court. Meanwhile, the top admiral in charge of the Southern Command, which has authority over these strikes, has resigned. We look forward to hearing his reasons why.
The New York Times on X: “Breaking News: The Trump administration has decided to repatriate two survivors of a deadly U.S. strike on suspected drug runners in the Caribbean Sea rather than prosecute or hold them in military detention, people with knowledge of the matter said. https://t.co/YTpRT3lkxY” / X

Detaining citizens, including children, October 16, 2025
The Trump administration continues to detain citizens in its push to round up immigrants. According to ProPublica, “We compiled and reviewed every case we could find of agents holding citizens against their will, whether during immigration raids or protests. While the tally is almost certainly incomplete, we found more than 170 such incidents during the first nine months of President Donald Trump’s second administration. Among the citizens detained are nearly 20 children, including two with cancer” (emphasis ours). We’ll repeat what we’ve been noting all year, when there is no due process, American citizens are as at risk as non-citizens.
Immigration Agents Have Held More Than 170 Americans Against Their Will, ProPublica Finds — ProPublica

Paying for Certain Programs During Shutdown, October 15, 2025
The method the Trump administration has found to pay the troops during the government shutdown is a blatant breaking of the law according to Bobby Kogan of the Senate Budget Committee, “Trump’s mechanism to pay the troops during the shutdown is by far the most illegal budgetary action he’s taken as POTUS, potentially setting the stage to break everything…Under the Constitution and under the ADA, it is illegal to spend money without funding for that purpose. The president may not spend money to do something unless there’s actually money to carry it out and that action is expressly allowed.”
Bobby Kogan on X: “The mechanism through which Trump is paying the troops is the most blatant large Antideficiency Act (ADA) violation in US history. It’s also clearly willful. No one has been charged under the ADA before, but violations carry a 2 year jail term. Statute of limitations is 5 years.” / X

Corruption

Commutation of George Santos’ Sentence, October 18, 2025
Waiting for the Mariners Game 5 to start, we saw the news that Trump was commuting the sentence of George Santos. A President has the power to do so but as former Congressman Adam Kinzinger wrote, ”Trump commuting Santos is not just a curiosity. It’s a feature of corruption… it’s a message… if you like me you can get away with anything.” Trump’s own explanation for why he commuted Santos’ sentence gives away the corruption game, “…at least Santos had the Courage, Conviction, and intelligence to ALWAYS VOTE REPUBLICAN.” Lady Justice’s blindfold has been torn off, her scales weighted in one direction.
The Tennessee Holler on X: “Explaining why he pardoned Santos, Trump openly admits crime is ok if you’re a loyal Republican https://t.co/7NIYKM8JlT” / X

Transforming IRS so as to Prosecute Opponents, October 15, 2025
According to the Wall Street Journal, “The Trump administration is preparing sweeping changes at the Internal Revenue Service that would allow the agency to pursue criminal inquiries of left-leaning groups more easily…A senior IRS official involved in the effort has drawn up a list of potential targets that includes major Democratic donors…” This is all part of the grand game to use the full power of the federal government to attack political opposition.
Matthew Yglesias on X: “Unitary executive theory + Trump’s utter domination of the congressional Republican Party have created a very real breakdown of the rule of law.” / X

October 6 – 12, 2025

Breaking the Law

Repeatedly Violating the Hatch Act in Placing Blame for Government Shut Down, Ongoing
We detailed instances in the Tracker last week and they continue this week. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem created a video being shown in airports where she says TSA’s top priority is to have efficient and safe airports but then claims, “However, Democrats in Congress refuse to fund the federal government and because of this many of our operations are impacted and most of our TSA employees are working without pay.” This, we remind you, is a blatant violation of the Hatch Act which prohibits federal employees from engaging in partisan political activity while on duty, in a federal workplace, wearing a government uniform, or using a government vehicle. Another example from this week is the Forest Service posting on its website “The Radical Left Democrats shutdown the government.” I need to ask ChatGPT how to make a citizen’s arrest should I ever see Kristi Noem and the Trump officials breaking this law.
Thomas Chatterton Williams on X: “What an absolute joke and disgrace” / X
David Axelrod on X: “Here’s the message that greets visitors to the homepage of the Tonto National Forest in Arizona. The government might be shut down but the White House propaganda team never sleeps! https://t.co/dj21q0Y5UL” / X

ICE Detaining Citizens and Holding them in Inhumane Conditions, Ongoing
Numerous cases are coming to light of ICE detaining not just immigrants but also citizens and in many cases for long periods and in dubious conditions. The Bulwark interviewed one such detainee who asserted, “They put me on suicide watch and they put me in the cell, I’m naked, in like a hospital dress and just a concrete bed with like a mattress, like a thin mattress and, they leave the light on 24/7, there’s a glass door, and officers just always standing, like sitting out there, the psychiatric nurse comes and checks on me once a day, and so from Friday morning to Sunday afternoon when I’m released, I’m literally on In that cell, naked just in that room, with the light on this real, like this is a nightmare.” Ladies and gentlemen, your America in 2025.
The Bulwark on X: “”They put me on suicide watch and they put me in the cell, I’m naked, in like a hospital dress and just a concrete bed with like a mattress, like a thin mattress and, they leave the light on 24/7, there’s a glass door, and officers just always standing, like sitting out there, https://t.co/Zxi39Fog5s” / X

Corruption

Indicting Letitia James, October 9, 2025
We did not agree with the civil fraud case Letitia James successfully brought against Donald Trump, and said so at the time, annoying a number of our friends.* But an imprudent civil case does not justify, and does not equate to a President of the United States prosecuting his opponents. Make no mistake, this is what Trump is doing in having his hand-picked legal henchman, Lindsey Halligan, indict James. None of the career lawyers would do this because there is no case against James. Again, James was wrong to bring the civil fraud case against Trump. We said so at the time. But what is happening here is the most powerful man in the country is wielding the law as a political tool to bludgeon the opposition. First it was James Comey and now Letitia James. This is just the beginning of an authoritarian torrent unleashed by Trump. The Washington Post reports, “Federal prosecutors across the country are pursuing several other investigations, many of which Trump has personally called for. Those include investigations into a sitting U.S. senator, former top leaders of the FBI and CIA and the Georgia prosecutor who charged Trump in a massive 2020 election conspiracy case.” We are in the midst of a full-blown authoritarian emergency.
*The classified information case and the Georgia case were completely legitimate and if they had gone to trial we expected Trump to be found guilty, and justifiably so.
Who’s next in Trump’s campaign to bring charges against his foes – The Washington Post

Not Paying Some Federal Workers, October 7, 2025
The Trump administration has been cooking up a plan to not provide back pay to furloughed federal workers. Seems like a bad policy to us but Trump being Trump had to make it corrupt by responding to a reporter’s question on whether they would pay back pay by saying, “It depends on who we’re talking about. We’re going to take care of our people. There are some people that really don’t deserve to be taken care of, and we’ll take care of them in a different way.” There’s not a single bone of integrity in his entire body.
https://x.com/acyn/status/1975595404122259683?s=43&t=1NlmboOw1EZGtE-4xAejoQ

Calling for Jailing Mayor of Chicago and Governor of Illinois, October 8, 2025
During a televised meeting at the White House where Trump again discussed labeling antifa as a foreign terrorist organization— a statement which perhaps itself deserves a spot on this tracker, Trump also, “repeated a call he had made earlier in the day for Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, both Democrats, to be jailed, accusing them without evidence of ‘failing to protect’ ICE officers who have been sent to the city.” It’s become routine for Trump to call for jailing and prosecuting his political opponents. And as you see in the item above, actually prosecuting them. The anti-democratic tide rolls on.
Trump builds case for deploying National Guard to Chicago, Portland – The Washington Post

September 29 – October 5, 2025

Breaking the Law

Using Government Websites, Emails, Social Media and More as Partisan Property, All Week
Repeatedly just before and after the federal government shut down, the Trump administration used government property as partisan outposts. The Department of Housing and Urban Development in bright red letters posted on the front page of its website, “The Radical Left in Congress shut down the government. HUD will use available resources to help Americans in need.” Emails were sent out to Americans blaming the Democrats for the shutdown. I could list numerous other examples. All of this is against the law—the Hatch Act, specifically–which prohibits federal employees from engaging in partisan political activity while on duty, in a federal workplace, wearing a government uniform, or using a government vehicle. Perhaps we should repurpose ICE to arrest the multitude of Trump administration employees breaking the law.
Watchdog group files Hatch Act complaint over federal agencies blaming Democrats for shutdown

Threatening Arrest for Burning American Flag, October 3, 2025
Trump is instinctively anti-Constitution. We tracked his Executive Order in August about flag burning. This week, he posted on social media, “…per my August 25, 2025 Executive Order, please be advised that, from this point forward, anybody burning the American Flag will be subject to one year in prison. You will be immediately arrested.” Er, um, the President can’t create new law via social media posts. And, not to bury the lede, but he is violating the First Amendment. Trump, Stephen Miller and the rest of his administration have been trying to burn the First Amendment—in law, not the actual parchment—far more often than anyone trying to burn the flag. I call for a citizen’s arrest from this point forward of Trump and any of his staff and officials violating the Constitution.
Billy Binion on X: “Extremely depressing that any media outlet would celebrate this legally-illiterate assault on free speech. Burning your American flag is protected expression, because we don’t just protect speech you like. Journalists of all people should know the First Amendment.” / X

Detaining Citizens and Non-Citizens Alike, October 1, 2025
In Chicago, using Blackhawk helicopters, ICE raided an entire apartment building and took everyone away, whether they were citizens or not. As Matthew Gertz wrote, “Dozens of masked and armed federal agents backed by a Blackhawk helicopter descend on a Chicago apartment building, handcuff everyone including kids, then check them all for outstanding warrants and immigration status.” Someone else said (sorry I can’t find it for attribution) if there’s no due process, there’s no way to prove you’re a citizen or not. The administration is breaking the law. Pertissue Fisher, a woman who lives in the building, said “she was handcuffed before being released around 3 a.m., and she was told that if anyone had any kind of warrant out for them, even if it was unrelated to immigration, they would not be released.” This is Gestapo stuff.
ICE in Chicago news: Agents raid South Shore apartment building; Donald Trump says city could become military training ground – ABC7 Chicago
Matthew Gertz on X: “Dozens of masked and armed federal agents backed by a Blackhawk helicopter descend on a Chicago apartment building, handcuff everyone including kids, then check them all for outstanding warrants and immigration status. https://t.co/sHG3fYnrMc” / X

Corruption

Trump Asks Nine Universities to Support His Policies To Get Access to Federal Funds, October 2, 2025
The New York Times, PBS and others reported that “The White House is asking nine major universities to commit to President Donald Trump’s political priorities in exchange for more favorable access to federal money…. Signing on would give universities ‘multiple positive benefits,’ including ‘substantial and meaningful federal grants’ and “increased overhead payments where feasible,” according to a letter sent to universities alongside the compact.” Regardless of whether the policies that the White House is asking the colleges to adhere to are a good idea, it is corrupting to leverage federal funding this way.
Trump asks 9 colleges to commit to his political agenda for better access to federal money | PBS News

Threatening to Withhold Money to NYC If Vote for Wrong Mayoral Candidate, September 29, 2025
Trump is not a fan of Zohran Mamdani, the candidate expected to win election as Mayor of New York City this November. We get it. If we were a New York City citizen we wouldn’t be a big fan of Mamdani either and disagree with many of his stated policies (though he might be the best of a bad set of candidates). But, of course, Trump can’t just say he disagrees with Mamdani. Trump is drunk with power and thinks he can control any and everything so on Truth Social he writes “Remember, he needs the money from me, as President, in order to fulfill all of his FAKE Communist promises. He won’t be getting any of it, so what’s the point of voting for him? “ The President doesn’t have the power to withhold federal funds from a city because he disagrees with the Mayor’s politics. The money for these programs is authorized and appropriated by Congress. Of course, Trump has been breaking the Constitution left and right so undoubtedly he will try to do so with NYC after Mamdani is elected. This will still be against the law.
AukeHoekstra on X: “Trump saying that New York will not get money if they vote for the mayor he doesn’t like. In any year before his re-election, a president saying this would be in trouble with the law, but the US is now led by a lawless wannabe dictator. Democracy is not a given. Wake up! https://t.co/VwVHPMuC5C” / X

September 22 – 28, 2025

Breaking the Law

Trump Again Threatens ABC and Jimmy Kimmel, September 23, 2025
It is good news that ABC/Disney allowed Jimmy Kimmel to return. But for those arguing that taking Kimmel off the air was an independent decision made by the company, despite what the FCC Chair and Trump previously said, please read the Trump social media post after Kimmel’s return. He admits to trying to force Kimmel off the air previously and returns to trying to again take him off the air. “I think we’re going to test ABC out on this. Let’s see how we do.” Just because Kimmel is back to hosting his program does not mean the fight for the First Amendment is over. It’s just beginning.
Justin Amash on X: “Trump just torpedoed every White House surrogate who claimed the administration wasn’t attempting to coerce Disney/ABC. https://t.co/bMdAXIjmLZ” / X

Corruption

Trying to Control Private Sector Part 6,756: Trump Calls for firing of Microsoft’s President of Global Affairs, September 26, 2025
On Friday, Trump in a social media post called on Microsoft to fire Lisa Monaco, who served in both the Obama and Biden administration’s and recently became president of global affairs for Microsoft. In a typical crazed social media rant, Trump wrote, “She is a menace to U.S. national security, especially given the major contracts that Microsoft has with the United States Government.” Trump mentions the contracts like a mafia boss, letting you know he can and will pull those contracts if you don’t fall in line. Later in the post he writes, “It is my opinion that Microsoft should immediately terminate the employment of Lisa Monaco.” Trump repeatedly interferes in the affairs of private companies, usually in an outright corrupt fashion. One would think the private sector would join together to push back.
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/trump-calls-for-firing-of-microsoft-president-of-global-affairs/

The Indictment of James Comey, September 25, 2025
It is astonishing that the indictment of former FBI Director James Comey is being treated as just another news story. It is not and it should not be. Let’s remind ourselves what just happened. The President of the United States ordered the arrest of a political opponent. That is plain and simply what happened. Trump fired a career prosecutor who would not indict Comey because that prosecutor determined it did not warrant a prosecution. Then Trump hired his crony Lindsey Halligan who has no prosecutorial experience for the sole purpose of indicting Comey and likely soon other political opponents. This is early Vladimir Putin behavior. Thankfully we have not yet reached the officials falling out of windows of tall buildings phase. The Comey indictment is not a complicated story. The President of the United States is committing authoritarian actions in a complete abuse of power. https://abcnews.go.com/US/former-fbi-director-james-comey-indicted-days-after/story?id=125935658

Assault on Data: Ending of Hunger Data Edition, September 22, 2025

The Trump administration continues to eliminate data collection and reporting. This time it is a U.S. Department of Agriculture annual food insecurity survey. NPR reports that “The Household Food Security Report provides yearly data on the lack of access to adequate nutrition for low-income Americans, and helps shape policy on how to combat food insecurity and hunger.” Without the survey the American public won’t be able to see trends in food security and won’t be able to assess the impact of policies, such as the Trump administration’s changes to food aid programs and on food security. Being anti data is not just dumb, it’s a hallmark of authoritarian regimes.
USDA cancels survey tracking how many Americans struggle to get enough food : NPR

September 15 – 21, 2025

Breaking the Law

Squashing Investigation of Border Czar for Allegedly Accepting $50,000 Cash Bribe, September 20, 2025
MSNBC reports, “In an undercover operation last year, the FBI recorded Tom Homan, now the White House border czar, accepting $50,000 in cash after indicating he could help the agents — who were posing as business executives — win government contracts in a second Trump administration, according to multiple people familiar with the probe and internal documents reviewed by MSNBC.” But once Trump became president, the investigation was squashed. “It’s unclear what reasons FBI and Justice Department officials gave for shutting down the investigation. But a Trump Justice Department appointee called the case a ‘deep state’ probe in early 2025 and no further investigative steps were taken, the sources say.” At some point, Trump really is going to shoot someone on Fifth Avenue to see if he can get away with it.
Tom Homan investigated for accepting $50,000 from FBI agents. Trump’s DOJ shut it down.

