Lest We Forget the Horrors: An Unending Catalog of Trump’s Cruelties, Collusions, Corruptions, and Crimes

Early in President Trump’s first term, McSweeney’s editors began to catalog the head-spinning number of misdeeds coming from his administration. We called this list a collection of Trump’s cruelties, collusions, corruptions, and crimes, and it felt urgent to track them, to ensure these horrors—happening almost daily—would not be forgotten. Now that Trump has returned to office, amid civil rights, humanitarian, economic, and constitutional crises, we felt it critical to make an inventory of this new round of horrors. This list will be updated monthly between now and the end of Donald Trump’s second term.

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ATROCITY KEY

– Constitutional Illegalities, Collusion, and/or Obstruction of Justice
– Environment
– Harassment, Bullying, Retribution, and/or Sexual Misconduct
– Lies and Misinformation
– Musk Madness
– Policy
– Public Statements and Social Media Posts
– Trump Family Business Dealings
– Trump Staff and Administration
– White Supremacy, Racism, Misogyny, Homophobia, Transphobia, and/or Xenophobia

Jump to February 2025

Jump to March 2025

JANUARY 2025

1. – January 20, 2025 – During his inaugural address at the Capitol Rotunda, Donald Trump proclaimed, “The golden age of America begins right now… From this day forward, our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world.” During the speech, he condemned the Biden administration while President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris sat directly behind him. Trump stated he would reverse “horrible betrayals” and railed against a “radical and corrupt establishment” that he said “extracted power and wealth from our citizens.” On the dais near him sat a few of the wealthiest citizens in the world, including Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg.
   
   
2. – January 20, 2025 – Trump offered unconditional pardons to approximately 1,500 people charged in connection with the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. “These are people who actually love our country,” Trump announced, “so we thought a pardon would be appropriate.” Several January 6 defendants refused to accept their pardons. Mary Hemphill, often referred to as “MAGA Granny,” said, “It’s an insult to the Capitol police officers, to the rule of law, and to the nation. It contributes to their false propaganda—that they continue to gaslight the nation and everyone that it was a peaceful protest.”
   
   
3. – January 20, 2025 – In violation of the Fourteenth Amendment, Trump signed an executive order to end birthright citizenship. Attorneys general from twenty-two states sued in federal court. US District Judge John Coughenour blocked the order, describing it as “blatantly unconstitutional.” “We’re the only country in the world that does [birthright citizenship],” Trump said. Dozens of countries, including Canada, Mexico, and many South American nations, offer birthright citizenship.
   
   
4. – January 20, 2025 – Trump signed an executive order withdrawing the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement. He described it as “a rip-off.” During his inaugural address, Trump said, “We will be a rich nation again, and it is that liquid gold under our feet that will help to do it.” Fossil fuel interests gave Trump’s presidential campaign an estimated $75 million. Newly appointed Energy Secretary Chris Wright founded the fracking firm Liberty Energy. In 2023, Wright claimed, “There is no climate crisis, and we’re not in the midst of an energy transition, either.”
   
   
5. – January 20, 2025 – Trump signed Executive Order 14169, which mandated a ninety-day pause on all US foreign development assistance programs. The order, entitled “Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid,” stated, “The United States foreign aid industry and bureaucracy are not aligned with American interests and in many cases antithetical to American values.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, “There will be changes, but the changes are not meant to be destructive, they’re not meant to be punitive.” Abby Maxam, head of Oxfam America, stated that suspending funding “could have life or death consequences” for children and families around the world.
   
   
6. – January 20, 2025 – During a speech at an inauguration celebration, Elon Musk, Trump’s pick to lead his Department of Governmental Efficiency, gave not one but two fascists gestures. “I just want to say thank you for making [Trump’s election victory] happen,” the billionaire told supporters. He then pounded his chest and extended his arm diagonally in the air, very similar to the Nazi Party’s infamous salute. After the crowd cheered, he did it a second time. In recent months, Musk had been increasingly engaging with far-right groups, like Germany’s Alternative für Deutschland. Trump, too, has been criticized for his fascist views, even by his vice president, JD Vance, who once called him “America’s Hitler.”
   
   
7. – January 21, 2025 – Trump introduced Executive Order 14151, aimed at ending diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) policies throughout the federal government. The order stated, “Federal employment practices, and employee performance reviews, shall reward individual initiative, skills, performance, and hard work and shall not under any circumstances consider DEI or DEIA factors, goals, policies, mandates, or requirements.” Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said the government already hires and promotes exclusively based on merit: “The results are clear: a diverse federal workforce that looks like the nation it serves. We should all be proud of that.”
   
   
8. – January 23, 2025 – Trump fired more than a dozen inspectors general in a late-night purge of independent government watchdog officials assigned to investigate crime and abuse. The fired inspectors general received White House emails that stated, “Due to changing priorities, your position as Inspector General… is terminated, effective immediately.” In response to the firings, Trump said, “Some people thought that some were unfair or some were not doing the job.” He claimed that the mass removal of inspectors general was “a very standard thing to do.” The terminations directly violated a federal law that required a thirty-day notice to Congress that included a rationale for the firings.
   
   
9. – January 24, 2025 – Just hours before he visited areas devastated by the Southern California wildfires, Trump blamed California’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom and other state officials for the fires. “Look, Gavin’s got one thing he can do,” Trump told Fox News. “He can release the water that comes from the north. There is massive amounts of water, rainwater, and mountain water that comes, too, with the snow, comes down as it melts, there’s so much water.” Water resource and environmental engineering experts said there was no connection between California’s water supply and the deadly wildfires.
   
   
10. – January 24, 2025 – Trump’s pick for secretary of defense, Fox News host Pete Hegseth, was narrowly confirmed after allegations of his past sexual violence, alcoholism, workplace misconduct, and affinity for far-right and neo-Nazi groups came to light. An affidavit by Hegseth’s former sister-in-law alleged that Hegseth, who has a white-extremist symbol tattooed on his chest, regularly made racist comments to his ex-wife while drunk. Upon his confirmation, Trump said, “We have a great secretary of defense, and we’re very happy,” adding, “the important thing is winning.”
    
    
11. – January 25, 2025 – In Chicago, Secret Service agents showed up at Hamline Elementary School and attempted to question an eleven-year-old who had posted an anti-Trump video online. The agents first visited a residence in the neighborhood to investigate a “threat to one of our protectees in reference to the recent TikTok ban.” They then visited the school and showed identification to school administrators, who refused to let them in. Initially, school officials falsely stated that the agents were from ICE, reflecting the community’s growing fears amid heightened tensions over immigration policy. More than 90 percent of Hamline’s students are Latinx and about two-thirds are English-language learners.
    
    
12. – January 25, 2025 – During a phone call with King Abdullah II of Jordan, Trump said he wanted Jordan to welcome more Palestinians from Gaza. “I’d love for you to take on more because I’m looking at the whole Gaza Strip right now, and it’s a mess. You’re talking about a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing.” Jordanian Foreign Affairs Minister Ayman Safadi promptly replied, “Our refusal of displacement is a steadfast position that will not change.” In response to Trump’s suggestion, Senator Lindsey Graham said, “I don’t know what he’s talking about.”
    
    
13. – January 25, 2025 – At a Las Vegas rally, Trump speculated about running for additional presidential terms. “It will be the greatest honor of my life to serve not once but twice—or three or four times.” Just two days later, in a speech to House Republicans at Mar-a-Lago, Trump added, “I’ve raised a lot of money for the next race that I assume I can’t use for myself, but I’m not 100 percent sure,” eliciting laughter from House Speaker Mike Johnson, a former constitutional lawyer. The Twenty-Second Amendment to the US Constitution explicitly bans a president from being elected to more than two terms.
    
    
14. – January 27, 2025 – President Trump signed executive orders banning transgender individuals from serving in the military, eliminating the military’s diversity programs, and reinstating with back pay service members who were previously discharged for refusing COVID-19 vaccinations. The order banning trans service members stated that “adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual’s sex conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle” and “is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member.” In 2018, the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps chiefs all told Congress that transgender troops did not negatively impact unit cohesion, discipline issues, or morale.
    
    
15. – January 27, 2025 – In an internal memo sent to federal agencies, the White House ordered a temporary pause on federal grant and loan disbursements to ensure compliance with Trump’s recent executive orders. “The use of federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and Green New Deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars,” wrote Matthew J. Vaeth, then acting director of the Office of Management and Budget. A spreadsheet identified 2,600 federal programs under review, showing impacts to foreign aid, homeless shelters, food stamps, college financial aid, disaster reconstruction, Social Security, and senior health care.
    
