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Timeline

Every entry in the archive, ordered by event date. Page 31 of 41, showing June 27, 2025 to August 6, 2025. Pages contain 50 entries each; entries for a given date may continue on the next or previous page.

2025 Events (561)

August(34)

VA Secretary Collins terminated collective bargaining for 80% of VA's 400,000-person workforce

On August 6, 2025, VA Secretary Doug Collins terminated the Department of Veterans Affairs' collective bargaining agreements with most of its federal unions — including AFGE, NAGE, NFFE, NNOC/NNU, and SEIU — stripping roughly 80% of the agency's 400,000-person workforce of collectively bargained workplace protections. The VA acted under a Trump executive order declaring union contracts a national security threat, and did so while appearing to disregard OPM's own guidance on implementation.

Trump fired six of seven Puerto Rico financial oversight board members without cause

On August 5, 2025, the Trump White House terminated five members of Puerto Rico's seven-member Financial Oversight and Management Board (FOMB) — the body Congress created under PROMESA to oversee the territory's fiscal recovery — without stating cause, and fired a sixth member, Andrew Biggs, eight days later after he publicly defended his ousted colleagues. Three of the six sued, and on September 1, 2026, a federal judge made a preliminary injunction permanent, ruling the removals "plainly contrary to law" for lacking cause, notice, or any opportunity to respond.

USDA solicited donations up to $500K each from four firms with pending federal matters for Secretary Rollins's discretionary fund

A July 2, 2026 House Natural Resources Committee Democratic staff oversight report found that Chobani, Visa, John Deere, and Tractor Supply each contributed between $100,000 and $499,999 to a "Secretary's Priorities" fund controlled by Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, routed through the congressionally chartered National Forest Foundation, to help stage the Great American Farmers Market held on the National Mall August 3–8, 2025. At the time of the donations each company had matters pending before the federal government: Visa was fighting a Justice Department antitrust suit, John Deere a Federal Trade Commission antitrust suit, and the market used commodities derived from SNAP and child-nutrition food-donation accounts. Planning agendas obtained by committee investigators showed Rollins's staff intended to solicit event donations from companies with business before the government.

Trump fired BLS Commissioner McEntarfer hours after weak jobs report, accusing her without evidence of rigging data

On August 1, 2025, President Trump fired Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer via Truth Social hours after BLS released a jobs report showing only 73,000 nonfarm jobs added in July, below market expectations. Trump publicly accused McEntarfer of manipulating the data "to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad," despite the fact that commissioners do not produce employment estimates and McEntarfer did not see the report until shortly before its public release. McEntarfer had been confirmed 86-0 by the Senate, including then-Senator JD Vance, and was serving a statutory four-year term.

New Hampshire Gov. Ayotte signed HB377 banning puberty blockers and hormone therapy for transgender minors

On August 1, 2025, New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte signed House Bill 377 into law, prohibiting healthcare providers from prescribing puberty blockers and hormone therapy to transgender minors under 18, with an exception for minors already receiving such treatment. The New Hampshire General Court passed the bill 202-161 in the House and 16-8 in the Senate on the conference report. The law took effect January 1, 2026, making New Hampshire the first state in New England to ban this category of gender-affirming care for minors.

New Hampshire Gov. Ayotte signed HB712 banning gender-affirming surgeries for transgender minors

On August 1, 2025, New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte signed House Bill 712 into law, banning gender-affirming chest surgeries for transgender minors under 18, with an exception allowing minors already receiving care to continue. The law was signed alongside companion bill HB377, a puberty-blocker and hormone-therapy ban, together making New Hampshire the first state in New England to ban gender-affirming care for minors. It took effect January 1, 2026, and authorizes board-of-medicine discipline and civil suits by affected minors against providers.

July(40)

National Park Service fired Yosemite ranger Shannon Joslin over transgender flag protest, referred them for prosecution

On July 30, 2025, the National Park Service fired Yosemite wildlife biologist and park ranger Shannon Joslin, citing a flag-size rule enacted the day after Joslin and fellow activists hung a transgender pride flag on El Capitan on their day off. Days later, NPS referred the matter to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of California, which began evaluating Joslin for criminal prosecution over the same flag display.