Trump Tells Attorney General Bondi to Prosecute James and Comey, September 20, 2025
In a Truth Social Post that apparently was supposed to be a direct message, Trump tells Attorney General Pam Bondi to indict James Comey and Letitia James. Trump’s instructions are a blatant abuse of power. See the listing below for more on Trump’s obsession in prosecuting these two. As Aaron Rupar writes, “There is no world in which it is normal for the president to publicly call upon his attorney general to hurry up and prosecute his political foes. It’s like the Watergate tapes but posted on social media. Let’s get a grip on what’s happening here.” This weekend, Trump has committed half a dozen impeachable offenses, penned policies that are incoherent and deeply damaging, and made statements so outlandish that a normal family would consider institutionalizing him. We’re in a full-blown crisis.
Conor Friedersdorf on X: “Trump keeps stepping over bright lines and Republicans keep allowing it.” / X

Trump Forcing Prosecutions of James and Comey, September 19, 2025
U.S. Attorney Erik Siebert was forced to resign (Trump claims he fired him) because he refused to seek indictments of New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI head James Comey. The Washington Post reports, “U.S. Attorney Erik S. Siebert had declined to seek an indictment of James on mortgage fraud charges because of a lack of evidence, according to people familiar with the matter.” But Trump doesn’t care about the rule of law, he wants to gain revenge on his enemies. Letitia James successfully gained a $500 million judgement against Trump (we disagreed with this prosecution) and so she must be prosecuted. This is a blatant abuse of power, one of many in the last two weeks alone. Trump was busy while we were in Vietnam.
Top Virginia prosecutor resigns amid criticism over Letitia James probe – The Washington Post

Creating New Laws Through Executive Order: H1B Edition, September 19, 2025
Via executive order, Trump imposed an annual $100,000 fee on H1B visas, that is visas used for high skill workers. He also created a “Gold Card” that allows wealthy foreigners to pay $1 million for U.S. residency. It does not matter whether the H1B visa program needs reform or whether it’s a good idea to provide a new path for wealthy individuals to become citizens, the president does not have the power to create these laws. That’s the job of Congress. It’s true that we think destroying the H1B program is counterproductive for the U.S. economy, for innovation and for countering China. But again that’s not the point. The point is Trump is using powers he does not have. Of course, because the administration is almost as incompetent as it is corrupt, on Saturday a series of statements were made trying to clarify whether the $100,000 fee was annual and who exactly it is being placed on. Regardless, the President doesn’t have the power to do any of this.
Trump adds $100K fee on H-1B visas, cracking down on legal immigration – The Washington Post

Trump Says China Approves TikTok Deal, September 19, 2025
Trump says there is a deal but China has not confirmed it. The alleged deal would let TikTok, owned by the Chinese company, ByteDance, continue to use its algorithm, though Trump claims otherwise. However, TikTok would be owned at least in part (presumably for a lot of money) by U.S. entities, including Oracle, Silver Lake and Andreessen Horowitz. So. China could continue to manipulate what American viewers see. In addition, some American investors, all friendly to Trump, would make money from it–and presumably could also influence what viewers see. Regardless of your concerns or non-concerns about this agreement, all of this is illegal. Congress overwhelmingly passed, the president signed and the Supreme Court unanimously ruled the legislation constitutional. There are no provisions in that legislation for this “deal.” Whether you like or hate TikTok, whether you like or hate this deal, it is all blatantly illegal.
https://thehill.com/policy/technology/5513230-trump-xi-tiktok-deal/

FCC and Trump Censor a Comedian, September 17, 2025
We don’t need to recap it. You’ve undoubtedly read about it and we talked about it in our introduction. But because I see conservative commentators lying about the fact that the FCC and Trump commanded ABC to suspend the Jimmy Kimmel show, let’s directly quote the FCC chair Brendan Carr, “But frankly, when you see stuff like this, I mean, look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel or, you know, there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.” This is a direct violation of the First Amendment (we have added it to our table of constitutional level law-breaking). The Trump administration has repeatedly attacked free speech, which as Noah Smith writes, is the foundation of our country. It’s not the 2nd, fourth or eighth amendment. It’s the First Amendment for a reason. The Trump administration is attempting to control the airwaves and will undoubtedly come for streamers and other media soon. This might be a step too far. Even some Republicans like Ted Cruz are pushing back. So should we all.
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/sep/18/brendan-carr-fcc-jimmy-kimmel

Corruption

Pentagon Orders Journalists to Pledge Not to Do Their Jobs, September 19, 2025
In normal times, this story would be the biggest and most horrifying of the week. But not this week, not during the Trump administration. Nonetheless it is a chilling development. The Washington Post reported, “The Trump administration unveiled a new crackdown Friday on journalists at the Pentagon, saying it will require them to pledge they won’t gather any information — even unclassified — that hasn’t been expressly authorized for release, and will revoke the press credentials of those who do not obey.” Media organizations need to join together to push back on this. In fact, so too should the rest of us. The Defense Department is trying to stop journalists from doing their jobs. This is another attack on the First Amendment, at this point an increasingly tattered document.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/09/19/pentagon-hegseth-press-unauthorized-material/

September 8 – 14, 2025

Corruption

Attorney General Doesn’t Understand First Amendment, September 15, 2025
Attorney General Pam Bondi tries to carve out a large new exception to the First Amendment. In her own words, “There’s free speech and then there’s hate speech, and there is no place, especially now, especially after what happened to Charlie, in our society…We will absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech.” As the essential organization FIRE points out, “There is no hate speech exception to the First Amendment.”
FIRE on X: “There is no hate speech exception to the First Amendment. Nevertheless, the attorney general says “there’s free speech, and then there’s hate speech,” and the government will “target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech.” The attorney general would be” / X

ICE Raid of Hyundai, September 6, 2025
We had not included this raid in the Trump Tracker previously because regardless of how counterproductive the raid is to attracting foreign direct investment and building the strategically important battery industry, it was not clear the raid was illegal. But information has since come to light that the Korean workers were operating legally in the United States. So now we know the raid was not only dumb policy wise, it also arrested folks who were legally in the country.
PolitiFact | What to know about B-1 visas that some detainees from the Hyundai plant used to enter the US and Exclusive: Thousands of agents diverted to Trump immigration crackdown | Reuters

Corruption

Trump Sues New York Times for Libel, September 15, 2025
Trump continued his onslaught against media and the First Amendment by filing a $15 billion lawsuit against the New York Times for libel. Reuters reported, “Monday’s suit cites a series of New York Times articles, one an editorial prior to the 2024 presidential election, which said he was unfit for office, and a 2024 book published by Penguin titled ‘Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father’s Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success’.” Less than a week later a federal judge tossed out the suit. The Associated Press reports, “U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday ruled that Trump’s 85-page lawsuit was overly long and full of ‘tedious and burdensome’ language that had no bearing on the legal case. The judge gave Trump 28 days to file an amended complaint that should not exceed 40 pages.” Tedious and burdensome is a good description of Trump’s second term.
Trump sues New York Times for defamation and libel, seeks $15 billion and Florida federal judge tosses Trump’s $15B defamation lawsuit against The New York Times | The Seattle Times

Vance Threatens Organizations He Dislikes, September 15, 2025
Vice President Vance threatened both the Open Society Foundations and the Ford Foundation with pulling their non-profit status and with other vague threats. He claims these two organizations fund The Nation, which published an article critical of Charlie Kirk. Open Society has never funded the magazine and the Ford Foundation provided $100,000 for an internship program in 2019. But it doesn’t matter whether they funded The Nation or not. The U.S. government is prohibited from attacking free speech—this administration however is harshly and repeatedly doing so.
Vance vows retribution on liberal institutions after Kirk killing – The Washington Post

Stephen Miller Threatens, well, just about everyone who doesn’t agree with him, September 15, 2025
We’ll let him convict himself with his own words, “We are going to channel all the anger we have over the organized campaign that led to this assassination to uproot and dismantle these terrorist networks … The organized doxxing campaigns. The organized riots. The organized street violence. The organized of dehumanization. Vilification. Posting people’s addresses. Combining that with messaging designed to trigger and incite violence and the actual organized cells that carry out and facilitate the violence. It is a vast domestic terror movement. With God and as my witness, we are going to use every resource we have at the Department of Justice, Homeland Security and throughout this government to identify, disrupt, dismantle and destroy these networks, and make America safe again for the American people. It will happen, and we will do it in Charlie’s name.” It’s a fierce battle but Miller works everyday to continue his reign as the worst person in the Trump administration.
Aaron Rupar on X: “Stephen Miller: “We are going to channel all the anger we have over the organized campaign to led to this assassination to uproot and dismantle these terrorist networks … The organized doxxing campaigns. The organized riots. The organized street violence. The organized of https://t.co/XGtVUlWeac” / X

September 1 – 7, 2025

Breaking the Law

Attacking and Killing 11 People Aboard a Vessel in the Caribbean, September 2, 2025
There are disputes about whether this is legal or not and perhaps we’d be safer putting it in the corruption category or waiting until more information comes out. However, if the President can order the killing of civilians—even alleged drug runners—that sure seems like a new area of power has been unleashed. In addition, Trump says this is only the beginning, a larger campaign of such strikes is coming. So we plant a flag in our tracker today. Other presidents—Democrats and Republicans—have ordered killings of people overseas. They were usually under the category of “terrorists.” We were wary of those presidents wielding such power too. But the attack this week was of a whole different category and thus more worrying. As a Reuters article notes, “The administration did not provide any evidence that the United States was under imminent threat of attack, that the vessel was armed and did not identify targets on the boat who were critical to a terror attack, as past presidents have done in similar attacks.” As Ilya Somin puts it:

In addition, it is not even clear these people were drug traffickers at all (they might have been migrants fleeing Venezuela’s horrible socialist dictatorship). If they were shipping drugs, it is not clear they were going to the US, as opposed to Trinidad and Tobago (which was much closer to their location) or somewhere else. It is not illegal for people on a ship in international waters to transport drugs that are banned in the United States. US law only applies, if at all, if they were planning to bring their cargo into US territorial waters.

The United States shouldn’t be killing civilians who are not combatants who don’t pose a threat to the country.
Was the deadly US attack on the Venezuelan vessel legal? | Reuters

National Guard Deployments to Cities, Ongoing
We have not been including National Guard deployments in the tracker because we were unsure if they were illegal. It is certainly dumb to send in the National Guard and militarize the policing of crime, especially since crime is down considerably in all these cities where Trump is sending in the troops. But our limited understanding is he had the power to do so, even if it was unwise and unwarranted. But this week:

U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer in San Francisco said federal officials violated the Posse Comitatus Act and “expressly instructed” troops that they “could engage in certain law enforcement activities: setting up protective perimeters, traffic blockades, crowd control, and the like.”

“That instruction was incorrect,” he wrote.

While taking sharp aim at the Trump administration for its actions in Los Angeles, Breyer also noted the “narrowly tailored” limits of his order. He said it did not require the administration to pull back the 300 National Guard troops who remain in the city. Nor, he said, did it apply to National Guard troops in other states.

Under Breyer’s order, troops would only be allowed to do things including “protect federal property in a manner consistent with the Posse Comitatus Act.” They would be blocked, however, from being deployed, trained or used “to execute the laws,” with prohibited actions including carrying out arrests, apprehensions, searches, seizures, security patrols and traffic control.

The Trump administration will undoubtedly appeal this ruling. Who knows what the current Supreme Court will do. But it’s become clear the Trump administration is deploying troops in blue areas using troops from red states as a form of intimidation. Trump this week threatened to send troops to New Orleans, a place we go to at least once per year. Crime is still too high there but has also fallen considerably in the last two years. Perhaps the national guard deployed there can order Pimm’s Cups to-go and join a second line on their marches through the city. At any rate, there is just too much to be concerned about these troop deployments to omit them from the tracker any longer. In fact, see the first item below in the Corruption category.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/09/02/trump-administration-use-national-guard-la-violated-law-judge-rules/

Corruption

Idiotic Abusive Department of War Post, September 6, 2025
It probably isn’t legal for the President to change the name from Department of Defense to Department of War. However, this tracker item is specifically about the President continuing to threaten cities with policy and idiotic social media posts. It’s not getting as much publicity as the name change but the administration sent to officials this week a draft 2025 National Defense Strategy. According to many reports, including one in Politico, the strategy “places domestic and regional missions above countering adversaries such as Beijing and Moscow.” In other words, the war is at home, and Americans are its targets. Our large military budget will be used to deal with alleged threats within the country, not enemies abroad. So at the same time Trump changes the name from “Defense” to “War” his administration is also making clear that it is a war on Americans. See this social media post threatening Chicago, for example. Sure, the tweet talks about deportations but note the wording, “Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR.* We’ll also remind you that the Robert Duvall character in Apocalypse Now—the one Trump is dressed as in the post—orders an assault on a village so his troops could surf and civilians were indiscriminately killed during the attack. He is not a fictional character to aspire to. Chicago and many American cities and their American citizens will be at great risk in the coming years.
*Since WAR is all caps and we know that acronym as “Wins Above Replacement”—an advanced baseball statistic—at first we thought the military was being called to attack Sabermetricians. Traditionalists might applaud such action, we suppose.
Noah Smith 🐇 on X: “See? The “war” they’re talking about is not an actual war against a country that shoots back. It’s just using the military for routine policing operations while we let our foreign enemies walk all over us. https://t.co/MKPHTmr2q0″ / X

Again Threatening to Take Away Someone’s Citizenship, September 3, 2025
Trump again threatened to take away Rosie O’Donnell’s citizenship. He wrote on social media and retweeted by the White House X account, “As previously mentioned, we are giving serious thought to taking away Rosie O’Donnell’s Citizenship…” As we wrote before, he has no power to revoke citizenship. Continuing to make the threat is an abuse of power. It’s not a funny joke, especially by someone who has abused his powers so many times as president.
Conor Friedersdorf on X: “This is an abuse of power. And everyone in MAGA knows it. They just don’t mind that their figurehead abuses power.” / X

Canceling of Ranking Democrat on Intelligence Committee’s Oversight Visits, September 3, 2025
The Washington Post reports, “The ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee arranged a routine visit to the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. U.S Senator John Warner said his visit was nixed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s office after social media posts by far-right activist Laura Loomer.” Warner then asked some good questions, including “How did a trolling blogger get access that there was a classified meeting going on? Is congressional oversight dead? Is congressional power of the purse dead?” Congress, one of the three branches of government, has essentially been made a non-factor by the Trump administration and by Republicans in Congress. That is the pathway to authoritarianism.
Mark Warner says spy agency visit canceled over posts by Laura Loomer – The Washington Post

Trump family richer by $5 billion in Crypto Scam, September 2, 2025
We’ve been tracking the Trump crypto scam from the beginning. This week, “A new cryptocurrency issued by the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial and that started trading this week has boosted the family’s wealth on paper by roughly $5 billion…” This gambit, as we’ve noted before, is a way for people to quietly give the Trump family money and gain influence over policy decisions. It’s an overt example of corruption.
|https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-wlfi-world-liberty-financial-crypto-wealth/

August 25 – August 31, 2025

Repeating a pattern since the beginning of the administration, “the White House informed Congress it intends to cancel $4.9 billion that lawmakers approved for foreign aid programs, invoking a little-known and legally untested power to slash spending without their approval.” Trump is instituting what his staff are calling a “pocket rescission,” to pull back money already appropriated by Congress. The money is targeted for economic aid programs and UN peacekeeping programs. The Constitution gives spending power to Congress, not the executive branch. Whether this goes to the courts, and whether the U.S. Supreme Court continues to redesign the American governing system into a pseudo monarchy, is impossible to say, which says someting itself.
Defying Congress, Trump moves to cut $4.9 billion in foreign aid | The Seattle Times

Executive Order Banning Flag Burning, August 25, 2025
If it’s Monday, there must be a new Executive Order mandating something the President doesn’t have the power to do. In this case, last Monday the executive order says the “Attorney General shall vigorously prosecute those who violate our laws in ways that involve desecrating the American Flag and may pursue litigation to clarify the scope of the First Amendment exceptions in this area.” The Supreme Court clarified in 1989 that burning the American flag is protected under the First Amendment. So the President can’t just have the Attorney General prosecute people who burn the flag. However, he clearly is going to try to find a case to re-try flag burning under the current Supreme Court, one with a very different mindset than the 1989 court. Given the U.S. Supreme Court in June of 2024 said U.S. presidents are above the law, it will not be surprising if they tighten free speech protections. Until then, however, the Attorney General cannot (at least under current law) prosecute people using their First Amendment rights.
Trump signs orders aimed at ending cashless bail, flag burning – The Washington Post

Corruption

We don’t do policy issues in the Trump Tracker but what is happening at the CDC, and really to the U.S. health system in general, is a corruption of its own. RFK Jr fired the head of the CDC, Susan Monarez, reportedly because she was at odds with Kennedy’s anti-vaccine beliefs and his crack-pot ideas. Monarez’s lawyers wrote, “When CDC Director Susan Monarez refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts, she chose protecting the public over serving a political agenda. For that, she has been targeted.” A number of top CDC staff resigned in the wake of her firing. Anti-vaccine activists testified in front of a vaccine panel, the members of which are all new after RFK fired previous panelists a few months ago. RFK Jr is, and we use a technical term here, bat-ass crazy. He shouldn’t be let near children playing in the park much less made the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Again, we don’t get involved in policy issues here but when the President nominates (and granted the Senate confirmed him—all those voting yes should be targeted for defeat in the next election) an individual not only unqualified but full of certifiably crazy notions and an opponent of the scientific method, which will lead to tens of thousands of deaths—that is corruption of the highest order. As Aaron Reichlin-Melnick wrote, “The CDC will now be the place where science goes to die; where the scientific method becomes ‘make this study say what I want it to say.’”
CDC Director Susan Monarez fired by Trump administration after refusing to resign, citing ‘reckless directives’

Trump calls for George Soros and his son to be charged with racketeering, August 27, 2025
For reasons we have never particularly understood, factions of the right hate Geroge Soros, and now his son (yes, we know part of this hatred is antisemitic). There have been continuous attacks on Soros and his work for decades but now the President of the United States abuses his power by calling for Soros and his son to charged criminally. On social media, Trump wrote, “George Soros, and his wonderful Radical Left son, should be charged under RICO because of their support of Violent Protests, and much more, all throughout the United States of America.” Soros is a large contributor to the Democratic Party. This is an attack on political participation. It’s one of dozens of impeachable offenses by Trump. As the Washington Post reports, “Trump has repeatedly targeted his political enemies with the power of the federal government, saddling them with investigations and other punitive measures.” You’ll read another instance of this below.
Trump calls for racketeering charges against top Democratic donor, son | The Seattle Times

“Trump threatens new investigation of Chris Christie over ‘Bridgegate’ scandal”, August 25, 2025
One of the more consistent features of Trump Deux is its abuse of power in retaliating against opponents and critics. Trump himself did so again this week after former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie criticized him. Trump on social media referenced Christie’s “bridgegate” scandal from his time as New Jersey Governor, writing, “Chris refused to take responsibility for these criminal acts. For the sake of JUSTICE, perhaps we should start looking at that very serious situation again? NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW!” Later when talking with reporters, Trump threatened to get the Justice Department to look into this old scandal, though he also said he didn’t consider it a priority. But a President just threatening a critic with a Justice Department investigation, whether he intends to follow through or not, has a chilling effect on criticism of the president. In fact, companies have been mostly muted in their criticisms of policy knowing that speaking up could lead to sanction or investigation. It’s an abuse of power that Trump gets away with repeatedly.
Trump threatens to investigate Christie over ‘Bridgegate’ scandal – The Washington Post

August 18 – August 24, 2025

Breaking the Law

The Continued Persecution of Kilmar Abrego García, August 22, 2025
Garcia was illegally deported to a torture chamber in El Salvador. Then when the courts told the Trump administration they had to take steps to return him to the United States, they initially refused to do so. When they finally did retrieve him from El Salvador they immediately charged him with human trafficking and imprisoned Garcia. Now the Washington Post reports:

The night before Kilmar Abrego García was set to be released from a Tennessee jail, federal prosecutors urged him to strike a deal: Plead guilty to two counts of human smuggling, serve his sentence, and be deported to Costa Rica, a tropical, Spanish-speaking refuge regarded as the safest country in Central America.

