55 deck supporters · 144 events — generated from the accepted deck (2025/supporters.yaml and 2025/scandals.yaml); the 97 cards and supporters not in the deck are in rejected.html
Events (by Opportunity Score)
Opportunity Score: the total of the Opportunity Scores of the supporters involved on the card - each supporter's score is the total of the controversy band values (HIGH is 3, MEDIUM is 2, LOW is 1) of the accepted events they are on.
The Sports Executive Order
Opportunity Score: 105 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 199
Trump signed an executive order on February 5, 2025 barring transgender athletes from women’s sports in federally funded competition, affecting fewer than 10 of the NCAA’s 500,000 athletes, and moved to deny visas to men identifying as women athletes for the 2028 Olympics; the NCAA and universities reversed their participation policies within days, and GLAAD slammed the order.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Kristi Noem | Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) | Was directed by the order to have the Department of Homeland Security review and adjust policies permitting males to compete in women’s sports, and tasked by Trump at the signing to deny visas to ‘men attempting to fraudulently enter the United States while identifying themselves as women athletes’ during the 2028 Olympics. |
| Marco Rubio | Secretary of State | Issued the State Department cable directing consular officers worldwide to deny visas to transgender athletes and, at the signing, was directed by Trump to tell the International Olympic Committee that America ‘will not stand by and watch men beat and batter female athletes’. |
| Karoline Leavitt | White House Press Secretary | Defended the order at the press briefing, declaring ‘The policy of this administration is that there are only two sexes — male and female. Pretty simple.’ |
The South Shore Apartment Raid
Opportunity Score: 105 Controversy: HIGH Event ID: 202
Some 300 federal agents raided a South Shore apartment building in Chicago during Operation Midway Blitz, arresting 37 immigrants and holding U.S. citizens zip-tied for hours, and the administration’s Tren de Aragua justification was contradicted by the government’s own arrest records, which made no mention of the gang and showed the raid was launched over information that immigrants were unlawfully occupying apartments.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Kristi Noem | Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) | Called Bovino the Border Patrol commander at large in an op-ed, and her department’s agents carried out the raid that the governor said was run by ‘federal agents reporting to Secretary Noem’. |
| Stephen Miller | White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Advisor | Justified the raid by claiming the building was a ‘Tren de Aragua complex filled with TdA terrorists’. |
| Gregory Bovino | Commander-at-large, U.S. Border Patrol (CBP) | Led the federal agents searching apartments and detaining residents in the DHS-produced video of the raid, and said in raw video footage released by NewsNation that U.S. citizens were temporarily detained because it was a ‘high-risk operation’ and ‘no rights have been violated today’. |
| Corey Lewandowski | Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Homeland Security | Was the aide to whom Bovino said he reported directly in the Chicago operation, correcting the acting ICE director who ‘said he was in charge’. |
The Los Angeles Mass Raids
Opportunity Score: 102 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 124
The administration’s mass immigration raids in Los Angeles in June 2025 triggered citywide protests and a contested National Guard deployment, and the Homeland Security Secretary defended the operations at a Los Angeles news conference where agents removed Senator Alex Padilla.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Kristi Noem | Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) | Held a news conference in Los Angeles pledging that the operations were ‘not going away,’ warned violent protesters of arrest and prosecution, and was confronted by Senator Alex Padilla, whom agents removed. |
| Pete Hegseth | Secretary of Defense | Defended the deployment of 2,700 National Guard and Marine troops to Los Angeles at a June 2025 House hearing, telling lawmakers the mobilization would cost at least $134 million and continue for a minimum of 60 days. |
| Gregory Bovino | Commander-at-large, U.S. Border Patrol (CBP) | Named tactical commander of the mass raid operation in Los Angeles that led to protests across the city. |
| Tom Homan | White House Border Czar | Told Fox News the administration was ‘going to bring the National Guard in tonight’ to combat the protests, and that Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass ‘should be thanking us’ for making the city safer. |
F-1 Student Visa Chaos
Opportunity Score: 101 Controversy: HIGH Event ID: 74
Sudden cancellations of F-1 student registrations triggered over 100 federal lawsuits and 50 restraining orders before the administration was forced to back down.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Kristi Noem | Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) | Her department announced the April 9 social-media screening of visa applicants for ‘antisemitic activity,’ and she warned that anyone using the First Amendment to advocate ‘antisemitic violence and terrorism’ is ‘not welcome here.’ |
| Marco Rubio | Secretary of State | His State Department issued the March 25 cable ordering consular offices to expand screening of student visa applicants for ‘terrorist activity,’ and he said he had revoked more than 300 visas. |
| Stephen Miller | White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Advisor | As the architect of the administration’s hardline immigration agenda, he set the student-visa revocation campaign in motion. |
The Visa Ban Expansion
Opportunity Score: 101 Controversy: LOW Event ID: 82
Trump’s proclamation banned entry for citizens of twelve countries, including Afghanistan, Iran, and Sudan, and restricted visas from seven more, reviving and expanding the travel bans from his first term, and Rep. Pramila Jayapal called it a ‘discriminatory policy, which limits legal immigration.’