AG Bondi filed judicial misconduct complaint against Chief Judge Boasberg, seeking removal from deportation cases

Attorney General Pam Bondi directed the Department of Justice to file a formal judicial misconduct complaint against Chief Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on July 29, 2025, alleging he made "improper" remarks at a closed judicial conference where he reportedly expressed concern the Trump administration would defy court orders and trigger a "constitutional crisis." The complaint, filed with D.C. Circuit Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan, explicitly requested Boasberg's reassignment from deportation cases and a special-committee investigation. Boasberg had presided over multiple rulings blocking Trump administration deportation flights prior to the complaint.

United States and Uganda signed asylum transfer deal, later used to fast-track dismissals

The United States and Uganda signed an Asylum Cooperative Agreement at Kampala on July 29, 2025, published in the Federal Register that September, under which Uganda agreed to accept an unspecified number of asylum seekers with pending U.S. claims. ICE attorneys began citing the agreement to summarily dismiss asylum cases without a hearing, until internal DHS guidance obtained by the New York Times restricted such motions in December 2025; eight people had been forcibly transferred to Uganda as of April 2026, with mixed outcomes.

AG Pamela Bondi issued guidance classifying DEI programs as unlawful discrimination, threatening federal grant revocation

On July 29, 2025, Attorney General Pamela Bondi issued a formal DOJ guidance memorandum directing all recipients of federal funds — including universities, hospitals, and state governments — to treat diversity, equity, and inclusion programs as potentially unlawful under federal antidiscrimination statutes. The guidance defined prohibited practices including race-based scholarships, DEI training programs, and mentorship programs limited to specific groups, with violations subject to grant revocation and False Claims Act liability. The DOJ simultaneously activated its Civil Rights Fraud Initiative to prosecute non-compliant funding recipients.

Bondi designated Bill Essayli "first assistant" to a vacant post to bypass Senate confirmation for LA's top federal prosecutor job

On July 29, 2025, days before his 120-day interim term as U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California was set to expire, Bill Essayli resigned as interim U.S. Attorney and Attorney General Pam Bondi designated him "first assistant U.S. attorney," letting him continue running the Los Angeles office as its acting head without ever facing Senate confirmation. A federal judge ruled in October 2025 that Essayli's resulting "acting" status was unlawful, and a unanimous Ninth Circuit panel found the identical maneuver unlawful in a Nevada case in August 2026, but DOJ has kept Essayli in place under the same title.

North Carolina General Assembly overrode veto to enact law restricting transgender medical care and birth certificates

On July 29, 2025, the North Carolina General Assembly overrode Gov. Josh Stein's veto of House Bill 805, enacting a package of anti-transgender provisions by votes of 72-48 in the House and 30-19 in the Senate. The law bars state funds, including for state prisoners, from covering puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, or gender-transition surgery; requires that birth certificates reflecting a changed sex designation be issued only linked to the original certificate; extends the medical-malpractice statute of limitations to ten years for gender-transition claims; and requires students on school overnight trips to room according to sex assigned at birth. Stein, who supported other provisions of the broader bill, called the transgender-related sections "mean-spirited" before the legislature overrode his veto.

DOJ designated Sigal Chattah 'first assistant' to a vacant post to bypass Senate confirmation for Nevada's top prosecutor job

On July 28, 2025, two days before her 120-day interim term as Nevada's U.S. Attorney was set to expire, Sigal Chattah resigned as interim U.S. Attorney and the Justice Department designated her "first assistant U.S. attorney" for the District of Nevada the same day, leaving the top post itself vacant and letting her continue serving as "acting" U.S. Attorney under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act without ever facing Senate confirmation. Attorney General Pam Bondi made the designation; Nevada's two Democratic senators called it an unconstitutional maneuver to keep an unconfirmable nominee in office without a floor vote.

San Diego County Sheriff's Office moved dementia patient, 82, from jail medical unit to solitary confinement; he died nine days later

On July 28, 2025, Karim Talib, an 82-year-old man with dementia who used a wheelchair and was incontinent, died at San Diego's Central Jail nine days after Sheriff's Office staff moved him from a medical observation unit into solitary confinement. Talib had been found incompetent to stand trial and declared unlikely to regain competency after five months at a state psychiatric hospital, but prosecutors sought a conservatorship to keep him jailed rather than release him, and sworn declarations from nearby detainees describe him lying unresponsive in his own waste for days before he was found dead. The county Medical Examiner attributed the death to heart disease complicated by a kidney infection.