When he declined the offer in favor of awaiting trial with his family in Maryland, officials threatened to deport him within days to Uganda, an African nation to which the State Department has discouraged travel because of the ongoing risk of terror attacks

Likely the human trafficking charges are BS and were filed so the Trump administration could pretend it was right to illegally deport Garcia to El Salvador’s inhumane prison. A trial will ultimately determine whether Garcia is guilty of human trafficking. But the Trump administration clearly doesn’t want a trial, which is more evidence that Garcia is likely innocent—so they try to coerce him into accepting a deportation plea agreement by threatening to send him to Uganda. This is a lawless administration daily committing corrupt acts.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s lawyers say Trump threat to deport him to Uganda is coercion – The Washington Post

“Trump demands release of Colorado official sentenced in election data scheme”, August 21, 2025
Former Mesa County clerk Tina Peters is serving a nine-year prison sentence for breaking the law in trying to prove that the 2020 election was stolen. The Washington Post reports that, “Prosecutors charged Peters in 2022 and accused her of helping to secretly copy Dominion Voting Systems hard drives by sneaking Conan Hayes, a former professional surfer and purported computer expert, into secure areas of her office in 2021 using someone else’s security badge.” She has continued to maintain the 2020 election was stolen so of course Trump loves her. This week on social media Trump wrote, “FREE TINA PETERS, a brave and innocent Patriot who has been tortured by Crooked Colorado politicians. Let Tina Peters out of jail, RIGHT NOW. She did nothing wrong, except catching the Democrats cheat in the Election. She is an old woman, and very sick. If she is not released, I am going to take harsh measures!!!” Peters was prosecuted by state attorneys. Trump has no legal jurisdiction in a state case. A jury found her guilty. This is an abuse of power and the umpteenth time that Trump has undermined democracy in America.
Trump demands release of Colorado official in election data scheme – The Washington Post

Avoiding Senate Confirmation Process to Appoint U.S. Attorneys, August 19, 2025
The Trump administration is installing U.S. attorneys around the country without submitting them through the U.S. Senate confirmation process. Politico reports that “When Trump’s nominees can’t get confirmed by the Senate, as required by federal law, the administration installs them on a temporary basis as ‘interim’ U.S. attorneys, who are legally allowed to serve for 120 days.” This gambit allows Trump to install officials who can carry out his political attacks (see Bolton and other cases). Perhaps the most egregious example of this is Trump’s pick of Alina Habba, who has led the political attacks on a variety of Democratic lawmakers and who has never served as a prosecutor. Politico reports:

It quickly became clear that Habba could not win Senate confirmation. So when her term as interim U.S. attorney was about to expire last month, district judges in New Jersey voted to determine who should occupy the post indefinitely until the Senate could confirm someone to the job.

The judges declined to keep Habba in office, voting instead to install longtime career prosecutor Desiree Leigh Grace.

But Trump quickly bypassed that selection, reinstalling Habba on a longer-term but still temporary basis as acting U.S. attorney. He did so by having the Justice Department fire Grace while simultaneously withdrawing Habba’s nomination in the Senate. The withdrawal was important because nominees for a full-time U.S. attorney post generally cannot also serve in an “acting” capacity, per federal law. But once Habba was no longer a nominee before the Senate, the Trump administration argued, she could remain in the job for another 210 days, or about seven months.

Appointing Habbas while avoiding Constitutional requirements is being contested in the courts. The Trump administration is going to great lengths to insall unqualified, but loyal partisans in crucial positions all across government and the country.
Trump bypasses the Senate — and the courts — to install loyal US attorneys – POLITICO

U.S. Citizen Detained by ICE For Three Days With No Access to Lawyer, August 18, 2025
In blatant disregard for the law and Constitution, ICE detained George Retes, a U.S. citizen, for three days. He was caught up in an ICE sweep of a cannabis farm in Southern California. KTLA-5 reports “During that time, he said he was denied access to a lawyer, prevented from contacting his family, and placed in an isolation cell, all without being charged with a crime.” While being illegally held in jail, he had no contact with family and missed his daughter’s third birthday. As has been pointed out by many people over the last seven months, when there is no due process for immigrants, there is no due process for U.S. citizens. Retes is “seeking accountability through the Federal Tort Claims Act, a law that allows citizens to sue the federal government when harmed by its employees.” He should be compensated, and courts should penalize the Trump administration until it stops breaking the law and Constitution.
https://ktla.com/news/local-news/army-vet-detained-by-ice-takes-on-federal-government/

Corruption

Hegseth Fires Head of DIA who gave honest assessment of attack on Iran, August 22, 2025
Hegseth purged large swathes of the Defense Department, including Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. Kruse is the guy who issued the preliminary intelligence report that “assessed that Iran’s nuclear capabilities had been set back only a matter of months, in contrast to Hegseth’s and President Donald Trump’s statements that the capabilities had been ‘obliterated.’” The firing of Kruse is essentially the same thing Trump did when he fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Don’t like the data or intelligence? Get rid of the person in charge and make up your own reality. This will not end well.
Hegseth fires head of Defense Intelligence Agency, Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse – The Washington Post

Trump calls for resignation of Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, August 20, 2025
Trump continues to interfere in the independence of the Fed, calling for the resignation of Lisa Cook, one of its Board members. Cook was accused by Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, of mortgage fraud. Trump followed up on social media writing “Cook must resign now!!!” I’m guessing he thinks three exclamation marks make it official. You can read about the allegations against Cook at the link. This likely has little to do with whether Cook has done anything wrong and everything to do with Trump’s desire to remake the Fed.
Trump calls for resignation of Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook – The Washington Post

August 11 – August 17, 2025

Breaking the Law

Deal with Nvidia to have company pay 15 percent of China sale revenues to U.S. government, August 11, 2025
It is illegal to institute an export tax on a company, which is what this is. But as we’ve been documenting for six months, the Trump administration is fond of breaking laws—in fact it disregards laws left and right. Unfortunately, too often there are no consequences for violating the law. In addition to being illegal, slapping an export tax on Nvidia is a dumb policy. We follow and read a lot of folks on China issues, including some analysts who are hard-liners against China, and yet they still support Trump. We’ve never understood their logic. Trump has made China stronger over the last six months. He has turned the most important 21^st century counterweight to China—India—towards China. If you are a hardliner, you should be aghast at Trump China policy. Which makes me think they are actually either soft or have priorities more important than dealing with an authoritarian, expansionist China.
Demetri on X: “SCOOP – @Nvidia has done deal with Trump administration to pay US government 15% of revenues from #China H20 sales, in unprecedented quid pro quo for export licenses. https://t.co/UdjCoQCE16” / X

Kristi Noem Didn’t Disclose Payments When Selected to be Homeland Security Secretary, January but just coming to light now
ProPublica reports that “while Kristi Noem was governor of South Dakota, she supplemented her income by secretly accepting a cut of the money she raised for a nonprofit that promotes her political career, tax records show.” The article reports that “the nonprofit routed funds to a personal company of Noem’s that had recently been established in Delaware. The payment totaled $80,000 that year, a significant boost to her roughly $130,000 government salary. Since the nonprofit is a so-called dark money group — one that’s not required to disclose the names of its donors — the original source of the money remains unknown.” This would merely be a state-level corruption case except when Noem was nominated to be Secretary of Homeland Security, she was required to release a “detailed accounting of her assets and sources of income from 2023 on.” She did not include this income. Perhaps the National Guard that is roaming the streets of D.C. looking for criminals can stop by her office.
Kristi Noem Secretly Took Personal Cut of Political Donations — ProPublica

Corruption

Preparing to Challenge the Integrity of 2026 Mid-Term Elections, Ongoing
USA Today columnist Chris Brennan catalogs numerous ways that the Trump MAGA apparatus are preparing to taint the 2026 elections and paint the elections as rigged if Republicans don’t do well in them. For example, Brennan points out that the Justice Department is busy trying to collect voter data from various states. Trump also tried to overhaul how states conduct elections even though this is a role for the states not the federal government the federal government has traditionally been involved in civil rights issues in elections). Given Trump’s, and his supporters’, records on trying to overturn legitimate elections, we need to track this effort to subvert the mid-term elections.
Trump is already using election fraud lie to sway midterms | Opinion

Loyalty Rating for companies, August 15, 2025
The White House, Axios reports, has created a loyalty rating for companies, “The West Wing has created a scorecard that rates 553 companies and trade associations on how hard they worked to support and promote President Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill,’” The administration looks at a variety of criteria, including social media posts, ads, and attendance at White House events. Certainly, other White Houses have kept track of who their supporters are but this list is more than that. And as Axios notes, “Trump works transactionally, and companies have rushed to pay demonstrative homage. Now, senior aides will have data to consult when considering corporate requests.” Over the last six months we’ve seen a variety of pay-to-play schemes by the administration, including in its Crypto scams. The Trump administration is many things all at once, but perhaps most of all it is the architect of crony capitalism. Over time this will degrade our economy and weaken innovation. In the short and long run it will make Trump a lot of money.
Scoop: White House hands down loyalty ratings for hundreds of companies

Telling Goldman Sachs to Replace economist over his tariff stance, August 12, 2025
Truth Social is the most misnamed platform in the history of social media (the term “social” media seems increasingly like a misnomer too come to think of it). But that’s where we found Trump calling for the removal of a Goldman Sachs economist for forecasting earlier in the year that stocks will finish 2025 lower. It would be fine if Trump made fun of the forecast since so far the stock market is up this year. But instead Trump wrote, “I think that David [Goldman’s CEO] should go out and get himself a new Economist…” We might let this pass as just a funny comment except that Trump repeatedly interferes in private companies’ affairs—this is just one more example.
Trump blasts Goldman over tariff forecasts, tells David Solomon to ‘focus on being a DJ’

White House Review of Smithsonian Museums, August 12, 2025
When we lived in Washington, D.C. many, many years ago, one of the available pleasures was the ability to go to the various Smithsonian Museums, all of which were free. You could learn a lot just strolling through the exhibits. On a business trip six years ago, we toured the African American Museum—a revelatory and fantastic addition to the Smithsonian Museum collection. Undoubtedly, an exhibit here or there at the museums was colored by bias. But the next time we go, we’re likely to see the right-wing version of woke—to the extreme. That’s because the Trump administration is instituting a comprehensive review of Smithsonian Museums. The White House shouldn’t be dictating what the Smithsonian shows and how it shows it. Even more concerning, the White House statement about this review states, “Museums should begin implementing content corrections where necessary, replacing divisive or ideologically driven language with unifying, historically accurate, and constructive descriptions across placards, wall didactics, digital displays, and other public-facing materials. (emphasis added)” It is not the job of a museum to be either “divisive” or “unifying.” It should strive to be accurate, and it can certainly provide multiple interpretations of events when warranted. This comprehensive review will likely end up with propaganda exhibits that will be an embarrassment to history.
White House announces more aggressive review of Smithsonian museums – The Washington Post

August 4 – August 10, 2025

Breaking the Law

Firing IRS Commissioner for refusing to hand over protected data, August 8, 2025
On Friday, Trump fired Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Billy Long just two months on the job. High turnover and turmoil are the norm in Trump world but curious minds wanted to know why this particular firing. Well, on Friday, the Washington Post reported, “The Internal Revenue Service clashed with the White House over using tax data to help locate suspected undocumented immigrants hours before Trump administration officials forced IRS Commissioner Billy Long from his post Friday, according to two people familiar with the situation.” The Department of Homeland Security sent over a variety of requests for data on large number of taxpayers in a attempt to identify illegal immigrants. The Post reports that, “The IRS declined to provide that information, citing taxpayer privacy rights.” As well they should since it is illegal to turn over such data. So Long, who we don’t doubt was deficient in many ways, was fired so that an illegal act can now take place. That’s the Long and short of it.
IRS, White House clashed over immigrants’ data before Billy Long was ousted – The Washington Post

Inhumane Conditions at “Alligator Alcatraz”, August 6, 2025
Even illegal immigrants have rights under U.S. law (and international law). Reports by NBC News, Human Rights Watch and others document that these laws are being broken, certainly at the so-called “Alligator Alcatraz” in Florida and likely elsewhere. NBC News reports that a “former corrections officer says she saw hundreds of people held in cages with no sunlight, backed up toilets and little access to showers.” The former worker, who was fired from her job, alleges “They have no sunlight. There’s no clock in there. They don’t even know what time of the day it is. They have no access to showers. They shower every other day or every four days,” Lindsey said. She added: “The bathrooms are backed up because you got so many people using them.” On rainy days, she said, water pours into the tents. She described the conditions as miserable not to forget — the constant battle with mosquitos.”
Former ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ worker describes ‘inhumane’ conditions inside

Corruption

Moving Ghislaine Maxwell to “Country Club” Prison, August 6, 2025
After the second-highest ranking Justice Department official, Todd Blanche, met with Ghislaine Maxwell, she was transferred to a minimum security prison where allegedly conditions are much better than prison was being held at in Florida. As we wrote in an earlier edition of Trump Tracker, we have not followed the Epstein case closely but both the meeting and moving of Maxwell are obviously suspicious. First, Trump has un-blindfolded lady justice and made the Department essentially an extension of his personal lawyers. That only a single lawyer from the Justice Department appointed by Trump himself, with no FBI or other staff in attendance, is worrisome. And then after the meeting, with who knows what promises made, Maxwell is moved to what is called a “country club” prison? Yeah, that’s corrupt. One other thing though, our prisons should look and act more like the one Maxwell was transferred to and not like the one in Florida. Our prison system, and how prisoners are treated is ineffective and a disgrace. But that’s a subject for another day and a different venue.
Ghislaine Maxwell’s move to ‘country club’ prison smacks of special treatment, experts say | The Seattle Times

Plans to End Satellite Missions Collecting Climate Data, August 4, 2025
Last week’s firing of the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics was the first time many became aware of the attack on data by the Trump administration. But such attacks have been occurring throughout the first six months of Trump Deux. This week NPR reported on plans to eliminate two satellites that measure carbon dioxide and plant growth around the world, providing key climate data and helpful agricultural data. According to NPR, “The data the two missions collect is widely used, including by scientists, oil and gas companies and farmers who need detailed information about carbon dioxide and crop health. They are the only two federal satellite missions that were designed and built specifically to monitor planet-warming greenhouse gases.” Why is the Trump administration looking at eliminating these satellite mission? More than likely because anything that has anything to do with climate is targeted by this administration.
Trump administration takes aim at satellite that measures carbon dioxide and crops : NPR

July 21 – August 3, 2025

Breaking the Law

Using IEEPA to institute tariffs on Brazil, July 31, 2025
Trump continues to use the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to institute tariffs on countries in the absence of any emergencies. This time he is imposing tariffs of 40 percent on Brazil. What is the emergency that allows him to do this? In his executive order he complains about social media posts being censored in Brazil, the Brazilian government confiscating the passports of political opponents, and its targeting former President Jair Bolsonaro (who is friendly with Trump). None of this constitutes “an unusual and extraordinary threat” to the United States. Lawsuits against these tariffs are winding their way through the courts. It’s hard to imagine tariffs imposed using IEEPA surviving in court.
Addressing Threats to The United States by the Government of Brazil – The White House

Trump Administration Defies a Third of Court Rulings, July 21^st, 2025
We’ve tried to track the various instances when the Trump administration has defied court rulings, but we know we are not keeping up with all of them. That is indicative of the fact we have a full-time job, but also that the Trump administration is flouting so many of the court orders. The Washington Post conducted an analysis showing that the Trump administration has defied in one way or another about one-third of court rulings that went against the Trump administration. So out of 160 court cases in which courts ruled against the Trump administration, the Trump administration disobeyed in 57 of them. The Post reports, “Plaintiffs say Justice Department lawyers and the agencies they represent are snubbing rulings, providing false information, failing to turn over evidence, quietly working around court orders and inventing pretexts to carry out actions that have been blocked.” It is a lawless administration bludgeoning rule of law in America. And this is not ordinary political disagreement between the executive and judicial branches. The Post further reports, “Legal experts said the pattern of conduct is unprecedented for any presidential administration.”
Trump accused of defying about a third of major court orders since taking office – The Washington Post

Inhumane Treatment of Detainees, July 21^, 2025
Decades ago when I worked for a member of Congress doing foreign affairs work, I often worked with Human Rights Watch regarding human rights abuses taking place internationally, whether in the then Soviet Union, El Salvador or elsewhere. So it is both surreal and depressing to read their report of human rights abuses committed by ICE at detention centers. According to Human Rights Watch,

“Some were detained shackled for prolonged periods on buses without food, water, or functioning toilets; there was extreme overcrowding in freezing holding cells where detainees were forced to sleep on cold concrete floors under constant fluorescent lighting; and many were denied access to basic hygiene and medical care.”

