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Timeline › 2025 › December › 15

December 15, 2025

3 entries on this date.

Trump White House directed five agencies to condition Colorado funding on political alignment, then cut hundreds of millions

On December 15, 2025, a Trump White House deputy assistant emailed officials at the Departments of Energy, Transportation, Interior, and Agriculture and the Office of Management and Budget, directing them to identify actions "with respect to Colorado" to keep "grants and federal support...in line with administration priorities," hours before President Trump publicly called Colorado Gov. Jared Polis "weak and pathetic" over the imprisonment of former county clerk Tina Peters. In the days that followed, the Department of Energy canceled $615 million in Colorado funding, the Department of Transportation ended $109 million in grants, the Office of Management and Budget moved to close the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, and the Department of Agriculture ordered an accelerated food-assistance recertification review. The email became public on August 11, 2026 at a federal court hearing in Colorado's retaliation lawsuit against the administration, where a judge called it "extraordinary" and ordered the White House to produce more records, while the administration denied the actions were tied to Peters.

DHS Secretary Noem terminated Temporary Protected Status for Ethiopia, stripping about 5,000 Ethiopians of protection

On December 15, 2025, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem published a Federal Register notice terminating Temporary Protected Status for Ethiopia, effective February 13, 2026, stripping protected status from roughly 5,000 Ethiopian nationals. DHS said country conditions in Ethiopia had sufficiently improved, a rationale the State Department's own concurrent Level 3 "reconsider travel" advisory -- citing active armed conflict, crime, kidnapping, and terrorism -- contradicted. A federal judge initially postponed the termination as likely arbitrary and pretextual before ultimately allowing it to take effect in August 2026.

JTF Southern Spear killed eight across three suspected narcotics vessels in eastern Pacific; 23rd-25th strikes, ~95 campaign deaths

On December 15, 2025, at the direction of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Joint Task Force Southern Spear carried out lethal strikes on three vessels in the eastern Pacific Ocean — the 23rd strike of Operation Southern Spear — killing eight people. U.S. Southern Command asserted the boats belonged to designated terrorist organizations transiting known narco-trafficking routes but filed no charges, released no evidence, identified no individuals, and reported no attempt at interdiction or arrest. Lawmakers from both parties questioned the legality of the strikes as the campaign's reported death toll reached approximately 95.