Trump signed EO 14321 directing DOJ to dismantle ADA Olmstead protections and expand forced civil commitment of homeless people with disabilities

On July 24, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14321, directing the Attorney General to seek reversal of federal and state judicial precedents — including Olmstead v. L.C. (1999) consent decrees — and expand civil commitment of homeless people with mental illness or substance use disorders. The order terminates federal support for housing-first programs and conditions discretionary grants on states enforcing bans on urban camping, loitering, and squatting.

Kansas City transit authority signed secret contract authorizing facial-recognition profiling of bus riders

On July 24, 2025, the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority (KCATA) signed a three-year, auto-renewing contract with SafeSpace Global, a penny-stock company carrying a $23.7 million accumulated deficit and a going-concern warning, authorizing AI cameras that would generate facial-recognition profiles of bus riders, capture their video and audio, and use the resulting data to train the company's algorithms. The contract barred both parties from public disclosure and KCATA had no policy governing the biometric data; the signed agreement remained outside the public record for a year, until The Kansas City Defender obtained it through a records request.

Rubio opened State Department investigation into Harvard's J-1 visa program with no stated misconduct

Secretary of State Marco Rubio sent a letter to Harvard President Alan Garber on July 23, 2025, opening a formal State Department investigation into Harvard's participation in the Exchange Visitor Program, which sponsors J-1 visas for international researchers, instructors, and students. The letter alleged no specific misconduct, stating only that programs must not run "contrary to our nation's interests," and gave Harvard one week to produce a broad set of records. Harvard called the probe retaliatory and a violation of its First Amendment rights.

USCIS declared SIJS application fee non-waivable, cutting off abused children from congressional immigration protection

On July 22, 2025, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services published a Federal Register notice declaring that the $250 Special Immigrant Juvenile Status application fee is non-waivable, effective immediately, under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The agency acknowledged the law did not include an explicit no-waiver provision but interpreted the mandatory fee language as barring any waiver. SIJS, created by Congress in 1990, provides immigration protection to children who have been abused, neglected, or abandoned and who cannot safely return to their countries of origin. The removal of the fee waiver made the protection financially inaccessible to the indigent children it was designed to protect.

White House press secretary Leavitt removed Wall Street Journal from Scotland trip press pool over Epstein reporting

On July 21, 2025, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt removed the Wall Street Journal from the 13-outlet press pool set to cover President Trump's trip to Scotland, saying the change was made "due to the Wall Street Journal's fake and defamatory conduct" — a reference to the paper's July 17 report on a birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein that Trump denied writing. The White House Correspondents' Association called the removal retaliatory and a First Amendment concern.

EPA eliminated Office of Research and Development, laid off up to 1,155 scientists in 23% workforce cut

On July 18, 2025, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the elimination of the agency's Office of Research and Development — the scientific foundation underlying every federal air, water, and chemical safety standard for 55 years — and a reduction of more than 3,700 total EPA positions (nearly 23%). As many as 1,155 chemists, biologists, and toxicologists received reduction-in-force notices. The administration said it would replace ORD with an "Office of Applied Science and Environmental Solutions" subordinated to deregulatory program offices.

Trump sued Wall Street Journal reporters and Rupert Murdoch for $10 billion over Epstein reporting

On July 18, 2025, President Trump filed a $10 billion defamation lawsuit against Dow Jones, News Corp., Rupert Murdoch, and Wall Street Journal reporters Khadeeja Safdar and Joseph Palazzolo over the paper's July 17 report that Trump sent Jeffrey Epstein a bawdy 50th-birthday letter. Trump denied writing the letter and called the story "false, malicious, defamatory" reporting; Dow Jones said it had "full confidence" in its reporting and would defend against the suit.