The report also documented that

“Detention facility staff routinely denied individuals with diabetes, asthma, kidney conditions, and chronic pain their prescribed medications and access to doctors. In one case at Krome, a woman with gallstones began vomiting and lost consciousness after being denied care for several days. Officers returned her to the same cell after emergency surgery to remove her gallbladder—still without medication.”

This treatment is very likely against the law. To quote the report,

“The treatment of detainees by staff at the three detention facilities appears to be in clear violation of ICE’s own standards, including the 2011 Performance-Based National Detention Standards (PBNDS) governing Krome and BTC, and the 2019 National Detention Standards (NDS) governing the detention of immigrants at FDC. Conditions in the centers also violated US obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the Convention Against Torture (CAT), and key standards articulated under the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Mandela Rules).”
“You Feel Like Your Life Is Over”: Abusive Practices at Three Florida Immigration Detention Centers Since January 2025 | HRW

Corruption

Office of Special Counsel Investigating Jack Smith Who Oversaw Prosecutions of Trump, August 2, 2025
Retaliating against those who investigated Trump is a regular feature of the Trump administration but that it has become so commonplace does not mean it is less dangerous or worrisome for democracy. Senator Tom Cotton called for the speical counsel investigation of Jack Smith, who led the federal prosecutions of Trump, as a special counsel. And the Office of Special Counsel has decided to do so. As the Washington Post reports, “The investigation is out of the norm for the OSC, an office responsible for looking into federal employees’ potential violations of prohibited personnel practices. Trump has installed loyalists to lead the office, firing a Biden-appointed special counsel and installing Veterans Affairs Secretary Douglas A. Collins and, later, Greer to oversee the office on an interim basis.” This is pure and simple retribution against Smith and deeply damaging to American democracy.
Former Trump prosecutor Jack Smith faces investigation by Office of Special Counsel – The Washington Post

Firing of the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics after negative jobs data is released, August 1, 2025
The suppression and elimination of data is one of the most corrupt acts of authoritarian governments. In fact, it’s a hallmark of authoritarian regimes. That is why whenever the Trump administration engages in such behavior, we become so worried. This week saw Trump fire Erika McEntarfer, the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics shortly after the monthly jobs report was released. That report had large downward revisions to May and June jobs data and also showed that in July only 73,000 jobs were created. Trump, on social media, wrote, “She will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified.” This is, of course, a lie. She will be replaced with someone he hopes will somehow manipulate data to make him look better. This firing is a five-alarm signal of pending disaster for democracy and eventually the economy.
Live updates: Trump, in warning to Russia, says nuclear submarines will be sent to ‘appropriate regions’ – The Washington Post

Trump Calls on Obama to be indicted for Treason, July 30, 2025
On Truth Social, Trump posted “It’s time to indict Obama the traitor for treason” (we spare you the original all caps). He also said to reporters, “He’s guilty, it’s not a question. This was treason, this was every word you can think of.” This is all part of another of Trump-land’s crazy conspiracy theories which we will not dignify by providing details. Suffice it to say that Obama has not committed treason. Only one President has tried to overturn an election, and that’s Trump himself.
Trump Floods Truth Social With Memes Calling to Indict Obama, Others
Trump calls for Obama’s investigation over 2016 claims

Threatening Teams So They’ll Change Their Names, July 20, 2025
Trump, scratching his itch to use his power to interfere in every facet of American life, threatened the Washington Commanders football team to force them to change their name back to the Redskins. He said he would hold up a new stadium deal for the team unless they reverted to the old name. He also told the Cleveland Guardians he wants them to revert to their old Indians name. Putting aside questions of whether those old names are slurs or not, none of this is any business of a U.S. president. Trump repeatedly interferes in private businesses. The old Republican Party—one that represented the interests of businesses–would be appalled. There is no longer any major American political party representing the interests of the market. But that’s a topic for another day. Suffice it to say, Trump’s interference in this issue is corrosive corruption.
Trump threatens stadium deal over Commanders’ name – ESPN

July 14 – July 20 , 2025

Breaking the Law

The Trump administration was too busy freaking out about Epstein to break any laws this week.

Corruption

Suing the Wall Street Journal Over Epstein Story, July 18, 2025
In unsurprising news, Trump has filed a lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal for publishing the article about Trump allegedly sending a birthday card to Jeffrey Epstein. An individual certainly has the right to file lawsuits against people, organizations and companies. And as we wrote above, we are not intimate with the details of the Epstein case. But this lawsuit is on a continuum of a slew of lawsuits Trump has filed and threats he has made against news organizations and companies. It’s all part of his attacks on the First Amendment. Trump posted he filed the lawsuit, “not only on behalf of your favorite President, ME, but also in order to continue standing up for ALL Americans who will no longer tolerate the abusive wrongdoings of the Fake News Media.” It is corrupting to the Republic that whenever there is a story in the news Trump doesn’t like he sues or threatens to sue those publishing it. That is not the way a presidency should act.
Trump files defamation suit, denies ‘Wall Street Journal’ Epstein story : NPR

Firing Maurene Comey, daughter of James Comey from Justice Department, July 16, 2025
On Wednesday the Justice Department fired Maurene Comey from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. She is the daughter of former FBI director James Comey, who Trump detests. We’re not particularly a big fan of Comey either. His letter to Congress announcing an investigation of Clinton’s email 11 days before the 2016 election likely led to Trump’s win and broke precedent with how such investigations were handled in the past. But targeting the daughter of someone the President dislikes is yet another corrupt act of this White House. ABC News reported, “Trump privately vented about having a Comey work in his administration.” Frankly, we’re surprised Maurene Comey lasted this long before being fired. Trump usually strikes faster at his perceived enemies. No reason was given for the firing but it’s pretty obvious why. And par for the course for this administration, which routinely retaliates against whomever it deems opponents.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/maurene-comey-fired-doj-southern-district-new-york/story?id=123817739

NIH COO Accused of Steering Contract to Company Wife Works for, July 14, 2025
This is pretty pedestrian corruption, the kind of bad act committed by staff in presidential administrations since time immemorial. A $3.3 million contract directed to the Louisiana company Argo Chasing, which recently hired the Chief Operating Officer of the National Institutes of Health? That’s petty theft in the Trump administration. But good for the department for catching it and immediately firing the COO, escorting him out of the building after only a few months on the job. Perhaps we should be praising this quick action rather than listing it here.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025/07/15/nih-leader-fired-amid-contract-probe/

July 7 – July 13 , 2025

Breaking the Law

Threatening to Revoke a Person’s Citizenship, July 12, 2025
That person was Rosie O’Donnell. People will fixate on the celebrity aspect of this story but no matter your feelings about Rosie O’Donnell, whether her political views or talent, this is a blatantly unconstitutional threat by Trump. Apparently, O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland because of Trump’s election, criticized our president for his inaction in the Texas floods. In response, Trump posted on Truth Social, “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship. She is a Threat to Humanity, and should remain in the wonderful Country of Ireland, if they want her.” Some of Trump’s defenders will say he’s joking. But given the Trump administration has repeatedly detained and tried to deport U.S. citizens, it is not a funny joke and not one this president should make.
Kevin M. Kruse: “The president of the United States is threatening to strip the citizenship away from an American who says things he does not like. And our media will invariably present this not as a major crisis, an impeachable offense that must lead to his immediate removal, but as “a spat” between Don & Rosie” — Bluesky

Illegally preventing congresswoman from inspecting detention Center, July 11, 2025
U.S. Representative Veronica Escobar attempted to inspect a detention facility in her congressional district. ICE denied her entrance into the facility. They sent her a letter saying Rep. Escobar must give them one week’s notice to enter the facility. But the law explicitly states that ICE cannot do this. You can see the clear letter of the law in the screenshot below. The Trump administration has repeatedly broken the law and in this case it has done so involving an elected representative of the people. The Trump administration and staff involved in this must be held accountable for breaking the law.
Homeland Security on X: “Unfortunately, the Congresswoman did not give sufficient notice to facilitate a visit, which is essential to keep staff and detainees safe. For visits to detention facilities, requests should be made with sufficient time to prevent interference with the President’s Article II” / X

Illegally Using IEEPPA to Institute Tariffs on Brazil, July 9, 2025
Trump’s itchy finger pulled the tariff trigger again this week, placing 50 percent tariffs on goods coming from Brazil. To do so, he again used the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). This law allows the president to declare an emergency to institute tariffs on a country. But what is the emergency with Brazil? The United States has a trade surplus with Brazil. We are not at war or in any other hostilities with Brazil. Trump in his letter announcing the tariffs cited Brazil’s treatment of former President Bolsonaro, calling it a “disgrace.” So not only is Trump illegally placing tariffs on Brazil, he is interfering in their politics—not for any reason strategic to U.S. interests but because of his personal relationship with Bolsonaro. Of course, Trump also placed tariffs on a variety of other countries, none of which we have emergencies with. There is a lawsuit against the Trump administration stating these tariffs are illegal. Let’s hope it is successful.
Trump to add 50 percent tariff on Brazil, citing Bolsonaro trial – The Washington Post

Corruption

Insider Trading on Tariff Announcements, July 8, 2025
Spencer Hakimian, the founder of a hedge fund, makes a credible case of insider trading occurring around the announcement of tariffs on South Africa. He tweets, “Somebody knew that Trump was going to place 30% tariffs on South Africa and made A LOT of money with that confidential information” and gives a chronology to back up this accusation. You can read it in full at the link. Perhaps we are jumping the gun in listing this as corruption, but these kinds of gains have happened repeatedly on policy announcements by Trump. And we know the Trump crowd is all about enriching themselves so we’re disinclined to give the benefit of the doubt.
Spencer Hakimian on X: “Somebody knew that Trump was going to place 30% tariffs on South Africa, and made A LOT of money with that confidential information. Follow along. The South African Rand was trading within its usual band all morning long on Monday July 7th. From 5:00 AM until 12:30 PM, the https://t.co/QqoSEeqp1b” / X

June 30 – July 6, 2025

Breaking the Law

Trump administration withholds $7 billion from schools, July 1, 2025
The Trump administration refused to disburse $7 billion for schools, telling the recipients that the money was under review. The problem is that, as the Washington Post reports, “The billions that had been set for July 1 distribution were approved by Congress in March’s federal spending bill and signed into law by President Donald Trump.” This is part of a pattern of the President and his administration ignoring laws passed by Congress. Why the review? The Post further reports that “…Trump’s Office of Management and Budget suggested that it needed to investigate whether any of the money has been used by school districts to fund a ‘radical leftwing agenda.’” Apparently, the Trump administration believes some of the funding went to teachings related to LGBTQ issues. No matter one’s stand on those issues, this was approved by Congress and signed into law. You can’t just ignore the law…except in our new Trump world it happens all the time.
Trump administration withholds $7 billion from schools; advocates to sue – The Washington Post

Threatening CNN with Prosecution over Iran Coverage, July 1, 2025
Last week, we listed Trump’s threatening to sue the New York Times and CNN over their accurate reporting of what a preliminary intelligence report contained. Trump has now upped the ante in response to a reporter’s question. First, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said in response to a question about CNN reporting on a new ICE app designed to make deportation more readily available, “We’re working with the DOJ to see if we can prosecute them for that…We’re gonna actually go after them.” And then Trump added, “They may be prosecuted also for false reports on the attack on Iran.” Both of these efforts violate the First Amendment. If anyone should be charged with anything, it’s Trump and Noem.
The Bulwark on X: “Q: “Tom Homan was saying that perhaps CNN should be prosecuted…Your thoughts?” Noem: “We’re working with the DOJ to see if we can prosecute them for that…We’re gonna actually go after them.” Trump: “They may be prosecuted also for false reports on the attack on Iran.” https://t.co/xCYBeJHKnt” / X

Corruption

Paramount Pays $16 million to Trump So Merger Will be Approved, July 2, 2025
I wrote an honest headline stating forthrightly what the Paramount-Trump deal is about. No one in the media did, however—all seemingly content to obscure that this is a giant payoff by the company so its merger with Skydance Media will be approved by the FCC. Trump continues to undermine the First Amendment and media companies are going along with it. The Washington Post quotes media attorney Edward Klaris, “If you settle cases, you’re going to send a message to your news team to not push the envelope for fear of people being sued, and you’re going to court more cases against your company because they might think that if they sue you they’re going to collect.”
CBS owner Paramount settles Trump lawsuit over Harris interview for $16M – The Washington Post

Removing Legally Mandated Climate Data From Government Websites, July 2, 2025
I’ve lamented the disappearing of data in past issues of the Trump Tracker and here is another instance of the administration removing data from public access. In this case, it is legally mandated peer-reviewed climate reports. The AP states that “Websites for the national assessments and the U.S. Global Change Research Program were down…” Disappearing and falsifying data are the actions of authoritarian governments, who need to hide facts and data that dispute their claims or weaken their claims to power. It’s possible this week’s action is against the law, but it is certainly a corrupting force. And by the way, the Trump administration is also cutting off hurricane data.
Websites hosting major US climate reports taken down | AP News

Former January 6^th Rioter Gets a Job at the Justice Department, July 1, 2025
Multiple news media outlets reported that Jared Wise, who was part of the January 6 insurrection, is now working at the Justice Department as part of its “Weaponization Working Group.” What is that group about, you might ask? Attorney General Pam Bondi when forming the group said that it is, “tasked with reviewing ‘politicized’ actions of officials who investigated President Donald Trump at both the state and federal levels.” In other words, it is retribution against those who rightfully investigated Trump’s insurrection. Wise, as the AP article notes, “was on trial when he was pardoned as part of President Donald Trump’s sweeping series of pardons and commutations for nearly all of the more than 1,500 individuals charged in connection with the Capitol attack.” Further, “Wise was charged in May 2023 and later indicted, with prosecutors pointing to videos showing him yelling ‘Kill ’em!’ repeatedly as rioters attacked police outside of the Capitol building. He also allegedly entered the building for roughly nine minutes and then continued shouting at police. So, instead of being in jail, Wise now is working for the Justice Department to exact revenge on people who were trying to bring justice to those involved in the insurrection. A Republic, if you can keep it.
Former FBI agent pardoned by Trump for Jan. 6 charges now serving at DOJ: Sources

Social Security Administration Sends Email that Lies about Budget Bill, July 3, 2025
Friday night, when I should have been busy getting angry at the Mariners for losing to the Kansas City Royals, I instead was appalled at an email I received from the Social Security Administration. Perhaps you received this email too–millions did. The subject line of the email reads “Social Security Applauds Passage of Legislation Providing Historic Tax Relief for Seniors. The email then goes on to applaud the passage of the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” The email makes the claim that, “The new law includes a provision that eliminates federal income taxes on Social Security benefits for most beneficiaries.” But this is not true as you can read about here. Beyond the fact the email states a variety of lies, the Social Security Administration should not be sending out political emails. Such an email is possibly illegal. But such tactics are typical of the current administration.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/07/04/social-security-taxes/

June 23 – June 29, 2025

Breaking the Law

Thankfully no laws were broken this week…that we know of.

