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White House Watch
Every documented action of the US administration, newest first, in plain words, each with a link to the news report it is verified against. The small gold tags tell you the kind of action at a glance: hover one for what it means, or tap a tag above the list to see only that kind. Built fresh every morning from the public TrumpActionTracker feed.
151Actions (30d)
30Days covered
5.0Per day, avg
24News sources
| Date | Action | News source |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-08-23 | ||
| 2026-08-23 | Trump administration uses federal agencies and declassified government material to amplify unsubstantiated claims of widespread election fraud and noncitizen voting, laying groundwork for possible declaration of a national emergency and greater federal control over elections. | theguardian.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-23 | The Department of Justice (DOJ) has installed unconfirmed attorneys as acting U.S. attorneys, circumventing the Senate confirmation process. Two federal appeals courts ruled that the practice violates federal law. The DoJ has defended its authority to use unconfirmed acting attorneys. | thehill.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-22 | ||
| 2026-08-22 | The United States Postal Service (USPS) announced new eligibility guidelines for mail-in ballots, complying with President Trump’s March executive order restricting the practice — despite a federal court later striking it down. | thehill.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-22 | The Trump Administration imposed new 50% tariffs on Canadian goods after trade talks collapsed, escalating economic coercion against Canada while continuing to pressure the country over Trump’s demand that it become the “51st state”. | bbc.co.uk ↗ |
| 2026-08-22 | Texas Governor Greg Abbott used state regulatory and funding pressure to challenge Muslim religious accommodations in washrooms at Texas airports, prompting Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport to abandon plans for additional washing facilities before prayers. There are about 4.5 million Muslims in the U.S., including more than 300,000 in Texas. "These are not 'Muslim-only' spaces any more than a nursing room or an interfaith prayer room is 'Christian-only' or 'mothers-only,'" said the Texas chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, an advocacy group. | reuters.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-22 | ICE agents arrested an Ecuadorian mother and her 19-year-old daughter inside a Florida hospital emergency department while they were receiving treatment following a car accident, illustrating the administration's use of its 2025 removal of restrictions on immigration enforcement in hospitals and other previously designated sensitive locations. | cubaheadlines.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-21 | ||
| 2026-08-21 | The US ambassador to Belgium, Trump appointee Bill White, publicly condemned Ghent University for suspending US academic Nathan Cofnas following a disciplinary investigation into his conduct towards the late Cambridge professor Jason Arday. White characterised the suspension as retaliation for whistleblowing and said the US was reviewing its relationships with Ghent University. The intervention followed a private request by White to the university to reconsider the suspension and ensure Cofnas's continued employment. | thetimes.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-21 | The Trump administration moved to strip the American Bar Association of its longstanding role as the federally recognised accreditor of U.S. law schools, citing its diversity requirements and alleged lack of independence. The ABA has held the accreditation role since 1952; losing it could disrupt federal student-loan access for law schools and make it harder for graduates to qualify for bar admission. The move follows a broader campaign against the ABA after it challenged Trump policies, including his attacks on law firms and changes to judicial-appointment processes. | reuters.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-21 | The Trump administration has been accused of delivering a “slap in the face” to US military veterans after reports that a navy aircraft carrier set to honor a Black war hero may, instead, be named after Donald Trump | theguardian.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-21 | The Pentagon fired publisher Max Lederer and editor Eric Slavin of the US military news outlet "Stars and Stripes" after the publication reported on crew conditions on the USS Abraham Lincoln | theguardian.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-21 | President Trump has opened a new front in his campaign to intimidate political foes, threatening a prominent liberal think tank with a $5 billion defamation lawsuit over a report concluding that his deployment of the National Guard to cities across the country has had little effect on reducing violent crime. | nytimes.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-21 | After courts blocked the Trump administration's overt freeze of Harvard's federal funding, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) continued to pressure the university through reduced, delayed and rejected research grants. Through June 2026, NIH funding to Harvard was about 18% below its 2021–24 average pace, while funding to Harvard's Chan School of Public Health was nearly 25% lower. The less transparent funding slowdown is harder to challenge in court and is contributing to staff layoffs, reductions in PhD places and growing uncertainty for researchers | nytimes.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-21 | A highly unusual Census Bureau report that President Trump is using to reup dubious claims of widespread illegal voting by non-U.S. citizens has ties to a Trump-aligned think tank. In a social media post, Trump claimed that the bureau’s initial analysis of more than 128 million voter records “proves that over 24,000 Noncitizens voted illegally” in the 2020 presidential election and that the final number will “explode” after the statistical agency finishes checking over 32 million more voter records. The unauthored, seven-page report says it draws on a 2020 commercial voter file and various federal administrative records, but data and election experts say the report is questionable in its methodology and conclusions | npr.org ↗ |
| 2026-08-21 | A 1-year-old baby appeared in immigration court without legal representation this week in Arizona and received an instruction: File an asylum application before the next hearing or face deportation. An attorney from the U.S. Committee for Refugees, one of the groups with a new contract to represent migrant children, was silent as it happened, according to filings in the legal dispute between a network of nonprofits and the Trump administration | notus.org ↗ |
| 2026-08-20 | ||
| 2026-08-20 | The Trump administration proposed eliminating the 10-mile buffer zone protecting Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico, potentially opening 336,400 acres surrounding the UNESCO World Heritage Site to oil and gas drilling and uranium mining. The move threatens the area's Indigenous cultural and archaeological sites, dark skies and fragile environment, despite more than 100,000 objections during a 14-day public consultation | theguardian.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-20 | The Trump White House reportedly allowed senior aide Natalie Harp, one of the president's closest advisers and gatekeepers, to work for nearly a year without a security clearance despite her extensive access to Trump, including accompanying him on Air Force One and foreign trips. The clearance process was reportedly initiated only after the White House counsel's office raised the issue and Trump became personally involved. | theguardian.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-20 | The Pentagon reportedly considered firing Stars and Stripes publisher Max Lederer weeks before his planned retirement, amid tensions over the newspaper's independent reporting on deteriorating conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. Lederer had said his understanding of the paper's mission and editorial independence fundamentally differed from Pentagon leadership. | theguardian.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-20 | The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) claims to have identified 15,903 noncitizens registered to vote in Nevada despite being unable to substantiate the figure. DHS provided Nevada election officials with a list said to contain up to 15,903 potential noncitizens, which President Trump subsequently cited as evidence of widespread noncitizen voting. When Nevada officials later challenged the figure, DHS acknowledged that only 185 potential noncitizens had been identified so far and that the larger number had not undergone full manual review. | nytimes.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-20 | A man in Virginia, José Mejía Hernandez, was hospitalized with a brain injury and severe bruising all over his face after he was arrested by US immigration (ICE) agents. Following his discharge from hospital, he transferred to an ICE office where he was fitted with an ankle monitor and given a notice to appear before an immigration judge. | theguardian.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-19 | ||