    
16. – January 27, 2025 – Trump signed an executive order aimed at restricting gender-affirming health care—such as puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and surgery—for those under the age of nineteen. “Across the country today, medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing a growing number of impressionable children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a child’s sex through a series of irreversible medical interventions,” the order stated. “This dangerous trend will be a stain on our Nation’s history, and it must end.” In temporarily blocking the executive order, US District Judge Brendan A. Hurson said, “This is a population with an extremely higher rate for suicide, poverty, unemployment, drug addiction. [Abruptly stopping health care would be] horribly dangerous for anyone, for any care, but especially for this extremely vulnerable population.” Research shows that gender-diverse minors face increased risks for mental health issues, substance use, and suicide, and that gender-affirming health care improves overall well-being and quality of life.
    
    
17. – January 28, 2025 – In her first White House briefing, press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that the Elon Musk–led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) had prevented a planned $50 million from going “out the door to fund condoms in Gaza,” a “preposterous waste of taxpayer money.” Musk later reposted a video of Leavitt’s remarks with the comment “tip of the iceberg.” Leavitt’s claim was subsequently repeated and expanded upon by the president: “We identified and stopped $50 million being sent to Gaza to buy condoms for Hamas. They used them as a method of making bombs. How about that?” No evidence was offered to support Leavitt’s, Musk’s, or Trump’s claims. A federal report published in 2024 and now inaccessible on the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) website showed that the agency’s total worldwide spending on condoms in 2023 was only $7.1 million and that no condoms were provided or funded for the Middle East between 2021 and 2023.
    
    
18. – January 28, 2025 – The day after a passenger plane and Army helicopter collided mid-air above the Potomac River in Washington, DC, Trump blamed the deadly crash on DEI. At the time of Trump’s statement, an investigation into the cause of the crash was still ongoing. Trump stated, without evidence, that a “diversity push” by the Federal Aviation Administration had resulted in “hiring people with severe intellectual and psychiatric disabilities.” “We have to have the smartest people,” said Trump, referring to air traffic controllers. “It doesn’t matter what they look like, how they speak, who they are.” When a reporter asked Trump directly whether he believed “this crash was somehow caused as the result of diversity hiring,” Trump responded, “It just could have been.” Sixty-seven people were killed in the collision, the first major US commercial passenger crash since 2009.
    
    
19. – January 30, 2025 – During his Senate confirmation hearing, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s nominee for secretary of health and human services, doubled down on past statements that Black people have stronger immune systems than white people and should receive vaccines on a different schedule. In response to questions from Senator Angela Alsobrooks, who is Black, Kennedy said that a “series of studies” by the Mayo Clinic have shown that “to particular antigens Blacks have a much stronger reaction.” Dr. Richard Kennedy (no relation), a vaccine researcher at Mayo Clinic whom Robert F. Kennedy cited during the hearing, said the health secretary nominee was “twisting the data far beyond what they actually demonstrate.” Studies show that false beliefs about biological differences between Black and white people are associated with racial disparities in medical assessment and treatment.
    
    
20. – January 30, 2025 – The mass deportation operation spearheaded by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE ) rattled immigrant communities across the country. A recent announcement by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) stated that DHS officials would enter schools and churches to conduct raids. The deportation operation was meant to remove dangerous criminals. Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, admitted to “collateral arrests.” The Trump administration said it had arrested 7,400 people in nine days, and White House and ICE officials highlighted several dozen arrested immigrants on social media. No information in the thousands of other cases was made available.
    
    
    
21. – January 31, 2025 – The Justice Department fired dozens of prosecutors and demanded a list of FBI employees who had worked on investigations related to the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. Emil Bove, the acting deputy attorney general, characterized the initial hiring of these prosecutors during the Biden presidency as “subversive” and concurred with Trump’s description of the Capitol attack investigations as “a grave national injustice.” At the time of the Capitol attacks, Bove worked for the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and directed prosecutors to support the FBI’s investigations. “At no point did I ever hear him or anybody else express concern about these investigations and these arrests that we were making,” said Christopher O’Leary, an FBI counterterrorism official who worked with Bove on the investigations.
    
    
22. – January 31, 2025 – In compliance with Trump’s executive orders eliminating federal DEI programs and requiring the government to recognize only two sexes, numerous Department of Health and Human Services webpages and datasets were taken down, including CDC and NIH pages related to HIV, LGBTQ+ health, STI treatment, and food safety during pregnancy. In response, the Infectious Disease Society of America released a statement, noting that the removal of these online resources was “deeply concerning” and created “a dangerous gap in scientific information and data to monitor and respond to disease outbreaks.”
    
    
    - – -

    FEBRUARY 2025

23. – February 1, 2025 – President Trump signed executive orders imposing tariffs on Canada, China, and Mexico. The tariffs aimed to curb the flow of migrants and fentanyl into the country. He claimed the three countries were allowing “mass numbers of people to come in and fentanyl to come in.” The executive orders sidestepped congressional approval, and Trump acknowledged there could be “some pain” in the form of higher inflation, job losses, and stagnating growth due to the tariffs. The Wall Street Journal called Trump’s plan “the dumbest trade war in history.”
    
    
24. – February 3, 2025 – Trump ordered the Army Corps of Engineers to release 2.2 billion gallons of water from two reservoirs in central California. Local officials scrambled to prepare as communities were threatened of being inundated. On Truth Social, Trump crowed, “The water is flowing in California… and heading to farmers throughout the State, and to Los Angeles. Too bad they refused to do this during my First Term—There would have been no fires!” Neither reservoir was connected to aqueducts serving the southern part of the state. “Those releases had absolutely zero to do with anything in Los Angeles,” said Gregory Pierce, director of UCLA’s Water Resource Group. “This was a stunt purely so Trump could say that he did something.”
    
    
25. – February 3, 2025 – Trump announced the United States would cut aid to South Africa over their recent land expropriation law. On Truth Social, Trump posted, “South Africa is confiscating land, and treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY.” Trump’s talking points mirrored those of South Africa–born billionaire Elon Musk. In 2023, Musk said, “They are openly pushing for genocide of white people in South Africa.” White South Africans, who make up about 7 percent of the population, continue to dominate land ownership and occupy almost 50 percent of South Africa’s surface area.
    
    
26. – February 4, 2025 – During a White House press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Donald Trump said that Palestinians should leave war-ravaged Gaza and settle elsewhere. He also announced that the United States would take over the territory and redevelop it into “the Riviera of the Middle East.” Trump didn’t rule out deploying US troops and offered no other details on how the 1.8 million residents of the Gaza Strip would be resettled or how the US would take ownership of the land. Over 46,000 Palestinians have been killed, many of them children, during the Israel-Hamas conflict.
    
    
27. – February 5, 2025 – Trump signed an executive order banning transgender women and girls from participating in women’s sports. “Who could forget last year’s Paris Olympics, where a male boxer stole the woman’s gold medal after brutalizing his female opponent?” Trump said, repeating a false claim about a female boxer from Algeria, where it is illegal for people to change their gender. “From now on,” he said, “women’s sports will be only for women.” During a congressional hearing in December 2024, NCAA President Charlie Baker said there were fewer than ten transgender athletes among the 510,000 competing at US schools.
    
    
28. – February 6, 2025 – Trump posted on Truth Social that “billions of dollars” from USAID had improperly gone to the media company Politico, which he considers “fake news.” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt repeated his claim during a press conference. “I was made aware of the funding from USAID to media outlets, including Politico,” she said. Government agencies used funding to subscribe to Politico Pro, a service that tracks legislation and other policy information. According to USA Spending.gov, USAID paid $24,000 to Politico Pro in 2024 for a subscription to E&E, an energy and environmental news service owned by the company.
    
    
29. – February 7, 2025 – Trump signed an executive order to eliminate “anti-Christian bias” in the federal government. “If we don’t have religious liberty,” he said during a speech at the National Prayer Breakfast, “then we don’t have a free country. We probably don’t even have a country.” He appointed Attorney General Pam Bondi to lead a task force that would “fully prosecute anti-Christian violence.” In response, the Interfaith Alliance stated, “We fear that this task force will aid organizations looking to circumvent anti-discrimination laws under the guise of religious freedom… There is no evidence of widespread anti-Christian bias in the United States.”
    
