U.S. Department of Commerce
The U.S. Department of Commerce is the federal executive department responsible for trade policy, economic and census data, and the control of sensitive exports. Entries naming it from 2025 onward record export-control decisions and the terms on which they were granted or eased.
2026 Events (5)
Trump falsely claimed a flawed, unauthored Census Bureau report proved over 24,000 noncitizens voted illegally in 2020
On August 18, 2026, President Trump cited an unauthored, seven-page Census Bureau report as proof that over 24,000 noncitizens voted illegally in the 2020 election and urged Congress to pass the SAVE Act. Data and election experts, along with a Census Bureau employee, said the report departed from the bureau's normal practice -- it carried no named author, was not produced by career civil servants, and used a matching methodology multiple experts called unreliable. The disputed figure represents about 0.02% of the 128 million voter records analyzed.
Commerce Department eased AI-chip and defense export controls for UAE firms tied to Trump's crypto venture
On July 10, 2026, the U.S. Department of Commerce issued a rule easing export controls on the United Arab Emirates, granting the Emirati firms G42 and Core42 license exceptions for advanced AI computing equipment and pledging favorable review of export applications tied to the investment firm MGX. The Emirati royal who controls G42 and MGX had secretly acquired a 49 percent stake in World Liberty Financial, the Trump family's cryptocurrency venture, months earlier. Senator Elizabeth Warren called the arrangement a "corrupt deal" and warned it could divert sensitive technology to China.
Commerce Department directed NOAA to review California's coastal program after the state delayed oil, pipeline, and spaceport projects
On June 26, 2026, the U.S. Department of Commerce directed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to conduct a formal evaluation of California's federally approved Coastal Management Program under the Coastal Zone Management Act. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who requested the review in a May letter to the White House National Economic Council, said state policies delaying "critical national infrastructure in the name of environmental extremism are unacceptable." The review could alter federal funding to the state if California is found out of compliance.
Commerce Department forces Anthropic to disable two AI models for all foreign nationals in a first-of-its-kind export-control order
On June 12, 2026, the U.S. Department of Commerce — in a letter from Secretary Howard Lutnick to Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei — issued an export-control directive citing national-security authorities that suspended all access to Anthropic's Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models by any foreign national, inside or outside the United States, including the company's own foreign-national employees. To comply, Anthropic abruptly disabled both models for all customers worldwide; its other models were unaffected. The government's stated basis was a belief that a method of "jailbreaking" Fable 5 existed, though the letter gave no details; Anthropic said the cited technique surfaced only minor, previously known vulnerabilities also found in other public models and disputed that it justified recalling a model used by hundreds of millions. Contemporaneous reporting described the order as the first time the U.S. government has forced a leading American AI company to take a publicly deployed model offline.
DOE and Commerce awarded SoftBank a federal AI data-center land deal two months after its $50 million gift to Trump's library
On March 20, 2026, the U.S. Department of Energy and Department of Commerce announced a partnership letting SoftBank subsidiary SB Energy redevelop the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant near Piketon, Ohio into a 10-gigawatt AI data-center campus on federal land. SoftBank had donated $50 million to Trump's presidential library in January 2026, while its proposal was reported to be on the administration's shortlist for the project; congressional Democrats disclosed the donation's timing on August 6, 2026, after SoftBank confirmed the dates in a written response to their inquiry.
2025 Events (1)
Trump signs EO 14351 establishing Gold Card pay-to-play immigrant visa, bypassing congressional immigration criteria
President Trump signed Executive Order 14351 on September 19, 2025, creating the "Gold Card" program, which directs the Secretaries of Commerce, State, and Homeland Security to treat a $1 million "unrestricted gift" to the Department of Commerce as evidence of eligibility for EB-1, EB-2, or national interest waiver immigrant visas — categories Congress designed for merit-based immigration, not financial payments. The order was published in the Federal Register on September 24, 2025. The program bypasses the EB-5 investor visa framework Congress established at 8 U.S.C. § 1153(b)(5), which requires demonstrated job creation and minimum investment thresholds; the Gold Card requires neither.