Corruption

Trump threatens to sue The New York Times and CNN over Iran reporting, June 26, 2025
Trump lawsuits are so commonplace that they are easy to miss. But it should be marked in bright red that Trump is again threatening the news media. This time Trump “threatened to sue The New York Times and CNN for publishing articles about a preliminary intelligence report that said the American attack on Iran had set back the country’s nuclear program by only a few months.” His personal lawyer sent letters to the Times and CNN demanding they retract and apologize for their pieces and called them “false,” “defamatory” and “unpatriotic.” This despite the Trump administration later confirming that the preliminary intelligence report existed and reached those conclusions (who knows whether the report’s assessment is accurate). Any number of media organizations have settled with Trump over past lawsuits and threats, which makes his continuing attacks on the media reason for concern. Trump’s tactics are an assault on the First Amendment.
Trump threatens to sue The New York Times and CNN over Iran reporting | The Seattle Times

Trump Control in Nippon Steel Purchase of U.S. Steel, June 26, 2025
For a while the Trump administration has trumpeted that as part of Nippon Steel’s purchase of U.S. Steel, the U.S. government would have control over certain decision making by the new Japanese owner. What wasn’t known, until disclosures to the Securities and Exchange Commission, was that Trump himself is specified as the controller-in-chief in the agreement, not just a generic U.S. president. The agreement states that the corporation can’t amend or repeal the agreement, change the name from U.S. Steel or a variety of other actions, “…without the written consent of Donald J. Trump…at any time when Donald J. Trump is serving as President of the United States of America…” When he is no longer president, this power is handed over to the Treasury and Commerce Departments. This personalizing of the presidency is troubling. It emanates whiffs of tin pot dictatorships. Especially given Trump’s penchant for making money corruptly by leveraging his power as President, this is a very dangerous precedent. I also note that none of the Republicans calling New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani a communist for proposing government-run bodegas,* has expressed any concern with a nationalized—nay given this new information, a Trumpized—steel company. It’s not communism these critics are worried about, rather they just want to be the ones with the power.
*This is admittedly an idiotic idea and we hope Mamdani moderates his views when he takes power and learns how an economy works
Trump gets ‘golden share’ power in US Steel buyout. US agencies will get it under future presidents
Brendan Nyhan: “Personalist regime – literally taking direct control as an individual over business decisions by a major company” — Bluesky

June 16 – June 22, 2025

Breaking the Law

Trump Again Illegally Extends TikTok Ban Deadline, June 19, 2025
One of the first entries on this weekly tracker was Trump announcing a 90-day extension to the TikTok ban. There is no provision in the law that permits this. There continues to be no legal way for Trump to extend the TikTok ban a third time, which he did on Thursday, June 19th. The TikTok law was passed overwhelmingly in Congress, signed by President Biden and unanimously found to be constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. That Trump continues to break the law with no repercussions is a horrible sign for the state of our democracy. It doesn’t matter whether you or I think the TikTok law is a good idea or not. It’s the law. The President isn’t allowed to ignore laws. Or rather, today he is. Which is a big, big problem.
Trump extends TikTok ban deadline for a third time, without clear legal basis | The Seattle Times

Corruption

Judge Rules for Trump While Lobbying for Federal Judgeship, June 19, 2025
Politico reports that Florida Judge Ed Artau was part of a panel of judges that ruled for Trump in his case against the Pulitzer Board. While deciding the case, he was interviewing with Senate Republicans to be considered for a federal judge position. Politico reports that “On Feb. 12, the court published his opinion in Trump’s favor in the defamation case against the Pulitzer Board, and on Feb. 27, he interviewed with attorneys from the White House Counsel’s Office.” In Trump-land, this is not a conflict of interest, it’s a selling point for being nominated.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/06/20/ed-artau-trump-judge-nomination-florida-00415408

Trump Organization Announces Mobile Phone and Phone Service, June 18, 2025
A president is elected to serve the people and the country, to help create a better future. But mostly what Trump cares about is his future. The presidency is just another facet of his business empire. Evidence six million two hundred and forty-seven arrived this week: “The Trump Organization announced it is starting a cellular phone service called Trump Mobile that will charge $47.45 a month and include unlimited calls, text and data. It also plans to roll out a new $499 phone that will be built in the U.S.” The phone service is called the “47 Plan” in reference to Trump being the 47th president. This is all inappropriate, but made even worse by the fact that Trump, through his tariff policy, is making other phones more expensive, including the iPhone, thus creating a market for him and his family to sell these phones. Corruption at its finest.
Trump Organization announces mobile phone service and a $499 gold phone

June 9 – June 15, 2025

Breaking the Law

Thankfully we have no instances of breaking the law this week.

Corruption

Assaulting and handcuffing a U.S. Senator for attempting to ask a question, June 11, 2025
You’ve undoubtedly seen the news and perhaps watched the video of U.S. Senator Alex Padilla being physically forced from the room where Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was giving a press conference. He was pressed to the ground and handcuffed. Senator Padilla puts it well when he says, this is not about how he was treated “it’s about what it says about how they’re treating everyone else if this is how they handle a senator in his home state.”
California Sen. Alex Padilla forcibly removed from DHS news conference – The Washington Post
Matthew Yglesias on X: “Appreciate Senator Padilla’s point here, this is not about how he was treated it’s about what it says about how they’re treating everyone else if this is how they handle a senator in his home state. https://t.co/CoNhJXVZTJ” / X

Homeland Security Attacking Liberals, June 10, 2025
Homeland Security retweeted on June 10, “Liberals don’t know things. They don’t read history, they don’t obsess over stats, the few data points they do see they forget. Their entire world is driven by the consumption of fiction.” Let’s put aside that the tweet is the definition of prejudice, casting aspersions on an entire group and that it’s obviously not true that liberals are as described. What needs to be remembered is that Federal agencies are supposed to represent all Americans: liberals, conservatives, moderates, libertarians and others. Homeland Security is turning into a fiefdom of Trump’s Republican Party, not a non-partisan government agency. This would be incredibly corrupting for any agency of the U.S. government to be doing this, but for the one in charge of protecting the homeland—it is a harbinger of fascism. It is sending the message that only certain Americans deserve to be protected. It is an impetus for protest.
Homeland Security on X: “https://t.co/bPeUJd4JHw” / X

June 2 – June 8, 2025

Breaking the Law

Trump tries new method of illegally restricting international students at Harvard June 4, 2025
A day after a judge blocked the Trump administration’s efforts at preventing the issuance of visas to international students wanting to attend Harvard, it issued a proclamation, “Enhancing National Security by Addressing Risks at Harvard University.” The proclamation states, “it is necessary to restrict the entry of foreign nationals who seek to enter the United States solely or principally to participate in a course of study at Harvard University or in an exchange visitor program hosted by Harvard University.” The stated reason for this? Because admitting such students is “detrimental to the interests of the United States because, in my judgment, Harvard’s conduct has rendered it an unsuitable destination for foreign students and researchers.” Surely the courts will prohibit this Trump action as well. The President doesn’t have the power to use such “judgment,” and even if the executive office had such power, the President’s judgment is obviously flawed. Nothing in the Constitution provides an American president power to target a specific institution in this way. Harvard probably needs reforms across a vareity of domains. But Trump’s latest approach is against the law, and a terrible abuse of power.
Trump proclamation seeks to restrict international students from Harvard – The Washington Post

Corruption

Chinese Exec With Ties to Government Buys Trump Crypto, June 5, 2025
The most corrupting of acts—Trump setting up his very own crypto scam—continues to spew corruption like a hyperactive political volcano. The New York Times reports that “A Chinese tech executive with ties to a Communist Party advisory body was given VIP access to a Trump-hosted cryptocurrency dinner and White House tour.” Yep, He Tianying was at the infamous dinner a few weeks ago. Who is He? The New York Times reports that he “is a delegate of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference – an official advisory body that serves to extend the influence of the Chinese Communist Party.*” He bought $3.7 million of Trump’s meme coin, making him one of the larger purchasers of a vehicle built to enrich Trump in a corrupt manner. He Tianying did so using the nickname “Sky.” In fact, most of the buyers of Trump’s crypto scam use nicknames. The Times further reports, “The buyers used self-adopted nicknames that disguised their identities, but The Times obtained copies of several pages of an official sign-in sheet for the dinner and over the past two weeks has been examining the biographies of many of the attendees.” Chinese government officials more than likely know most secrets about Trump—including his policies and intentions. Remember that when reading about negotiations between China and the U.S.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/06/us/politics/trump-crypto-dinner-china-he-tianying.html
*Victor Shi, who is director of the 21st Century China Center at University of California San Diego, and who I find to be very trustworthy about most things China, notes that “the Fangshan CPPCC is not a ‘division’ of national CPPCC which already is a powerless peripheral organ. Fangshan is further a prefecture which is 2 levels below national.” So He Tianying may not be as high level as the New York Times indicates. However, it is still concering that a Chinese national connected to the CCP is able to buy entree and influence with Trump.

Targeting Elon Musk Companies, June, 5 and ongoing
Yes, the Trump–Musk breakup was entertaining and provided good laughs for all of us. But we shouldn’t lose sight in the midst of the spectacle that there is lots of corruption taking place in the war between the billionaire and president. Trump threatened Musk’s government contracts*. He later threatened Musk with big consequences if Musk funds Democrats. Stop and think about that for a moment. Rather than a regular process where the U.S. government contracts with a private company, instead we have one man—the President—arbitrarily deciding whether a contract continues or not. We have a President threatening a citizen for utilizing his First Amendment right to free speech. This is banana republic stuff, this is what happens in developing countries and dictatorships. The U.S. has been the most successful economy in the world for decades and decades because of rule of law, assimilating immigrants successfully and a culture of innovation, among other factors. All three of these factors are in dire danger under the current administration. If we become an economy based on one man’s whims—we will ride the route of early-20^th-century-Argentina rather than a 21^st century economic behemoth. Your children, grandchildren and you will be poorer with a worse quality of life as a result.
The epic breakup of Trump and Musk’s White House bromance – The Washington Post
*None of this is to defend Elon Musk, who through DOGE and other activities gutted programs that save lives and otherwise acts as a reprehensible human being. Nonetheless, the Constitution does not provide, nor should it provide, power to one person to attack and destroy companies and individuals.

Suppressing and Ending Government Data, Ongoing
Non-democracies are prone to suppressing and altering data. The Soviet Union did this all the time. China’s GDP growth rates (somehow miraculously China grows at 5 percent every year), and much of the rest of its official data, is as reliable as a drunk guy’s opinions on Twitter. So, the Trump administration suppressing and altering data is both unsurprising and alarming, a canary in the data mines. It’s been going on for a while with the firing of personnel and gutting of departments dealing with data at various agencies. It has become more overt and concerning in recent weeks. One example comes from Politico which reports that “Trump administration officials delayed and redacted a government forecast because it predicts an increase in the nation’s trade deficit in farm goods later this year.” Meanwhile, the Trump administration deleted a web page containing a study that showed illegal immigrants breaking the law at a lower rate than U.S.-born citizens. In addition, the Trump administration has reduced collections on inflation data. Abuse of data is not only damaging to our economic and policy interests, but also deeply corrupting. Should I worry that U.S. GDP growth rates will be reported as 5 percent this year, just like in China?
Trump officials delayed farm trade report over deficit forecast – POLITICO

Trump official who dismantled Russian disinformation unit is married to woman with deep ties to Russia, June 3, 2025
A Trump administration official’s corruption and sordid ties are so convoluted and pervasive it’s impossible to write a short headline about it. Darren Beattie is the acting Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. He is also the official who led the dismantling of National Security Agency work to track and counter Russian disinformation efforts in the United States. It turns out, as a number of news outlets, including The Telegraph, report, that Beattie “is married to a Russian woman with links to the Kremlin.” According to The Telegraph, this woman’s uncle “has taken several roles in Russian politics and once received a personal ‘thank you’ message from Vladimir Putin.” Beattie married Yulia Kirillova in 2021. And, hey, we’re all for love and marriage but the Telegraph further reports that “Ms. Kirillova…who was educated in Moscow before studying abroad in Canada and Washington DC, is the niece of Sergei Chernikov, a Russian drinks magnate who part-owns a flat with her mother, Natalia.” Beattie’s fondness for Russia, and for dictatorships in general, doesn’t just stop with his nuptials. He tweeted in 2020, “NATO is a greater threat to American liberty than the Chinese Communist Party.” In 2024, he tweeted, “”Competent white men must be in charge if you want things to work.” I could go on and on with reprehensible statements and views of Beattie, but I think you get the point. It is crazy and dangerous that this man is an Under Secretary of State and his ties to Russia are deeply corrupting to contending with that country’s continued threat to Ukraine, the United States, and the world.
Trump official who shut down Russia propaganda unit has links to Kremlin

May 26 – June 1,  2025

Breaking the Law

For the first time since starting this tracker, we have no instances of law-breaking to list here.

Corruption

Nomination of Election Denier Paul Ingrassia to be Head of the Office of Special Counsel, May 29, 2025
On Thursday, Trump nominated Paul Ingrassia to run the Office of Special Counsel. Who is this Ingrassia guy, you might be asking? Well, as the Associated Press reports, he’s a former podcaster who “promoted the false claim that the 2020 election was rigged.” Indeed, Ingrassia wrote in an op-ed shortly after the 2024 election, “what now should be clear to all: the 2020 race was beyond all doubt fraudulent.” Being an election denier should be disqualifying enough (though in this administration it is what gets you the job) but Ingrassia also likes hanging out with antisemites and is a big defender of accused rapist Andrew Tate. In defending Tate, Ingrassia said that Tate “and his brother have become public enemies number one and two in the eyes of the Matrix, the deep state, and the satanic elite that attempt to systematically program and oppress all men from womb-to-tomb – a form of communism that not even Karl Marx, in his wildest dreams, could have imagined.” So this is the person, should the U.S. Senate confirm him, who will be in charge of special investigations. Undoubtedly, those investigations will focus on Trump’s opponents. It is deeply corrupting of the Republic to nominate such a man.
Trump picks right-wing lawyer and podcaster who promoted 2020 election lies as watchdog agency head
INGRASSIA: Donald Trump’s Win Against Kamala Harris Proves Beyond All Doubt That 2020 Was Stolen | The Gateway Pundit | by Paul Ingrassia

Trump Golf Development in Vietnam, May 25, 2025
We covered this in this week’s International Need to Know but would be remiss if we did not cover it here, too. The basic facts are the definition of corruption: Trump wanting to develop a golf course in Vietnam. With 46 percent tariffs placed on Vietnam, the government of Vietnam naturally is looking for ways to convince Trump to reduce those tariffs. During this time period, as the New York Times reports, Vietnamese government officials are ‘receiving special attention from the Trump administration and President Donald Trump personally.” So Vietnam ignores its own laws to fast-track the Trump golf development. Follow the money.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/vietnam-bypassing-its-own-laws-to-fast-track-15bn-trump-golf-resort-amid-tariffs-threat-report-says/ar-AA1Fsd9G?ocid=BingNewsSerp

May 19 – May 25, 2025

Breaking the Law

Revocation of Harvard’s Ability to Enroll Foreign Students, May 22, 2025
The Trump administration revoked the ability of Harvard to take in international students. The U.S. government has never done anything like this before but the Trump administration breaks norms and precedents like a politician striding the Capitol high on fentanyl. Not surprisingly, Harvard immediately filed a lawsuit. And also unsurprisingly, a judge quickly told the Trump administration to halt such action while the litigation continues. We have many complaints about Harvard. You probably have many complaints about Harvard. But none of the problems at Harvard are solved by the U.S. government preventing Harvard from enrolling international students. And, it is likely against the law, which the courts will rule on in due course.
Judge blocks Trump effort to ban Harvard from enrolling international students – The Washington Post

Trump Threatens Harvard’s Tax-Exempt Status, May 22, 2025
Speaking of attacks on the oldest university in the country, the same day Trump revoked Harvard’s ability to take in international students, he also threatened to remove its tax-exempt status. As the Washington Post writes, “Federal law prohibits senior officials of the executive branch, including the president, from requesting the IRS conduct an audit of a taxpayer.” There might be good reasons for universities with large endowments to pay taxes. But this threat to Harvard is not about some well thought out policy on universities writ large. It is rather all about punishing Harvard for not giving in to Trump’s earlier demands—Harvard decided to fight back against the administration. And so Trump’s actions are retribution not policy. Again, there are a number of things we’d change about Harvard, but as Harvard professor Steven Pinker wrote in the New York Times, “In my 22 years as a Harvard professor, I have not been afraid to bite the hand that feeds me…So I’m hardly an apologist for my employer when I say that the invective now being aimed at Harvard has become unhinged.” Not only unhinged, but also against the law and deeply corrupting of executive power.
Judge blocks Trump effort to ban Harvard from enrolling international students – The Washington Post

Corruption

Media Matters is a left-wing organization that monitors alleged bias and abuses by right-wing media organizations such as Fox News. It also published reports critical of Elon Musk-owned X. Musk is suing Media Matters and now the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has sent a “civil investigative demand letter” to Media Matters. The Washington Post reports that “The letter demanded materials related to a lawsuit filed by Musk, communications with other media and advertising groups dating back to 2019, and information about its technology, methods and policies, among an extensive range of materials…” It’s hard to believe that this is not another in a long list of the Trump administration taking retribution against political and policy opponents.
Federal Trade Commission investigates Media Matters, watchdog sued by Musk – The Washington Post