    
30. – February 7, 2025 – Trump’s January 20 executive order stated “illegal aliens” are “presenting significant threats to national security and public safety.” Recent interviews conducted by California nonprofit Cal Matters suggested that some people arrested in Trump’s immigration crackdown were not hardened criminals. Loreal Duran of Echo Park recounted her husband’s arrest. “It was just a regular morning,” she said, as her husband, Giovanni Duran, was getting ready to drive their children to school. Giovanni came to California from El Salvador without federal authorization when he was two years old. He worked as a busser in a sushi restaurant in Los Angeles before he was taken into custody. Loreal’s seven-year-old son asked, “Did Daddy get arrested because he’s brown?” A recent report said
    that less than half of the approximately 8,200 people arrested from January 20 through February 2 had criminal convictions.
    
    
31. – February 8, 2025 – Employees of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) were told to cease “all supervision and examination activity” and “all stakeholder engagement” via an email from newly appointed Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought. A White House statement claimed the CFPB “has long functioned as another woke, weaponized arm of the bureaucracy that leverages its power against certain industries and individuals disfavored by so-called elites.” The CFPB is an independent agency created after the collapse of the US banking system in 2008, which left Americans with massive financial losses and raised questions about the operations of the country’s major financial institutions.
    
    
32. – February 9, 2025 – After two weeks on the lam, a man recently pardoned by President Trump for his role in the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack was arrested again, this time on old charges of soliciting a minor. Thirty-six-year-old Andrew Taake allegedly sent sexually explicit messages to an undercover officer posing as a teenage girl in 2016. In 2023, he pled guilty to assaulting officers with bear spray and a metal whip during the Capitol attack and was sentenced to six years in prison. According to Trump, his mass pardon of individuals such as Taake convicted of crimes related to the Capitol attack ended “a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people.”
    
    
33. – February 9, 2025 – “I think Canada would be much better off being the 51st state because we lose $200 billion a year with Canada. And I’m not going to let that happen,” Trump said during an interview with Fox News on Super Bowl Sunday. He claimed Canada was not viable as a country and would be much better off as a fifty-first state. “Mr. Trump has it in mind that the easiest way to do it is absorbing our country, and it is a real thing,” said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. “They’re very aware of our resources, of what we have, and they very much want to be able to benefit from those,”
    
    
34. – February 9, 2025 – As Air Force One flew over the Gulf of Mexico en route to Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans, Trump signed a proclamation designating February 9 as “Gulf of America Day,” following up on his earlier executive order directing the secretary of the interior to rename the Gulf of Mexico. During remarks at Mar-a-Lago on January 7, Trump announced his intentions to change the name and explained his motivations for doing so. “[Mexico is] essentially run by cartels. Mexico’s really in trouble, a lot of trouble, very dangerous place. We’re going to change [that] because we do most of the work there,” he continued, “and it’s ours. It’s appropriate, and Mexico has to stop allowing millions of people to pour into our country. They can stop them.” Comedian Stephen Colbert first used the term “Gulf of America” satirically, following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, joking that “we broke it, we bought it.” In 2012, Democratic State Representative Stephen Holland introduced a satiric bill proposing the name change to draw attention to Republican anti-immigration efforts.
    
    
35. – February 9, 2025 – During the same flight to the Super Bowl, Trump—whose real estate failures have resulted in multiple bankruptcy filings—described Gaza as a “big real estate site” for the US to “own” and “redevelop”: “I think that it’s a big mistake to allow people—the Palestinians, or the people living in Gaza—to go back yet another time, and we don’t want Hamas going back. And think of it as a big real estate site, and the United States is going to own it… and develop it. We’re going to bring stability to the Middle East.” With only a few exceptions for security and military reasons, forced displacement of civilians is a violation of the Geneva Conventions.
    
    
36. – February 10, 2025 – Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove directed federal prosecutors to dismiss charges against New York City mayor Eric Adams without prejudice. In his memo to the Southern District of New York, Bove argued that continued prosecution of Adams would interfere with the mayor’s ability to enforce the Trump administration’s immigration agenda and noted that the order to dismiss was made “without assessing the strength of the evidence or the legal theories on which the case is based.” Adams, who spent months currying favor with Trump, was indicted in September 2024 on charges of conspiracy, wire fraud, soliciting illegal campaign contributions from foreign nationals, and bribery.
    
    
37. – February 10, 2025 – President Trump pardoned former Democratic Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich after first commuting his sentence during his first term. In 2010, Blagojevich was convicted on seventeen corruption and pay-to-play charges—including an attempt to sell the Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama—and sentenced to fourteen years in prison, of which he served only eight. During Blagojevich’s trial, prosecutors presented a recording of Blagojevich in which the former governor, referring to the Senate seat, said, “I mean, I’ve got this thing, and it’s fucking golden. And I’m just not giving it up for fucking nothing.” After Blagojevich’s indictment, he appeared on Donald Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice, where the future president praised his “tremendous courage and guts.”
    
    
38. – February 10, 2025 – President Trump signed an executive order to end “the procurement and forced use of paper straws.” “These things don’t work,” Trump told reporters. “I’ve had them many times, and on occasion, they break, they explode. If something’s hot, they don’t last very long, like a matter of minutes, sometimes a matter of seconds. It’s a ridiculous situation.” Single-use plastics negatively impact both the environment and human health. Brushing off environmental concerns, Trump, who is reportedly obsessed with and terrified of sharks, added, “I don’t think that plastic is going to affect a shark as they’re eating, as they’re munching their way through the ocean.”
    
    
39. – February 10, 2025 – Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered that US Army base Fort Liberty be renamed Fort Bragg, its original name. “That’s right, Bragg is back,” said Hegseth. Originally named after slave-owning Confederate General Braxton Bragg, the North Carolina base was renamed Fort Liberty in 2023 following racial justice protests and legislation forbidding the naming of bases after Confederates. Sidestepping that legislation, Hegseth’s memo claimed the base was named after World War II veteran Roland L. Bragg. However, during media appearances between 2021 and 2024, Hegseth repeatedly criticized efforts to remove the names of Confederates from army bases as “a sham,” “garbage,” and “crap.”
    
    
40. – February 10, 2025 – Following his purge of eighteen Biden-appointed board members, Trump became chairman of the traditionally bipartisan John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and immediately fired its longtime president. A frequent target of Kennedy Center honorees, Trump has criticized the Kennedy Center for its “woke” and queer-friendly programming. “Just last year,” he said, “the Kennedy Center featured Drag Shows specifically targeting our youth—THIS WILL STOP.” Although pundits have frequently described Trump as a performance artist, the president has yet to attend a Kennedy Center performance and is the only president to have skipped the Kennedy Center Honors twice. “I got reports they were so bad,” Trump said, referring to the Kennedy Center shows, “I didn’t want to go. There was nothing I wanted to see.”
    
    – February 11, 2025 – Wearing a “Dark MAGA” hat and black T-shirt, Elon Musk made several false claims about DOGE in the Oval Office. “I don’t know of a case where an organization has been more transparent than the DOGE organization,” said Musk, who also asserted, without evidence, that USAID officials had taken “tens of millions of dollars” worth of “kickbacks.” In actuality, Musk has taken great pains to prevent DOGE staffers from being identified, refused to release his financial disclosure filing, and has not been open about when his staffers will show up at federal agencies or how his team plans to use access to payment systems. “Who is this unelected billionaire, that he can attempt to dismantle federal agencies, fire people, transfer them, offer them early retirement, and have sweeping reform or changes to agencies without any congressional review, oversight, or concurrence?” said US Representative Gerald Connolly. When questioned about some of his previous false statements, Musk responded, ​​“Some of the things that I say will be incorrect and should be corrected. Nobody’s going to bat 1,000.”
    
    
41. – February 12, 2025 – Tulsi Gabbard was confirmed as the director of national intelligence with a 52–48 Senate vote. A veteran and former Democratic representative from Hawaii, Gabbard met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2017 and has made comments sympathetic to Russia. Soon after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Gabbard wrote on social media, “This war and suffering could have easily been avoided if Biden Admin/NATO had simply acknowledged Russia’s legitimate security concerns.” As of March 2025, Russia still occupies about 20 percent of Ukraine. The war has killed an estimated 40,000 civilians, and nearly eleven million people have either fled Ukraine or are internally displaced.
    
    
42. – February 12, 2025 – Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. was confirmed as the Secretary of Health and Human Services with a 52–48 Senate vote. In the past, Kennedy has suggested that chemicals in the water supply can turn children gay or transgender, questioned whether HIV causes AIDS, and compared COVID-19 mandates to laws in Nazi Germany. A longtime anti-vaccine activist, Kennedy has made false statements that vaccines cause autism, reduce IQ, and increase susceptibility to flu and polio. “Nobody can tell you what the risk profile for any vaccine is,” Kennedy claimed in 2019. “So anybody who says they’re safe and effective is not telling the truth because they can’t tell you that based on science.” According to the World Health Organization, vaccines have saved at least 154 million lives over the past fifty years.
    