| 2026-08-19 | Trump, whose family has earned more than $1.4 billion from cryptocurrency ventures since his return to office, hosted crypto executives at the White House as his administration advanced crypto-friendly regulatory policies. The SEC proposed rules exempting certain token offerings from securities regulation, making it easier for crypto companies to raise money, while Trump continued to maintain substantial financial interests in the sector. | reuters.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-19 | Trump insulted two Democratic candidates in Florida's Senate Democratic primary election writing on Truth Social: "The most gratifying loss last night was that of a real treasonous creep, Alexander Vindman, to a Radical Left Lunatic, who can’t speak or think properly,” He referred to Alex Vindham, who had testified during Trump's first impeachment trial, and Angie Nixon, who he lost against. | thehill.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-19 | The U.S. Education Department has issued guidance urging schools to stop what it calls "racial balancing" in student discipline policies, prompting concerns that the Trump administration is making it harder to address longstanding racial disparities in school discipline. | reuters.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-19 | The Justice Department defended its prosecution of former FBI director James Comey over a social-media post showing seashells arranged as “8647”, which prosecutors interpret as a coded threat to kill President Trump. Comey denies any threatening intent and argues the prosecution is politically motivated and targets protected speech. The prosecution of a prominent Trump adversary over an ambiguous social-media message raises concerns about the politicisation of federal criminal law and prosecutorial independence | theguardian.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-19 | Federal Communication Commission (FCC) Chair Brendan Carr maintained extensive contact with White House officials over FCC decisions affecting broadcasters, with internal communications revealing direct White House involvement in the independent regulator's media policy and enforcement decisions. The intervention has raised concerns that the Trump administration is using the FCC to exert political influence over the US broadcast media landscape. | theguardian.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-19 | Donald Trump nominated Dr Heidi Overton – an abortion opponent who stood next to the president as he made false claims about vaccines – to be commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA regulates the nation’s drugs, medical devices and much of its food supply. The FDA also regulates medication abortions, specifically the drug mifepristone, which has become an important piece of abortion access for the 23 million women living in states with bans. | theguardian.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-19 | Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gives his wife an unprecedented unofficial role in Pentagon operations, including interviewing prospective staff, participating in senior defence meetings and influencing communications/media policy. | nytimes.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-19 | After allowing the longstanding contract providing legal representation to more than 20,000 unaccompanied migrant children to expire, the Trump administration sought to replace it with short-term and inexperienced providers, including awarding a no-bid contract worth up to $244 million to Our Rescue, an organisation with little experience providing immigration legal services. | nytimes.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-19 | A DOJ whistleblower complaint alleged that Trump administration investigations of universities over antisemitism were opened without sufficient factual evidence, had predetermined outcomes and disregarded due-process and free-speech requirements. The complaint said officials' concerns about the legality and evidential basis of investigations were dismissed, while interviews with Middle East studies professors appeared designed to intimidate academics based on assumptions about their views rather than evidence of antisemitism. | reuters.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-18 | ||
| 2026-08-18 | The US has sanctioned the president of the international criminal court (ICC) and a prosecutor tasked with investigating crimes committed by Israel during its war on Gaza. In a statement, Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, called the ICC a “corrupt and fatally politicized supranational court that has maliciously abused its authority and exceeded its mandate”, and announced sanctions against Tomoko Akane of Japan, the ICC president, and Abdoulaye Seye of Senegal, an ICC senior trial lawyer, because they had “directly engaged in efforts by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute officials whose government has not consented to ICC jurisdiction”. | theguardian.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-18 | The US Forest Service, part of the Department of Agriculture (USDA), announced it had filed the proposal to rescind the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule in its entirity. The rule, brought in by the Clinton adminstration was created to protect old-growth forests. If it is rescinded, it potentially opens up almost 45m acres of national forests to road construction, drilling and logging. | theguardian.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-18 | The Trump administration has deleted at least 28 federal datasets and substantially altered another 338 across more than 60 agencies, removing or changing government data on health, education, labour, law enforcement and the environment. Health data account for around 40% of the affected datasets, including CDC surveillance systems that have dropped questions on gender identity and SAMHSA's Drug Abuse Warning Network, which is no longer being updated. Agencies have often made these changes without public notification, potentially erasing data needed for research, policymaking and public accountability | theguardian.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-18 | The Trump administration has asked a federal appeals court to reinstate criminal charges against Kilmar Ábrego García that were dismissed in May by a judge who said the prosecution of the man who unwittingly became a symbol of the White House’s mass deportation campaign was “vindictive in nature”. | theguardian.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-18 | The Pentagon ordered 30 universities, including Harvard and MIT, to audit their partnerships with foreign institutions, primarily in China, and terminate relationships deemed problematic or risk losing federal funding. Universities were given two weeks to complete the review, extending federal control over universities' international academic partnerships on national-security grounds | apnews.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-18 | President Trump warned Omani officials against getting “in the way” of the U.S. during negotiations with their Iranian counterparts over reopening the Strait of Hormuz. “If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the s— out of them,” he told Fox News’s Trey Yingst. | thehill.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-18 | President Trump posted an image of a map labeling the Strait of Hormuz as a U.S. territory early on Tuesday in an apparent effort to double down on his calls to annex the waterway. | thehill.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-17 | ||
| 2026-08-17 | The White House launched a personal attack against a CNN reporter on Monday with a social media post that mentioned her children and accused her of asking a “disgusting and inhumane question”. | theguardian.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-17 | The U.S. Department of Justice said it was probing the College of William & Mary, alleging the Virginia-based public research institution favored ethnic minorities in certain scholarships and student benefits, and marking the Trump administration's latest targeting of an educational institution. | reuters.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-17 | The Trump administration cancelled at least three NIH grants at Emory University and the University of Pittsburgh studying how racial discrimination and social disadvantage affect Alzheimer's and brain health, worth approximately $15 million. The grants had previously been funded and were delayed and then reinstated before being cancelled after NIH determined that the research no longer aligned with its priorities, citing the use of self-reported measures and a lack of sufficiently objective variables despite researchers arguing that these are established and scientifically valid methods | theguardian.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-17 | President Trump ripped “Fox News Sunday” anchor Shannon Bream over on-air guests, charts and polls that Trump said weren’t reflective of the successful measures undertaken by his administration. | thehill.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-16 | ||
| 2026-08-16 | President Donald Trump ordered the Pentagon on Sunday to scale back planned joint military exercises with South Korea after the Republican president said it declined to help denuclearize Iran. | apnews.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-15 | ||
| 2026-08-15 | The U.S. Navy is considering a major redesign of its new aircraft carriers to better match President Donald Trump’s preferred aesthetic for the warships. Trump’s preference, current and former officials said, is for the new aircraft carriers to look more like those that were in service during World War II. Implementing this change could cost billions of dollars in redesign costs and delay refits. | washingtonpost.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-15 | The Trump administration accelerated deportations through major changes to immigration court procedures, including mass "mega master" hearings with limited notice, rapid issuance of in-absentia removal orders and reduced opportunities for immigrants to obtain legal representation or present their cases. In June, immigration judges issued 53,808 in-absentia removal orders, while more than 100 judges had been removed, resigned or retired since Trump's return and increasingly replaced by judges recruited explicitly to expedite deportations | theguardian.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-15 | The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency granted preliminary conditional approval for World Liberty Trust Co., a proposed national trust bank sponsored by World Liberty Financial, which is partly owned by an entity controlled by President Trump's family. The charter would allow the company to directly issue and redeem its USD1 stablecoin, prompting concerns about the Trump administration's financial regulator approving a bank application that would directly benefit the president's family business | thehill.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-15 | The Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel issued an opinion expanding the circumstances in which President Trump can claim executive privilege over communications with private advisers outside government, potentially shielding those communications from congressional and other investigations. The opinion follows a separate April OLC opinion arguing that the Presidential Records Act is unconstitutional, further expanding presidential claims of confidentiality and limiting mechanisms for external oversight of the White House. | thehill.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-15 | President Trump targeted several Democratic politicians in a series of Truth Social posts. One image showed El-Sayed alongside Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), all of whom are Muslims, under the word “Jihadists.” Trump also posted an image of El-Sayed and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who is shown wearing a Native American headdress generated by artificial intelligence, with the caption: “Pocahontas and ‘Abdul’ want to take your stuff, and Crash the Economy.” | thehill.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-14 | ||