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Kristi Noem | Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) | Named in the proclamation, her department was the coordinating agency for the country identifications and the case-by-case entry exceptions it imposed. |
| Marco Rubio | Secretary of State | He presented the April 9 report recommending the entry restrictions and was directed to run the periodic reviews and decide the World Cup and Olympics exceptions under the proclamation. |
| Stephen Miller | White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Advisor | As the architect of the administration’s hardline immigration agenda, he set the twelve-country entry ban in motion. |
Caribbean Maritime Blockade
Opportunity Score: 99 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 72
Secret military strikes ordered by Trump and the Defense Secretary against alleged smuggling vessels off Venezuela led to accusations of potential war crimes.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Marco Rubio | Secretary of State | Confirmed the first strike, posting on X that a drug vessel operated by a designated narco-terrorist organization had been struck in the southern Caribbean. |
| Karoline Leavitt | White House Press Secretary | Defended the second strike as lawful self-defense and stated that Hegseth had authorized Bradley, who worked ‘well within his authority and the law’. |
| Pete Hegseth | Secretary of Defense | Authorized the strikes, claimed ‘absolute and complete authority’ to carry them out, and denied reports that he ordered the killing of the survivors. |
| Stephen Miller | White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Advisor | Reportedly put in charge of overseeing the military operations in the Caribbean to locate and destroy boats suspected of engaging in narcotics trafficking. |
The IRS-ICE Data Sharing Deal
Opportunity Score: 99 Controversy: HIGH Event ID: 109
After Trump administration officials and DOGE staffers pressed career IRS officials to hand over taxpayer data to immigration agencies, the Treasury and Homeland Security departments signed a deal letting ICE submit the names and addresses of suspected undocumented immigrants to the IRS, triggering the resignation of the acting IRS commissioner and senior career officers.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Kristi Noem | Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) | As the Homeland Security Secretary, she signed the agreement for DHS and defended it publicly as a targeted program against criminals, even though the data-sharing was not restricted to violent offenders. |
| Elon Musk | Head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE); CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and X | Staff from his Department of Government Efficiency pressed career IRS officials to hand over taxpayer data to immigration agencies, and the deal they sought was signed in April 2025. |
| Scott Bessent | Secretary of the Treasury | As Treasury Secretary, he signed the data-sharing agreement after career IRS officials refused to sign it. |
| Andrew De Mello | Acting Chief Counsel of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) | As the IRS’s acting chief counsel, he pressed the ICE data-sharing deal forward, emailing senior IRS officials that they ‘cannot wait’ much longer because Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and others ‘need this finalized and executed immediately,’ and sought signatures up the chain of command when career officials refused. |
Mass Deportation Staging Ground Requisitions
Opportunity Score: 96 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 80
The administration federalized the Illinois National Guard and deployed troops from other states to back its mass deportation operation in the Chicago area, which the Supreme Court rejected in December 2025 after state officials sued to block it.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Kristi Noem | Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) | Defended the deployment of National Guard troops to Chicago on Fox News, calling the city a ‘war zone,’ and joined ICE agents in a military-style raid on an Elgin, Illinois home during the operation. |
| Gregory Bovino | Commander-at-large, U.S. Border Patrol (CBP) | Commanded the Border Patrol agents who marched through downtown Chicago during the operation, telling a reporter that arrests were made in part based on ‘how they look’. |
| Corey Lewandowski | Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Homeland Security | Was named in a September 2025 email from Gregory Bovino as the person Bovino reported directly to in matters of interior immigration enforcement, rather than the acting ICE director. |
| Tom Homan | White House Border Czar | Defended Operation Midway Blitz, saying there are ‘consequences for violating our laws’ and that ‘ICE is going to enforce the laws. That’s what President Trump got elected for.’ |
Stephen Miller’s Border Contract
Opportunity Score: 95 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 40
Top adviser Stephen Miller was found to hold $100,000 to $250,000 in stock in Palantir, the data firm that won a $30 million no-bid ICE contract to build an immigration tracking platform.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Kristi Noem | Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) | Toured the new high-tech hub for monitoring immigrants at Palantir with company executives before ICE awarded the firm a $30 million contract without competition. |
| Karoline Leavitt | White House Press Secretary | Told POGO by email that senior White House staff had completed required ethics briefings and financial reporting obligations, saying the administration is committed to transparency. |
| Stephen Miller | White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Advisor | Was revealed by his public financial disclosure to own $100,001 to $250,000 in Palantir stock, and confirmed to White House ethics officials that he would continue to recuse himself from matters that could affect those stocks. |
The Weaponization of the Insurrection Act
Opportunity Score: 92 Controversy: LOW Event ID: 92
Trump signed a day-one proclamation declaring a national emergency at the southern border that directed the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security to report within 90 days on border conditions, including whether to invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Kristi Noem | Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) | As Secretary of Homeland Security, she was named in the day-one border emergency proclamation to obtain complete operational control of the southern border with the support of units of the Armed Forces and the National Guard, and to submit a joint 90-day report on whether to invoke the Insurrection Act. |
| Pete Hegseth | Secretary of Defense | As Secretary of Defense, he was named in the day-one border emergency proclamation to order units of the Armed Forces and the National Guard deployed to support Homeland Security in obtaining complete operational control of the southern border, and to submit a joint 90-day report on whether to invoke the Insurrection Act. |
| Stephen Miller | White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Advisor | As the architect of the administration’s hardline immigration agenda, he set the day-one border emergency in motion. |
Gaza Takeover Proposal
Opportunity Score: 85 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 70
On 4 February 2025, Donald Trump announced that the United States would take over and own the Gaza Strip, levelling and redeveloping it into the ‘Riviera of the Middle East’ while relocating its roughly two million Palestinians to neighboring lands.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Marco Rubio | Secretary of State | Defended the proposal as aid rather than seizure, insisting Trump’s position ‘was not meant as a hostile move’ and that the United States was offering to help with debris and munitions removal and reconstruction so people could move back in. |
| Karoline Leavitt | White House Press Secretary | Defended the plan by refusing to rule out sending American troops into Gaza, saying Trump ‘wants to preserve that leverage in negotiations’. |
| Steven Witkoff | Special Envoy | Backed the transfer of Palestinians out of Gaza, saying ‘a better life isn’t necessary tied to physical space that you’re in’. |
| Jared Kushner | Special Envoy for Peace Missions | Advocated the redevelopment-and-removal concept, praising the ‘very valuable’ potential of Gaza’s ‘waterfront property’ and suggesting Israel should remove civilians while it ‘cleans up’ the strip. |
The Commander-at-Large Elevation
Opportunity Score: 84 Controversy: LOW Event ID: 125
The Homeland Security Secretary named Border Patrol officer Gregory Bovino ‘commander at large’ in an op-ed, and with special government employee Corey Lewandowski he compiled the list of ICE field office directors slated for removal as the administration shifted its deportation crackdown to the Border Patrol.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Kristi Noem | Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) | In an op-ed, she named Bovino the ‘commander at large’ of the Border Patrol, a rank with no statutory basis, under which he operated outside the command structure reporting directly to her. |
| Gregory Bovino | Commander-at-large, U.S. Border Patrol (CBP) | Named ‘commander at large’ in the Secretary’s op-ed, he operated outside the Border Patrol command structure reporting directly to Noem and compiled the list of ICE field office directors with Lewandowski. |
| Corey Lewandowski | Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Homeland Security | As a special government employee advising the Homeland Security Secretary, he compiled the list of ICE field office directors slated for removal with Bovino. |
The Judge Ellis Use-of-Force Fight
Opportunity Score: 84 Controversy: HIGH Event ID: 127
A federal judge in Chicago extended the order restricting tear gas and pepper balls in the mass deportation operation, finding that Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino had lied under oath about the threats posed by protesters and reporters.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Kristi Noem | Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) | Defended the ‘targeted’ character of the Chicago operations publicly, a characterization the leaked Bovino email contradicted. |
| Gregory Bovino | Commander-at-large, U.S. Border Patrol (CBP) | Testified before Judge Ellis on the handling of detainees, protesters, and reporters, was found to have lied under oath about threats, and was ordered to appear before her daily. |
| Corey Lewandowski | Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Homeland Security | Was the official the leaked September 2025 email said Bovino reported directly to, rather than the acting ICE director, during the operation. |
The Killing of Silverio Villegas González
Opportunity Score: 84 Controversy: HIGH Event ID: 143
During Operation Midway Blitz, an ICE agent shot and killed Silverio Villegas González, a line cook with no criminal record, as he tried to flee a traffic stop in the Chicago suburb of Franklin Park, and the Department of Homeland Security’s claim that he had seriously injured an agent was contradicted by bodycam footage in which the agent described his injuries as ‘nothing major.’