CMS secretly gave ICE access to personal data of all 79 million Medicaid enrollees for immigration enforcement

On July 18, 2025, CNN reported that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had established a secret Information Exchange Agreement giving ICE access to names, addresses, birthdates, Social Security numbers, and racial and ethnic information for all 79 million Medicaid enrollees to identify and locate immigrants for enforcement. The agreement was not made public and was disclosed only after AP obtained it. A coalition of 22 states later filed suit and a federal court issued a preliminary injunction blocking the data sharing in August 2025.

Trump signed EO 14317 creating unlimited Schedule G political appointee class, bypassing Senate confirmation and SES caps

President Trump signed Executive Order 14317 on July 17, 2025, creating Schedule G in the Excepted Service — a new, numerically unlimited class of non-career political appointees who fill "policy-making or policy-advocating" roles without Senate confirmation. Unlike the Senior Executive Service, whose political appointments are capped at 10 percent by statute, Schedule G positions do not count against that limit, allowing the administration to install an unrestricted number of Trump loyalists in senior agency positions. The White House described the order as providing "horsepower for agency implementation of administration policy" and as a tool to "dismantle the deep state."

Interior Secretary Burgum ordered personal approval of every wind and solar permit on federal land

On July 17, 2025, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum ordered that he personally approve every solar and wind energy project on federal lands and waters, an "elevated review" covering proposed leases, rights of way, construction and operational plans, grants, and biological opinions. Interior said the order corrected "preferential treatment" for renewables, while a coalition of wind and solar developers sued, alleging it was designed to place wind and solar into "second-class status" relative to fossil fuels. A federal judge in Massachusetts later found the order likely violated federal law and preliminarily enjoined its enforcement.

Trump exempts 180+ facilities from Clean Air Act air-toxics rules via an EPA email inbox

Across 2025, President Trump signed seven proclamations invoking Clean Air Act Section 112(i)(4) — a provision unused in the statute's 55-year history — to grant more than 180 industrial facilities in 38 states and Puerto Rico a two-year exemption from federal hazardous-air-pollutant standards. A May 2026 ProPublica investigation found that facilities qualified by emailing an EPA-run inbox, with no rigorous application and no meaningful role for the agency's air-quality experts. The statute permits such exemptions only where compliance technology is "not available" and the exemption is "in the national security interests of the United States."

ICE deported five men to Eswatini on first third-country removal flight

On July 16, 2025, five men deported by the United States arrived in Eswatini, the first flight under the Trump administration's newly launched third-country removal arrangement. DHS said the men, from Vietnam, Laos, Jamaica, Cuba, and Yemen, could not be returned to their home countries and described them as convicted of serious crimes; Eswatini said it would hold them in isolated units pending eventual repatriation. The flight inaugurated a policy that sent at least three more groups to the same facility over the following year.

United States and Ecuador secretly signed Asylum Cooperative Agreement

The United States and Ecuador secretly signed an Asylum Cooperative Agreement in July 2025, formalized in diplomatic notes and published in the Federal Register on November 17, 2025 without any public evaluation of whether Ecuador is safe for transferred asylum seekers. The administration has since cited the agreement's existence to summarily dismiss over 18,000 asylum cases for removal to Ecuador, far more than the small number of people actually transferred.

Puerto Rico Gov. González-Colón signed PS 350 criminalizing gender-affirming care for people under 21

On July 16, 2025, Puerto Rico Gov. Jenniffer González-Colón signed PS 350 into law, criminalizing hormone therapy and gender-affirming surgery for transgender people under 21. The law threatens medical providers with up to 15 years in prison, a $50,000 fine, and revocation of their professional licenses, and it bars the use of public funds for such care. It is among the most sweeping bans on gender-affirming care enacted in the United States.

Fargo police arrested Tennessee grandmother Angela Lipps based on unverified Clearview AI facial-recognition match; she was jailed five months

On July 14, 2025, Fargo, North Dakota police obtained a nationwide-extradition warrant for Angela Lipps, 50, based substantially on a Clearview AI facial-recognition match supplied by neighboring West Fargo police — a tool Fargo's own chief later said the department would not have used had he known about it. Lipps, a Tennessee grandmother who says she had never been to North Dakota, was arrested and held for approximately five months before bank records proved she was in Tennessee during the crimes. Fargo's interim police chief subsequently acknowledged errors and barred further use of the tool.