| 2026-08-14 | The White House released a report called "The Great Transshipment Scam,” in which it accuses over 40 countries of helping China avoid US tariffs. The report accused China of routing billions of dollars of goods through other countries to avoid President Trump’s 2018 tariffs and countries named in the report include Canada, Some EU countries, Japan and South Korea | thehill.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-14 | The Trump administration directed federal agencies to consider targeting Colorado in the allocation of federal grants and support after President Trump criticised the state's treatment of election denier Tina Peters and its election policies. A White House official instructed five agencies to discuss "immediate actions" to ensure federal support for Colorado was aligned with administration priorities, after which the Departments of Transportation and Energy cancelled hundreds of millions of dollars in grants to the state. The disclosures provide evidence that federal resources were used to retaliate against a state government over lawful decisions concerning elections and criminal justice, raising concerns about the use of executive power to punish politically disfavoured states. | nytimes.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-14 | A federal judge on Friday cleared the way for U.S. President Donald Trump's administration to strip nearly 1,100 Somalis of legal protections against deportation that have allowed them to live and work in the United States. | reuters.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-14 | A U.S. federal appeals court handed President Donald Trump’s administration a legal victory in its efforts to seek data from providers of transgender healthcare to minors, reinstating a Justice Department subpoena that a lower court had blocked as politically motivated. | reuters.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-13 | ||
| 2026-08-13 | The board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (which is dominated by Trump appointees) voted to inscribe President Donald Trump's name on the building, setting up a potential clash with a federal judge who had ordered the name removed. | reuters.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-13 | The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) accused dozens of hospitals and healthcare providers of improperly billing for gender-affirming care and referred them to the Office of Inspector General and the Justice Department for investigation. | reuters.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-13 | The Trump administration has been accused of “bullying and intimidation” after a labor union leader and critic was put under investigation and suspended from his job at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Stephen Wheeler, a data scientist at the agency since 2022 and chair of the CFPB union organizing committee, was placed on administrative leave effective immediately earlier this month. The union said it was not provided with any specific violations or given any details of the investigation. The Trump administration has attempted to dismantle the CFPB since the beginning of Trump’s second term. The office of management and budget director, Vought, called for the abolition of the agency. He halted most the work at there in February 2025. | theguardian.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-13 | Internal investigative reports show the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) sent undercover agents to meetings and infiltrated chats of groups opposing Trump’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota earlier this year. The records show that in January, DHS launched an inquiry called “Operation Puppet Master” to identify a “network of conspirators” organizing against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The operation came as community organizing against ICE was swelling in the region in response to the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. | theguardian.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-12 | ||
| 2026-08-12 | Two Democratic senators are demanding answers from two Belgian firms about an 18-carat gold ring encrusted with 321 diamonds that was given to U.S. President Donald Trump weeks before the U.S. exempted Europe's diamond industry from new tariffs. | reuters.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-12 | The justice department (DOJ) arrested a leading expert on far-right extremism, charging her with financial crimes as part of the government’s ongoing case against the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). The justice department charged the SPLC in April over a now-ended program in which it paid informants to infiltrate white supremacist groups. | theguardian.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-12 | The Treasury Department announced it will no longer enforce reporting requirements of the 2021 Corporate Transparency Act, which was intended to crack down on money laundering. The law, which passed with bipartisan support, was intended to prevent the illicit use of shell companies by giving law enforcement agencies access to information about their ownership structures. | nytimes.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-12 | The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced the withdrawal of its support for the Arctic Report Card, which has provided environmental updates on the Arctic to scientists and the public since 2006. Over the last 20 years, the peer-reviewed report has tracked crucial changes across the Arctic’s atmosphere, oceans, cryosphere and tundra. NOAA gave no explanation for why they are stopping the report. | theguardian.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-12 | The Dept of Justice (DOJ) filed a request asking the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) to put on hold a decision that blocks the US Postal Service from nationwide enforcement of the directive’s tighter rules for voting by mail. Last week's decision by US district judge Indira Talwani in Boston effectively expands on an earlier order she issued in June preventing the enforcement of Trump’s order in 23 mostly Democratic-governed states and Washington, DC, which had also challenged the action as unconstitutional. | theguardian.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-12 | The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) plans to spend $20 million on gloves that produce electric shocks when used to detain a person and are deemed a “humane, low-optics, de-escalation solution for many situations facing our men and women in uniform” | theguardian.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-11 | ||
| 2026-08-11 | White House officials have asked the Justice Department to consider a new prosecution of a man accused of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Its original case was dismissed last week after the Dept of Justice acknowledged that poor contracting work was to blame and not vandalism. | wsj.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-11 | Two Republican senators have released the first batch of text messages retrieved from Dr. Anthony Fauci’s former government phone as part of an investigation into his leadership and actions during the Covid-19 pandemic – including messages in which he discusses the possible risks and safety of the vaccine during pregnancy. The texts were only a fraction of a while. Covid vaccines during pregnancy have been repeatedly proven to be protective for both mother and newborn baby. | edition.cnn.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-11 | The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services barred federal Medicaid dollars from being used to provide gender-transition medication and surgery to transgender adolescents. Dr. Oz, its administrator stated: "Children deserve our protection, not experimental interventions that pose serious risks and convey no proven benefits.” | nytimes.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-11 | President Donald Trump in a new interview declined to rule out declaring a national security emergency as a means to try to assert more control over the 2026 midterm elections. It’s merely the latest warning sign that Trump could try to mess with the election not just by baselessly claiming voter fraud and challenging the results afterward — as he did in 2020, leading to a violent riot at the US Capitol — but by trying to unilaterally take control before votes are cast | edition.cnn.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-11 | ICE detained a family of lawful permanent residents, including a teenage boy, and sought to revoke their green cards based on the father's family connection to a woman who had worked as a translator for Iranian hostage-takers in 1979, before he was born. The family says they were detained without prior notice or due process and subsequently separated and held in immigration detention for more than four months despite having no criminal records | thenation.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-11 | Department of Justice new legal counsel opinion concludes that three STEMP programmes overseen by the National Science Foundation (NSF) are unconstitutional. These programmes are all designed to encourage more minorities/women to enter science and technology fields. | justice.gov ↗ |