Dinner With Highest-Paying Customers of $Trump, May 22, 2025
At his Virginia golf club, Trump hosted a dinner last Thursday for hundreds of the largest buyers of the Trump cryptocurrency. The NY Times reports that “Trump and his business partners organized the dinner to promote sales of his $TRUMP cryptocurrency, a meme coin launched just days before Trump’s inauguration.” We’ve repeatedly written in this space that $Trump is the most corrupt act of the many corrupt acts of this administration. The currency allows purchasers to buy influence with Trump. Again, the NY Times reports, “The president’s business partners called the dinner the world’s ‘most EXCLUSIVE INVITATION’ and posted a leaderboard online that allowed crypto investors to calculate how many $TRUMP coins they would have to buy to earn one of the 220 seats.” Sangrok Oh, a Korean crypto executive, was quoted in the article as saying, “It’s kind of a fundraiser for Trump. And he’ll always be good to his sponsors.” But this money doesn’t go to a Trump campaign fund, it goes directly to Trump and his family. Oh essentially says out loud that the folks buying Trump’s cryptocurrency are buying influence. And yet, nobody is doing anything about it.
Hundreds join Trump at ‘exclusive’ dinner, with dreams of crypto fortunes in mind | The Seattle Times

Criticism of Trump Removed from Trump Documentary, May 24, 2025
The New York Times reported on Friday that a “PBS executive pushed for the removal of an anti-Trump cartoon in a documentary about famed artist Art Spiegelman.” The executive was successful. The cartoon no longer appears in the documentary. You might be thinking doesn’t this belong in a PBS Corruption Tracker? No, these kinds of decisions in the media are a direct result of Trump suing and threatening media organizations. Of course, PBS is a special case since it receives federal funding and the Trump administration is trying to cut such funding. That’s a policy decision one can agree or disagree with. But we should be push back against Trump’s continued threats to the first amendment. Thankfully most news organizations still feel free to cover the news in what they think is the best way. But not all—certainly not CBS’s 60 Minutes. And not PBS, which is now editing documentaries to please Trump. We’re not yet on a freeway to tyranny, but Trump and his cronies build gravel trails that could lead to that freeway.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/23/arts/television/art-spiegelman-documentary-edited.html

May 12 – May 18, 2025

Executive Order Setting Drug Prices, May 12, 2025
Trump’s executive order to essentially place price controls on drugs is not just a bad idea, though it is, it is likely not legal. As Tevi Troy, a former Health and Human Services official, said in an article in The Dispatch, “I’m not sure what it applies to, and if it does apply, it’s not clear to me that this is within the realm of the executive branch to declare it by fiat, so it might have to be done by Congress.” I guess, like a multitude of Trump executive orders, this will eventually end up in the courts. It is also worth nothing that U.S. generic drug prices are lower than in most other comparable countries.
Trump signs executive order to slash drug prices, possibly including weight-loss drugs

Corruption

TikTok Promoting Company Buys $Trump Coin, May 13, 2025
GD Culture Group, which is listed on the NASDAQ with a market value of $26 million, announced plans to buy as much as $300 million of $Trump, the meme coin of the Trump family. The Independent and other news sources report that the company is doing this by, “using funds from a mysterious stock sale to an unnamed entity in the British Virgin Islands, a popular tax haven.” GD Culture Group uses algorithms and software to sell products on TikTok, a platform currently in limbo thanks to Trump illegally providing extensions to continue negotiations over its possible sale to American entities. The Trump cryptocurrency scam is the most epic corruption in presidential history. This is another example of a company using Trump’s cryptocurrency, with money it apparently does not have, to buy infuence. And nobody is doing anything about it.
https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/tiktok-china-trump-memecoin-gd-culture-group-b2750838.html

Gabbard Fires Intelligence Staff Who Contradicted Trump on Alien Enemies Act, May 14, 2025
Tulsi Gabbard fired the top staff at the National Intelligence Council a week after the Council stated Venezuela is not controlling, directing or facilitating the operations in the United States of the gang Tren de Aragua. This contradicted a reason for Trump invoking the Alien Enemies Act, which is only used in war time, to deport a bunch of alleged members of the gang. That Gabbard fired staff for providing truthful assessments, is not only a corruption of government, it will make us all less safe. Staff that want to keep their jobs will now only produce assessments that match the party line, which is to say they will be compelled to lie. Faulty assessments, faulty intelligence, even more than loose lips, sinks ships.
Gabbard fires top officials that produced Venezuela gang intelligence – The Washington Post

May 4 – May 11, 2025

Breaking the Law

The two least surprising to be involved in illegally suspending habeas corpus would definitely be Stephen Miller and Donald Trump. They have both said publicly they are considering suspending habeas corpus for immigrants. CNN reports, “President Donald Trump has been personally involved in discussions inside the administration over potentially suspending habeas corpus, a legal procedure that allows people to challenge their detention in court, two people familiar with the consideration told CNN.” One of Trump’s top aides, Stephen Miller, confirmed publicly Friday that the administration was “actively looking at” suspending habeas corpus, adding that it “depends on whether the courts do the right thing or not.” Trump and Miller’s thesis is that we are under invasion, so it is okay to suspend habeas corpus like Lincoln did in the Civil War. One hopes that no court would consider immigrants a military invasion. Perhaps since they have not yet attempted to suspend habeas corpus, only considered doing so, we are too early in placing this in our tracker. But the idea is so blatantly anti-constitutional that Trump and Miller considering it at least deserves a mention.
Trump involved in discussions over suspending habeas corpus, sources say | CNN Politics

Corruption

This morning came news that the royal family of Qatar is giving a 747-8 jumbo jet to Trump. Trump will use this as Air Force One during his time in office. Trump is getting around the gift giving ethics rules by having Qatar give the jet to the Department of Defense though it will be used by Trump. After his time in office the Defense Department will transfer it to the Trump Presidential Library. Not incidentally, last week the Associated Press reported that “The Trump family company struck a deal Wednesday to build a luxury golf resort in Qatar.” This would be the biggest story on the planet for most administrations. But it’s one of nearly countless acts of corruption by the current administration.
Trump administration poised to accept ‘palace in the sky’ as a gift for Trump from Qatar.
Trump company strikes Qatari golf resort deal in a sign it’s not holding back from foreign business

Countries Ward Off Tariffs by Buying Starlink, May 7, 2025
A memo by U.S. State Department staffers notes that a number of countries are working to buy service from Elon Musk’s Starlink in an effort to reduce tariffs the Trump administration has placed on them. Lesotho is one of those countries that awarded Musk’s company a license. The Washington Post reports, “The decision drew a mention in an internal State Department memo obtained by The Washington Post, which states: ‘As the government of Lesotho negotiates a trade deal with the United States, it hopes that licensing Starlink demonstrates goodwill and intent to welcome U.S. businesses.’” Trump defenders will claim this is evidence the tariff policy is working—it’s forcing countries to buy services from American companies. But given Musk’s role in the administration, it looks a lot more like blatant corruption to us. There’s a reason for ethics rules and this is an obvious example of why they once existed and were adhered to.
Nations facing tariffs pushed to approve Elon Musk’s Starlink, cables show – The Washington Post

April 27 – May 4, 2025

Breaking the Law

DOGE employees accounts set up on classified networks holding nuclear secrets, April 28, 2025
DOGE employees have repeatedly been given access to systems in which they did not have security clearance. For example, NPR reported, “Two members of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency were given accounts on classified networks that hold highly guarded details about America’s nuclear weapons.” The Trump administration claims that although accounts were created for the two DOGE employees on the network, they have never accessed it. Given how often the administration and DOGE have lied, it is foolish to accept such claims at face value. It’s possible they have not accessed information on the network. It’s also possible they have, but have not accessed any classified information (such access requires additional steps). It’s also possible they have accessed classified information and even downloaded it as a whistleblower has claimed happened for National Labor Board data. A full investigation is necessary to find out.
DOGE team gain accounts on classified systems with nuclear secrets : NPR

Corruption

According to many news outlets, including Gizmodo, “The Trump family’s cryptocurrency venture World Liberty Financial announced Thursday that its stablecoin will be used to complete a $2 billion transaction between MGX, an investment firm owned by the government of Abu Dhabi, and cryptocurrency exchange Binance.” As we’ve noted previously, Trump’s cryptocurrency is one of the most corrosive, corrupting acts of his second term, becoming the old faithful corruption geyser of the administration, like clockwork, spewing corruption. As Gizmodo wrote, “You really can’t even begin to count just how many conflicts of interest are taking place…The announcement was made on stage Thursday by Zach Witkoff, one of the co-founders of World Liberty Financial, alongside Eric Trump and Donald Trump, Jr. Witkoff is the son of billionaire Trump buddy Steve Witkoff, who happens to currently serve as the United States Special Envoy to the Middle East.” And yet, nothing is being done about this—in Congress, in the courts, or anywhere else. America has turned into a banana republic nearly overnight (although with tariffs those bananas are becoming more expensive).

Spreading 2020 Election Lies, May 1, 2025

Nothing has been more corruptive of America than Trump’s 2020 election denial which continues to this day, including in reprisals we’ve tracked here against those who have correctly said it was a fair and free election that Trump lost. But the corrosiveness of the election denial is widespread as evidenced by the state of Oklahoma inserting election denial into its lesson plans for high school students. In one of the mandated lesson plans, the following task is assigned: “Identify discrepancies in 2020 election results by looking at graphs and other information, including the sudden halting of ballot-counting in select cities in key battleground states, the security risks of mail-in balloting, sudden batch dumps, an unforeseen record number of voters, and the unprecedented contradiction of “bellwether county” trends.” This is a blatant attempt to indoctrinate a new generation into the Big Lies of Trump. It is a degradation of America. Trump’s election denial seeps into everything, like a virus, including into high school education.
https://x.com/juddlegum/status/1917958279008764162?s=61&t=t6N8qw9dfJ3m7pXwd4QmCg

Revoking Global Entry Status of former official for saying Biden on the 2020 election, May 1, 2025
We love our Global Entry Status, something we pay for and must be interviewed for, which makes air travel easier. But if the Trump administration ever discovers our weekly Trump Law-Breaking and Corruption Tracker, we could lose this travel aid. Because he appears to be weaponizing it: The Trump administration revoked the Global Traveler status of Chris Krebs, former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. It turns out Krebs has repeatedly said the 2020 election was fair and square. In addition, according to CNN, “Trump earlier this month stripped Krebs of any existing security clearance he may still hold since leaving office and ordered the Justice Department to probe the former official.” Are you scared yet? Not nearly enough.
https://x.com/paulg/status/1917908806488518807?s=61&t=t6N8qw9dfJ3m7pXwd4QmCg

https://x.com/paulg/status/1917908806488518807?s=61&t=t6N8qw9dfJ3m7pXwd4QmCg

Freight Technologies Inc Buys $Trump to influence policy, April 30, 2025
The above headline is not an exaggeration nor our interpretation of an action. It is literally stated in the press released issued by Freight Technologies in announcing it is buying $20 million in Trump’s corrupt crypto fund, “We believe that the addition of the Official Trump tokens are an excellent way to diversify our crypto treasury, and also an effective way to advocate for fair, balanced, and free trade between Mexico and the US. (bold emphasis ours)” Freight Technologies offers solutions for cross U.S. – Mexico border trade. So, tariffs between the two countries could hamper business. But, of course, there are always exceptions to tariffs, which the Trump administration has been handing out to—well, companies with access and the ability to pay off Trump and his cronies. Maybe we should be applauding Freight Technologies for being so upfront and transparent about making a political payoff—it will allow us to benchmark what $20 million buys from Trump. Or maybe someone–Congress or the Courts–should work to end this shameful corruption.
Freight Technologies Secures up to USD $20 Million to Create an Official Trump Token ($TRUMP) Treasury – Freight Technologies

Donald Trump Jr. co-founds new private members club, Executive Branch, with a $500,000 fee, April 30, 2025
There’s a long tradition of the families of Presidents earning money in dubious ways through their access and use of their relative’s name. And, yes, Hunter Biden was a part of the dubious tradition. But Trump’s kids, like their father, are always willing to take things to the next corrupt level. Donald Trump, Jr., has started a new club in Washington, D.C. called the “Executive Branch.” It held a launch party last weekend “that included at least a half dozen members of President Donald Trump’s administration as well as wealthy CEOs, tech founders and policy experts.” There’s a $500k membership fee, but also annual dues, the cost of which has not been disclosed. The club will be located somewhere in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. As Groucho Marx said, we refuse to join any club that would have us as a member and we’re proud we’d never be accepted at this one.
Donald Trump Jr. co-founds new private members club, Executive Branch, with a $500,000 fee

Negotiations on Paramount Merger and lawsuit against CBS, April 29, 2024
Paramount is trying to gain approval from the FCC for a merger with Skydance. Paramount owns CBS which produces 60 Minutes. Trump sued Paramount and CBS over its pre-election interview with Kamala Harris, a suit that “has been widely described as frivolous.” But Paramount, and every other company in the land, has mountains of evidence that Trump will weaponize the law. And so Paramount is apparently nearing a settlement with Trump over the lawsuit, the sum of which is so far not known. Paramount, according to the Los Angeles Times, “is eager to put the 60 Minutes controversy behind it so that it can move forward with its sale to David Ellison’s Skydance Media.” This is Putin-Russia type of stuff—the kind of thing that happens in Argentina in the early 20^th Century. There’s a good chance America ends up like Argentina did following Peronism and a century of economic and political idiocy.
CBS owner Paramount reportedly intends to settle Trump’s $20 billion lawsuit – Ars Technica

Destroying the Voting Rights section of the Justice Department, April 28, 2025
The Guardian reported, “Donald Trump’s appointees at the Department of Justice have removed all of the senior civil servants working as managers in the department’s voting section and directed attorneys to dismiss all active cases, according to people familiar with the matter, part of a broader attack on the department’s civil rights division.” The Trump administration and its hangers-on have been gunning to destroy this function of the Justice Department for many moons. The Guardian also reported, “Political appointees have also instructed career employees to dismiss all of their active cases without meeting with them and offering a rationale – a significant break with the department’s practices and norms.” And, of course, this is partly related to the 2020 election: “Cleta Mitchell, a Trump ally who aided his effort to try and overturn the 2020 election, has called for mass firings in the civil rights division. ‘Every lawyer in the Voting Section and likely in the Civil Rights Division needs to be terminated. They are not supportive of Pres Trump or MAGA. There has to be a reckoning. These are leftwing activists who have come from and should return to their leftwing organizations,’ she wrote in a post on X shortly after the election.”
Trump’s justice department appointees remove leadership of voting unit | Trump administration | The Guardian

April 7 – April 20, 2025

Breaking the Law

Continued Attempts to Dismantle CFPB, April 17, 2025
The Trump administration, despite a court order stating that it can only fire these folks for cause, continued to try to sack 1400 employees at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The Washington Post reported, “Employees received memos from acting CFPB director Russell Vought saying they would have access to their work systems until 6 p.m. Friday and then be placed on administrative leave for a limited period.” But “U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson issued a written order Friday that halted the firings pending the outcome of a lawsuit brought by the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents the CFPB’s roughly 1,700 workers.” There are good arguments to make it easier to fire and hire federal employees. But the Trump administration is not attempting to change the rules, it is disobeying them.
Consumer financial watchdog lays off most of its employees – The Washington Post
CFPB job cuts blocked by federal judge while union lawsuit proceeds

Deportation Without Due Process, Ongoing
We’ve been in a Constitutional Crisis for months but this week in disobeying the US Supreme Court’s order to “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from an El Salvadoran prison, there’s no hiding the extent and depth of the disaster. In addition, at a media availability with El Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele, Trump said he wants to send US citizens to El Salvador’s prisons. Trump did not ask for or demand the return of Garcia, who was mistakenly sent to El Salvador and Bukele said it was preposterous that he would send him back to America. A U.S. Senator through persistence met with Garcia late this week. Meanwhile Trump displayed for cameras a photo that had been doctored to show gang tattoos on Garcia’s knuckles. That Trump and his cronies lie about Garcia is bad. But whether Garcia is or is not a gang member or has committed any crimes is not the crux of the issue. No due process and disobeying court orders are the foundational issues here. We are disappearing people to dubious prisons in foreign countries in direct contradiction of the US Supreme Court. The Constitution is torn asunder. The time has come for effective, smart rebellion against the lawless, authoritarian Trump administration.

https://x.com/jonlemire/status/1911825703458279801?s=46&t=1NlmboOw1EZGtE-4xAejoQ

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/04/14/trump-bukele-meeting-abrego-garcia/

Defying Judge’s Order on Associated Press Access, April 14, 2025
Despite a federal judge telling the Trump administration it can’t prevent “Associated Press journalists from attending presidential events because of the news organization’s decision to continue using the name Gulf of Mexico,” the Trump administration does just that. On Monday, “The AP was not included in the limited pool of journalists covering the president, as it had been before the ban. And when AP journalists attempted to cover Trump’s Oval Office meeting with the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, they were rebuffed.” The Trump administration has ignored multiple court orders. Trump acts as a dictator. This cannot stand.
AP journalists held out of White House events despite judge’s ruling | The Seattle Times

Freezing Harvard Funds Without Following Civil Rights Law, April 14, 2025
You may hate Harvard’s policies or love them—this is not about that. It’s once again the Trump administration not following the law when it froze $2.2 billion to Harvard, claiming that the college violated civil rights laws. But as the Washington Post notes, “The administration’s action skipped over requirements that say the government must identify and list violations, offer a hearing, notify Congress and then wait 30 days before applying penalties.” The Trump administration continues to act across domains as if there are no laws governing its actions. With regards to Harvard, the Trump administration is trying to claim incompetence rather than malfeasance, “On Friday, the New York Times reported that two Trump administration sources said an April 11 letter signed by three federal officials to Harvard President Alan Garber was ‘unauthorized’ and should not have been sent.” But Harvard claims this is not true, that the Trump administration “doubled down” on its threats to the university. There is ample evidence the Trump administration is incompetent. There are also reams of evidence of its authoritarian nature. They are not mutually exclusive.
Trump administration’s official reasons for cutting Harvard’s $2.2B unclear – The Washington Post