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Kristi Noem | Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) | Pressed at a March 2026 House Judiciary Committee hearing to respond under oath whether she still stood by the claim that the ICE agent who killed Villegas González sustained ‘severe injuries,’ she said she didn’t know anything about the case. |
| Gregory Bovino | Commander-at-large, U.S. Border Patrol (CBP) | Commanded the Border Patrol agents of the Operation Midway Blitz enforcement campaign during which Villegas González was killed, in the ‘commander at large’ role the Homeland Security Secretary’s op-ed gave him, and was named a defendant with her in the Illinois lawsuit challenging the operation. |
| Corey Lewandowski | Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Homeland Security | Was the official the Border Patrol commander said in an email to Homeland Security leadership that he reported to, correcting the acting ICE director who said he was in charge of the Chicago operation in which the killing occurred. |
The Broadview Six
Opportunity Score: 84 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 201
Six protesters, including congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh, were indicted in October 2025 for impeding a federal agent during a September 26, 2025 protest outside the Broadview ICE facility in Chicago’s northwest suburbs, and the U.S. Attorney dropped all the charges in May 2026 after a federal judge discovered apparent misconduct by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sheri Mecklenburg and raised the specter of a Justice Department ‘cover-up’.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Kristi Noem | Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) | Visited the Broadview facility with cameras on October 3, 2025, while protesters were detained, and her department later posted a promotional video featuring a handcuffed protester. |
| Gregory Bovino | Commander-at-large, U.S. Border Patrol (CBP) | Was at the Broadview facility with cameras alongside the Homeland Security Secretary on October 3, 2025, while protesters were detained, and the grand jury sought his testimony over a struggle with a protester that prosecutors said left him with a strained groin muscle. |
| Todd Blanche | Deputy Attorney General | Posted as acting attorney general that the Justice Department ‘fully supports U.S. Attorney Boutros,’ defending the office that brought the charges as calls for his resignation mounted and the former defendants sought evidence of White House pressure behind the indictment. |
Birthright Citizenship Stand-Off
Opportunity Score: 83 Controversy: HIGH Event ID: 73
A sweeping executive action trying to end birthright citizenship provoked a historic constitutional crisis and massive legal challenges.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Pam Bondi | Attorney General | At a press conference celebrating the Supreme Court’s lifting of the nationwide injunctions, was asked who would be tasked with vetting citizenship under the new rules but failed to clarify. |
| Karoline Leavitt | White House Press Secretary | In her first White House press briefing, defended the executive order despite legal challenges from 22 state attorneys general, declaring that ‘this administration believes that birthright citizenship is unconstitutional’ and vowing to take the fight to the Supreme Court. |
| Stephen Miller | White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Advisor | As the architect of the administration’s immigration policy, briefed House and Senate GOP leadership on the executive orders the incoming administration planned to issue in the coming days, which covered immigration, energy policy, and overhauling federal government operations. |
| Sarah M. Harris | Acting Solicitor General of the United States | As Acting Solicitor General, filed the government’s emergency applications to the Supreme Court seeking to partially block the nationwide injunctions, writing that such orders ‘transgress constitutional limits on courts’ powers’. |
The Unaccompanied Minors Separation Revival
Opportunity Score: 82 Controversy: HIGH Event ID: 81
The administration revived family separation by misclassifying children as unaccompanied minors, and new DNA-test and other custody requirements kept thousands of children away from their relatives.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Kristi Noem | Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) | At a March 2026 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, she claimed that her department and HHS had ‘located over 145,000’ of the unaccompanied children she said went missing under the Biden administration. |
| Stephen Miller | White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Advisor | As the architect of the administration’s hardline immigration agenda, he set the missing-children DNA-verification push in motion. |
| Tom Homan | White House Border Czar | He claimed on Fox & Friends that the administration had ‘rescued’ more than 62,000 migrant children from sex trafficking and forced labor after the previous administration ‘lost track of 300,000’. |
The Mark Kelly Probe
Opportunity Score: 79 Controversy: HIGH Event ID: 173
Six Democratic lawmakers, including Senator Mark Kelly, urged the military in a video to refuse ‘illegal orders’; Trump threatened the group with the death penalty, the White House defended it before clarifying the president did not want the lawmakers executed, and the Secretary of Defense had the Navy review Kelly for ‘potentially unlawful conduct’ that escalated into a formal investigation, a censure, and a bid to cut his pension, but a grand jury declined to indict the lawmakers and a federal judge blocked the action against Kelly.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Pam Bondi | Attorney General | Her Justice Department sought indictments of the six lawmakers over the video, even though in a 2024 Supreme Court brief as a private lawyer she had written that ‘Military officers are required not to carry out unlawful orders’ and ‘It would be a crime to do so.’ |
| Karoline Leavitt | White House Press Secretary | At a White House press briefing, defended the president’s response to the video, saying the lawmakers ‘knew exactly what they were doing’ and were ‘encouraging’ troops ‘to defy the president’s lawful orders,’ while clarifying the president did not want them executed. |
| Pete Hegseth | Secretary of Defense | Called the video ‘despicable, reckless, and false,’ ordered a Navy review of Kelly for ‘potentially unlawful conduct’ to be completed by December 10, and moved to censure Kelly and reduce his retired grade. |
The Abrego Garcia Detention
Opportunity Score: 77 Controversy: HIGH Event ID: 123
The administration defied a federal judge’s order and left Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man claiming U.S. citizenship, detained in El Salvador’s CECOT prison for months after President Bukele refused to send him back.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Kristi Noem | Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) | As the named defendant in the return suit, told senators on May 8, 2025, that Abrego Garcia ‘should never have been in this country and will not be coming back to this country’ and that ‘If he were to come back, we would immediately deport him again.’ |
| Todd Blanche | Deputy Attorney General | Dismissed Erez Reuveni, the acting deputy director of the Office of Immigration Litigation, for conceding in court that Garcia should not have been deported. |
| Tom Homan | White House Border Czar | Defended the detention in an April 2025 Axios interview, arguing that ‘people who are enemies of the United States do not have the same level of due process.’ |
The Qatari Jet Acceptance