    
43. – February 13, 2025 – Acting US Attorney Danielle Sassoon resigned over the Justice Department’s order to dismiss charges against NYC Mayor Eric Adams without prejudice. In a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Sassoon wrote that dismissing the case against Adams was “inconsistent with my ability and duty to prosecute federal crimes without fear or favor and to advance good-faith arguments before the courts” and accused the mayor’s lawyers of advocating for “what amounted to a quid pro quo, indicating that Adams would be in a position to assist with the Department’s enforcement priorities only if the indictment were dismissed.” Sassoon’s resignation prompted a wave of other resignations, including the departures of John Keller and Kevin Driscoll, who led the DOJ’s public integrity unit in Washington, and Hagan Scotten, the lead prosecutor in the Adams case. “Our laws and traditions do not allow using the prosecutorial power to influence other citizens, much less elected officials,” wrote Scotten in his resignation letter. “If no lawyer within earshot of the president is willing to give him that advice, then I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool, or enough of a coward, to file your motion. But it was never going to be me.”
    
    
44. – February 13, 2025 – As part DOGE’s efforts to cut spending and reduce the federal workforce, over three hundred workers at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), which oversees the US stockpile of nuclear weapons, were abruptly fired. “The DOGE people are coming in with absolutely no knowledge of what these departments are responsible for,” said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association. “Elon Musk and DOGE are playing a dangerous game,” added Senator Ed Markey. “Cutting 200 NNSA staff overnight weakens oversight and could leave our nuclear stockpile vulnerable. This isn’t smart savings—it’s dangerously irresponsible.” Following significant chaos and criticism, NNSA Acting Director Teresa Robbins was forced to rescind the terminations the following day.
    
    
45. – February 13, 2025 – During President Trump’s meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Agence France-Presse photographer Jim Watson snapped a photo showing a gold-framed New York Post cover featuring Trump’s mugshot hanging just outside the Oval Office. The mug shot, which Trump shared on social media with the caption “NEVER SURRENDER” and which subsequently appeared on Trump campaign merchandise, was taken in August 2023 after Trump was indicted in Fulton County on charges stemming from his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
    
    
46. – February 13, 2025 – The National Park Service removed references to transgender people from its Stonewall National Monument website. What used to be listed as LGBTQ+ was changed to LGB. The Stonewall Uprising in 1969 was a pivotal moment in the LGBQT+ activist movement. The Stonewall Inn released a statement in response, saying, “This blatant act of erasure not only distorts the truth of our history, but it also dishonors the immense contributions of transgender individuals—especially transgender women of color—who were at the forefront of the Stonewall Riots and the broader fight for LGBTQ+ rights.”
    
    
47. – February 14, 2025 – The New York Times reported that Trump plans to pave over the grass in the Rose Garden so that it resembles his patio at Mar-a-Lago. “The White House has not been given any tender, loving care in many decades, so President Trump is taking necessary steps in order to preserve and restore the greatness and glory of ‘the People’s House,’” said Steven Cheung, Trump’s communications director. One of the most iconic White House settings, the Rose Garden has been used for press conferences, bill-signing ceremonies, formal dinners, and weddings.
    
    
48. – February 15, 2025 – Echoing a quote often attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte, who crowned himself French emperor in 1804, President Trump posted on social media that “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.” A day later, responding to a news article about the Trump administration’s violation of a court order, Trump posted the same quote, this time overlaying an image of Napoleon. The posts followed earlier remarks in which Trump joked about becoming a dictator and argued that presidents should have immunity from criminal prosecution.
    
    
49. – February 17, 2025 – On President’s Day, thousands of protesters took to streets across the United States, many calling Trump a “king.” Protesters also rallied against Elon Musk’s team at the Department of Government Efficiency and their pending cuts to social services. Anita Gilmore of Maryland expressed concerns about her son’s health care coverage: “My son is on Medicaid because he has a life-threatening disease, and if I wasn’t there to take care of him, he would be one of these [DC] homeless guys on the street.”
    
    
50. – February 18, 2025 – Panama detained three hundred asylum-seekers who had been deported under President Trump’s orders. The detainees were held in a hotel while they waited for authorities to organize returns to their home countries. Many of the migrants didn’t want to return, due to safety concerns. One migrant attempted suicide and another broke his arm trying to escape. The White House posted a video on social media entitled “ASMR: Illegal Alien Deportation Flight.” The caption referred to autonomous sensory meridian response videos, which are popular online for delivering pleasant sounds that create positive and therapeutic sensations.
    
    
51. – February 18, 2025 – Trump called Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “a dictator without elections.” Ukraine is under martial law, which under its constitution forbids the holding of elections. Trump also accused the democratically elected president of Ukraine of starting the war with Russia. “You should have never started it,” Trump said. “You could have made a deal.” Zelenskyy responded by saying, “With all due respect to President Donald Trump as a leader… he is living in a disinformation space.” Russia’s army crossed Ukraine’s border in 2022, an invasion that Putin sought to justify by claiming it was necessary to protect civilians in eastern Ukraine.
    
    
52. – February 20, 2025 – As part of Trump’s slashing of federal government agencies, the IRS announced it would layoff nearly seven thousand workers for “poor performance.” Many of the terminated workers were hired by the Biden administration to focus on enforcement efforts on wealthy taxpayers. “This will ensure that the IRS is not going after the wealthy and is only an agency that’s really focused on the low income,” said University of Pittsburgh tax law professor Philip Hackney, a former IRS lawyer. “It’s a travesty.”
    
    
53. – February 20, 2025 – Kash Patel, an ally of President Trump and conspiracy theorist who appeared on a prominent white nationalist’s podcast eight times, was confirmed by a vote of 51 to 49 to lead the FBI. During the confirmation hearings, senators grilled Patel about his lack of law enforcement experience and expressed doubts about his ability to maintain the independence of the FBI. Patel evaded questions about whether he would investigate officials on a so-called enemies list in his book, Government Gangsters. US Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, released a statement saying, “Kash Patel is an extreme MAGA loyalist… He is blindly loyal to Donald Trump and Donald Trump only.”
    
    
54. – February 21, 2025 – Elon Musk appeared on stage at the right-wing Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) wielding a chainsaw, bragging about the cuts his Department of Government Efficiency has made, and suggesting Democrats should be charged treason for their immigration policies. “This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy,” he shouted before accusing the Biden administration of allowing immigrants into the United States so as to accrue more supporters at the polls, a conspiracy theory known as the “great replacement.” There is no evidence the former president eased immigration restrictions to allow migrant workers to vote.
    
    
55. – February 21, 2025 – During a meeting with a bipartisan group of governors, Trump questioned Maine’s Democratic Governor Janet Mills about complying with the executive order banning transgender athletes in women’s sports. “We are the federal law. You better comply or you’re not getting any federal funding.” Gov. Mills responded, “See you in court.” The US Department of Education promptly informed Maine they were under a “directed investigation.” In a statement, Gov. Mills said, “Do not be misled: This is not just about who can compete on the athletic field, this is about whether a president can force compliance with his will, without regard for the rule of law.”
    
    
56. – February 22, 2025 – Trump addressed members of CPAC and boasted about firing thousands of federal workers, and dismantling USAID, the government’s main international development agency. “We have escorted the radical-left bureaucrats out of the building and have locked the doors behind them.” He also praised the January 6 insurrectionists in attendance, calling them “political prisoners and J6 hostages.” Among those pardoned was Enrique Tarrio, leader of the Proud Boys, who had been convicted of seditious conspiracy. The day before Trump’s address at CPAC, Tarrio was arrested on assault charges.
    
    
57. – February 24, 2025 – The United States voted against a United Nations General Assembly resolution condemning Russian aggression in Ukraine and calling for Russia to withdraw from Ukrainian territory. The United States also abstained from voting on its own competing resolution calling for an end to the war after other countries added three amendments replacing “the Russia-Ukraine conflict” with “the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation,” acknowledging Ukraine’s territorial rights, and calling for a “lasting” peace. President Trump has falsely blamed Ukraine for starting the war and called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a dictator.
    