| 2026-08-11 | Defense Secretary Hegseth apppointed two men to the Pentagon's advisory Defense Policy Board with ties to a venture fund that co-invests in US defense companies that benefit from federal spending and where Donald Trump Jr is a partner. | theguardian.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-10 | ||
| 2026-08-10 | Trump signed an executive order (EO) with a plan to reduce the number of recommended childhood vaccines, also wanted the the MMR (Measles, Mumps and Rubella) vaccine to be broken up into separate shots and for vaccines to be administered at separate visits, which will reduce uptake. Both Trump and RFK Jr repeatedly referred to safety concerns that are not based in evidence. Many very large studies have shown no link between the MMR vaccine and autism. | theguardian.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-10 | Trump described Democratic candidates in the midterm elections as “jihadists,”, stating that "“we have jihadists being elected all over the place. We have this — whether it’s communism, jihadism.” He further brated people from Somalia “They’re not smart, they have no aptitude, they have nothing going, and they’re telling us how to run our country.” | nytimes.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-10 | The Trump administration on Monday announced it has revoked more than 175,000 visas from foreign nationals, claiming violations of the terms of the documents related to criminal activity and calls for violence against U.S. citizens, among other allegations. The State Department said the majority of the canceled visas were the result of “law enforcement encounters. These numbers represent more than 10,000 visa cancellations per month in 2026, compared with more than 8,000 visa cancellations over the course of 2025 | thehill.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-10 | The Trump administration launched a $300m "Model Cities" policing programme offering grants to just two to four cities conditional on adopting administration priorities, including cooperation with federal immigration enforcement and conservative anti-homelessness policies. The programme also requires cities to accept potential liability for future federal law-enforcement interventions, while awards will be determined by senior political appointees rather than the more neutral peer-review process normally used for federal policing grants | theguardian.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-10 | The Dept of Homeland Security (DHS) intensified its push to identify and deport noncitizens who registered to vote, even if they did so inadvertently or never cast ballots — an unusually aggressive approach that is helping it promote baseless claims that voter fraud is rampant. This is despite strong evidence that non-citizen voting is extremely rare. | nytimes.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-10 | President Donald Trump said Friday the federal government will fund $180 million in grants for mining schools across the country as part of his administration’s goal of rebuilding the U.S. coal industry. Trump framed the announcement as part of his ongoing effort to rebuild the U.S. coal industry and reopen mines, a central pillar of his energy policy. He has previously sought to shorten the regulation process for new mines and limit the impact of environmental regulations. | minnesotareformer.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-09 | ||
| 2026-08-09 | The Trump family's cryptocurrency company World Liberty Financial accepted $100 million from Guren "Bobby" Zhou, a businessman who was under investigation for money laundering in Britain and whose two former employees were subsequently charged in the case. Up to $75 million of Zhou's investment was distributed to a company controlled by President Trump and his sons, despite financial-crime experts saying the transaction contained multiple red flags that should have triggered enhanced scrutinyCorruptionPublic power appearing to serve private gain. | nytimes.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-08 | ||
| 2026-08-08 | The Securities and Exchange Commission moved to dismiss its insider-trading lawsuit against former healthcare executive Terren Peizer after President Trump pardoned him. Peizer had been convicted by a federal jury of insider trading in 2024, and the SEC's decision to abandon the civil case means the pardon has been followed by the termination of further government enforcement against a convicted financial offenderUndermining democracyWeakens the checks on power: defying courts, sidelining Congress, limiting oversight.CorruptionPublic power appearing to serve private gain. | reuters.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-08 | An American oil company connected to Donald Trump is preparing to sink wells in remote Greenland despite not having received permission from the local authorities. Following a "strong warning" from Greenland's govenrment, Trump again posted an AI generated image on Truth Social depicting his face over a Green land landscape and village with the caption "Hello Greenland"CorruptionPublic power appearing to serve private gain.Foreign policyAggressive moves abroad that raise global tension. | theguardian.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-07 | ||
| 2026-08-07 | The U.S. Senate confirmed President Donald Trump's nominees for two spots on the agency that enforces federal labor law, giving Republicans enough votes to undo a series of key decisions that were widely seen as a boost to union organizing. The five-member labor board already had a 2-1 Republican majority before the Senate vote. By tradition, the board has two Democrats, two Republicans and a chair from the president's party. Trump's appointees are expected to target a series of labor board policies favored by unions that have helped fuel a spike in union organizing in recent years.Undermining democracyWeakens the checks on power: defying courts, sidelining Congress, limiting oversight.Weakening civil rightsRolls back social protections and civil rights. | reuters.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-07 | The Trump administration lifted export restrictions on advanced AI chips and other sensitive technologies to the UAE, granting its state-backed AI company G42 broad access to U.S. technology despite ongoing security concerns. Critics argued that the decision benefited a company with financial links to the Trump family through cryptocurrency ventures while providing few identifiable strategic concessions for the United States, raising concerns that private financial interests influenced national security policyCorruptionPublic power appearing to serve private gain. | justsecurity.org ↗ |
| 2026-08-07 | The Trump administration froze a $1.9 million Department of Energy grant awarded to a Syracuse affordable-housing project to demonstrate energy-efficient HVAC technology, leaving the project in administrative limbo more than a year after the award. The grant was part of a competitively reviewed programme, but the administration subsequently halted or cancelled billions of dollars in clean-energy grants, with DOE lawyers acknowledging that some cancellations were based solely on the political identity of the recipient's state; the department also removed the original announcement of the Syracuse award from its website | syracuse.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-07 | The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued two alerts on its website confirming that, effective Aug. 7, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation had been halted for Myanmar and Syria.NationalismAnti-immigration or militarised nationalism. | thehill.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-07 | President Trump opened a new front in his battle with Lisa D. Cook, the Federal Reserve official he tried — and failed — to oust from her position last year. In a letter, the White House informed Ms. Cook, who serves on the Board of Governors, that it was “considering” removing her from her position. The letter, which was signed by Dan Scavino, the White House deputy chief of staff, gave Ms. Cook 21 days to respond to previous allegations that she had committed mortgage fraud. Ms. Cook has not been charged with a crime, even though it has been a year since the administration first made the claims, nor has she been convicted of any wrongdoingSuppressing dissentPunishes or intimidates critics, rivals, and perceived enemies. | nytimes.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-07 | Hundreds of thousands of Haitians are faced with the prospect of imminent risk of arrest and deportation – to a home country racked with crime, violence and political unrest – after the Trump administration officially stripped them of humanitarian protections that had allowed them to live and work legally in the United States for years. “We’re going after them right now,” the DHS secretary, Markwayne Mullin, said earlier this week. “These individuals can either self-deport or we’ll arrest you and send you back. It’s that simple.”Weakening civil rightsRolls back social protections and civil rights.NationalismAnti-immigration or militarised nationalism. | theguardian.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-06 | ||