Opportunity Score: 76 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 2
President Trump accepted a $400 million Boeing 747 aircraft from the Qatari government for use as a presidential transport, and a legal memorandum declared the foreign gift ‘legally permissible’ on the condition that the plane be transferred to the Trump presidential library foundation, drawing a lawsuit and Rep. Ritchie Torres’s charge that the deal was a ‘flying grift’ violating the constitution’s emoluments clause.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Pam Bondi | Attorney General | Reportedly wrote the legal memorandum declaring the gift ‘legally permissible’ on the condition that the plane be transferred to the Trump presidential library foundation before Trump left office. |
| Pete Hegseth | Secretary of Defense | Formally accepted the plane for the United States on May 21, 2025, and instructed the Pentagon to modify it for use as a presidential transport. |
| Steven Witkoff | Special Envoy | Was tasked by Trump with finding a list of viable replacement planes and helped facilitate the initial conversations with Qatar about the aircraft. |
| David Warrington | White House Counsel | Concluded with Attorney General Bondi that the aircraft gift would be ‘legally permissible’ if transferred to the Trump presidential library foundation by the end of the term, and requested the legal advice that produced the memorandum. |
The Gaza Peace Plan
Opportunity Score: 76 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 180
On Sep 29 2025, the president and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a comprehensive plan to end the Gaza war, pairing hostage releases and demilitarization with a technocratic Palestinian committee under international supervision. The president declared the war over as the first phase took effect, and the administration called the truce a success while Hamas was excluded from the talks and strikes killed more than 300 Palestinians. A year later, the second phase remained stalled as Hamas rejected the disarmament plan.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Marco Rubio | Secretary of State | Warned that Israeli annexation of the West Bank would threaten the president’s plan to end the conflict in Gaza, and criticized the Knesset’s move towards annexation. |
| Steven Witkoff | Special Envoy | Led the president’s side of the plan’s negotiations, flying to Cairo with Jared Kushner for talks on the deal and later dispatched to Israel to shore up the ceasefire. |
| JD Vance | Vice President of the United States | Criticized the Knesset’s preliminary annexation vote as a ‘very stupid political stunt’ at the end of his trip to Israel, where U.S. officials were shoring up the ceasefire. |
| Jared Kushner | Special Envoy for Peace Missions | Traveled to Cairo with the special envoy for talks on the deal and was dispatched to Israel to shore up the ceasefire in the same month. |
The Liberation Day Tariff Reversal
Opportunity Score: 72 Controversy: LOW Event ID: 130
Days after the April 2 Liberation Day tariffs sank markets and a bogus report of an imminent pause sparked a rebound, Trump paused the reciprocal tariffs on most countries for 90 days on April 9, and the bipartisan Senate effort to revoke the tariffs failed on April 30 on Vice President Vance’s tie-breaking vote.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Karoline Leavitt | White House Press Secretary | Denied the bogus report of an immediate tariff pause, then told the media that ‘Clearly you missed the art of the deal’ as the White House spun the 90-day pause as a negotiating strategy. |
| Howard Lutnick | Secretary of Commerce | Rushed to raise concerns about the bond market sell-off to Trump, helping convince him to pause the reciprocal tariffs, and co-wrote the pause post that Trump said was ‘written from the heart’. |
| JD Vance | Vice President of the United States | Cast the tie-breaking Senate vote on April 30 that killed the bipartisan resolution to revoke the emergency order behind the global tariffs, blocking the cross-party effort to rebuke the administration’s trade policy. |
| Scott Bessent | Secretary of the Treasury | Rushed to raise concerns about the bond market sell-off that helped convince Trump to pause the tariffs, then told reporters that Trump had ‘created maximum negotiating leverage’ and wanted to be ‘personally involved’ in the negotiations. |
| Kevin Hassett | Director of the National Economic Council (NEC) | Called the market reaction ‘exaggerated’ and ‘completely irresponsible rhetoric’ on Fox & Friends, said more than 50 countries were in negotiation, and urged Bill Ackman to ‘ease off the rhetoric’ after a bogus report falsely quoted him as suggesting the pause. |
The Shooting of Marimar Martinez
Opportunity Score: 68 Controversy: HIGH Event ID: 144
During Operation Midway Blitz, a Border Patrol agent shot U.S. citizen Marimar Martinez five times in her vehicle in Chicago, and the Department of Justice’s felony charge that she had rammed the agent’s car was dismissed with prejudice after bodycam footage ordered released by a federal judge showed the agent turning his vehicle toward hers moments before the collision.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Kristi Noem | Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) | Tried to deflect at a March 2026 House Judiciary Committee hearing when pressed on her agency’s October 4 statement calling Martinez a ‘domestic terrorist,’ refusing to admit that DHS had lied about the case. |
| Gregory Bovino | Commander-at-large, U.S. Border Patrol (CBP) | Sent the Border Patrol agent who shot Martinez an email the day of the shooting offering to extend his retirement beyond age 57 in light of ‘your excellent service in Chicago’. |
FEMA Gutting During Crisis
Opportunity Score: 65 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 34
Kristi Noem’s structural gutting of the Federal Emergency Management Agency left disaster response capabilities heavily degraded.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Kristi Noem | Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) | Declared in March 2025 that the department would move to eliminate FEMA, and her cost controls slowed the agency’s response to the July 2025 Central Texas floods. |
| Corey Lewandowski | Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Homeland Security | Sitting at Noem’s desk, he fired acting FEMA administrator Cameron Hamilton the day after Hamilton testified against eliminating the agency, telling him he was losing his access. |
Department of Homeland Security Pay-to-Play
Opportunity Score: 65 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 41
A key political adviser in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) sought pay-to-play fees from private contractors to profit personally, and administration members would later face accusations over the shakedowns in 2026.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Kristi Noem | Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) | At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, she denied that her top aide Corey Lewandowski had any role in approving DHS contracts, a claim internal records contradicted. |
| Corey Lewandowski | Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Homeland Security | As a special government employee advising the Homeland Security Secretary, he sought to personally profit from the contracting process by asking contractors including the GEO Group and Salus Worldwide Solutions for pay-to-play payments, which he denies. |
The USAID Shutdown
Opportunity Score: 65 Controversy: HIGH Event ID: 107
