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Timeline

Every entry in the archive, ordered by event date. Page 37 of 43, showing February 2, 2025 to March 14, 2025. Pages contain 50 entries each; entries for a given date may continue on the next or previous page.

2025 Events (586)

March(69)

Trump signed EO 14237 suspending security clearances and barring federal contracts for Paul Weiss law firm

On March 14, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14237, "Addressing Risks From Paul Weiss," targeting the Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison law firm. The order suspended security clearances for Paul Weiss employees, directed agencies to terminate existing federal contracts with the firm, and barred its lawyers from accessing federal buildings. The administration cited the firm's past employment of lawyers who had participated in prosecutions of Trump's allies and its representation of clients in litigation adverse to Trump.

Wyoming Legislature enacted the "What Is a Woman Act," defining sex by biology at birth and requiring birth-sex-based accommodations

On March 14, 2025, the "What Is a Woman Act" (HB0032) became Wyoming law without Governor Mark Gordon's signature after the Legislature passed it 50-9 in the House and 28-3 in the Senate. The law creates a statutory definition of sex, man, woman, mother, and father based on reproductive biology at birth and states that sex-distinction laws governing athletics, prisons, domestic-violence shelters, rape-crisis centers, locker rooms, and restrooms satisfy intermediate scrutiny. It also requires schools and agencies that collect sex-based vital statistics to record sex assigned at birth.

Homeland Security under Secretary Noem polygraphed employees and forcibly reassigned senior staff to identify leakers

Beginning in March 2025, the Department of Homeland Security under Secretary Kristi Noem subjected employees to polygraph examinations - some reported to last up to roughly six hours - to identify the sources of leaks, and forcibly reassigned senior career staff. Employees and journalists described the measures as a "campaign of fear" that deterred internal dissent and lawful disclosure.

Wyoming Gov. Gordon signed SF0044 barring transgender college athletes from women's sports teams

On March 13, 2025, Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon signed SF0044, "Fairness in sports-intercollegiate athletics," into law as Senate Enrolled Act No. 94 (Chapter 144, Session Laws of Wyoming 2025). The law creates W.S. 21-25-301, requiring University of Wyoming and Wyoming community college students to compete in intercollegiate athletics according to a "biological sex" defined by reproductive function, barring them from teams designated for the opposite sex. The effect is to exclude transgender student-athletes from competing consistent with their gender identity.

West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey signed SB456, defining sex by birth and barring transgender people from single-sex spaces

On March 12, 2025, West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey signed Senate Bill 456, the "Riley Gaines Act," into law, adding a new article to state code that defines "man" and "woman" by sex assigned at birth. The law requires bathrooms, locker rooms, domestic-violence shelters, rape crisis centers, dormitories, and correctional facilities to be designated by that birth-sex definition. The Legislature passed it by wide margins and it took effect June 9, 2025.

Trump administration halted CISA's election security support to states, ending the agency's congressionally mandated protection of voting systems

On March 11, 2025, a U.S. official confirmed to Votebeat that CISA had ceased all election security support to state and local officials, ending programs the agency had run since its creation following the 2016 Russian interference campaign. The halt followed the placement of CISA election security and disinformation staff on administrative leave in February 2025. State election officials said they were left without federal cybersecurity assistance to protect voting systems and infrastructure from foreign threats.

Secretary McMahon eliminated nearly half the Department of Education workforce, cutting ~1,950 positions across all major divisions

On March 11, 2025, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon announced a reduction in force eliminating nearly half the Department of Education workforce, cutting from approximately 4,133 to about 2,183 employees. The cuts eliminated staff across all major divisions including the Office for Civil Rights, the Institute of Education Sciences, Federal Student Aid, and the Office of Special Education Programs. The Department of Education's Inspector General subsequently found that some reductions appeared to impair the department's ability to carry out its statutory responsibilities.