| 2026-08-06 | Trump posts AI image of himself with two great American generals casting himself as a great American war hero.Controlling informationControls, restricts, or manufactures information, including propaganda.CorruptionPublic power appearing to serve private gain. | truthsocial.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-06 | Trump posts AI image of himself at a campaign rally with the words "Trump 2028". As per the constitution, Trump cannot run for a third term in 2028.Undermining democracyWeakens the checks on power: defying courts, sidelining Congress, limiting oversight.Controlling informationControls, restricts, or manufactures information, including propaganda. | truthsocial.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-06 | Trump attacks Rosie O'Donnell in a social media post and AI imagerySuppressing dissentPunishes or intimidates critics, rivals, and perceived enemies. | truthsocial.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-06 | The U.S. State Department will vet the social media accounts of foreign journalists applying for visas to work in the United States. It also builds on a series of steps that Trump's administration has taken since he began his second term in taking office in January 2025 to make online speech a factor in immigration and visa decisions. These steps have raised concerns among civil liberties advocates about freedom of speech.Controlling informationControls, restricts, or manufactures information, including propaganda.Foreign policyAggressive moves abroad that raise global tension.NationalismAnti-immigration or militarised nationalism. | reuters.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-06 | The Trump administration substantially reduced the capacity of the Justice Department's internal watchdog offices responsible for investigating misconduct by DOJ lawyers and officials. Reuters found that staffing cuts, leadership vacancies and fears of political retaliation coincided with a 20-year low in new misconduct investigations despite record numbers of complaints, limiting oversight of alleged departmental misconduct.Undermining democracyWeakens the checks on power: defying courts, sidelining Congress, limiting oversight.Hollowing stateHollows out the government itself: mass firings, dismantled agencies, politicised staff. | reuters.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-06 | The Trump administration sought to revoke California's authority to set vehicle emissions standards stricter than federal rules by submitting the state's Clean Air Act waivers to Congress under the Congressional Review Act. The move would override California's longstanding statutory authority through a procedure the state argues is unlawful, while advancing the administration's broader effort to weaken emissions standards and electric vehicle requirementsUndermining democracyWeakens the checks on power: defying courts, sidelining Congress, limiting oversight.Attacking scienceBends science and health policy to politics: restricted research, weaker protections. | reuters.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-06 | The Trump administration has said it would go ahead with a proposed plan to remove most of HeadStart federal requirements. Head Start is an antipoverty program aimed at helping the nation’s most impoverished young children. and the plan would removed federal requirements for math and literacy curricula, class sizes, medical screenings, home visits. Even a requirement that children brush their teeth after meals would end.Attacking educationPressure on universities, schools, museums, and cultural institutions.Weakening civil rightsRolls back social protections and civil rights. | nytimes.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-06 | The Senate Homeland Security Committee voted along party lines to hold the former infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci in contempt for invoking the fifth amendment during a senate committee hearing on the US Covid-19 response. This vote now clears the way for the Committee to ask the Justice Department to prosecute him, although according to Democrats, the federal law requires that the president of the Senate “certify” the “statement of facts” in a contempt resolution before it is transmitted to the U.S. attorney.Suppressing dissentPunishes or intimidates critics, rivals, and perceived enemies.Attacking scienceBends science and health policy to politics: restricted research, weaker protections. | nytimes.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-06 | The German energy firm RWE announced that the Trump administration will pay them $1.22 billion to abandon plans to build wind farms off the coasts of New York, California and Louisiana.Attacking scienceBends science and health policy to politics: restricted research, weaker protections. | nytimes.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-06 | The Federal Communications Commission voted to replace the long-standing 39% national television ownership cap with a case-by-case approval process for larger media groups, despite the limit having been set by Congress in 2004. Critics, including the FCC's Democratic commissioner and some members of Congress, argued that the agency lacked the authority to override a statutory ownership limit without new legislation and warned the change would accelerate media concentration.Undermining democracyWeakens the checks on power: defying courts, sidelining Congress, limiting oversight.Controlling informationControls, restricts, or manufactures information, including propaganda. | theguardian.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-06 | Republican U.S. Senator Rand Paul asked the Justice Department to prosecute Dr. Anthony Fauci for refusing to answer questions about the COVID-19 pandemic after a Senate committee voted to hold the former top infectious disease official in contempt of Congress.Suppressing dissentPunishes or intimidates critics, rivals, and perceived enemies.Attacking scienceBends science and health policy to politics: restricted research, weaker protections. | reuters.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-06 | President Donald Trump suggested that Dr. Anthony Fauci should be prosecuted, hours after Republican Senator Rand Paul said that he would ask the Justice Department to do so.Suppressing dissentPunishes or intimidates critics, rivals, and perceived enemies.Attacking scienceBends science and health policy to politics: restricted research, weaker protections. | reuters.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-06 | President Donald Trump signed two executive orders in a new but narrower attempt to curtail birthright citizenship, once again challenging a provision of the U.S. Constitution even though the Supreme Court rejected his previous effort.Undermining democracyWeakens the checks on power: defying courts, sidelining Congress, limiting oversight.Weakening civil rightsRolls back social protections and civil rights. | reuters.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-06 | Donald Trump's administration targeted more universitiesover issues like race and diversity in admissions and pro-Palestinian protests, marking the federal government's latest crackdown against U.S. schools.Suppressing dissentPunishes or intimidates critics, rivals, and perceived enemies.Attacking educationPressure on universities, schools, museums, and cultural institutions. | reuters.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-06 | Donald Trump has doubled down on his criticism of Jeanine Pirro after the US attorney for the District of Columbia publicly challenged his claims that vandals had damaged the recently renovated Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool. “She said there was no vandalism. There was tremendous vandalism,” Trump told NBC News on Thursday. “So, she made a terrible mistake. I don’t understand why she did such a stupid thing.”Suppressing dissentPunishes or intimidates critics, rivals, and perceived enemies.Controlling informationControls, restricts, or manufactures information, including propaganda. | theguardian.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-05 | ||
| 2026-08-05 | Trump in a social media post attacks Michael Moore as a "failed LOWLIFE" and wrongly asserts that communism has been 'failing' for thousands of years (Karl Marx published The Communist Manifesto as a political pamphlet in 1848).Suppressing dissentPunishes or intimidates critics, rivals, and perceived enemies.Controlling informationControls, restricts, or manufactures information, including propaganda. | truthsocial.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-05 | The Department of Energy (DoE) has removed solar power from a major Biden loan that was intended to prevent electricty blackouts in Puerto Rico | washingtonexaminer.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-05 | The CIA has secretly established a Cuba task force, setting in motion plans for a more concerted campaign to pressure the Cuban government to make the economic, political and leadership changes demanded by President Trump, according to people briefed on the action.Foreign policyAggressive moves abroad that raise global tension. | nytimes.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-04 | ||