The administration shut down the US Agency for International Development on an accelerated basis, and a federal judge ruled the shutdown likely unconstitutional, finding that the head of the Department of Government Efficiency acted as its de facto leader.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Marco Rubio | Secretary of State | As acting administrator of USAID, he announced that 83% of the agency’s programs, roughly 5,200 contracts, had been canceled after a six-week review. |
| Elon Musk | Head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE); CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and X | A federal judge found that, contrary to the administration’s claim that he had acted only as an advisor, he made the decisions to shut down the agency’s headquarters and website even though he lacked the authority to do so. |
The Delaney Hall Arrest
Opportunity Score: 65 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 160
After a May 2025 confrontation at the newly reopened Delaney Hall immigration detention center in Newark, federal immigration officers arrested Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and the Department of Justice charged Representative LaMonica McIver with assaulting and impeding law enforcement. The charges against the mayor were later dropped and a federal judge called the arrest ‘hasty’ and ‘a worrying misstep’.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Kristi Noem | Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) | Accused the lawmakers of ‘committing felonies’ at the detention facility and called for them to be censured. |
| Todd Blanche | Deputy Attorney General | Ordered the arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka during the May 2025 confrontation, per bodycam audio released in a court filing, and wrote on X that assaults on federal law enforcement would not be tolerated. |
The Epstein Files Memo
Opportunity Score: 62 Controversy: HIGH Event ID: 159
The Justice Department released an FBI memo concluding that no ‘client list’ existed in the Epstein files and that Jeffrey Epstein’s death was a suicide, and criticism mounted over the department’s handling of the Epstein files, erupting into an open dispute between the Attorney General and the FBI’s leadership.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Pam Bondi | Attorney General | Released the Epstein memo as attorney general and defended the department’s handling as MAGA backlash mounted and the FBI’s leadership erupted in an open dispute with her. |
| Todd Blanche | Deputy Attorney General | Signed the Epstein memo alongside FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino and denied a rift between the Justice Department and the FBI’s leadership in a post on X, calling any daylight over the memo’s composition and release ‘patently false.’ |
| Kash Patel | Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) | Was confronted alongside Deputy Director Dan Bongino at a White House meeting over whether the FBI was behind a story that it had wanted more Epstein documents released but was stymied by the Justice Department. |
| Dan Bongino | Deputy Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) | Was confronted at a White House meeting over the Epstein memo, denied leaking a story that the FBI had been stymied by the Justice Department, and told people he was considering resigning over the fallout. |
The Iran Strikes
Opportunity Score: 62 Controversy: HIGH Event ID: 167
The US struck Iran’s three nuclear facilities in a surprise overnight air campaign as Israel’s 12-day war on Iran raged, and the administration’s claim that the strikes obliterated the nuclear program collided with a leaked defense assessment and congressional doubts over their legality before a ceasefire ended the fighting.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Marco Rubio | Secretary of State | Helped brief Congress on the strikes and publicly fleshed out the administration’s case that Iran’s nuclear capacity had been eliminated. |
| Pete Hegseth | Secretary of Defense | Defended the strikes from the NATO summit, claiming Iran’s nuclear program was obliterated and that assessing the Fordow damage would require getting a big shovel and going really deep. |
| John Ratcliffe | Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) | Released a CIA statement that a body of credible intelligence indicated Iran’s nuclear program had been severely damaged by the targeted strikes. |
| Tulsi Gabbard | Director of National Intelligence (DNI) | Posted on X that new intelligence confirmed the strikes destroyed Iran’s nuclear facilities and that rebuilding all three sites would take years. |
The Abandonment of the WHO
Opportunity Score: 60 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 78
The administration formally ceased all funding and data-sharing with the World Health Organization during a localized avian flu spike.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Marco Rubio | Secretary of State | Co-issued the formal exit statement with Kennedy. The U.S. Department of State was responsible for delivering the formal notifications to the United Nations and managing the diplomatic fallout, including refusing to pay the $278 million in outstanding membership dues demanded by the UN. |
| Robert F. Kennedy Jr. | Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) | Co-issued the final joint statement announcing the exit. His agency oversaw the immediate cessation of all U.S. government funding to the WHO and spearheaded the recall of U.S. medical personnel and contractors from WHO facilities. |
The Putin Phone Call Mystery
Opportunity Score: 59 Controversy: LOW Event ID: 71
A 90-minute February phone call between Trump and Putin, the first direct contact between the leaders since the invasion of Ukraine, was made without advance notice, catching European allies off guard.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Marco Rubio | Secretary of State | As secretary of state, he was named to the US negotiating team that would open talks with Russia. |
| Steven Witkoff | Special Envoy | As the special envoy to the Middle East, he traveled to Russia for the prisoner exchange and was named to lead the US negotiations with Russia. |
| John Ratcliffe | Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) | As director of the CIA, he was named to the US negotiating team that would open talks with Russia. |
| Michael Waltz | National Security Advisor | As national security adviser, he said the US and Russia negotiated the prisoner exchange, and was named to the US negotiating team. |
The Embrace of Cancel Culture
Opportunity Score: 57 Controversy: HIGH Event ID: 145
In the wake of the assassination of Charlie Kirk, MAGA Republicans embraced cancel culture, pressuring companies and organizations to punish Kirk’s detractors, as the FCC chair’s threats led ABC to pull ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ indefinitely over the host’s comments about the Charlie Kirk murder suspect, with Trump suggesting that networks he deemed unfriendly ‘maybe’ lose their licenses.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Pam Bondi | Attorney General | Said the Justice Department would ‘absolutely target’ anyone who engages in ‘hate speech,’ then clarified the next day to threats of violence only, drawing criticism across the political spectrum. |
| JD Vance | Vice President of the United States | On the Charlie Kirk podcast, told listeners to ‘call them out, and hell, call their employer’ when they see anyone celebrating Kirk’s murder, a reversal from his role as one of the administration’s loudest defenders of free speech. |
| Brendan Carr | Chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) | Accused Kimmel of ‘the sickest conduct possible,’ said ABC could ‘take action’ or face ‘additional work for the FCC,’ told Fox that broadcasters who did not like the new accountability could ‘turn their licence in,’ and praised Nexstar for pulling the show. |