EPA terminated $20B Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund green-bank grants after unexplained Citibank account freeze

On March 11, 2025, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin terminated grant agreements for all eight recipients of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund's green-bank programs, canceling roughly $20 billion in clean-energy financing, including $7 billion to Climate United Fund and $5 billion to the Coalition for Green Capital. The termination followed a February 18, 2025 freeze of the funds' Citibank accounts, directed by the EPA, its inspector general, the FBI, and the Treasury Department without prior notice to recipients. Zeldin cited "programmatic fraud, waste, and abuse" but did not publicly produce supporting evidence.

Trump bought and publicly endorsed a Tesla from the White House lawn amid Musk's DOGE-tied stock boycott

On March 11, 2025, President Trump held a White House South Lawn event where he inspected and announced the purchase of a red Tesla Model S alongside Tesla CEO and DOGE lead Elon Musk, amid a Tesla stock decline tied to consumer boycotts over Musk's government role. Former White House chief ethics lawyer Richard Painter said Trump's on-camera endorsement of a specific consumer product from federal grounds appeared to violate rules against using public office for private gain.

United States and Honduras signed Asylum Cooperative Agreement capped at 240 transfers

The United States and Honduras signed an Asylum Cooperative Agreement at Washington on March 10, 2025, which entered into force June 25, 2025 and caps transfers at 10 people per month, 240 over its first two years. A Center for Gender and Refugee Studies fact-finding trip found Honduras meets neither of the legal standards — safety from persecution or access to full and fair asylum procedure — the agreement is supposed to guarantee, and documented a transferred Salvadoran man forced to flee the same gang he had escaped originally.

Secretary Rubio cancelled 83% of USAID programs, eliminating 5,200 congressionally-appropriated contracts

On March 10, 2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the Trump administration had completed a DOGE-led six-week review and was cancelling 83% of USAID's programs — 5,200 of approximately 6,200 contracts — that had been congressionally appropriated. The remaining roughly 1,000 programs were to be folded into the State Department. The affected programs included HIV/AIDS treatment, malaria prevention, TB care, humanitarian food aid, and democratic governance work across dozens of countries.

South Dakota Legislature referred Amendment L, raising constitutional-amendment threshold to 60%, a bar past citizen wins wouldn't have cleared

On March 10, 2025, the South Dakota State Senate voted 29-4 to give final passage to House Joint Resolution 5003, referring Constitutional Amendment L to the November 2026 ballot; the measure would raise the threshold to approve any constitutional amendment from a simple majority to 60%. All four constitutional amendments South Dakota voters have approved since 2020 -- including a 2022 Medicaid-expansion measure that passed with 56% support over opposition from the Republican-controlled Legislature, which holds 97 of 105 seats -- would have failed under the proposed threshold.

ICE detains Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil over pro-Palestinian activism; no criminal charges filed

On March 8, 2025, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained Mahmoud Khalil — a lawful permanent resident and Columbia University graduate student who had been a prominent organizer of pro-Palestinian campus protests — with no criminal charges filed against him. Secretary of State Marco Rubio invoked 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(4)(C), a rarely-used statute permitting deportation on foreign-policy grounds, as the basis for removal. Khalil was transferred to an ICE detention facility in Jena, Louisiana, where he was held for approximately three months while his attorneys argued the government was retaliating against him for constitutionally protected political speech.

DOJ fired pardon attorney Liz Oyer after she refused to restore Mel Gibson's gun rights

On March 7, 2025, then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche's office fired Justice Department Pardon Attorney Liz Oyer via a three-sentence memo, hours after she declined to recommend restoring the firearm rights of actor Mel Gibson, a Trump ally with a 2011 domestic-violence conviction. Attorney General Pam Bondi's office restored Gibson's gun rights the following month. Oyer has since testified publicly, including before the Senate Judiciary Committee in July 2026, that she was fired for refusing to carry out the favor.

Trump signed EO 14230 suspending security clearances and barring federal contracts for Perkins Coie over its 2016 Clinton campaign work

On March 6, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14230, "Addressing Risks from Perkins Coie LLP," suspending security clearances for all firm employees, directing agencies to bar its attorneys from federal buildings, and ordering termination of all federal contracts with the firm or entities doing business with it. The order explicitly cited Perkins Coie's 2016 representation of Hillary Clinton's campaign and its hiring of Fusion GPS as justification. On May 2, 2025, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell permanently struck down the order, calling it an "unprecedented attack" on the legal system.