| 2026-08-04 | The family of a man from El Salvador, who died in a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in New Jersey, alleged medical negligence during his custody and demanded an independent investigation into his death. He died at a detention facility after what ICE called a medical emergency. His mother said he relied on a number of medications and the day before he had told her had lost the feeling in his face and arm.Weakening civil rightsRolls back social protections and civil rights.NationalismAnti-immigration or militarised nationalism. | reuters.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-04 | The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is at risk of having “critically low” staffing levels if there’s a major disaster, according to a nonpartisan congressional watchdog. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) found in a report issued Tuesday that in Fiscal Year 2025, more than 4,300 staffers departed from FEMA, more than double the departure rate in Fiscal Year 2024. It found that an additional 2,500 staffers have left this fiscal year as of May.Hollowing stateHollows out the government itself: mass firings, dismantled agencies, politicised staff. | thehill.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-04 | Donald Trump’s administration has revoked the visa of Brazil’s ambassador to the US in a sharp escalation of a diplomatic feud with the country’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The US state department said Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti’s visa had been cancelled in retaliation for Brazil’s refusal to approve Trump’s nominee for ambassador in Brasília and its decision last month to deny visas to two US diplomats seeking to visit ahead of an October election. Brasília swiftly condemned the US action as part of a deliberate campaign to influence the election.Foreign policyAggressive moves abroad that raise global tension. | theguardian.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-04 | An instructor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore who only just received a “teacher of the year” award has been arrested by federal immigration agents under the command of the Trump administration. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials detained Berhanu Kibret, an instructor at the university’s pharmacy school, at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport in Texas. The university said “Dr Kibret has a valid work authorization, so it is our hope that any issues surrounding his status will be quickly resolved and that he will be permitted to continue his work at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy,”NationalismAnti-immigration or militarised nationalism. | theguardian.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-04 | Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told faith leaders he is planning to roll back abortion access even in states that have laws protecting it. The 2022 Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturned Roe v. Wade, ending the federal constitutional right to an abortion. The ruling allowed states to set their own policies, stopping short of a national ban. Blanche hinted that restrictions on mail-order abortion drugs are coming. Blanche’s comments went far beyond what he said during his confirmation hearing.Undermining democracyWeakens the checks on power: defying courts, sidelining Congress, limiting oversight.Attacking scienceBends science and health policy to politics: restricted research, weaker protections.Weakening civil rightsRolls back social protections and civil rights. | thehill.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-04 | A top supervision examiner at the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) warned staff they would face "most unpleasant" consequences if they were too aggressive in their oversight of financial firms, according to an internal email reviewed by Reuters. The threat, which Reuters is reporting for the first time, was emailed on May 13 by Chief Examiner Fatima Batie to many of the agency's mid-level supervision staff as they were preparing to resume inspections of financial firms following a long hiatusHollowing stateHollows out the government itself: mass firings, dismantled agencies, politicised staff.Weakening civil rightsRolls back social protections and civil rights.CorruptionPublic power appearing to serve private gain. | reuters.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-04 | A U.S. judge on Tuesday granted the U.S. Justice Department's request to dismiss cases against members of the right-wing Oath Keepers militia who took part in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The judge strongly disagreed with the request, saying it excused "criminal acts that caused...the peacedful transfer of presidential power to buckle" but concluded that the Department of Justice had the authority to drop the case.Undermining democracyWeakens the checks on power: defying courts, sidelining Congress, limiting oversight. | reuters.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-03 | ||
| 2026-08-03 | Trump’s proposed 250-foot-tall triumphal arch would change the skyline of Washington to such an extent that it would intrude on views at dozens of historic sites around the capital, according to an assessment by National Park Service staff.Attacking educationPressure on universities, schools, museums, and cultural institutions. | nytimes.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-03 | The head of the Dept of Education Linda McMahon, in an open letter to college leaders asked them to respond to concerns over academic standards, admissions procedures and tuition costs. University presidents and governing boards are asked to address seven subjects — including free speech, foreign influence, artificial intelligence and academic rigor — and post the statements prominently on their websites. The letter does not contain threats of funding cuts or legal repurcussions.Attacking educationPressure on universities, schools, museums, and cultural institutions. | nytimes.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-03 | The U.S. State Department has notified Congress that it plans to close five foreign missions in a rare downsizing of America's global diplomatic footprint. The expected closures, which have not been previously reported, represent a rare example of the U.S. closing multiple foreign missions in a downsizing that is not tied to a particular geopolitical event.Hollowing stateHollows out the government itself: mass firings, dismantled agencies, politicised staff.Foreign policyAggressive moves abroad that raise global tension. | reuters.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-03 | Donald Trump accused US attorney Jeanine Pirro of having “folded like an umbrella” amid reports that he was considering removing her from her post. Trump criticized Pirro on Monday after she dropped vandalism charges against a former Olympian accused of damaging the recently renovated Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool.Undermining democracyWeakens the checks on power: defying courts, sidelining Congress, limiting oversight.Suppressing dissentPunishes or intimidates critics, rivals, and perceived enemies. | theguardian.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-03 | Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche signed a memo formally rescinding the $1.776 “anti-weaponization” fund, but which leaves intact immunity for Trump by barring the federal government from any investigation, review or prosecution of any action by Trump or the business empire he runs with his children.Undermining democracyWeakens the checks on power: defying courts, sidelining Congress, limiting oversight.CorruptionPublic power appearing to serve private gain. | thehill.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-02 | ||
| 2026-08-02 | In attempting to rewrite the history of the US Covid-19 response, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Sunday pinned the blame for pandemic lockdowns on Dr. Anthony Fauci, while simultaneously reviving a string of debunked assertions about vaccines, RSV and measles.Undermining democracyWeakens the checks on power: defying courts, sidelining Congress, limiting oversight.Suppressing dissentPunishes or intimidates critics, rivals, and perceived enemies.Controlling informationControls, restricts, or manufactures information, including propaganda.Attacking scienceBends science and health policy to politics: restricted research, weaker protections. | edition.cnn.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-01 | ||
| 2026-08-01 | Vice President Vance, President Trump and other senior Republicans used the (temporary) migrant influx into Cetua, part of Spain in North Africa, to stoke anti-immigrant sentiment and justify their own anti-immigrant policies. Vance falsely suggested migrants had reached mainland Spain. In fact it was not possible for migrants to reach mainland Europe from Cetua and almost all have now returned to MoroccoControlling informationControls, restricts, or manufactures information, including propaganda.NationalismAnti-immigration or militarised nationalism. | independent.co.uk ↗ |
| 2026-08-01 | Trump vowed to revive the controversial $1.8bn “anti-weaponization” fund, designed to compensate political allies for political lawfare. Its revival is tied to Todd Blanche's nomination for Attorney General and a dispute between Trump and two Republican Senators who want written confirmation that the fund will not be established.Undermining democracyWeakens the checks on power: defying courts, sidelining Congress, limiting oversight.CorruptionPublic power appearing to serve private gain. | theguardian.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-01 | The U.S. State Department posted a Federal Register notice which states that a visa bond program for B1 and B2 visas will be made permanent. The programme could require applicants from 50 countries, mostly from Africa, to post bonds of up to $20,000 when seeking U.S. visasForeign policyAggressive moves abroad that raise global tension.NationalismAnti-immigration or militarised nationalism. | reuters.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-01 | President Trump wrongly blamed the Biden administration’s weapons transfers to Ukraine for current concerns over munitions stockpiles amid the war with IranControlling informationControls, restricts, or manufactures information, including propaganda. | nytimes.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-01 | President Trump publicly contradicted his own Justice Department after federal prosecutors withdrew vandalism charges relating to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, having concluded that the damage resulted from a botched government renovation rather than vandalism. Trump rejected those findings, continued to claim that "VANDALS" were responsible, and criticised U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro for abandoning the prosecution.Undermining democracyWeakens the checks on power: defying courts, sidelining Congress, limiting oversight.Suppressing dissentPunishes or intimidates critics, rivals, and perceived enemies.Controlling informationControls, restricts, or manufactures information, including propaganda. | nytimes.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-01 | Freelance New York Times reporter Matthew Cole was subpoenaed over reporting on failed US mission in North Korea and asked by federal prosecutors to hand over two years worth of contacts and sources.Suppressing dissentPunishes or intimidates critics, rivals, and perceived enemies.Controlling informationControls, restricts, or manufactures information, including propaganda. | theguardian.com ↗ |