The Golden Dome Announcement
Opportunity Score: 56 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 174
Trump unveiled a $175 billion ‘Golden Dome’ missile shield with no technical details or deployment plan, and the scramble to make it real drew immediate dispute: the CBO estimated the cost at up to $542 billion, the Pentagon office that would have overseen its testing was gutted, and 42 members of Congress asked the inspector general to review Elon Musk’s involvement in the program.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Elon Musk | Head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE); CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and X | His company was reported to be the frontrunner to win a crucial part of the shield contract, and 42 members of Congress asked the inspector general to review the award process for his involvement, citing his government roles and a reported subscription model that would give SpaceX ongoing control over the system and leverage over national security. |
| Pete Hegseth | Secretary of Defense | Gutted the Pentagon office that had said it would oversee testing of the shield, cutting it from more than 100 staff to 30 and withdrawing its contractors, which the Senate Armed Services ranking member said was driven by Hegseth’s opposition to the office’s legally required oversight. |
The RIF and Reorganization Plans
Opportunity Score: 55 Controversy: LOW Event ID: 106
An executive order directed agencies to reduce in force all offices performing functions not mandated by statute, and OPM and OMB required every agency to file a reorganization plan as DOGE members automated the layoff process.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Elon Musk | Head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE); CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and X | NPR documented the emerging playbook in which agencies carried out directives coming from OPM and championed by Musk, and it placed the reduction-in-force process and the March 13 reorganization plans of this order in the next phase of the targeting of federal employees. |
| Russell Vought | Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) | As OMB Director, he and the acting OPM director issued the February 26, 2025 guidance directing agencies to submit their reduction-in-force and reorganization plans by March 13, focused on functions not required by statute. |
| Charles Ezell | Acting Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) | As acting OPM director, he co-signed the February 26, 2025 OMB-OPM guidance instructing agencies to file their Phase 1 reduction-in-force and reorganization plans with OMB and OPM by March 13. |
| Riccardo Biasini | Senior Adviser to the Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM); Member of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) | He was tasked with pruning AutoRIF, the software that automates the reduction-in-force process, in the OPM enterprise GitHub repository, with his name attached to the project. |
The Mexico Tariff Brinkmanship
Opportunity Score: 54 Controversy: LOW Event ID: 76
Trump threatened 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico over fentanyl and border security, and Ottawa and Mexico City’s preparation of retaliatory duties set the two countries on the brink of a trade war.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Marco Rubio | Secretary of State | Met with Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly in Washington on January 29, 2025, to discuss secure borders and energy security amid the threatened U.S. tariffs. |
| Howard Lutnick | Secretary of Commerce | At his Senate confirmation hearing, said the threatened tariffs on Canada and Mexico were ‘an action of domestic policy’ meant to force both countries to shut their borders to fentanyl. |
| Kevin Hassett | Director of the National Economic Council (NEC) | On ABC’s This Week, defended the fentanyl tariffs, saying ‘We launched a drug war, not a trade war’ and that they were ‘part of a negotiation’ with Canada and Mexico over fentanyl. |
| Peter Navarro | Senior Counselor to the President for Trade and Manufacturing | As the president’s trade attack dog, saw his unyielding crusade for tariffs put to the test as the new trade war over Canada and Mexico got underway. |
The MAHA Report
Opportunity Score: 54 Controversy: HIGH Event ID: 162
The Health and Human Services Secretary’s commission released a report blaming diet, vaccinations, and prescriptions for childhood chronic disease, a fact-checker found it cited studies that do not exist, the White House called the errors ‘formatting issues,’ and the updated report added new errors.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Robert F. Kennedy Jr. | Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) | Chaired the commission that released the childhood chronic disease report blaming diet, vaccinations, and prescriptions, which a fact-checker found cited studies that do not exist, and the report’s updates added new errors. |
| Karoline Leavitt | White House Press Secretary | Claimed there were ‘some formatting issues’ with the report, defending it after a fact-checker found it cited studies that do not exist. |
The Tom Homan FBI Freeze
Opportunity Score: 52 Controversy: LOW Event ID: 25
The administration ordered the FBI to shut down an ongoing internal investigation into border official Tom Homan.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Karoline Leavitt | White House Press Secretary | Defended Homan at a White House press briefing after the probe closed, saying the FBI operation was an example of the Biden administration’s weaponization of the bureau against one of the president’s top allies and supporters. |
| Todd Blanche | Deputy Attorney General | Co-issued with FBI Director Kash Patel the statement announcing the closure of the DOJ investigation into Homan, saying the department’s resources must remain focused on real threats to the American people, not baseless investigations. |
| Kash Patel | Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) | Co-issued with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche the statement announcing the closure of the FBI bribery investigation into Homan, stating the probe found no credible evidence of any criminal wrongdoing. |
The TikTok Divestment Reversal
Opportunity Score: 52 Controversy: LOW Event ID: 88
The administration halted enforcement of the TikTok divestment deadline on its first day in office, and the Justice Department shielded the tech companies that support TikTok from the ban’s penalties.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Pam Bondi | Attorney General | Sent letters to 10 tech companies, including Apple and Google, telling them they had incurred no liability for supporting TikTok while the divestment deadline was suspended. |
| JD Vance | Vice President of the United States | Was announced in early February as being in charge of negotiating a potential sale of TikTok while the administration suspended the divestment deadline. |
| Michael Waltz | National Security Advisor | Backed the 75-day delay of the TikTok ban as national security advisor, and was announced in early February as being in charge, with Vice President JD Vance, of negotiating a potential TikTok sale. |
Mass DOJ Resignations
Opportunity Score: 51 Controversy: HIGH Event ID: 17
Career Department of Justice prosecutors resigned en masse after the administration ordered the federal corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams dropped.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Pam Bondi | Attorney General | As Attorney General, she authorized the order to drop the Eric Adams corruption case and publicly defended the dismissal as a protection against weaponization of the Justice Department. |
