Tracking the Trump Administration's Policies

As part of its illegal firings across the federal government, the administration has tried to thwart public transparency laws.

As parts of its efforts to dismantle multiple agencies and engage in mass firings across the federal government, the Trump administration has fired scores of agency officials who process Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. It also tried to entirely close some FOIA offices, such as the CDC's FOIA office. FOIA enables the public to request any written information from the government, enabling the public to better understand how the government makes key decisions and approaches various issues affecting lives across America. Downsizing or closing these offices reduces government accountability and transparency.

The administration cited to various executive orders to impose vague and contradictory new requirements that could threaten existing grants designed to reduce teen pregnancy.

The Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) Program, established by Congress in 2010 and continuously funded for the last 15 years, relies on evidence-based policy to fund diverse organizations working to give adolescents, and the adults supporting them, the knowledge and tools needed to improve sexual and reproductive health outcomes and promote positive experiences, relationships, and environments in order to help youth thrive. But grantees who were approved by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in June 2023 for five-year projects to reduce teen pregnancy now face newly imposed requirements that programs must "align" with President Trump's anti-gender and anti-DEI executive orders, in direct conflict with the evidence-based principles on which the TPP Program was established.

The administration announced the firing of about 10,000 full-time HHS employees and the closure of dozens of agencies and regional offices that serve the American people.

On March 27, 2025, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a "dramatic restructuring" in line with President Trump and DOGE's priorities to gut the federal workforce and reduce access to critical services, ostensibly to "Make America Healthy Again." But these cuts would eliminate about 10,000 full-time jobs, shutter dozens of agencies, and close about half the number of regional offices within the department, severely hampering the department's ability to protect the health and welfare of the American people.

This order suspends security clearances and access to federal buildings for employees of WilmerHale and cancels government contracts with the firm.

Like other executive orders from March 2025, EO 14250 directed agencies to suspend law firm WilmerHale's security clearances, terminate federal contracts with the firm, block access to government buildings for the firm's employees, and discourage federal officials from interacting with WilmerHale employees. The EO cited the firm’s former affiliation with Robert Mueller and alleged that WilmerHale "employs lawyers who weaponize the prosecutorial power to upend the democratic process."

This order designates more than one million federal workers as excluded from the legal protections that govern federal employee union negotiations.

Citing narrow "national security" exemptions from labor laws governing the relationship between federal employee unions and the government, this sweeping Executive Order claims to exempt the majority of federal government employees from laws protecting their right to collectively bargain with their employers. A Fact Sheet issued by the White House in conjunction with this order makes clear that this is retaliation for the unions' challenges to the Trump Administration's lawlessness, including its attempts to force swaths of career civil servants out of their roles. The order exempts federal law enforcement unions, which historically have supported President Trump and his policies.

This order suspends security clearances and access to federal buildings for Jenner & Block employees and cancels government contracts with the firm.

Like similar Executive Orders from President Trump in March 2025 that targeted other private law firms, EO 14246 purported to restrict access to federal buildings for the more than 900 attorneys and staff of Jenner & Block; instructed federal agencies not to meet or engage with Jenner & Block personnel; ordered agencies to immediately take steps to suspend the active security clearances held by Jenner & Block's employees; directed termination of "any contract… for which Jenner has been hired to perform any service"; called the firm "partisan" and "discriminatory"; and questioned Jenner & Block's "values and priorities" because of its association with, or representation of, certain individuals. The EO mentions Andrew Weissmann by name multiple times, who previously worked in the Special Counsel's office that investigated Trump during his first term.

This order directs federal agencies to interpret and enforce federal laws in ways known to prevent eligible citizens from voting.

In this Executive Order, the President directs the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) to require certain documents (such as a birth certificate or U.S. passport) as proof of U.S. citizenship for federal elections. It directs the State Department, Department of Homeland Security, and Elon Musk's DOGE to identify "unqualified" voters, and for certain other federal agencies to "assess" a voter's citizenship before providing a voter registration form to applicants for public assistance. The order also directs the Attorney General to enforce voting laws to limit states from using absentee or mail-in ballots and directs the EAC to condition federal funding to pressure states to adopt a uniform federal standard as to what constitutes a vote. It is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections, and as a result, noncitizen voting is nearly nonexistent. However, because most Americans don't have passports and many adult women don't have citizenship documents that match their name if they changed their name after marriage, this Executive Order would functionally deny many citizens their right to vote. Several parts of this order were preliminarily enjoined on April 24, 2025, in League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) v. Executive Office of the President, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Wrongly claiming that the COVID-19 pandemic is now over, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services attempted to slash billions in research and healthcare funding overnight.

On March 24, 2025, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) abruptly cancelled over $11 billion in critical public health funding that supports identifying and addressing infectious diseases, ensuring access to immunizations, fortifying emergency preparedness, providing mental health and substance abuse services, and modernizing critical public health infrastructure. The next day, an HHS spokesperson justified the cuts by incorrectly stating that "the COVID-19 pandemic is over," despite the fact that the funding also supported essential projects unrelated to COVID-19.

This memo seeks to weaponize security clearances to retaliate against against political opponents of the administration.

This memo directs relevant executive agencies throughout the federal government to revoke the security clearances and access to classified information for a specific list of individuals who are perceived as being opponents of the administration. These individuals include former members of the Biden administration, members of Joe Biden's family, lawyers, and advocates who have spoken out or litigated against the Trump administration, as well as others.

This memo cancels the government's contract to provide legal representation to represent unaccompanied migrant child in immigration court.

The Office of Refugee Resettlement is required to provide legal representation to unaccompanied migrant children in immigration proceedings, and Congress regularly appropriates money to pay for those services. This ensures that young children can't be deported without at least being represented by a lawyer. The Trump Administration canceled its contract with non-profit legal service providers who actually provide those services, however, leaving unaccompanied migrant kids -- including babies and toddlers -- to navigate the immigration court system on their own.

The Social Security Administration cut personnel, physical offices, and key programs serving beneficiaries with disabilities, making it more challenging to access benefits.

The Social Security Administration and DOGE announced a series of changes to the agency that will severely impact the ability of people with disabilities to receive their benefits. SSA is planning to cut personnel and close regional and local offices, increasing wait times for assistance and crowding the remaining offices. The agency also eliminated the Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity, and the Office of Transformation. Finally, SSA announced a series of changes that would have made it harder to file benefits claims by phone, but later walked that back.

Media reports indicate that senior officials use personal email and autodeleting message applications to conduct official business.

Senior national security officials have used personal devices and autodeleting messaging apps such as Signal to text about highly sensitive national security matters, including plans to launch a military strike in Yemen. This reckless use threatens national security by putting classified or other sensitive information into un-secure channels, susceptible to hacking or spyware. It also increases the risk of these officials inadvertently sending this information to the wrong recipients, as they did when then-National Security Advisor Mike Waltz added the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic to a Signal group chat. In addition to these national security threats, using autodeleting message apps may violate federal records law and undermines the public's right to a transparent and accountable government.