State Department eliminated 1,353 positions in reorganization RIF, including its entire Consular Affairs evacuation team

On July 11, 2025, the U.S. Department of State carried out a reduction-in-force eliminating 1,353 positions as part of Secretary of State Marco Rubio's departmental reorganization, restructuring more than 300 bureaus and offices. The cuts eliminated the Bureau of Consular Affairs' entire rapid-response crisis-evacuation team, 102 cleared personnel trained to manage American evacuations abroad.

Five federal agencies simultaneously stripped immigrant access to life-safety benefit programs, revoking 24 years of DOJ guidance

On July 10-11, 2025, five federal departments — Justice, Health and Human Services, Education, Agriculture, and Labor — simultaneously issued notices rescinding decades-old guidance that had protected immigrant access to federal benefit programs under the "necessary to protect life or safety" exception in the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. The DOJ withdrew its 2001 Attorney General interpretation identifying which programs qualified, effective August 15, 2025; HHS rescinded a 1998 policy keeping Head Start, community health clinics, and Title X accessible; the Department of Education revoked its 1997 guidance covering adult education and postsecondary programs. Multiple states sued immediately.

CBP and ICE agents detained U.S. citizen and Army veteran George Retes for 72 hours without charge during Camarillo raid

On July 10, 2025, Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained George Retes, a U.S. citizen and disabled Army veteran working as a security guard, as he arrived for his shift at a federal raid on Glass House Farms in Camarillo, California, breaking his car window, pepper-spraying him, and pulling him from the vehicle before holding him roughly 72 hours across three facilities without charge, an attorney, or contact with his family. The Department of Homeland Security said Retes "became violent" and was arrested for assault, but the government never filed a charge and released him on July 13, 2025. Retes sued the United States and individual federal officers in February 2026.

Federal agents shot legal observer six times with rubber bullets, deployed tear gas during Camarillo cannabis farm raid

On July 10, 2025, federal agents conducting an immigration raid on Glass House Farms, a cannabis facility in Camarillo, California, deployed tear gas and shot Ventura-based attorney Vanessa Valdez six times with rubber bullets despite her identifying herself as a legal observer. Valdez, left unable to see and forced to crawl to escape, has since filed a Federal Tort Claims Act claim seeking compensation for medical costs, lost wages, and emotional trauma. The Department of Homeland Security disputed the account, saying agents used pepper balls rather than rubber bullets, and only after protesters attempted to breach the perimeter.

ICE raid on Glass House Farms drove farmworker Jaime Alanís García to a fatal 30-foot fall

On July 10, 2025, federal immigration agents and National Guard soldiers raided Glass House Farms in Camarillo, California; farmworker Jaime Alanís García climbed onto a greenhouse roof to escape the operation and fell roughly 30 feet, breaking his neck, and died two days later without ever having been taken into custody. The Department of Homeland Security disputed that agents were pursuing him, while his family said his death was "not an isolated tragedy."

DOJ subpoenaed six years of records on every minor treated for gender dysphoria at Rhode Island Hospital

On July 9, 2025, the Justice Department served an administrative subpoena on Rhode Island Hospital demanding roughly six years of records — identities, addresses, diagnoses, treatments, and parents' names — for every minor treated there for gender dysphoria. The subpoena was one strand of a nationwide DOJ campaign that came to target more than 20 doctors and hospitals providing gender-affirming care to minors. The hospital did not comply; nearly ten months later a federal judge quashed the demand, holding it "lacks a congressionally authorized purpose" and was "issued in bad faith for an improper purpose," and tying it directly to White House policy direction. DOJ has appealed.

ATF analyst used Richmond police license-plate-reader access for immigration enforcement, violating department policy

On July 8, 2025, the Richmond Police Department announced it had terminated an ATF analyst's access to its license-plate-reader system after discovering the analyst had used it for immigration enforcement, in violation of RPD's operational standards. The analyst, granted access in February 2025 to assist ATF firearms and violent-crime investigations, queried 49 license plates -- including in a March 2025 effort to help recapture four detainees who had escaped an ICE detention facility in Farmville, Virginia -- with RPD's own review finding 14 of those queries tied to immigration-enforcement matters. RPD Chief Rick Edwards barred all federal agencies from the department's license-plate-reader program going forward, saying he would have denied a formal request for immigration-enforcement access.