| Todd Blanche | Deputy Attorney General | Was shown by a draft letter from the interim U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York to have been on the same page about dismissing the corruption case, despite claiming no knowledge of the plan. |
| Emil Bove | Acting Deputy Attorney General | Issued the February 10, 2025 memo directing federal prosecutors to dismiss the pending corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, and led the pressure campaign that ended in a mass resignation of career prosecutors. |
The Fork in the Road Buyout Offer
Opportunity Score: 49 Controversy: HIGH Event ID: 105
The Office of Personnel Management emailed nearly all federal employees a ‘Fork in the Road’ offer to defer resignation with full pay, using an email address that DOGE created on OPM systems and a subject line from Elon Musk’s 2022 Twitter offer, and materials later viewed by WIRED showed the workers’ responses to the offer had been reviewed and classified with Meta’s Llama 2 model to determine how many accepted.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Elon Musk | Head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE); CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and X | NPR documented the OPM purge directives that agencies were carrying out, including this offer, as coming from OPM and championed by Musk. |
| Charles Ezell | Acting Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) | As acting OPM director, he was named in his official capacity as the defendant in the federal-employee union lawsuit challenging the deferred-resignation offer. |
| Riccardo Biasini | Senior Adviser to the Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM); Member of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) | He was involved in building the infrastructure for the government-wide email service that sent out the original ‘Fork in the Road’ email whose worker responses the Llama 2 model reviewed and classified, according to material viewed by WIRED and reviewed by two government tech workers. |
The Deportation of the Purple Heart Veteran
Opportunity Score: 49 Controversy: HIGH Event ID: 198
DHS ordered the deportation of Sae Joon Park, a Purple Heart Army veteran and green-card holder who had lived in the United States since age seven, and he self-deported to South Korea; at a December 2025 House committee hearing Kristi Noem told the committee that DHS had not deported any veterans, before an aide showed the veteran on a Zoom call.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Kristi Noem | Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) | Told a December 2025 House committee that DHS had not deported any U.S. citizens or military veterans, before an aide held up a tablet showing the deported Purple Heart veteran Sae Joon Park on a Zoom call. |
The TPS Rescissions
Opportunity Score: 49 Controversy: HIGH Event ID: 200
The administration ended temporary protected status for hundreds of thousands of people from Venezuela, Haiti, Honduras, and Nicaragua. The rescissions drew federal lawsuits arguing they were arbitrary and capricious, in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act. In June of the following year, the Supreme Court ruled that TPS rescissions are not subject to judicial review.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Kristi Noem | Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) | As Secretary of Homeland Security, issued the February 5, 2025 notice terminating the 2023 TPS designation for Venezuelan nationals and abruptly ending the Haitian extension, the rescissions challenged by the National TPS Alliance in federal court. |
Foreign Bribery Rule Rollbacks
Opportunity Score: 48 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 53
An executive order paused enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the U.S. law banning bribery of foreign officials, and the Justice Department resumed it in June 2025 under scaled-back guidelines.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Pam Bondi | Attorney General | Was directed by the February 10, 2025 executive order to cease initiating new FCPA investigations, review all existing cases, issue revised enforcement guidelines, and authorize every future enforcement action. |
| Todd Blanche | Deputy Attorney General | Argued in a June 2025 statement that the Justice Department under Attorney General Merrick Garland had excessively prosecuted foreign bribery cases and that the department would shift from prosecuting bribery cases overseas to conduct that harmed the United States ability to compete abroad. |
The Zelensky Oval Office Confrontation
Opportunity Score: 47 Controversy: LOW Event ID: 77
The February 28, 2025 Oval Office meeting between Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy erupted into a public confrontation that preceded the administration’s suspension of military aid to Ukraine.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Marco Rubio | Secretary of State | As Secretary of State, he sat in the Oval Office during the confrontation and then defended it in a public tweet thanking the President for ‘standing up for America’ and ‘putting America First.’ |
| JD Vance | Vice President of the United States | Chastised Zelenskyy during the February 28, 2025 Oval Office meeting, the public confrontation that preceded the administration’s suspension of military aid to Ukraine. |
Targeting of Letitia James
Opportunity Score: 46 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 21
The Justice Department opened an investigation and issued subpoenas targeting New York Attorney General Letitia James, who had previously won a civil fraud case against Trump.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Pam Bondi | Attorney General | Appointed Ed Martin as the special prosecutor in the Letitia James case. |
| Bill Pulte | Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) | Sent the April 2025 criminal referral to the Justice Department alleging that Letitia James falsified mortgage records on two properties to obtain favorable loan terms. |
| Ed Martin | U.S. Pardon Attorney and Director of the Weaponization Working Group | As the special prosecutor in the case, he demanded Letitia James’s resignation in writing and posed for photos outside her Brooklyn home, declaring he would ‘stick the landing.’ |
| Lindsey Halligan | Interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia | As the interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia hand-picked by Trump after Erik Siebert’s ouster, she secured the indictment of Letitia James without coordinating with the Justice Department and was the only signatory on it. |
Corporate Transparency Act Freeze
Opportunity Score: 46 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 52
The administration halted all active enforcement of the Corporate Transparency Act, severely weakening measures designed to expose illicit shell companies.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Elon Musk | Head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE); CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and X | Musk, then head of DOGE, posted that he would ‘look into’ the reporting requirement one day before Treasury halted enforcement, and lawmakers later probed his possible role, citing his network of secretive companies that would have been covered by the law. |
| Scott Bessent | Secretary of the Treasury | As Treasury Secretary, he announced the halt of all CTA enforcement, calling it part of Trump’s agenda to rein in burdensome regulations. |
The Two-Day Reign of the Hunter Biden Auditor
Opportunity Score: 46 Controversy: LOW Event ID: 111