Arizona Republican Risa Lombardo filed as a Green Party candidate for governor, misrepresenting her affiliation to split the Democratic vote

Risa Lombardo, an elected Republican precinct committeewoman in Arizona's Legislative District 2, filed a statement of interest to run for governor as a Green Party candidate on March 5, 2025, days after leaving her GOP post. The Arizona Green Party disavowed her within months as a GOP-planted "sham" candidate meant to siphon left-leaning votes from Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs. Lombardo went on to receive $1.1 million in public Clean Elections funds and paid 78% of it to a Nevada shell company incorporated 13 days before her first payment, with no disclosed subcontractors and no other clients.

VA Chief of Staff Syrek issued internal memo ordering elimination of ~83,000 positions to return to pre-PACT Act staffing levels

On March 4, 2025, Department of Veterans Affairs Chief of Staff Christopher Syrek issued an internal memo directing the VA to return to 2019 staffing levels of approximately 399,957 employees — roughly 83,000 fewer than its current workforce. The memo, developed in coordination with DOGE, set a May 9 internal review deadline, a June reorganization plan, and layoffs beginning in August. The planned reduction would functionally reverse the VA's congressionally-directed hiring expansion undertaken to implement the PACT Act, the 2022 law expanding healthcare and benefits for veterans exposed to toxic substances.

MPD Chief Pamela Smith reinstated two officers convicted of murder and cover-up, overruling her department's recommendation to fire them

On March 3, 2025, D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department reinstated officers Terence Sutton and Andrew Zabavsky, both convicted in the 2020 death of Karon Hylton-Brown and pardoned by President Trump that January, restoring them to the force with back pay retroactive to 2021. MPD Chief Pamela Smith overruled her department's own Disciplinary Review Division, which had recommended termination for both officers based on a 172-page internal investigation; Sutton received a 25-day suspension and Zabavsky a $2,500 fine and pension-eligible retirement. The D.C. Auditor later found the discipline "grossly inadequate" and said Chief Smith never personally reviewed the investigative file, relying instead on MPD legal counsel.

Wyoming Gov. Gordon signed HB 72 requiring birth-sex use of public restrooms, prison sleeping quarters, and college facilities

On March 3, 2025, Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon signed House Bill 72, the "Protecting Privacy in Public Spaces Act" (Enrolled Act No. 48), requiring multi-occupancy restrooms, changing areas, and sleeping quarters in government buildings, state correctional facilities, and public universities to be designated and used according to reproductive sex at birth. The act creates civil causes of action against public entities that permit cross-sex access, with a $5,000 statutory-damages remedy for violations at the University of Wyoming and community colleges. It took effect July 1, 2025.

Wyoming Gov. Gordon signed SF0062 requiring K-12 students to use restrooms and facilities matching sex assigned at birth

On March 3, 2025, Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon signed Senate File 0062 (Enrolled Act No. 53) into law, creating W.S. 21-3-137 and requiring every public school district in the state, from pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade, to designate multiple-occupancy restrooms, changing rooms, and school-activity sleeping quarters for the exclusive use of one sex defined by reproductive biology at birth. The law permits only single-occupancy "reasonable accommodations," directs school boards to discipline noncompliance, bars boards from adopting contrary policy, and creates a parental right of action against noncompliant districts. It took effect immediately upon signing.

Trump signed EO 14224 designating English as the official U.S. language, revoking the federal multilingual access requirement

On March 1, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14224, designating English as the official language of the United States. The order rescinded Executive Order 13166, which since 2000 had required federal agencies to provide meaningful language access to individuals with limited English proficiency. The change eliminates a 25-year multilingual services framework affecting millions of non-English speakers who rely on federally funded programs, without any act of Congress.