| 2026-08-01 | A US reporter, who had been targeted online by right-wing influencer Laura Loomer over a report from Iran, was flagged for 'secondary inspection" by border patrol agents on re-entry to the US. He had his phones seized, which were returned a week later following the filing of an emergency motion by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination CommitteeSuppressing dissentPunishes or intimidates critics, rivals, and perceived enemies.Controlling informationControls, restricts, or manufactures information, including propaganda. | theguardian.com ↗ |
| 2026-07-31 | ||
| 2026-07-31 | President Donald Trump told reporters at Camp David on Friday that he does not think Iran is behind a cyberattack on Minnesota water systems, despite U.S. officials reportedly suspecting otherwise. "We heard in Minnesota there was a cyberattack, and they blame it on Iran. I don't think so," Trump said during a cabinet meeting. "I think I blame it on Minnesota because they're grossly incompetent," Trump said, calling out Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat.Undermining democracyWeakens the checks on power: defying courts, sidelining Congress, limiting oversight.Suppressing dissentPunishes or intimidates critics, rivals, and perceived enemies.Controlling informationControls, restricts, or manufactures information, including propaganda. | reuters.com ↗ |
| 2026-07-31 | Federal prosecutors moved to dismiss criminal charges against a man accused of vandalising the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool after concluding that the damage had been caused by faulty installation by government contractors rather than vandalism. The dismissal contradicted repeated public claims by President Trump and earlier statements by federal prosecutors that vandals had deliberately damaged the pool, raising concerns about the use of false public claims to justify criminal prosecution.Undermining democracyWeakens the checks on power: defying courts, sidelining Congress, limiting oversight.Suppressing dissentPunishes or intimidates critics, rivals, and perceived enemies.Controlling informationControls, restricts, or manufactures information, including propaganda. | nytimes.com ↗ |
| 2026-07-31 | Donald Trump has defended controversial plans for a $1.8bn slush fund even as they threaten to derail the nomination of his former personal lawyer Todd Blanche for US attorney general. Blanche “should be immediately approved” by the US Senate, the president declared in a post on his Truth Social platform on Friday morning, defending the payout scheme proposed by his officials in the Department of Justice as it holds up Blanche’s confirmation.Undermining democracyWeakens the checks on power: defying courts, sidelining Congress, limiting oversight.CorruptionPublic power appearing to serve private gain. | theguardian.com ↗ |
| 2026-07-30 | ||
| 2026-07-30 | The Trump administration’s plans to stymie and defund bike lane plans in the US, on the unusual basis that they are DEI tools, will hurt efforts to improve roadway safety, non-motorized transportation advocates say.Attacking scienceBends science and health policy to politics: restricted research, weaker protections. | theguardian.com ↗ |
| 2026-07-30 | The Trump administration has aggressively pursued ICE (immigration enforcement) protestors accused of assaulting or impeding law enforcement. The Trump administration has brought criminal charges against at least 851 people accused of attacking or impeding federal officers, only to abandon them at an unusually high rate. A Reuters review of federal court records found that 31% of these cases that have been completed so far have ended in dismissal. That compares to 8% of all federal criminal cases that typically end in dismissal, according to records compiled by the Federal Judicial Center. The DOJ's charges have imposed a steep cost on some people, even when the cases are dropped. Reuters interviewed a half dozen people who, despite the abandoned charges, reported lost jobs, legal fees and in some cases a flurry of online threats that arrived after federal officials publicized their arrests.Suppressing dissentPunishes or intimidates critics, rivals, and perceived enemies.NationalismAnti-immigration or militarised nationalism. | reuters.com ↗ |
| 2026-07-30 | The Trump administration allowed the federal contract providing legal representation to more than 20,000 unaccompanied migrant children to expire without a replacement, ending government-funded legal assistance for children in immigration proceedings. The administration had also withheld around $65 million in payments to legal providers while seeking access to confidential client information that providers argued would violate attorney-client confidentiality. Advocates and former prosecutors warned that removing legal representation from children, including victims of trafficking, abuse and persecution, would significantly increase the likelihood of deportation and undermine statutory protections established to ensure vulnerable children can meaningfully access the immigration system.Weakening civil rightsRolls back social protections and civil rights.NationalismAnti-immigration or militarised nationalism. | theguardian.com ↗ |
| 2026-07-30 | The Alien Terrorist Removal Court, a court set up 30 years ago to expel immigrants accused of acts of terrorism from the country, will hear the case of an Afghan woman, who is a legal resident in the US., following a request from the Dept of Justice (DoJ). Nazira Haji Zada has been accused of being an ISIS supporter, as she is the mother of a convicted ISIS supporter. This case is an early test of the court where much of the evidence is presented in secret and defendants cannot challenge how it was collected, and is the first time of its use by the Trump adminstration.NationalismAnti-immigration or militarised nationalism. | nytimes.com ↗ |
| 2026-07-30 | Donald Trump said on Thursday he may “temporarily” pull the nomination of Todd Blanche to serve as attorney general, but would keep him in the role in an acting capacity until two Republican senators objecting to his confirmation leave office next year – an extraordinary escalation of an intra-party fight over an agreement to create a $1.8bn slush fund and give the president tax immunity.Undermining democracyWeakens the checks on power: defying courts, sidelining Congress, limiting oversight.CorruptionPublic power appearing to serve private gain. | theguardian.com ↗ |
| 2026-07-29 | ||
| 2026-07-29 | Trump vowed to "beat the f***ing sh*t" out of Iran, following an attack on U.S. forces in Jordan during an interview with Fox News.Foreign policyAggressive moves abroad that raise global tension. | thehill.com ↗ |
| 2026-07-29 | The sanctions legislation that moved forward in the Senate this week goes beyond enacting new financial restrictions on Russia and Iran. It also gives President Trump broad new powers to impose tariffs on imports from some of the world’s largest economies. The measure would restore some of the trade authorities that the Supreme Court stripped away when it ruled against Mr. Trump’s use of tariffs on national security grounds earlier this year. The bill represents the latest move by Congress to cede more of its authority over trade policy to Mr. Trump.Undermining democracyWeakens the checks on power: defying courts, sidelining Congress, limiting oversight. | nytimes.com ↗ |
| 2026-07-29 | The federal government turned away a record number of document requests from the public and accumulated the highest-ever backlog of cases in fiscal year 2025, raising questions about compliance with the Freedom of Information Act.Undermining democracyWeakens the checks on power: defying courts, sidelining Congress, limiting oversight.Controlling informationControls, restricts, or manufactures information, including propaganda. | nytimes.com ↗ |
| 2026-07-29 | The Trump Justice Department agreed to pay a seven-figure settlement to anti-abortion activist Paul Vaughn, who had been convicted by a jury of conspiring to block access to an abortion clinic before being pardoned by President Trump. The payment, made through the Justice Department's existing civil claims process, demonstrated that the administration could use public funds to compensate political allies it claims were victims of government "weaponization," even without establishing a separate compensation fund.Undermining democracyWeakens the checks on power: defying courts, sidelining Congress, limiting oversight.CorruptionPublic power appearing to serve private gain. | nytimes.com ↗ |
| 2026-07-29 | Secret Service agents who questioned the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey were told to quickly send a written summary of the interview to President Trump on Air Force One, according to a new court filing by Mr. Comey’s lawyers seeking to dismiss criminal charges over a social media post. The disclosure, included in internal government documents turned over to Mr. Comey, is one of the most glaring examples to date of the degree to which Mr. Trump now directs federal law enforcement actions.Undermining democracyWeakens the checks on power: defying courts, sidelining Congress, limiting oversight.Suppressing dissentPunishes or intimidates critics, rivals, and perceived enemies. | nytimes.com ↗ |
| 2026-07-29 | Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced a state investigation into Anthony Fauci, the former head of the U.S. COVID-19 pandemic response, after he repeatedly exercised his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.Suppressing dissentPunishes or intimidates critics, rivals, and perceived enemies. | politico.com ↗ |
| 2026-07-29 | Anthony Fauci, the former top U.S. infectious disease expert, declined to answer questions at a Senate hearing on Wednesday, invoking his constitutional right against self-incrimination and accusing Republican Senator Rand Paul of an "unhinged" campaign to see him imprisoned. Paul said Fauci was not allowed to plead the Fifth Amendment right to refrain from answering senators' questions, that a pardon from former President Joe Biden would not protect him, and that there would be consequences for refusing to answer. He said the committee had scheduled a vote for next week to hold Fauci in contempt.Suppressing dissentPunishes or intimidates critics, rivals, and perceived enemies.Attacking scienceBends science and health policy to politics: restricted research, weaker protections. | reuters.com ↗ |