Corruption

Shaking Down Media For Profit, April 14, 2025
We forgot to include Amazon paying Melania Trump $40 million for her documentary in our previous lists of corrupt acts. Our apologies. It’s hard to keep up! Now comes news that “Warner Bros. asked Trump’s orbit how to improve their relationship. Trump’s people pointed to the $40 million Bezos paid for Melania’s doc and suggested giving Don Jr a Discovery hunting show and more pro-Trump voices on CNN.” Even as the Trump administration pushes the country back to 19th century foreign policy, it also mirrors developing country corruption. The United States economy and democracy teeter.
https://x.com/nick_field90/status/1911782724022436225?s=46&t=1NlmboOw1EZGtE-4xAejoQ

Trump administration overrode Social Security staff to list immigrants as dead, April 12, 2025
The Trump administration forced Social Security staff to declare thousands of living immigrants as dead. When an official, Greg Pearre, called them on it, he was escorted from the building. This is likely illegal but for now we will put this in the corrupt category. The Washington Post reports, “Pearre told Coulter that the plan was illegal, cruel and risked declaring the wrong people dead, according to three people familiar with the events.” And, in fact, since this report was published, it turns out many such people have been declared dead who are still alive, including U.S. citizens. Incompetence and corruption are the cream and coffee of the Trump administration, they almost always go together.
Trump administration overrode Social Security staff to list immigrants as dead – The Washington Post

Trump announces deals with more law firms for a combined $600 million, April 11, 2025
We’ve listed previous instances of the Trump administration shaking down law firms for money and this particular type of graft and corruption continues. The Washington Post reported, “President Donald Trump on Friday announced that he had reached agreements with five more law firms pledging to provide a combined $600 million in legal services for causes he supports, the latest deals firms have struck with him in apparent bids to avoid punishment.” As we’ve said before, this is one of the most corrupting of the corrupt practices of the Trump administration. It’s stealing money, it’s dissuading law firms from representing those in the Trump crosshairs and it is generally deeply corrupting of the justice system. We recently listened to the All-In podcast in which David Sacks was one of the guests (and former host of the show). During the podcast, he continually asserted there is no evidence of the Trump administration favoring or punishing companies. Sacks lies like a 19-year-old drinking beer at a kegger, often and voluptuously. The law firms being shaken down is one of the most chilling examples of the cronyism of this administration.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/04/11/trump-law-firms-deals-orders/

ICE stopping ideas from crossing border, April 10, 2025
They deleted the Tweet but nonetheless the ICE account tweeted, as you can see at the link below, “If it crosses the border illegally, it’s our job to stop it: People, Money, Products, Ideas.” Yep, the mindset of the Trump administration is to stop ideas from crossing the border. Authoritarianism is second nature to this administration. Thankfully the tweet was indeed deleted but it is very revealing of the anti-enlightenment of our current government.
Justin Amash on X: “The dystopian future is now. Your government is hard at work stopping “ideas” from crossing the U.S. border. (Reposted as image because the government deleted the post.) https://t.co/crUMXLhGTB” / X

White House pulls nominee after it is revealed she favored accepting the results of the 2020 election, April 10, 2025
Kathleen Sgamma was nominated to be director of the Bureau of Land Management. She had been the longtime president of the Western Energy Alliance and supported fossil fuel and mining expansion. But suddenly her nomination was withdrawn. Why? Not for any policy reasons but because it turned out in a memo to oil execs back in January 2021 she wrote “that she was ‘disgusted’ by Trump ‘spreading misinformation’ on the Jan. 6 attacks and ‘dishonoring the vote of the People.’” Trump will not stand for anyone stating the truth of the original sin of the Trump administration—trying to overturn a legitimate election.
Ramesh Ponnuru on X: “White House pulls nominee after it comes out she favored accepting the results of the 2020 election.” / X

March 31 – April 6, 2025

Breaking the Law

Second TikTok 75-Day Extension, April 4, 2025
Just a reminder it was against the law to institute the original 75-day extension and this second extension also breaks the law. Whether you are for or against the TikTok law overwhelmingly passed by Congress and signed by the president, there is nothing in that law that allows for these extensions.
Trump extends TikTok ban deadline by 75 days – The Washington Post

Continued No Due Process Wreaking Havoc, Ongoing
The consequences of the Trump administration making legal decisions with no due process continue to crop up. Kilmar Abrego García was one of those illegally deported to an El Salvadoran prison last month due to an “administrative error.” The Trump administration essentially said tough luck, that there was no recourse. U.S. courts said not so fast, “U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland ordered the Trump administration to return Kilmar Abrego García, the husband of a U.S. citizen and longtime Maryland resident, to the United States by no later than 11:59 p.m. on Monday.”
Judge orders Trump administration to bring back Md. man mistakenly deported – The Washington Post

Corruption

Constantly Lying About…Nearly Everything, Ongoing and Constant
Bald-faced lies are a form of corruption in themselves, and something we have not included here but should have. Trump and his minions lie, continually and constantly. And not just the typical politician’s fudging the truth but out and out mendacity. We could provide a thousand different examples on a thousand different issues but in honor of tariff week, let’s focus on Trump’s lies on Liberation Day. Because we have neither the time nor space to detail them all, let’s focus on the one that’s received lots of attention. At his announcement, Trump held up a chart showing the alleged tariff rates of other countries on U.S. goods. Except they weren’t the tariff rates of these countries. The numbers were essentially derived by taking the U.S. trade deficit with each country and dividing by the country’s exports to the U.S. Yes, in the denominator the equation included price elasticity of import demand and elasticity of import prices with respect to tariffs. But the crack economists set the former at 4 and the latter at .25 so when multiplying them it comes to one (the economists who developed the theory btw state the numbers 4 and .25 are nonsense). Meaning the equation boils down to the trade deficit divided by exports. This makes no sense economically. But if the Trump administration had labeled the column accurately at least there could be honest argument about the calculation. But, nope, they lied and labeled that column “Tariffs charged to the U.S.A.: Including Currency Manipulation and Trade Barriers.” That is not what that column displayed. Just outright lying, one of thousands, many of which are very damaging—in this case helping to eliminate trillions of dollars of wealth. Outright bald-faced lying is horribly corrosive to civic society, to being able to run a functioning democracy. But nearly every hour of every day, that is what this administration does.
The false things Trump said about tariffs during his announcement – The Washington Post

March 24 – 30, 2025

Breaking the Law

Secretary of State Marco Rubio designated Yunseo Chung as a foreign policy threat. Administration officials were unable to locate Chung and she sued the administration. Chung, who has been in America as a legal permanent resident since she was seven-years-old, participated in pro-Palestinian protests last year and was part of a protest earlier this month against what the protesters asserted were “excessive punishments meted out by the Columbia administration to student demonstrators.” The Washington Post reported that “A federal judge in New York on Tuesday issued a temporary restraining order blocking authorities from detaining her or transferring her outside the district.” It should be noted that Chung is only one of a number of people detained or deported with no due process. This is an ongoing violation of the Constitution.
Columbia student Yunseo Chung sues Trump administration over deportation – The Washington Post

Trump election executive order, March 25 2025
Trump issued an executive order on elections requiring among other things voters must show proof of citizenship and mail-in ballots must be counted by Election Day. As the Washington Post reports, “The U.S. Constitution designates the power to regulate the ‘time, place and manner’ of elections to the states, with the proviso that Congress can step in and override those laws. It gives no specific power to the president to do so.” So the President doesn’t have the power to change how elections are conducted but it should also be noted that some of the executive order’s provisions are impractical or will have a severe impact on citizen’s ability to vote. For example, the executive order states that passports can be used to prove citizenship but birth certificates are not allowed. At least half of Americans don’t have a passport. There are probably some commonsense election reforms Americans could agree on but they need to come from either the states or in certain cases the U.S. Congress. The President can’t mandate them in an executive order.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/03/25/trump-elections-citizenship-proof/

Perjury to Congress, March 24, 2025
Alleged Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard (it is difficult to accept the U.S. Senate confirmed such a person) lied to Congress during her testimony on Monday, March 24^th after the Signal story broke. She claimed no classified information was discussed in the group chat. This is a lie. More accurately she perjured herself in her Congressional testimony. I realize in this day and age perjury might be a quaint concept but personally I prefer the rule of law.
Congress questions Gabbard and Ratcliffe on Yemen war plans in Signal chat – The Washington Post

Conducting classified discussions, including military operations on Signal, March 23, 2025
It’s hard to know where to start in this bonfire of the idiocies. I won’t go into detail since the story has been covered extensively already by news organizations but just a reminder that it is against the law to conduct classified discussions—attack plans and operational details are obviously classified material. In addition, as a judge rightly ruled on Thursday, there are laws mandating the preservation of official conversations. The question we have to ask ourselves is why the use of Signal? Why are cabinet-level officials and their staff not using the approved secure channels of communication? The likely answer means the Signal controversy also belongs in the corruption category.
Judge orders government to preserve Signal messages about Houthi military strike | AP News

Corruption

The Trump administration sanctioned another law firm—Jenner and Block—revoking the firm’s lawyers’ security clearances, denying them access to government buildings and barring companies with federal contracts from using the firm. Why Jenner and Block? The Post reports the firm “employed attorney Andrew Weissmann after he worked as a prosecutor in Robert S. Mueller III’s special counsel investigation of Trump in his first term.” As we noted with the other firms that Trump has sanctioned, this is blatant corruption. But these targeted attacks by the Trump administration appear to be having their intended effect. The Post reports, “Law firms refuse to represent Trump opponents in the wake of his attacks.”
Law firms refuse to represent Trump opponents in wake of his attacks – The Washington Post

Continuing to Promote his cryptocurrency, March 23, 2025
We covered this in the first week’s edition, but Trump is at it again posting on Truth Social, “I LOVE $TRUMP – SO COOL!!! THE GREATEST OF THEM ALL!!!!!!!!!!!” Our apologies if we didn’t type the correct number of exclamation marks he used, we can’t count that high. But to remind everyone, anybody can buy Trump’s cryptocurrency anonymously, pumping up the price and enriching Trump. Putin could do this, a business currying favor with the administration could do this (including a law firm targeted by Trump), anybody seeking favors from Trump can do this. It is highly likely that all sorts of deals by foreign and domestic actors are taking place that are driving policy and decisions that we have no way of knowing about. What a catastrophe.
Promoting his cryptocurrency

March 17 – 23, 2025

Breaking the Law

This has occurred numerous times but I will use the example of Julio Noriega of Chicago. WBEZ Chicago tells the story: Noriega, 54, a U.S. citizen who, according to court documents, was arrested, handcuffed and spent most of the night at an ICE processing center in suburban Broadview. He was never questioned about his citizenship and was only released after agents looked at his ID. “I was born in Chicago, Illinois and am a United States citizen,” Noriega said in his statement, adding that on Jan. 31, after buying pizza in Berwyn he was surrounded by ICE agents and arrested. Officers took away his wallet, which had his ID and social security card. “They then handcuffed me and pushed me into a white van where other people were handcuffed as well.” There’s a reason due process is a thing.
Immigration agents arrested a U.S. citizen and created warrants after an arrest, lawyers say in court – WBEZ Chicago

No Due Process for Immigrants Being Deported, Friday, March 21st
Another illegal aspect of the deportation of Venezuelans to a prison in El Salvador that I covered last week is there was no due process. On Friday, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg questioned the Trump administration about this issue. The ramifications of the Trump administration deporting people en masse with no clear idea if they are really part of a Venezuelan gang became even more clear this week. For example, a journalist at the El Salvadoran prison reports, “The intake began with slaps. One young man sobbed when a guard pushed him to the floor. He said, ‘I’m not a gang member. I’m gay. I’m a barber.’ I believed him. But maybe it’s only because he didn’t look like what I had expected—he wasn’t a tattooed monster.” Barbarians inside the gate.
Judge rebukes Justice Dept., raises due process questions in deportation case

Corruption

Attacks on Judges, Throughout the week
Both Trump and Elon Musk called judges names and threatened impeachment for their fulfilling their judicial duties. Here’s the Washington Post’s report: Elon Musk sought to rally support on social media Wednesday for the impeachment of a federal judge, echoing calls from President Donald Trump and his allies for Congress to take action against judges who rule against the Trump administration. Musk took aim at a judge who recently blocked the administration’s attempted ban on transgender people serving in the military. Earlier Wednesday, Trump leveled a fresh attack on a federal judge who ordered the government not to use a wartime authority to deport suspected Venezuelan gang members without due process. Not that it should matter but some of the judges that Trump, Musk and their minions are attacking are conservative. In fact, one study found that liberal, moderate and conservative justices are ruling against the Trump administration at a similar rate. Regardless, the Trump administration’s attacks on the judiciary branch are yet another blaring alarm about the state of our democracy.
Elon Musk seeks to rally support for impeachment of judge who ruled against Trump – The Washington Post

Law Firm Making Deal To Avoid Sanction, March 20, 2025
Earlier this month, as I previously documented, the Trump administration sanctioned law firms purely as an act of revenge for their doing legal legal work on behalf of Trump’s perceived enemies. This week one of those firms—Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison—agreed to “provide $40 million in pro bono legal services to the Trump administration.” So now the law firm will no longer lose security clearances, access to government buildings, and lose contracts. It’s hard to be shocked by anything the Trump administration does but this is a breathtaking piece of corruption. Private companies are threatened with sanctions and then avoid the sanctions by paying off Trump. This is the very definition of corruption.
Law firm Paul Weiss agrees to deal with Trump, prompting criticism – The Washington Post

Commerce Secretary Lutnick urging people to buy Tesla stock, March 20, 2025

On Thursday on Fox News, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick urged viewers to buy Telsa stock. This was in the wake of a variety of knuckleheads around the country vandalizing Telsa cars (stop doing this, knuckleheads—it is counterproductive to fighting the corruption and law-breaking of the Trump administration). Lutnick said on Fox, “I think if you want to learn something on this show tonight, buy Tesla. It’s unbelievable that this guy’s stock is this cheap. It’ll never be this cheap again.” This, of course, is a violation of ethic standards for government officials. The Washington Post reports, “With only a few exceptions, the Code of Federal Regulations prohibits executive branch employees from using their public office ‘for the endorsement of any product, service, or enterprise.’”
Lutnick urges Fox News viewers to buy Tesla stock, raising ethics questions – The Washington Post

Eliminating the collection and publication of data, March 19 and previously

This appears to be taking place in a number of agencies as part of DOGE’s slash and burn policies. The latest example is at the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the federally backed mortgage institutions. Jed Kolko notes on X: “Is this the end of the FHFA house price index? Sounds like most of the research & stats division of FHFA was put on leave. FHFA produces the essential government report on home price trends, nationally and locally.” So, you may ask, this might be dumb, but why is it corrupt? Authoritarian countries often misrepresent economic data to paint a rosy picture of the economy to help them hold onto power. Many studies have documented this. Here is one example. Eliminating data is a worrisome sign for what the Trump administration might do in the future.
Housing agencies begin closing offices, escorting employees out – Government Executive

March 10 – 16, 2025

Breaking the Law

Invoking Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to Deport Venezuelans, March 15, 2025
This act has been used three times—during the War of 1812, World War I and World War II. What do those three instances have in common? Congress had formally declared war. We are, you might have noticed, not at war with Venezuela. Congress has not declared war, there are no battles or skirmishes between the U.S. and Venezuela. A judge quickly blocked the action of the Trump administration, including forcing planes in the air with Venezuelans to turn around and come back to the U.S. It should be noted that the Trump administration tried to quietly invoke this law illegally, knowing full well if word got out a judge would block it—because the action is illegal. Trump not only breaks the law, he knows he’s breaking the law, so acts like a thief in the night to steal American democracy. Between this and the actions by the Trump administration below, we are in a full-blown constitutional and democracy crisis in the United States.
Judge blocks Trump after he invokes wartime Alien Enemies Act to speed up deportations – The Washington Post

Cancelling of 83 percent of USAID Programs, March 10, 2025
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the “cancelling 83% of the programs at USAID.” As we’ve noted in previous posts, only Congress can cancel programs that were authorized and appropriated by Congress. Some of the USAID programs, if they are funded by funds generally authorized for USAID by Congress without specific directions on how it is to be spent, could be cancelled. But the administration would still have to use the funds for similar purposes. If the Trump administration wants to delete these programs and funding, they have to work through Congress to get legislation passed.
Marco Rubio on X: “After a 6 week review we are officially cancelling 83% of the programs at USAID. The 5200 contracts that are now cancelled spent tens of billions of dollars in ways that did not serve, (and in some cases even harmed), the core national interests of the United States. In” / X

The Detention of Mahmoud Khalil, March 9, 2025
Khalil is a lawful permanent resident of the United States. But he was taken away by the federal government and is being detained in Louisiana (for judge shopping purposes) without access to a lawyer. He has not been charged with a crime. After initially offering no explanation for detaining Khalil, the Trump administration cited the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1952, “which allows the Secretary of State to declare someone ‘deportable’ if they have ‘reasonable ground to believe’ that the immigrant’s “presence or activities in the U.S. … would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.” The Trump administration is also stating that there will be many more to come like Khalil. This is an astonishing attack on the First Amendment which will be tested in Court. We’re very worried the Supreme Court, which last summer declared the President above the law, will now demolish the First Amendment.