ICE deported a cooperating federal witness before a cartel-linked trial, and his co-defendants were acquitted

ICE agents detained Javier Hernandez, a cooperating witness in a Los Angeles federal drug-trafficking prosecution, in Fontana, California in February 2025 and deported him to Tijuana, Mexico in March 2025, without consulting the U.S. Attorney's office prosecuting the case, according to a federal judge's on-the-record account and Los Angeles Times reporting. Deprived of Hernandez's testimony, his two co-defendants were acquitted of all charges; former ICE and Justice Department officials said prior administrations coordinated to keep cooperating witnesses and defendants in the country pending trial, while a DHS spokesperson defended the removal, calling Hernandez a "clear and present threat to public safety."

February(28)

GSA eliminated 18F, firing all ~90 employees of the federal technology unit, under DOGE direction

On February 28, 2025, the General Services Administration eliminated 18F, its internal technology consulting unit, firing all approximately 90 employees at the direction of DOGE. GSA Deputy Administrator Thomas Shedd announced the closure in an internal email; 18F's website was taken offline the same day. 18F was a congressionally-funded team of engineers and designers that helped federal agencies modernize digital services and largely paid for itself through interagency billing.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed SF418, making Iowa the first state to remove gender identity from its civil rights code

On Feb. 28, 2025, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed Senate File 418, removing "gender identity" as a protected class from the Iowa Civil Rights Act and making Iowa the first U.S. state to strip an established protected class from its civil rights code. The law codifies binary definitions of sex tied to birth, ends transgender Iowans' ability to change the sex marker on their birth certificates, and bars instruction on "gender theory" in kindergarten through sixth grade. It took effect July 1, 2025.

Kansas Senate efficiency committee withheld public-portal records from Kansas Reflector past KORA deadlines while granting lawmakers early access

After Kansas Reflector requested public submissions to the Kansas Senate Committee on Government Efficiency's online portal on Feb. 25, 2025, committee chair Sen. Renee Erickson withheld the records well past the Kansas Open Records Act's three-day response requirement, releasing them to the outlet only on April 9, 2025. During the delay, Erickson granted committee members and other senators access to the same records by mid-March 2025. Kansas Reflector's editor-in-chief filed a KORA complaint with the Kansas Attorney General in May 2025.

Wyoming enacted SF0077 barring state and local government from requiring employees to use colleagues' preferred pronouns

On Feb. 27, 2025, Wyoming's SF0077, "Compelled speech is not free speech," became law after Gov. Mark Gordon declined to sign it, taking effect as Chapter 62 of the 2025 Session Laws. The statute, codified at W.S. 9-14-601, prohibits the state and its political subdivisions — including counties and public schools — from requiring any employee to refer to another employee by preferred pronouns as a condition of employment, contracting, or benefit, and creates a private civil right of action. It took effect July 1, 2025.

AG Bondi directed DOJ Civil Rights Division to dismiss Title VII disparate-impact enforcement suits against police and fire departments

On February 26, 2025, Attorney General Pam Bondi directed the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division to dismiss multiple Biden-era lawsuits against police and fire departments accused of discriminatory hiring. The dismissed cases alleged that written aptitude and physical fitness tests produced racially disparate outcomes in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Bondi framed the dismissals as ending "DEI quotas," although the underlying lawsuits involved standard disparate-impact enforcement that federal courts have upheld since 1971.

SSA Acting Commissioner Dudek dissolved the Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity, placing 140 employees on administrative leave

On February 25, 2025, the Social Security Administration dissolved its Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity and placed all 140 of its employees on administrative leave. Acting SSA Commissioner Leland Dudek announced the closure, saying it "advances the President's goal to make all of government more efficient," while claiming statutorily required EEO and reasonable-accommodation functions would be moved elsewhere within the agency. SSA also shuttered its Office of Transformation on the same day.