    
58. – February 24, 2025 – Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, attacked so-called sanctuary cities during a speech at CPAC. He singled out Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox, in particular, and falsely accused him of refusing to work with ICE to deport illegal immigrants. “You’re not a police commissioner,” Homan shouted from the podium. “Take that badge off your desk, put it in your desk drawer—because you became a politician. You forgot what it’s like to be a cop.” In an interview earlier in the week, Cox said Boston police officers would help ICE detain illegal criminals who have committed crimes but would not work with the federal government to arrest immigrants solely for immigration reasons. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu defended Cox. “It’s insulting. We have the best police commissioner in the country. Boston’s crime levels are at the lowest ever reported in our history,” she said. “I’m coming to Boston, I’m bringing Hell with me,” Homan threatened to massive cheers from the CPAC crowd. As of March 17, 2025, Homan had yet to come to Boston.
    
    
59. – February 24, 2025 – The US State Department ordered officials to deny visas to transgender athletes traveling to the US for sports events and to issue permanent visa bans against individuals who have “misrepresented” their sex on visa applications. The State Department order follows Trump’s earlier executive order banning transgender athletes from women’s sports. While signing that executive order, Trump stated that he had told Secretary of State Marco Rubio to make clear to the International Olympic Committee that “America categorically rejects transgender lunacy.” “It’s normal to say that people accused of fraud or misrepresentation are often considered ineligible,” said Sarah Mehta, an ACLU policy lawyer, “but it is quite bizarre and novel in a terrible way to be saying it’s based on their misrepresenting their sex or gender in order to come and participate in an event in the United States.”
    
    
60. – February 25, 2025 – Breaking with decades of precedent, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that the Trump administration would select which journalists participate in the White House press pool. “We’re going to be calling those shots,” added Trump. The announcement followed the administration’s retaliatory barring of Associated Press journalists after the AP refused to comply with Trump’s order that the Gulf of Mexico, which mostly lies outside maritime regions controlled by the United States, be called the Gulf of America. “This move tears at the independence of a free press in the United States. It suggests the government will choose the journalists who cover the president. In a free country, leaders must not be able to choose their own press corps,” said Eugene Daniels, a Politico reporter and president of the White House Correspondents’ Association.
    
    
61. – February 25, 2025 – Trump posted an AI-generated video showing Gaza transformed into a luxury resort featuring golden Trump statues and balloons. In the video, war-ravaged children emerge from rubble onto glittering beaches with belly dancers and palm trees, a smiling Elon Musk eats hummus, and Trump lounges on the beach with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu while a voice sings, “No more tunnels, no more fear. Trump Gaza is finally here.” The video follows Trump’s earlier statements about taking over Gaza, expelling its Palestinian residents, and developing the Palestinian territory into the “Riviera of the Middle East.” “The video advocating for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza published on President Trump’s social media is not only arrogant and disrespectful,” said Mustafa Barghouti, a Palestinian activist and politician, “but also violates international law and human rights.”
    
    
62. – February 25, 2025 – An unvaccinated child with no underlying health conditions died from measles in rural West Texas. It was the first such US death since 2015 and the first such US death of a child since 2003. As of March 4, 2025, the Texas measles outbreak had risen to over 150 cases. Vaccination rates in Gaines County, where the outbreak began, are especially low. During a Cabinet meeting, Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a known vaccine skeptic, downplayed the Texas measles outbreak, saying, “It’s not unusual. We have measles outbreaks every year.” Several days later, in an opinion piece for Fox News, Kennedy stopped short of explicitly recommending the MMR vaccine, calling the decision to vaccinate a “personal” choice and advocating for vitamin A treatment, which experts have recommended against using in most measles cases.
    
    
63. – February 25, 2025 – Trump said that the United States would soon offer a new visa program to help attract foreign investors to the country. “We are going to be selling a gold card,” he said. “We are going to be putting a price on that card of about $5 million. It’s going to give you green card privileges plus its going to be a route to [American] citizenship.” When asked if Russian oligarchs would be eligible, Trump said, “Yeah, possibly. Hey. I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people.”
    
    
64. – February 26, 2025 – Despite not being a Cabinet secretary, Elon Musk attended Donald Trump’s first Cabinet meeting and defended his cost-cutting efforts at DOGE. Wearing a black “tech support” T-shirt and knocking on his “wooden head,” Musk said he hoped to trim $1 trillion from the federal budget while also acknowledging, with a chuckle, that he had accidentally cancelled Ebola prevention. When questioned about his order that government workers send an email summarizing their accomplishments for the week, a directive that caused significant confusion and was widely criticized, Musk repeated a baseless claim that some workers collecting federal paychecks are either fictional or dead.
    
    
65. – February 26, 2025 – The Trump administration terminated funding for thousands of global health projects, including programs for polio, HIV, malaria, and maternal health. The State Department announced the terminations over email, writing, “This award is being terminated for convenience and the interest of the U.S. government.” USAID experts warned that the cuts will lead to an estimated 166,000 malaria deaths, 200,000 polio paralyses in children, 28,000 new cases of infectious diseases like Ebola and Marburg, and one million children not treated for severe malnutrition, which is often fatal, annually. “People will die,” said Dr. Catherine Kyobutungi, executive director of the African Population and Health Research Center, “but we will never know because even the programs to count the dead are cut.”
    
    
66. – February 27, 2025 – In a Truth Social post, Trump encouraged Iowa lawmakers to approve a bill ending state civil rights protections for transgender Iowans. “Iowa, a beautiful State that I have won BIG every time, has a Bill to remove Radical Gender Ideology from their Laws,” he wrote. “Iowa should follow the lead of my Executive Order, saying there are only two genders, and pass this Bill – AS FAST AS POSSIBLE.” The bill, which was approved and then signed by Governor Kim Reynolds, removes gender identity as a protected class, allowing employers, businesses, and landlords to discriminate against transgender people. In a 2023 survey, more than 60 percent of transgender adults said they have faced discrimination because of their gender identity.
    
    
67. – February 28, 2025 – During a televised Oval Office meeting, President Trump and Vice President Vance lashed out at Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy and threatened to abandon Ukraine. After Zelenskyy expressed doubts about an American-brokered peace deal with Russia, the vice president called the Ukrainian leader “disrespectful,” adding, “You should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to this conflict.” As the meeting continued, Trump and Vance raised their voices, interrupted Zelenskyy, and pointed fingers at him. “You’re gambling with the lives of millions of people. You’re gambling with World War III, and what you’re doing is very disrespectful to the country, this country that’s backed you far more than a lot of people say they should have,” said Trump. “You’re either going to make a deal or we’re out. And if we’re out, you’ll fight it out and I don’t think it’s going to be pretty.”
    
    
    - – -

    MARCH 2025

68. – March 1, 2025 – Despite his history of documented grammar and spelling issues, President Trump signed an executive order making English the official language of the United States. The order revoked a Clinton-era mandate requiring federal agencies to provide services and translated documents to people who speak limited English. Although the order’s practical impact may be limited, pro-immigration groups warned that the order may stigmatize immigrants and make it more difficult for non-English speakers to access government services. At CPAC in February, Trump explicitly linked his contempt for other languages to his anti-immigration agenda: “We have languages coming into our country. We don’t have one instructor in our entire nation that can speak that language. These are languages—it’s the craziest thing—they have languages that nobody in this country has ever heard of. It’s a very horrible thing.”
    
    
69. – March 2, 2025 – Trump directed federal agencies to increase timber production across 280 million acres of national forests. His executive order stated, “The United States has an abundance of timber resources, but heavy-handed Federal policies have prevented full utilization of these resources.” Trump’s order pressed federal agencies to bypass endangered species protections and other environmental regulations. “They’re not hiding the ball,” said Blaine Miller-McFeeley, a senior legislative representative at Earthjustice, a public interest environmental law organization. “It’s just about trying to cut as much of our forests as possible to line the pockets of timber industry executives.” Trump nominated Tom Schulz, a former lumber industry executive, to lead the Forest Service.
    
    
70. – March 3, 2025 – Elon Musk’s DOGE removed hundreds more claims from its mistake-filled “wall of receipts.” The deleted claims erased $4 billion in savings that the group said it had made for US taxpayers. The items removed included five of the seven largest savings that it had claimed credit for the previous week. The New York Times reported the mistakes included “canceled contracts” that had been completed during previous presidential administrations. In 2005, the US Coast Guard contracted with a Virginia firm for administrative assistance. The contract was completed in June 2005, and the firm was paid $144,000. DOGE’s team reported they had canceled the contract and had saved US taxpayers $53.7 million.
    