CBP directed airlines to drop X gender markers from pre-departure passenger data, barring non-binary designation for international travelers

On July 7, 2025, U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued a Carrier Liaison Program Bulletin directing all airlines operating international flights to or from the United States to submit only "M" or "F" in the sex field of Advanced Passenger Information System pre-departure data, effectively erasing X gender markers for nonbinary and transgender travelers. Airlines submitting an X in place of a binary marker were required to resubmit, while carriers that substituted M or F for a traveler's actual X passport marker would face no penalty. CBP began enforcing the binary-only requirement on October 14, 2025, after a 90-day informed compliance period.

EPA placed 144 employees on administrative leave for signing a dissent letter criticizing Zeldin's policies

On July 3, 2025, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency placed approximately 144 employees on administrative leave, pending an "administrative investigation," after they signed a June 30, 2025 "Declaration of Dissent" accusing Administrator Lee Zeldin of dismantling the agency's research office, canceling environmental-justice programs, and ignoring scientific consensus to benefit polluters. EPA said the leave — initially set to run through July 17 — was warranted because the signatories had listed their official titles in the letter, and described a "zero-tolerance policy" for staff who "undermine" the administration's agenda.

North Carolina Gov. Stein signed SB 442, shielding foster/adoptive parents who refuse to affirm a transgender child's gender identity

On July 3, 2025, North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein signed Senate Bill 442, the "Parents Protection Act," into law. The measure bars the state from bringing child-abuse or neglect findings against foster or adoptive parents solely for raising a transgender child according to the child's sex assigned at birth, including using birth-assigned pronouns and making medical decisions on that basis, and bars adoption/foster agencies from disqualifying prospective parents solely for declining to affirm a child's gender transition.

DHS Secretary Noem told her advisory council she was seeking a way to fire employees who 'don't like us' or oppose administration policy

At the inaugural meeting of the Department of Homeland Security's reconstituted Homeland Security Advisory Council on July 2, 2025, Secretary Kristi Noem told members she was looking for advice on "how to fire people who don't like us," saying "there's people here in this department that don't support what we're doing." Noem said she did not feel supported by some of the roughly 250,000 DHS employees and asked the advisers to help identify a legal mechanism to remove career civil servants on that basis. As of the reporting, no specific legal mechanism had been confirmed and no employee had been removed under the stated rationale.

CDC narrowed mandatory FoodNet pathogen surveillance from eight diseases to two as it dissolved its parasitic-disease division

Effective July 1, 2025, CDC narrowed mandatory reporting under FoodNet -- its foodborne-disease surveillance collaboration with ten state health departments covering roughly 54 million people -- from eight tracked pathogens to two, making reporting on Campylobacter, Cyclospora, Listeria, Shigella, Vibrio, and Yersinia optional. The same year, CDC dissolved its Division of Parasitic Diseases and Malaria, the office housing the agency's Cyclospora and parasitic-disease expertise, reassigning remaining staff elsewhere. Public health researchers publicly disputed CDC's stated funding rationale and warned the changes would leave outbreaks harder to detect.

White House pressed four America250 commissioners to resign in July 2025 bid to seize the congressionally chartered anniversary panel

In July 2025, the White House sought to take control of the independent, congressionally chartered U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission (America250) by moving through House Speaker Mike Johnson and the commission's executive director, Ariel Abergel, to pressure four sitting Republican commissioners into resigning so Trump-aligned replacements could be installed. The effort collapsed when the commissioners refused and Senate Majority Leader John Thune opposed any shake-up. The maneuver is documented in a July 2, 2026 oversight report by House Natural Resources Committee Democratic staff and was reported by The Atlantic.

GSA and FBI scrapped Congress's mandated Greenbelt, Maryland headquarters site, redirecting $1.1 billion to the Reagan Building

On July 1, 2025, the General Services Administration and FBI Director Kash Patel announced the FBI would abandon its planned move to Greenbelt, Maryland — a site GSA had selected in 2022-23 under a congressionally appropriated $1.1 billion project — and relocate instead into the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C. Maryland and Prince George's County sued in November 2025, and a federal judge ruled in August 2026 that the switch violated federal law and blocked it.