Trump directed suspension of Covington & Burling security clearances and contract terminations over Jack Smith representation

President Trump issued a presidential memorandum on February 25, 2025, directing the Attorney General and all agency heads to immediately suspend security clearances held by partners, members, and employees of Covington & Burling LLP who had assisted former Special Counsel Jack Smith, and to terminate all federal agency contracts with the firm. The memorandum cited the firm's representation of Smith as "involvement in government weaponization." It was the first in a sequence of retaliatory executive actions targeting major law firms whose attorneys had represented parties adverse to Trump or participated in investigations of him.

Rubio issued State Dept cable directing consulates to deny visas and impose permanent fraud bar on transgender applicants

On February 24, 2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a cable titled "Guidance for Visa Adjudicators on Executive Order 14201: Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports" directing all U.S. consulates worldwide to require visa applications to reflect applicants' sex at birth. The cable authorized consular officers to deny visas based on "reasonable suspicion" of transgender identity and to apply a permanent lifetime fraud bar under INA § 212(a)(6)(C)(i) to applicants found to have "misrepresented" their sex. While framed around athletes, the cable's Section 6 mandate applied to all visa categories.

Cuyahoga County jail staff failed to give dying detainee Jennifer Wade CPR for more than 20 minutes

On February 23, 2025, corrections staff at the Cuyahoga County jail found 41-year-old Jennifer Wade unresponsive in her mental-health-unit cell but waited more than 20 minutes to begin CPR, and none of the responding officers or contracted MetroHealth nurses performed chest compressions as she died. Body-camera video later showed staff had left Wade on the concrete floor of her cell for hours, with one officer telling her to "stop playing," before anyone sounded an alarm. An initial state review cleared the jail, but after the withheld footage surfaced Ohio's Bureau of Adult Detention reopened the case and found the staff had failed to render aid.

OPM demanded weekly work reports from 2 million federal employees under DOGE direction; Musk threatened mass resignation for non-response

On February 22, 2025, the Office of Personnel Management sent a government-wide email to approximately 2 million federal employees directing them to submit five bullets summarizing their weekly work accomplishments and copy their managers, with a deadline of the following Monday at 11:59 PM ET. The email was sent at the direction of Elon Musk, a White House special government employee leading DOGE, who simultaneously posted on X that failure to respond would be taken as a resignation. OPM's own February 5 privacy impact assessment, published in response to ongoing litigation, had explicitly stated seven times that responses to government-wide emails are voluntary.

Federal Bureau of Prisons issued a memo directing transfer of transgender inmates to facilities matching birth sex and cutting affirming care

On February 21, 2025, the Federal Bureau of Prisons issued a memo implementing President Trump's Executive Order 14168, directing staff to refer to transgender inmates by the legal name and pronouns matching their sex assigned at birth, barring the use of funds for gender-affirming items and care, and suspending clothing and pat-search accommodations and support programs previously offered to transgender inmates. The memo laid the groundwork to transfer transgender women out of women's facilities into men's facilities based on sex assigned at birth. Affected women were moved into segregated housing pending transfer, and those slated for men's prisons faced the cutoff of their hormone treatments.

ICE officers beat disabled Sunnyvale man Ulises Peña López unconscious during 2025 arrest, lawsuit alleges

On February 21, 2025, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested Ulises Peña López, a disabled carpenter, outside his home in Sunnyvale, California, and, according to a federal lawsuit filed in July 2026, beat him in front of his wife and young daughter before taking him to a nearby alley and continuing until he lost consciousness and had to be hospitalized. The suit says GEO Group and CoreCivic, the private contractors that ran the detention facilities where he was held for more than six months, failed to accommodate his disability, and that he suffered a stroke and a heart attack in custody that left him partially paralyzed. He was deported to Mexico in October 2025.

United States deported 200 third-country migrants to Costa Rica without written agreement

The United States deported roughly 200 people, including 80 children, to Costa Rica on two flights in February 2025, before any written agreement existed governing the transfers. Deportees from Afghanistan, China, Iran, Russia, Uzbekistan, and other countries were held for months at a border migration facility with their passports confiscated, until Costa Rica's Constitutional Court ordered their release that June for violating their rights to legal counsel and information.