    
71. – March 4, 2025 – At a joint session of Congress, Trump gave the longest address before the House and Senate in modern presidential history. Republicans chanted “USA! USA!” as they listened to Trump’s misleading and false statements about government fraud, Social Security, immigration, the economy, and transgender mice. Democrats held up signs in protest that read, UNTRUE and MUSK STEALS. Representative Al Green, a Democrat from Texas, shouted at Trump that he did not have a mandate, and was removed from the chamber by security. Green later said, “It’s worth it to let people know that there are some people who are going to stand up” to Trump.
    
    
72. – March 4, 2025 – In a closed-door meeting, Representative Richard Hudson (R-NC), the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, told GOP lawmakers to stop holding in-person town halls in their districts. Several Republicans had received angry blowback from their constituents, largely over DOGE’s massive cuts. Yet according to the party line, that wasn’t the reason for the pause on town halls. “There are people who do this as a profession,” Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters. “They’re professional protesters.” While some liberal advocacy groups encouraged people to attend the town halls, there was no evidence that any of the attendees had been paid.
    
    
73. – March 5, 2025 – The Department of Veterans Affairs announced it would reduce its workforce by more than 80,000. “We take good care of our veterans,” Trump said. “But we are having great success in slimming down our government.” More than 25 percent of the VA’s workforce is composed of veterans. Gregg Bafundo, a Marine who served during the first Gulf War said, “They’re going to put guys like me and my fellow Marines that rely on the VA in the ground.”
    
    
74. – March 6, 2025 – Trump announced a reprieve on imposing a 25 percent tariff on products from Mexico and Canada. When asked if the decision was based on the stock market, Trump said it had nothing to do with it. “I’m not even looking at the market, because long term the United States will be very strong with what is happening.” Trump’s comments came as the Dow Jones went down 400 points and the Nasdaq Composite closed more than 10 percent below its recent high, as investors continued to worry about the Trump administration’s chaotic economic plan. “The president wants American growth and American prosperity, okay?” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said, “You’re going to see the stock market explode.”
    
    
75. – March 7, 2025 – References to the Enola Gay, the aircraft that dropped an atomic bomb on Japan during World War II, were marked for deletion as part of the Department of Defense’s efforts to purge diversity, equity, and inclusion content in accordance with President Trump’s executive order. Other images and posts containing the word “gay,” including references to people with the common last name “Gay,” were also flagged for deletion. The aircraft was named after Enola Gay Tibbets, mother of military pilot Paul Tibbits, and it was not, in fact, gay.
    
    
76. – March 7, 2025 – The Trump administration canceled $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University for the school’s “continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.” The Trump administration has targeted universities over their DEI policies and handling of pro-Palestinian protests, which began at Columbia in the spring of 2024. “There’s no question that some complaints of antisemitism at Columbia and other universities are valid,” wrote Rabbi Jill Jacobs, CEO of T’ruah. “But Trump’s withholding funds from Columbia… [is] about advancing the administration’s assault on universities, free speech, academic freedom and liberal democracy, not combating antisemitism.”
    
    
77. – March 8, 2025 – ICE arrested and detained graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, a legal permanent resident who played a key role in the pro-Palestinian movement at Columbia University. Revoking a green card is a rare and usually lengthy process that, in the vast majority of cases, occurs only after the green card holder has been accused and convicted of a crime. “Following my previously signed Executive Orders, ICE proudly apprehended and detained Mahmoud Khalil, a Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student on the campus of Columbia University,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “This is the first arrest of many to come. We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump administration will not tolerate it.” Despite refusing to say what specific crime Khalil had committed, House Speaker Mike Johnson defended the arrest, saying, “I’m going to say this clearly: If you’re on a student visa, and you’re in America and you’re an aspiring young terrorist who wants to prey upon your Jewish classmates, you’re going home,” he said. “We’re going to arrest your tail. We’re going to send you home where you belong.” In contrast, Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of UC Berkeley Law School who has criticized the pro-Palestine student movement in the past, said, “Arresting and seeking to deport a Columbia University student for his speech activities clearly violates the First Amendment—and does nothing to combat antisemitism on campus.”
    
    
78. – March 9, 2025 – In a Fox News interview, President Trump did not rule out the possibility of a recession resulting from his tariff policies. When asked directly whether he expected a recession this year, Trump replied, “I hate to predict things like that. There is a period of transition because what we’re doing is very big. We’re bringing wealth back to America. That’s a big thing, and there are always periods of, it takes a little time. It takes a little time, but I think it should be great for us.” Citing Trump’s policies, including his sweeping tariffs, both Goldman Sachs and Yardeni Research raised their odds of a recession occurring in the next twelve months.
    
    
79. – March 10, 2025 – Following Trump’s statements the previous day about a possible recession, the stock market experienced its worst decline of the year. The Dow lost almost 900 points, the S&P 500 dropped 2.7 percent, and the Nasdaq dropped 4 percent. In response, White House officials attempted to downplay the sell-offs. “There are a lot of reasons to be extremely bullish about the economy going forward,” said Kevin Hassett, White House National Economic Council Director. “But for sure, this quarter, there are some blips in the data.” Another White House official added, “We’re seeing a strong divergence between animal spirits of the stock market and what we’re actually seeing unfold from businesses and business leaders.” “Blips” or “animal spirits” aside, many remained unconvinced. “We anticipate lasting damage to global economic activity,” said BNP Paribas strategists.
    
    
80. – March 10, 2025 – Amazon announced that it would begin streaming The Apprentice, the reality television show starring Donald Trump, on Prime Video. Following a series of bankruptcies and bad business deals by Trump, The Apprentice relaunched Donald Trump as a global icon of American success, paving his eventual run for the presidency. As an executive producer on the show, Trump will likely financially profit from Amazon’s acquisition. The announcement is only the latest example of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s attempts to curry favor with the Trump administration. Earlier this year, Prime Video announced the acquisition of a Melania Trump documentary on which the first lady served as executive producer. The Washington Post, which Bezos owns, also refused to endorse a presidential candidate in the last presidential election and announced new editorial policies favoring conservative viewpoints.
    
    
81. – March 11, 2025 – The Department of Education fired more than 1,300 employees, reducing its total staff to roughly half the number at the beginning of the year. In an interview on Fox News, Education Secretary Linda McMahon described the mass layoffs as the first step toward shutting down the Education Department, which requires congressional approval. “[Trump’s] directive to me, clearly, is to shut down the Department of Education, which we know we’ll have to work with Congress, you know, to get that accomplished. But what we did today was to take the first step of eliminating what I think is bureaucratic bloat,” said McMahon. According to Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, the layoffs “will send class sizes soaring, cut job training programs, make higher education more expensive and out of reach for middle-class families, take away special education services for students with disabilities, and gut student civil rights protections.”
    
    
82. – March 11, 2025 – Erica Y. Carr, the acting executive secretary of USAID, ordered Washington employees to burn or shred classified documents and personnel files. “Shred as many documents first, and reserve the burn bags for when the shredder becomes unavailable or needs a break,” Carr wrote in an email. Her order came amid legal challenges related to the Trump administration’s attempts to dismantle USAID. The Federal Records Act of 1950 forbids the destruction of government documents without prior approval from the National Archives and Records Administration. “This is slash-and-burn mode and not leaving any evidence behind that could disprove their narrative,” said Kel McClanahan, executive director of National Security Counselors.
    
    
83. – March 11, 2025 – Following nationwide protests at Tesla facilities and declines in Tesla’s stock in response to CEO Elon Musk’s role in the Trump administration, President Trump turned the White House lawn into a makeshift Tesla showroom. With Musk at his side, the influencer-in-chief strolled among five different Tesla models, eventually deciding to purchase a red Model S for use by his staff despite his repeated criticisms of electric vehicles in the past and his signing of an executive order revoking Biden-era electric vehicle targets. Trump’s said reason for the purchase was to help out Musk, who recently indicated he would donate $100 million to Trump political operation groups. “I think he’s been treated very unfairly by a very small group of people,” said Trump. “And I just want people to know that he can’t be penalized for being a patriot.” In response to a reporter’s question, Trump said he would consider labeling those committing violence against Tesla owners and dealerships as “domestic terrorists.”
    
    
84. – March 12, 2025 – While speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, President Trump used the term “Palestinian” as a slur to describe Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer and falsely stated that Schumer, who became the highest-ranking elected Jewish politician in American history as Senate majority leader, “was not Jewish.” “Schumer is a Palestinian as far as I’m concerned,” Trump said. "He’s become a Palestinian. He used to be Jewish. He’s not Jewish anymore. He’s a Palestinian.” Jewish and Muslim groups quickly condemned Trump’s remarks. Trump previously used the term “Palestinian” as a slur to refer to Schumer during rallies and in a social media post in February. He also used the term as a slur in his presidential debate with Joe Biden, calling Biden “a very bad Palestinian.”
    