DHS Secretary Noem and President Trump threatened to prosecute CNN over its reporting on the ICEBlock app

On July 1, 2025, after CNN reported on ICEBlock — a free app that let users anonymously flag the locations of ICE agents — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the administration was working with the Justice Department to "go after" and prosecute CNN, calling the network's coverage a form of aiding people trying to avoid law enforcement. President Trump separately endorsed pursuing CNN, and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller accused the network of helping "invaders and insurrectionists sabotage ICE." Noem did not identify what law CNN had violated, and no charges were filed against the network as of the reporting.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem fabricated story of migrant who ate himself on ICE deportation flight

On July 1, 2025, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem stood alongside President Trump during a tour of the "Alligator Alcatraz" migrant detention facility in Ochopee, Florida, and publicly claimed federal marshals had detained a "cannibal" who tried to eat himself aboard an ICE deportation flight, repeating the claim on Fox News and again a month later. On February 23, 2026, The Intercept reported that three federal law enforcement officials, including one from Noem's own DHS, confirmed the story was entirely fabricated.

U.S. Army removed its webpage honoring civil rights pioneer Sarah Keys Evans under the Pentagon's DEI content purge

In July 2025, the U.S. Army removed from its official website a 2014 article honoring Sarah Keys Evans, a Black Women's Army Corps veteran whose 1952 arrest for refusing to give up a bus seat helped desegregate interstate travel. The removal was carried out under a February 2025 Defense Department directive, issued at the direction of Secretary Pete Hegseth, ordering military websites scrubbed of content framed as promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion. An Army spokesperson said the material was "temporarily unpublished" pending review; it remained unavailable as of July 2026.

June(44)

U.S. Customs and Border Protection revoked security clearances from immigrant airport workers, costing dozens their jobs

Beginning shortly after the January 2025 inauguration, U.S. Customs and Border Protection revoked or denied "customs seal" security-clearance renewals for immigrant airport workers holding valid green cards, asylum status, or Temporary Protected Status, despite no change in their immigration status. On June 30, 2025, CBP revoked the seal of Logan International Airport cabin cleaner Saint Paul Paul, a Haitian Temporary Protected Status holder, telling him he posed an "unacceptable risk." At least 80 workers at Logan alone, and hundreds more nationwide, lost their jobs; SEIU Local 32BJ and four affected workers sued the Trump administration over the policy on March 13, 2026.

Missouri Gov. Kehoe signed HB3 budget rider conditioning college funding on eliminating DEI programs

On June 30, 2025, Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe signed House Bill 3, the state's Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development appropriations bill, as part of the FY2026 budget. House Budget Chair Rep. Dirk Deaton had added budget language conditioning state funding for Missouri's public colleges and universities on eliminating diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. Deaton said the language meant institutions will have to comport with it in order to receive state tax dollars.

Ohio Gov. DeWine signed HB96, barring Medicaid coverage of gender-affirming care and enacting two-sexes policy

On June 30, 2025, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed House Bill 96, the state's FY2026-27 operating budget, into law. The budget bars Ohio's Medicaid program from covering gender-affirming mental health care for transgender adults, bans menstrual products in men's restrooms of public buildings, and declares a state policy that only two "unchangeable" sexes exist. DeWine used his line-item veto to strike three related provisions from the bill, including restrictions on LGBTQ-themed library materials and a ban on Pride flag displays on state property.

DHS stripped independent board review from immigration civil-penalty appeals, cutting the window to 15 business days

On June 27, 2025, DHS and DOJ's Executive Office for Immigration Review published an interim final rule that took appeals of immigration civil penalties away from DOJ's Board of Immigration Appeals and gave them to a DHS supervisory officer, while cutting the response window from 30 days to 15 business days and eliminating the option for an in-person interview. The rule governs fines of up to $998 per day under INA Section 274D for failing to depart after a final removal order; DHS told CNN in 2026 that it had assessed more than $84 billion in such fines against over 100,000 people since the start of Trump's second term, including a $1.8 million fine against a man who had already left the country and twice submitted evidence of his departure.