Khalis may have views that you don’t agree with, which I may not agree with, but in America he has the right to hold these views. If a legal permanent resident can be deported for stating their beliefs—not for acting on those beliefs or breaking the law—then we have eliminated free speech for permanent legal residents. The Trump administration is asserting that a single official—the Secretary of State—can determine what is free speech and what is an adverse consequence for U.S. foreign policy. We remind you that foreign policy changes in the United States all the time. Sometimes within the same administration. So, if a legal permanent resident expresses a belief earlier in a presidential administration that is in synch with that administration’s foreign policy, but that foreign policy changes later in the administration, under the Trump administration’s assertions, that legal permanent resident can be deported. And it’s a slippery slope to full American citizens facing the same loss of a fundamental American right. If the Trump administration arrested Khalil for somehow aiding and abetting Hamas in a way that breaks the law, then detaining him would not break the First Amendment. But that is not what the Trump administration did. Its actions against Khalil are terrifying and should be protested in every effective manner.
Can Marco Rubio Revoke Mahmoud Khalil’s Green Card? What To Know About Little-Known Law Used To Justify Protester’s Arrest.
FIRE demands answers from Trump admin officials on arrest of Mahmoud Khalil | The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression

Corruption

Trump Calls Certain News Media Organizations Illegal, March 14, 2025
During a speech at the Department of Justice, the very fact of which is unusual, Trump said, ““I believe that CNN and MS-DNC, who literally write 97.6 percent bad about me, are political arms of the Democrat Party and in my opinion, they’re really corrupt and they’re illegal, what do they do is illegal.” Trump went on to say, “And it has to stop, it has to be illegal, it’s influencing judges and it’s really changing law, and it just cannot be legal. I don’t believe it’s legal, and they do it in total coordination with each other.” We’re not here to defend cable TV news, most of which is inane and counter-productive to understanding the world. But they are not illegal. News media organizations, and I can’t believe I have to remind people of this, are protected by the First Amendment. Trump isn’t concerned by bad news organizations or he would have included places like Fox News in his list of complaints. Trump wants to cut off specific viewpoints. He is an authoritarian and stopping free speech is what authoritarians do. He continues to corrupt and damage American democracy at an unprecedented rate and level.
Trump suggests media outlets be deemed illegal

Shredding of USAID Documents, March 11, 2025
U.S. Administration for International Development (USAID) officials ordered staff to shred documents at the U.S. headquarters building, according to the Washington Post. The article states, “…senior USAID official ordered employees to shred or burn documents at the organization’s Washington headquarters, including those related to agency personnel and those stored in safes used for classified material.” First, there are procedures and laws for determining what documents to shed and it’s not at all clear those were followed in this case. Second, there are numerous lawsuits against the Trump administration for the way it is firing USAID staff and cutting its programs and funds. Now is not the time for shedding documents, some of which could be relevant to those cases.
USAID workers told to shred, burn documents, unnerving Congress – The Washington Post

Musk Calling Senator Mark Kelly a “traitor” and calling for the impeachment of judges, Throughout the week of March 10 – 16, 2025
Elon Musk called Mark Kelly a traitor for his expressing support for Ukraine in its defending itself against Russia’s invasion. Musk also multiple times said judges should be impeached for ruling against the Trump administration. That a figure with so much power within the Trump administration (though not in a position that required confirmation by the Senate) called an elected leader a traitor for frankly benign views—views that more than 50 percent of the American public share—is a betrayal of democracy. That he is calling for impeachment of a judge is an interference in the that branch of the U.S. government. That Musk does so holding immense power in the U.S. government but with no ability for Congress or the Judiciary to check that power, is an abomination.
Musk calls Sen. Mark Kelly a ‘traitor’ in response to post about visiting Ukraine – The Washington Post
Elon Musk Immediately Calls for Judges to Be Impeached After Rulings Overturn DOGE Firings

March 3 – 9, 2025

Breaking the Law

More firings of Justice Department officials, March 7, 2025
The Justice Department fired some more Justice Department officials, including those involved with ethics (can’t have any of that in this administration) and pardons. The Washington Post reports, “Jeffrey Ragsdale, the head of the Office of Professional Responsibility, and Liz Oyer, the U.S. pardon attorney, were among those removed…” The lawyer heading up bankruptcy was also fired which makes sense for an administration bankrupt of morals. These are apolitical positions and are supposed to only be fired for political reason. But not in this administration.
Trump’s Justice Department ousts several top career officials – The Washington Post

Corruption

Targeting Law Firms Trump Doesn’t Like, March 6, 2025
This is likely illegal but for now we’ll put it in the corruption category. Trump signed an executive order calling out by name Perkins Coie Law Firm (headquartered here in Seattle—I once knew many of their lawyers and partners). The Washington Post reports that the executive order, “bans the federal government from hiring it, or from using contractors who work with it, except in limited circumstances. The order also bars Perkins Coie employees from entering federal buildings and suspends their security clearances.” This is all because Perkins Coie has represented Hillary Clinton in the past and been involved in the Russian dossier investigation of the first Trump administration. The Trump administration, like a developing or authoritarian country, continues to favor specific companies and target others. This corruption inevitably will degrade the U.S. economy, among many other bad effects.
Trump expands retribution campaign against law firms that aided his foes – The Washington Post

FAA Using Starlink, Ongoing
Elon Musk has directed one of his SpaceX engineers to implement Starlink technology at FAA, despite Verizon having won a contract in 2023 to do the same thing. There is no doubt that the FAA’s communications network, and air traffic control technology, is long overdue for an upgrade. But just willy-nilly implementing Starlink technology, with no process whatsoever (even admitting that federal government procurement processes are also in need of reform) is blatant corruption. The Atlantic reports, “In 2023, they awarded Verizon a 15-year, $2.4 billion contract to modernize the network. But that award is now in jeopardy, as agency officials race to determine whether aspects of the work can be allocated to SpaceX instead—and how much extra money they would need to come up with to make that happen.” That Elon Musk, arguably the most powerful person in the second Trump administration, can mandate his company does the work at the FAA, outside of any established procedures, is not what anyone but Elon Musk signed up for.
The FAA’s Troubles Are More Serious Than You Know – The Atlantic

February 24 – March 2, 2025

Breaking the Law

Asking IRS for taxpayers data of possible illegal immigrants. Reported February 27, 2025
The Washington Post reported, “Department of Homeland Security authorities asked the IRS on Thursday to connect the names of potentially undocumented immigrants with the people’s last known addresses, phone numbers and email addresses.” It is illegal for the IRS to provide taxpayer information to outsiders, including other parts of the federal government. The IRS itself can do investigations, including of those suspected of being in the country illegally (though since DOGE has fired hundreds of IRS employees there’s fewer workers to conduct investigations). But they can’t hand over taxpayer information to DHS. Remember the names DHS are asking for are potentially here illegally, not definitively here illegally.
IRS rejected request for addresses of people believed to be in U.S. illegally – The Washington Post

Corruption

SEC Halts investigation of Justin Sun, who has infused funds into Trump-owned company. January 26, 2025
In March, 2023, Sun, a Chinese national, had been charged by the SEC of crypto fraud. After Trump was elected, Sun announced he “purchased $30 million in crypto tokens from World Liberty Financial (WLF), a new venture backed by President Donald Trump and his family.” This apparently was the largest investment in WLF. On Wednesday, the SEC, now under Trump control, asked the judge to drop the case. The judge did so.
BREAKING: SEC halts fraud prosecution of Chinese national who sent Trump millions

Demotion of Prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney DC Office for working on January 6th investigations. January 28th
The Trump administration continues to punish anyone involved in the January 6th investigations and prosecutions. The Washington Post reports, “Seven top leaders of the U.S. attorney’s office for Washington, D.C., were demoted to misdemeanor and entry-level intake positions Friday.” In previous years, these seven were assigned to work on January 6th and other cases against those associated with Trump, such as Steve Bannon. The demotion of these seven comes on top of other retribution and firings of others involved in investigating and prosecuting the January 6th insurrection. These are blatantly corrupt actions by Trump II and undermine democracy.
Seven top D.C. prosecutors demoted in Trump U.S. attorney-led purge – The Washington Post

Dismantling of Civil Rights Office. January 28, 2025
The Trump administration is closing civil rights offices and firing staff across multiple agencies who work on civil rights issues. It is part of the anti-woke crusade, which sure seems very woke to us in its zeal and inaccuracies. One example of the closings and firings: “The Social Security Administration this week announced it was closing its Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity, where about 150 people worked investigating civil rights complaints, preventing harassment and ensuring accommodations for people with disabilities…” You might be against some of the investigations these agencies do. But these offices and staff are upholding current law. Change the law if you don’t want investigations of the laws being broken.
Federal agencies are dismantling civil rights, EEO offices – The Washington Post

February 17 – 23, 2025

Breaking the Law

Ignoring court order to resume foreign assistance spending. February 20, 2025
”U.S. District Court Judge Amir H. Ali ordered the Trump administration to comply with a temporary restraining order (TRO) lifting its 90-day pause on foreign aid.” But the Trump administration has ignored this order. We know first-hand organizations who are still not receiving USAID funding despite this Judge’s order. People keep saying they are worried we will enter a constitutional crisis. They are using the wrong tense, it has already occurred. In fact, there is an ongoing assault on the Constitution.
Trump administration says it can keep acting despite judges’ orders – The Washington Post

Corruption

Musk threatening companies to advertise on x. Revealed on February 19, 2025
The advertising conglomerate Interpublic Group asserts that a lawyer from X told them, “Get your clients to spend more on Elon Musk’s social-media platform, or else….Interpublic leaders interpreted the communications from X as reminders that the recently announced $13 billion deal to merge Interpublic with rival Omnicom Group could be torpedoed, or at least slowed down, by the Trump administration.” This is a blatant case of corruption. Hat tip: Kevin Drum.
Exclusive | X Hinted at Possible Deal Trouble in Talks With Ad Giant to Increase Spending – WSJ

February 10 – 16, 2025

Breaking the Law

Continuing to break TikTok law. February 13, 2025
This week the Trump administration’s justice department sent a letter to Apple and Google assuring them they would not be prosecuted under the TikTok law. This letter essentially executes on a promise made in the January 20th executive order calling for a 75-delay in the law. Consequently, Google and Apple have now restored TikTok to their app stores. The Justice Department has no legal power to do this just as Trump had no power to issue such an executive order. The law was passed overwhelmingly by Congress and signed by Biden. This is a blatant breaking of the law.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/02/13/tiktok-app-stores-apple-google/

Corruption

Dismissing Without Prejudice charges against NYC Mayor Eric Adams. February 11, 2025
As the Washington Post reports, “acting deputy attorney general Emil Bove said the decision was not based on the evidence or theory of the case against Adams” but rather because Adams “should be free ‘to devote full attention and resources’ to addressing illegal immigration and violent crime in New York City.” It’s okay to break the law as long as you adhere to Trump’s immigration policies. Thus far lawyers in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in NYC are refusing to implement this corruption.
Prosecutors should drop charges against NY Mayor Eric Adams, DOJ says – The Washington Post

Suspending enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). February 10, 2025
The idea behind the suspension is to bolster U.S. business competitivness abroad. I’ve seen usually level headed analysts such as Noah Smith approve of this. But to our mind, this is further evidence of a descent into 19th century geopolitics and economy. The world economy is becoming less efficient and this will add to it.
Relief for Adani as Trump suspends foreign corrupt practices law

February 3 – 9, 2025

Breaking the Law

• Shutting Down and/or Reorganizing USAID. February 3, 2025USAID was created by statute and can’t just be shut down. It also cannot be reorganized without providing 15 days notice to Congress. It is also not clear that employees can be fired and recalled internationally in the way the Trump administration is doing.
  https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IN/IN12500
• DOGE access to Treasury payment systems. (Sometime after January 20th, Judges ruling against occured on February 6, 2025)A judge has now struck this down but nonetheless this is another case of the Trump administration breaking the law.
  https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/02/04/elon-musk-government-legal-doge/ and https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/07/nyregion/attorneys-general-trump-musk-suit.html

Corruption

• Loyalty Tests for law enforcement and intelligence Jobs. Ongoing
  The Washington Post reports, “Candidates for top intelligence and law enforcement jobs were asked to give “yes” or “no” responses to questions such as: Was Jan. 6 “an inside job?” This is Communist Party of China/East Germany stuff.
  https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/02/08/trump-administration-job-candidates-loyalty-screening/
• Elminates teams working to fight foreign interference in U.S. elections. February 9, 2025
  The administration eliminated the FBI task force that works to “uncover covert efforts by Russia, China, Iran and other foreign adversaries to manipulate U.S. voters” and placed on administrative leave Homeland Security staff who work on the election security arm of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
  https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/02/08/trump-administration-cuts-election-security-teams/
• Calls for Palestinians to be evicted from Gaza. February 5, 2025
  This is against international law. We decided the Breaking the Law Section above should only include U.S. laws so have placed this item under corruption.
  https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/02/05/gaza-trump-ethnic-cleansing-displacement/
• Nominee for FBI has received payments from Russian entities and has investments in Chinese company, Shein. February 6, 2025
  ”This is the same nominee who has vowed to stop investigating Chinese espionage in the U.S. With such financial stakes, one is led to wonder why.”—Rush Doshi
  https://x.com/RushDoshi/status/1886237936842092798 and https://x.com/RushDoshi/status/1887679736387625067

January 28 – February 2, 2025

Breaking the Law

• Deletion of federal websites. February 1, 2025
  On Saturday, a bunch of websites we’re deleted, including foreignassistance.gov—that website is required by law by the Foreign Aid Transparency and Accountabilty Act of 2016. If the site goes down for maintenance, that is probably not against the law but an extended downtime might be.
  US Government Websites Are Disappearing in Real Time | WIRED
• “Deferred resignation” offered to federal employees. January 28^th, 2025
  For now we’re putting this in italics. It is not clear under what authority the Office of Personnel and Management (OPM) can offer these buyouts since the workers are employees of the agencies and their salaries funded by those agencies. It’s also not clear there is legal authority to offer early retirement
  Musk team’s push for federal worker buyouts bypassed key Trump officials – The Washington Post

January 20 – 27, 2025

Breaking the Law

• Pausing all grants and loans disbursed by federal government. January 27, 2025
  Congress authorizes and appropriates federal funds. The executive branch executes the dispersal of funding. It does not have the power to stop funding. From WA Post: The order’s legality may be contested, but the president is generally allowed under the law to defer spending for a period of time if certain conditions are met, according to budget experts. To comply, though, Trump must make clear which budget accounts are frozen, and the budget office’s order may not have given sufficient grounds under the law to pause the funding. Pausing it over policy disagreements is not legal, said Bobby Kogan, a federal budget expert at the left-leaning Center for American Progress and a former Biden administration official.
  White House pauses all federal grants, sparking confusion – The Washington Post More details here: Trump Tries to Seize ‘the Power of the Purse’ – The Atlantic
• Firing Inspector Generals at various agencies. January 24, 2025
  The law requires the president to notify Congress 30 days before firing an inspector general.
  Trump fires at least 14 independent inspectors general in late-night purge – The Washington Post
• Blocking entry to migrants who have passed through countries with communicable diseases. January 20^th 2025
  Title 42 requires citing a specific communicable disease threat. The Trump administration did not do this.
  Diseased Illegal Immigrants Aren’t “Invading” the United States | Cato at Liberty Blog
• Issues unconstitutional executive order on birth right citizenship. January 20, 2025
  To end such citizenship requires a constitutional amendment, not an executive order. The president does not have such power.
  Protecting The Meaning And Value Of American Citizenship – The White House
• Tik Tok 75-day extension. January 20, 2025
  There is no provision in the law for doing this (Biden also broke the law in his last day in office). The TikTok law provides for a 90-day extension, if Congress certifies there is tangible divestment of the company occurring. No such certification was made, no divestment was occurring.
  TikTok Ban Live Updates: Trump Halts Ban For 75 Days—After CEO Attends Inauguration

Corruption

· Pardoned and commuted sentences of January 6 insurrectionists. January 20^th, 2025
Excuses past anti-democratic behavior and sanctions future such efforts
Trump pardons some 1,500 Jan. 6 rioters, commutes 14 sentences : NPR

· Executive Order “Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government. January 20, 2025
Orders the federal government to investigate those who investigated the insurrection of January 6, 2020. It makes a baseless claim of persecution of insurrectionists: “And while the Department of Justice has ruthlessly prosecuted more than 1,500 individuals associated with January 6, and simultaneously dropped nearly all cases against BLM rioters. “
Ending The Weaponization Of The Federal Government – The White House

· Creation of meme coin, $Trump. January 18, 2025
Enriches Trump and his family by allowing individuals to buy his meme coin. This can easily become influence peddling.
Trump launches his own $TRUMP meme coin, price soars overnight – CBS News