Trump signed EO 14217, directing elimination of Inter-American Foundation, USADF, USIP, and Presidio Trust

On February 19, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14217, "Commencing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy," directing four congressionally-created entities — the Inter-American Foundation, U.S. African Development Foundation, U.S. Institute of Peace, and Presidio Trust — to eliminate all non-statutory functions and reduce staff to the legal minimum. The EO also abolished the Presidential Management Fellows Program and terminated six federal advisory committees.

Trump signed EO 14215, asserting presidential control over independent regulatory agencies and requiring OMB approval of their regulations

On February 18, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14215, "Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies," asserting presidential authority over independent regulatory agencies including the FEC, FTC, FCC, SEC, CFPB, and NLRB. The order required these agencies to submit significant rules to OMB's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs for review before publication, and declared that the President's and Attorney General's legal interpretations are binding on all executive branch employees. Congress deliberately shielded these agencies from direct presidential control when it established them.

Kansas Legislature overrode Gov. Kelly's veto to enact SB63, banning gender-affirming care for transgender minors

On February 18, 2025, the Kansas Legislature overrode Governor Laura Kelly's veto to enact SB63, the "Help Not Harm Act," barring healthcare providers from prescribing puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, or surgery for gender transition to minors. The law restricts state funds and Medicaid from being used for gender transition, bars state employees from promoting a minor's social transition, and exposes providers to professional discipline and civil suits. It took effect July 1, 2025, and required minors already receiving care to be weaned off by December 31, 2025.

DOJ official Ed Martin threatened to reject Georgetown Law hires over DEI programs

On February 17, 2025, Ed Martin, then interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, sent a letter to Georgetown University Law Center dean William Treanor demanding to know whether Georgetown had eliminated DEI from its curriculum and warning that his office would reject any fellowship, internship, or attorney applicant affiliated with a law school that continued to teach DEI. Treanor responded on March 6, 2025, invoking First Amendment protections for university curriculum autonomy and calling the demand a constitutional violation. The D.C. Bar's Office of Disciplinary Counsel later filed ethics charges against Martin over the letter.

DOGE fired 89 FDA Human Foods Program staff overseeing food and chemical safety; deputy commissioner resigned in protest

On February 17, 2025, the Department of Government Efficiency fired 89 staff within FDA's Human Foods Program, eliminating specialists in nutrition, infant-formula safety, food-safety response, and chemical-safety review. FDA Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods Jim Jones resigned the same day, calling the cuts "indiscriminate" and warning they would undermine the administration's own stated food-safety and nutrition goals.

OPM directed agencies to fire 25,000+ probationary federal employees, bypassing statutory RIF procedures

On February 14, 2025, Acting OPM Director Charles Ezell sent a memorandum to the Chief Human Capital Officers Council directing all federal agencies to separate probationary employees not identified as mission-critical by end of day February 17. Agencies across government fired more than 25,000 employees using template termination letters citing employee "performance" — a rationale contradicted by the absence of any individualized performance review. Federal courts ruled the directive unlawful, finding OPM lacked statutory authority to direct other agencies to fire employees and that the mass separations required 60-day advance notice and formal RIF procedures that were never followed.

Utah Gov. Cox signed HB269 restricting transgender access to sex-designated spaces and college housing

Utah Governor Spencer Cox signed House Bill 269, "Privacy Protections in Sex-designated Areas," into law on February 14, 2025, tightening birth-sex restrictions on access to sex-designated privacy spaces in education and government facilities. The law requires degree-granting institutions to assign students to sex-designated housing by their sex at birth, narrows the exception for sex-based distinctions in interscholastic activities, and removes a medical-treatment documentation route that had supported access to certain sex-designated spaces. It passed the House 59-14 and the Senate 22-7.