    
85. – March 12, 2025 – The Environmental Protection Agency canceled $20 billion in climate and green energy grants, and said it would repeal dozens of environmental protections against air and water pollution. In a video posted on social media, EPA administrator Lee Zeldin praised the changes without once mentioning the environment or public health. “From the campaign trail to Day One and beyond, President Trump has delivered on his promise to unleash energy dominance and lower the cost of living,” Zeldin said, celebrating March 12, 2025, as “the greatest day of deregulation in American history” even as former EPA administrator Gina McCarthy called it “the most disastrous day in EPA history.”
    
    
86. – March 12, 2025 – Following the Trump administration’s cuts to federal research funding, the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School rescinded all offers of admission to its graduate biomedical program for 2025–2026. The funding cuts have also impacted programs at Duke University, Vanderbilt University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, among others. “This is a severe blow to science and the training of the next generation of scientists,” said Siyuan Wang, a geneticist and cell biologist at Yale School of Medicine. “With fewer scientists, there will be less science and innovation that drive societal progress and the improvement of public health.”
    
    
87. – March 13, 2025 – Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian who took part in pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University, was arrested in Newark for overstaying her student visa. “It is a privilege to be granted a visa to live and study in the United States of America,” said Kristi Noem, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Kordia’s arrest came hours after DHS officials searched two Columbia University dorm rooms as part of what Todd Blanche, US deputy attorney general, described as an investigation into Columbia’s “harboring and concealing illegal aliens on its campus.” Sebastian Javadpoor, a Columbia University student, said, “We have students who are so scared about the possibility of retaliation, about the possibility of having ICE reported on them, that they’re too afraid to call public safety if something happens to them.”
    
    
88. – March 13, 2025 – Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a kidney transplant specialist and professor at Brown University’s medical school, was detained at Boston Logan International Airport after returning from visiting family in Lebanon. Despite having a valid visa and a court order temporarily blocking her expulsion, Dr. Alawieh was subsequently deported. “They did not do anything to stop the plane,” said Dr. Basma Merhi, Dr. Alawieh’s colleague and lawyer. “So, clearly, they wanted to deport her regardless of if there was a judge’s order or not. She didn’t do anything wrong.”
    
    
89. – March 13, 2025 – Fabian Schmidt, a green card holder who lives in New Hampshire, was detained at Boston Logan International Airport after returning from Luxembourg. Schmidt’s mother, Astrid Senior, said her son was “violently interrogated.” “He had to go and be stripped naked and was showered by two officers with ice cold water, and was interrogated again,” she said. “He hardly got anything to drink. And then he wasn’t feeling very well, and he collapsed.” Fabian Schmidt came to the country legally in 20007. He lives with his partner and child, who are both American citizens.
    
    
90. – March 14, 2025 – Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem posted surveillance footage of Columbia University student Ranjani Srinivasan walking through LaGuardia Airport on social media. In her post, Noem wrote that she was “glad to see one of the Columbia University terrorist sympathizers use the CBP Home app to self-deport.” Srinivasan, a Columbia University doctoral student and Fulbright recipient, fled to Canada after her student visa was abruptly revoked without explanation. The Department of Homeland Security later issued a statement accusing Srinivasan, without evidence, of being “involved in activities supporting Hamas, a terrorist organization.”
    
    
91. – March 14, 2025 – Trump signed an executive order dismantling seven federal agencies, including the US Agency for Global Media, which oversees Voice of America (VOA). “President Trump is delivering on his promise to make our government more efficient. American taxpayers should not be funding anti-American propaganda in the name of journalism,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. Established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941, Voice of America provides news in fifty languages to more than 354 million people worldwide. Trump’s order dismantling VOA was celebrated by Russian and Chinese state media. In a social media post, fired VOA reporter Liam Scott described the gutting of VOA and other agencies as “part of the administration’s broader assault on press freedom and the media”: “I’ve covered press freedom for a long time, and I’ve never seen something like what’s happened in the US over the past couple months.”
    
    
92. – March 14, 2025 – In a speech at the Department of Justice, President Trump attacked and vowed retribution against those who had worked on cases against him, including Manhattan district attorney Alvin L. Bragg, former special counsel Jack Smith, and former FBI director James Comey. “These are people that are bad people, really bad people,” Trump said. “They tried to turn America into a corrupt communist and third-world country, but in the end, the thugs failed and the truth won.” Trump also lavished praise on Judge Aileen M. Cannon, who dismissed the classified documents case against him, and Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, who both represented him in criminal cases and were subsequently appointed to DOJ roles. Trump also proclaimed himself “chief law enforcement officer,” a title typically reserved for the attorney general.
    
    
93. – March 14, 2025 – Elon Musk shared and then deleted a social media post that stated, “Stalin, Mao, and Hitler didn’t murder millions of people. Their public sector employees did.” The post came amid Musk’s cost-cutting initiatives at DOGE, which have resulted in thousands of public sector employees losing their jobs. Between six and nine million Soviets died from executions, starvation, and imprisonment under Joseph Stalin; 30–40 million people died from starvation and disease under Mao Zedong; and 11 million people died during the Holocaust under Adolf Hitler.
    
    
94. – March 15, 2025 – President Trump signed a proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport Venezuelan immigrants allegedly belonging to the gang Tren de Aragua to El Salvador without due process. In response, US District Judge James Boasberg ordered that all planes carrying immigrants covered by the proclamation return immediately to the US. However, at least one plane continued to El Salvador. “Oopsie… Too late,” Nayib Bukele, El Salvador’s president, posted on social media above a headline about Boasberg’s order. In total, 261 immigrants were deported to El Salvador, more than half via the proclamation. Several relatives of the men deported said their family members had no ties to the gang Tren de Aragua, and neither the US nor Salvadoran government has offered any evidence of the deportees’ gang affiliations. The Alien Enemies Act of 1798 has only been invoked three times in history and only against citizens of hostile enemy governments during declared wars.
    
    
95. – March 17, 2025 – District Judge James E. Boasberg questioned whether the Trump administration ignored his court order regarding planes carrying alleged gang members to El Salvador. In a verbal ruling, Boasberg directed the planes to return to the United States after he issued a restraining order blocking deportations that stemmed from Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act. The deportees were suspected members of the Tren de Arugua Venezuelan gang. Deputy Associate Attorney General Abhishek Kambli contended that only Boasberg’s short written order, issued after he made the verbal demand, counted. In response, Boasberg said, “I will memorialize this in a written order since apparently my oral orders don’t seem to carry much weight.”
    
    
96. – March 17, 2025 – In its effort to target agencies tied to foreign assistance work, the Trump administration fired the majority of the board of the US Institute of Peace (USIP). Members of Elon Musk’s DOGE entered the building with FBI agents after standoffs with USIP. Fired USIP president and CEO George Moose said, “What has happened here today is an illegal takeover by elements of the executive branch of a private nonprofit.” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly declared, “Rogue bureaucrats will not be allowed to hold agencies hostage.” Part of USIP’s stated mission is to “keep America safe, reducing the risk that the United States will be drawn into costly foreign wars that drive terrorism, criminal gangs, and migration.”
    
    
97. – March 18, 2025 – An article about Baseball Hall of Famer and Civil Rights hero Jackie Robinson’s military career was removed from the Department of Defense’s website as part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on DEI-related material. Robinson’s wasn’t the only page to be removed. One celebrating Ira Hayes, a Native American marine who was one of the soldiers holding the American flag in the famous WWII picture at Iwo Jima, and another page about Native American code talkers were also deleted. Defense Department spokesperson Sean Parnell defended the removals: “I think the president and the secretary have been very clear on this—that anybody that says in the Department of Defense that diversity is our strength is, is frankly, incorrect.” ESPN baseball writer Jeff Passan slammed the removal of Robinson’s page: “The ghouls who did this should be ashamed. Jackie Robinson was the embodiment of an American hero. Fix this now.” Hours later, the Jackie Robinson page on the DoD’s website was restored.
    
    
98. – March 18, 2025 – The New York Times reported that the Trump administration wanted to “cripple the left” through executive orders, investigations, and public misinformation. It’s a plan to follow through on Trump’s campaign vow to seek “retribution” against his political enemies. Cole Leiter, executive director of Americans Against Government Censorship, said the Trump administration was seeking “to cut the legs out from their opposition.”
    