| 2026-07-28 | ||
| 2026-07-28 | U.S. Senate Republicans on Tuesday confirmed President Donald Trump's nominee, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton, to be the nation's top spy, despite opposition from Democrats following an angry confirmation hearing. During his hearing, Clayton repeatedly refused during his confirmation hearing to directly acknowledge that Trump lost the 2020 presidential election to Democrat Joe Biden.Undermining democracyWeakens the checks on power: defying courts, sidelining Congress, limiting oversight.Controlling informationControls, restricts, or manufactures information, including propaganda. | reuters.com ↗ |
| 2026-07-28 | The Trump administration has transformed the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which is responsible for caring for unaccompanied migrant children, into a major source of intelligence for immigration enforcement. Internal government data obtained by Reuters show that since January 2025 ORR has supplied ICE with more than 460,000 leads concerning migrant children, their prospective sponsors—usually parents or relatives—and other household members. More than 12,000 people have subsequently been arrested following ORR tips.Weakening civil rightsRolls back social protections and civil rights.NationalismAnti-immigration or militarised nationalism. | reuters.com ↗ |
| 2026-07-28 | President Trump asked the Supreme Court to step in and overturn an $83.3 million jury award against him for defaming the writer E. Jean Carroll after she accused him of a decades-old sexual assault in a Manhattan department store. The president urged the justices to reject the jury’s award, asserting that the Supreme Court’s 2024 decision granting presidents sweeping immunity for actions they take in office shielded him from liability in the case. In late June, the Supreme Court rejected a separate request from Mr. Trump that the court review a $5 million judgment against him from a previous 2023 jury finding that he had sexually abused and defamed Ms. Carroll.Undermining democracyWeakens the checks on power: defying courts, sidelining Congress, limiting oversight.CorruptionPublic power appearing to serve private gain. | nytimes.com ↗ |
| 2026-07-28 | Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents deployed last summer to the Los Angeles area referred to the subjects of their immigration operations with racial slurs, according to newly released court documents.NationalismAnti-immigration or militarised nationalism. | theguardian.com ↗ |
| 2026-07-28 | Donald Trump is pushing the longtime vaccine opponent and current health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr to be more aggressive on cutting vaccines in the US, according to reporting from the Wall Street Journal. Trump regularly posted on social media about debunked links between vaccination and autism as early as 2014, and his posts on Truth Social have recently advocated for breaking up shots into individual components and delaying some childhood vaccines for more than a decade.Attacking scienceBends science and health policy to politics: restricted research, weaker protections. | theguardian.com ↗ |
| 2026-07-28 | California’s largest immigration detention center has failed to comply with a judge’s orders to provide adequate healthcare, according to a court-appointed monitor who found the facility was struggling to meet a wide range of medical standards. The California City detention facility was out of compliance with all eight areas identified by the judge, said the monitorWeakening civil rightsRolls back social protections and civil rights.NationalismAnti-immigration or militarised nationalism. | theguardian.com ↗ |
| 2026-07-28 | Bill Pulte, the acting director of national intelligence, has spent his final days on the job celebrating his efforts to terminate employees in his office. “Good News! In addition to the Historic DECLASSIFICATIONS (Transparency!) by the President, we are, this morning, Executing a 5th and Near Final Round of TERMINATIONS, an approximately 30% Staff Reduction from Weeks Ago,” Mr. Pulte wrote in an X post. But Mr. Pulte’s office has provided no details or explanations of the purported cuts, sowing doubts on Capitol Hill. Several former U.S. intelligence officials expressed disbelief about the claim of reductions.Hollowing stateHollows out the government itself: mass firings, dismantled agencies, politicised staff.Controlling informationControls, restricts, or manufactures information, including propaganda. | nytimes.com ↗ |
| 2026-07-27 | ||
| 2026-07-27 | the Dept of Justice (DOJ) in an emergency appeal asked the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) to allow Trump's executive order on mail-in-voting to go ahead while the legal battle surrounding it continues. Trump ordered the government in March to create a “state citizenship list” of eligible voters and deliver mail ballots only to people on that list.Undermining democracyWeakens the checks on power: defying courts, sidelining Congress, limiting oversight.Weakening civil rightsRolls back social protections and civil rights. | theguardian.com ↗ |
| 2026-07-27 | Trump during a speech in Michigan again attacked Democrats, calling them communists, as well as falsely claiming that Democrats seeking office wanted to raise taxes to 80% and abolish the police. He also described the U.S. trade deficit as having declined by 71%, though the actual number in 2025 was a 0.2% decline.Controlling informationControls, restricts, or manufactures information, including propaganda. | reuters.com ↗ |
| 2026-07-27 | The administration's immigration crackdown is aided and accelerated by mass hearings with up to 150 people per hearing, and removal orders "in absentia", where the judge decides an immigrant or asylum seeker should be deported because they were no-shows at their hearings.Weakening civil rightsRolls back social protections and civil rights.NationalismAnti-immigration or militarised nationalism. | theguardian.com ↗ |
| 2026-07-27 | The Trump administration announced that powerplants that serve data centers under new guidance would be exempt from the Clean Air Act's Acid Rain Program, which provides pollution limits that seek to prevent acid rain.Attacking scienceBends science and health policy to politics: restricted research, weaker protections. | thehill.com ↗ |
| 2026-07-27 | The Education Department has threatened two school districts in Michigan and Maryland with federal funding cuts over their transgender policies, alleging that they are violating the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act by classifying information about a student's gender identity as "confidential medical information" that cannot be shared with parents.Attacking educationPressure on universities, schools, museums, and cultural institutions. | reuters.com ↗ |
| 2026-07-27 | The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), responsible for tracking and issuing recalls of dangerous products sold in the U.S., have asked emergency rooms to share medical records and personally identifiable health data from patients who visit the ER. This includes data for most injuries, including those not related to product recalls. Sharona Hoffman, a professor of health law at Case Western Reserve University. noted that giving a private entity access to a sweeping collection of data will introduce risks to patient privacy.Weakening civil rightsRolls back social protections and civil rights. | kffhealthnews.org ↗ |
| 2026-07-27 | On Truth Social, Trump urged John Thune (R), the Majority Leader of the Senate, to "not allow the United States Senate to 'leave town' until it passes The Save America Act or, far better still, TERMINATES THE FILIBUSTER" and "Remember, stupidity always brings LOSING & DEATH!"Undermining democracyWeakens the checks on power: defying courts, sidelining Congress, limiting oversight. | bsky.app ↗ |
| 2026-07-26 | ||
| 2026-07-26 | Trump posts two social media posts of AI imagery of him running again for a third term (consitutionally not allowed) in 2028Undermining democracyWeakens the checks on power: defying courts, sidelining Congress, limiting oversight.Controlling informationControls, restricts, or manufactures information, including propaganda. | truthsocial.com ↗ |
| 2026-07-26 | The Pentagon quietly updated its casualty data base, the Defense Casualty Analysis System (DCAS), adding 140 injured service personnel and also introduced a new casualty category labeled “Overseas Operations” for personnel killed and wounded in the Iran war, “starting July 7”. The administration argues that the early phase of the war, called Operation Epic Fury, should be separate from the renewed fighting following the collapse of the ceasefire on July 6th. The administrations argument is that the clock for Operation Fury stopped on May 1st with the first ceasefire in place, and a new "casualty count" started on July 7th when the ceasefire collapsed. This move would be unprecedented.Undermining democracyWeakens the checks on power: defying courts, sidelining Congress, limiting oversight.Controlling informationControls, restricts, or manufactures information, including propaganda. | theguardian.com ↗ |
| 2026-07-25 | ||
| 2026-07-25 | The Trump administration rushed the conversion of a Qatari-donated Boeing 747 into a temporary Air Force One to meet President Trump's personal deadline for the United States' 250th anniversary celebrations. A New York Times investigation found that the accelerated project generated substantial additional public costs, omitted some security features, and was funded in part through classified budget transfers that obscured the full cost from Congress, reducing transparency and oversight.Undermining democracyWeakens the checks on power: defying courts, sidelining Congress, limiting oversight.Controlling informationControls, restricts, or manufactures information, including propaganda.CorruptionPublic power appearing to serve private gain. | nytimes.com ↗ |