Alabama Gov. Ivey signed the "What Is a Woman Act," codifying binary sex definitions and enabling exclusion of transgender people

On February 13, 2025, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed SB79, the "What Is a Woman Act," into law, codifying binary definitions of "sex," "male," "female," "man," and "woman" throughout Alabama law based on reproductive anatomy observed or clinically verified at birth, with no exceptions for intersex people. The law directs that transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals be recorded in state vital-statistics and medical registries according to that assigned sex, and authorizes state and local governments to restrict bathrooms, changing rooms, dormitories, prisons, and other sex-segregated spaces on that basis. The measure, sponsored by Sen. April Weaver, took effect October 1, 2025.

DHS awarded $220M in no-bid advertising contracts under Noem, funneling work to firms tied to her inner circle

On February 13, 2025, DHS awarded a $143 million no-bid contract to Safe America Media LLC — a Delaware shell company incorporated just seven days earlier — as part of a $220 million advertising campaign to promote the agency's immigration enforcement mission and featuring Secretary Kristi Noem prominently. DHS bypassed competitive bidding by invoking a border "national emergency." A second $77 million no-bid contract went to People Who Think LLC. Work under the Safe America Media contract was secretly subcontracted to the Strategy Group, an Ohio Republican consulting firm run by the husband of Noem's DHS chief spokesperson. Noem separately implemented a policy requiring her personal sign-off on all DHS grants and contracts exceeding $100,000, causing agency-wide funding bottlenecks.

DHS fired FEMA CFO Mary Comans and three other officials without a hearing after Musk criticized migrant-hotel payments

On February 11, 2025, the Department of Homeland Security announced it had fired FEMA Chief Financial Officer Mary Comans, two program analysts, and a grant specialist, saying they had "circumvented leadership" to approve $59 million in Shelter and Services Program payments to New York City for migrant-hotel costs. The firings followed public criticism of the payments by then-DOGE head Elon Musk, and Comans was terminated without a hearing or the chance to respond to the allegations against her.

Trump signed EO 14210 ordering mass federal workforce reductions and granting DOGE political veto over career hiring

On February 11, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14210, directing all federal agencies to begin large-scale reductions in force and imposing a 1:4 hiring cap allowing no more than one new hire per four departures. The order required DOGE-designated team leads to approve all new career civil service appointments, inserting a political veto into the merit-based hiring system the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 was designed to protect from partisan control. Agency DEI offices and units performing non-statutory functions were identified as priority targets for elimination.

Trump fired Office of Government Ethics Director David Huitema without explanation; OGE reverted to acting director

On February 10, 2025, President Trump fired David Huitema as director of the Office of Government Ethics via a brief email from the White House Presidential Personnel Office, with no explanation given. Huitema had been Senate-confirmed in November 2024 to a five-year term, having served 19 years in federal ethics roles including at the State Department. The OGE, established by Congress as the executive branch's principal ethics watchdog, reverted to an acting director upon Huitema's removal.

Trump fired Office of Special Counsel Director Hampton Dellinger without statutory cause, disabling federal whistleblower protection agency

On February 7, 2025, President Trump fired Hampton Dellinger, director of the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), via a one-sentence email from a White House personnel aide citing no cause. Federal statute limits OSC director removal to cases of inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance — grounds the termination notice did not invoke. The OSC is the primary federal agency responsible for investigating whistleblower retaliation, enforcing the Hatch Act, and protecting the employment rights of military veterans.

Trump signed Executive Order 14203 imposing sanctions on International Criminal Court officials and their U.S. supporters

On February 6, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14203, imposing asset freezes and U.S. entry bans on International Criminal Court officials and anyone providing them material support, in response to the ICC's arrest warrants for Israeli leaders. A week later, the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control designated ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan under the order. The sanctions extended to U.S. lawyers and human-rights advocates who assist the court, triggering First Amendment litigation.

Panama accepted 299 third-country deportees under expanded, unwritten MOU

The United States and Panama expanded an existing Memorandum of Understanding on February 2, 2025, under which roughly 299 migrants and asylum seekers from Asian and other countries were forcibly transferred to Panama that same month, many expelled without any protection screening under a Trump proclamation suspending asylum access. Dozens remained stranded in Panama for months, held at a jungle-camp facility and a Panama City hotel, before human rights groups intervened.