    
99. – March 18, 2025 – DOGE’s freeze on government spending severely affected the Food and Drug Administration’s studies and food testing programs. The lack of funding prevented the FDA from buying food to perform routine tests for pathogens. It also halted a study on bacteria in baby formula. Darin Detwiler, a food safety consultant and associate professor at Northeastern University, said, “It’s as if someone, without enough information, has said, ‘What’s a good way to save money on our automobiles? Let’s just take out the seat belts and airbags, because do we really need them?’”
    
    
100. – March 18, 2025 – ProPublica reported that before the Trump administration laid off nearly seven thousand IRS workers for “poor performance” on February 20, an IRS lawyer warned that the language used in the termination letter was fraudulent. Joseph Rillotta sent emails to Trump’s staff saying that no performance reviews had been considered when terminating the thousands of employees. “[I’m] pleading with you to remove the clause,” Rillota wrote. “It is not an immaterial false statement, because it is designed to improve the government’s posture in litigation (to the detriment of the employees that we are terminating today).” His email and a follow-up email were ignored by Trump’s staff.
     
     
101. – March 18, 2025 – Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts rebuked Donald Trump’s call to impeach a federal judge. Roberts’ reproach came after Trump demanded the removal of District Judge James E. Boasberg, who ruled against his recent deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members. On Truth Social, Trump ranted, “HE DIDN’T WIN ANYTHING! I WON FOR MANY REASONS, IN AN OVERWHELMING MANDATE, BUT FIGHTING ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION MAY HAVE BEEN THE NUMBER ONE REASON. This judge, like many of the Crooked Judges’ I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!!” In response, Chief Justice Roberts stated, “For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”
     
     
102. – March 18, 2025 – In an interview with Fox News, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suggested an unorthodox and potentially dangerous method for dealing with the bird flu. Since 2022, over 166 million chickens have been affected by the highly contagious disease. Kennedy said farmers “should consider maybe the possibility of letting it run through the flock so that we can identify the birds, and preserve the birds that are immune to it.” Veterinary scientists weren’t too keen on RFK Jr.’s strategy. “That’s a really terrible idea, for any one of a number of reasons,” said Dr. Gail Hansen, a former state veterinarian for Kansas. If the bird flu were allowed to spread, the virus would mutate thousands of times over, killing even more birds and put other animals and potentially humans in danger. “It’s a recipe for disaster,” Hansen added.
     
     
103. – March 19, 2025 – In a phone call with Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “agreed to Russia’s offer of a mutual pause in attacks on energy targets” for thirty days. During the call, Trump suggested the US could take control of Ukrainian power plants. White House officials said, “American ownership of those plants could be the best protection for that infrastructure.” Trump described the conversation with Zelenskyy as “very good” and peace talks were “very much on track.” The call with Zelenskyy followed an overnight Russian attack that included strikes on energy facilities.
     
     
104. – March 20, 2025 – Trump signed an executive order to dismantle the US Department of Education. Trump sat in the East Room of the White House surrounded by children at school desks. He approached several children and asked them, “Should I do it?” After Trump signed the order, he remarked, “Sounds strange doesn’t it? Department of Education. We’re going to eliminate it.” Since its founding in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter, the department’s regulatory role has advocated for students with disabilities and low-income students. The department also enforced student civil rights laws. Only an act of Congress can abolish a cabinet agency.
     
     
105. – March 20, 2025 – Appearing on the billionaire-hosted All-In Podcast, billionaire Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said that only someone committing fraud would complain about not receiving their monthly Social Security check. “Let’s say Social Security didn’t send out their checks this month—my mother-in-law, who’s 94, she wouldn’t call and complain,” Lutnick said. “Anybody who’s been in the payment system and the processes, who knows the easiest way to find the fraudster is to stop payments and listen because whoever screams is the one stealing.” The secretary’s words stoked more concern that Trump and Musk’s DOGE plan to make drastic changes to the Social Security Administration (SSA). Earlier in the week, the SSA announced it was changing their identity verification process, which could make it harder for older Americans to access their benefits. The government also plans to shutter many SSA buildings and lay off thousands of employees. Representative James Clyburn (D-SC) responded on X to Lutnick’s bizarre statement: “The billionaires in the Trump administration have no idea what it’s like to rely on Social Security earned through a lifetime of hard, honest work.”
     
     
106. – March 21, 2025 – The Trump administration said it would suspend $175 million in federal funding to the University of Pennsylvania over its policy on transgender athletes. The White House’s response on the Elon Musk–owned social media platform X said the decision was made over Penn’s policy of “forcing women to compete with men in sports.” The suspension reflected Trump’s recent executive order. Penn had made news over the case of Lia Thomas, who competed for the men’s swim team before transitioning. In 2022, she became the first transgender woman to win a major collegiate swimming title. Lia said, “People will say, ‘Oh, she just transitioned so she would have an advantage, so she could win.’ I transitioned to be happy, to be true to myself.”
     
     
107. – March 21, 2025 – As more information emerged about the roughly two hundred Venezuelans who were deported by the Trump administration to El Salvador for allegedly being members of the Tren de Aragua gang, it was revealed that many of the them had no history of gang affiliation or, in some cases, no criminal record at all. Lawyers and relatives of the deportees said they were accused largely based on their tattoos. One man, Jerce Reyes Barrios, who had entered the United States legally in 2024, had a tattoo of the logo of Real Madrid, his favorite soccer team. The Department of Homeland Security claimed the tattoo was evidence of his affiliation with the Tren de Aragua gang. But according to Ronna Risquez, an expert on Venezuelan gang activity who wrote a book about the Tren de Aragua gang, “Venezuelan gangs are not identified by tattoos.”
     
     
108. – March 21, 2025 – Paul Weiss, a prominent law firm known for its civil rights work, conceded to pressure from the White House after Trump signed an executive order, which sought to hinder the firm’s security clearance and ban their lawyers from stepping foot in federal buildings. Trump’s order was seen as another attempt to seek retribution against his political opponents, as Paul Weiss has served many Democratic clients. As part of the agreement, the firm promised to end its DEI policies and give $40 million in free legal services to the Trump administration. Many associates at other high-power law firms signed a letter urging their employers to take a stand against the government. Rachel Cohen, an associate at the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher, and Flom, resigned over her employer’s inaction. “This is not what I saw for my career… but Paul Weiss’ decision to cave to the Trump administration on DEI, representation, and staffing has forced my hand,” she wrote. “We do not have time. It is either now or never, and if it’s never, I will not continue to work here.” Dana Nessel, Michigan’s attorney general, lamented on X, “Paul Weiss is merely rearranging the proverbial deck chairs on the Titanic. With this administration, there will be no legitimate legal system and no need for actual lawyers.”
     
     
109. – March 21, 2025 – Columbia University announced it would agree to all of the Trump administration’s demands regarding student protests and monitoring antisemitism on campus. On March 13, the White House sent a letter to the university threatening to pull $400 million in federal grants until it complied. The university said it would change its policies around student protests, including banning masks during protests, and hiring an administrator to oversee courses that teach about Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African studies to make sure “the educational offerings are comprehensive and balanced.” A day earlier, several faculty members of the university’s history department sent a signed letter warning the school against agreeing to the government’s terms, comparing the Trump administration’s actions to “authoritarian regimes” that have sought control over academic institutions. As of March 24, 2025, it was not known whether Columbia’s capitulation would free up their federal grant money. However, Leo Terrell, a senior Justice Department lawyer, said the university still had much more to do to get it. “Columbia has not, in my opinion—and the opinion of the Department of Justice—cleaned up their act,” he said. “They’re not even close, not even close to having those funds unfrozen.”
     
     
110. – March 22, 2025 – Trump attacked Maine Governor Janet Mills again over her state’s transgender athlete policies. In a Truth Social post, the president of the United States demanded an apology from Mills and implied that the government would pull funding for the state until she apologized for their confrontation in February. “While the State of Maine has apologized for their Governor’s strong, but totally incorrect, statement about men playing in women’s sports while at the White House House Governor’s Conference, we have not heard from the Governor herself, and she is the one that matters in such cases,” Trump wrote in an early Saturday morning post. “Therefore, we need a full-throated apology from the Governor herself and a statement that she will never make such an unlawful challenge to the Federal Government again before this case can be settled.” It is unclear what “case” the president referred to. In response to their clash at the Governors’ Conference, Mills said, “In my conversation with the President last week, unfortunately, he made a statement that I have never heard any president say before, that he is the law… It’s like Louis the XIV.”
     
     
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