Trump named the Hunter Biden auditor Gary Shapley acting IRS commissioner to succeed the commissioner who had resigned over the ICE data-sharing deal, and replaced him three days later as the appointment became a flashpoint in the struggle for control of the IRS between the Treasury Secretary and Elon Musk.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Elon Musk | Head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE); CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and X | He sought to install the Hunter Biden auditor as acting IRS commissioner behind the Treasury Secretary’s back, and the pick was replaced three days later. |
| Scott Bessent | Secretary of the Treasury | As Treasury Secretary, he objected to the acting commissioner pick that was installed behind his back, and the president replaced the pick three days later. |
The ADL-SPLC Severance
Opportunity Score: 45 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 196
After Elon Musk and other prominent conservatives denounced the Anti-Defamation League for listing Turning Point USA in its extremism glossary, the FBI Director severed the bureau’s partnership with the ADL, calling it a political front masquerading as a watchdog, and, two days later, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the ADL announced it would retire its glossary.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Elon Musk | Head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE); CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and X | Posted a video denouncing the Anti-Defamation League as a hate group, sparking the conservative backlash over its listing of Turning Point USA that prompted the FBI’s severance. |
| Kash Patel | Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) | Severed the FBI’s partnership with the Anti-Defamation League, calling it a political front masquerading as a watchdog, and, two days later, the Southern Poverty Law Center, calling it a partisan smear machine, after a conservative backlash over the ADL’s listing of Turning Point USA. |
The Mass Email Server Privacy Assessment
Opportunity Score: 44 Controversy: HIGH Event ID: 113
Members of the administration’s DOGE connected an email server to OPM’s network to send mass emails, including the ‘Fork in the Road’ offer, to the entire federal workforce without a legally sufficient privacy impact assessment, and after federal employees sued, OPM issued the assessment naming a Boring Company engineer as its contact point and argued the case was moot.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Elon Musk | Head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE); CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and X | The original federal-employee complaint alleged that OPM set up the email server at his orders as the special government employee running the administration’s Department of Government Efficiency. |
| Riccardo Biasini | Senior Adviser to the Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM); Member of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) | He was identified as the Contact Point on the February 5, 2025 privacy impact assessment for the government-wide email system, and the amended complaint alleged he was a special government employee who had not been an OPM employee before January 20, 2025. |
| Greg Hogan | Chief Information Officer of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) | As OPM’s Chief Information Officer, he was the Reviewing Official on the February 5, 2025 privacy impact assessment for the government-wide email system, and the amended complaint alleged he was a special government employee who had not been an OPM employee before January 20, 2025. |
The Liberation Day Stock Sale
Opportunity Score: 44 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 158
Cabinet officials made well-timed stock sales in the run-up to Trump’s April 2, 2025 Liberation Day tariffs, with the attorney general selling her Trump Media stake on the announcement day itself, as the market plunged and a top Judiciary Democrat called for an insider-trading investigation that was never opened.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Pam Bondi | Attorney General | Sold at least $1 million in Trump Media (Truth Social) shares on April 2, 2025, the day Trump announced sweeping tariffs, a day before the stock fell more than 10 percent. |
| Sean P. Duffy | Secretary of Transportation | Sold stock in almost three dozen companies on February 11, 2025, two days before Trump announced plans for reciprocal tariffs, near the market’s historic peak. |
The Smith and Arctic Frost Retaliation
Opportunity Score: 43 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 30
The attorney general ordered a review of the cases Jack Smith brought against Trump, including the Arctic Frost probe into efforts to overturn the 2020 election. When Senator Grassley revealed that FBI agents had obtained the phone records of Republican senators, the attorney general called the probe an undemocratic abuse of power and the FBI fired the agents, which the FBI Agents Association criticized as erratic and arbitrary retribution. Meanwhile, many legal experts called the probe entirely transparent, proper and lawful.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Pam Bondi | Attorney General | Ordered a ‘Weaponization Working Group’ review of the prosecutions of Trump brought by special counsel Jack Smith in her first hours as attorney general, and testified that Operation Arctic Frost was an unconstitutional, undemocratic abuse of power. |
| Kash Patel | Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) | Posted that the Arctic Frost agents tracked the communications of GOP senators and weaponized law enforcement against the American people, and announced the firings of the agents involved in the probe, followed by further firings, brief reinstatements, and re-firings of agents tied to the investigations. |
The EchoStar Spectrum Probe
Opportunity Score: 43 Controversy: HIGH Event ID: 147
The FCC opened an investigation into whether EchoStar met its 5G deployment requirements for its spectrum licenses after a complaint from SpaceX, the company of the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, driving the company to halt interest payments on its debt as it pursued a new satellite.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Elon Musk | Head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE); CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and X | His company SpaceX complained to the FCC that EchoStar was not fully utilizing its spectrum, prompting Carr to open the investigation. |
| Brendan Carr | Chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) | As chair, opened the FCC’s investigation into whether EchoStar met its 5G deployment requirements for keeping its spectrum licenses while rival SpaceX vied for the same band, an inquiry that drove the company to halt interest payments on its debt. |
D.C. Hotel Repurchase Talks
Opportunity Score: 42 Controversy: LOW Event ID: 9
Trump’s property company engaged in talks to repurchase the leasing rights to the family’s former downtown Washington hotel after its buyer defaulted on a $285 million loan and lost the rights in foreclosure, a deal critics cast as the president selling himself back his own hotel in defiance of the constitution’s emoluments clauses, while his attorney general had consulted for the firm that took the hotel over and was still owed it $1 million in 2025 consulting fees.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Pam Bondi | Attorney General | Consulted for CGI Merchant Group, the firm that bought the hotel’s leasing rights before defaulting on its loan, and was still owed $1 million in consulting fees by the company in 2025, according to her Senate Judiciary Committee questionnaire. |
| Eric Trump | Executive Vice President of The Trump Organization | Led The Trump Organization’s talks to buy back the leasing rights to the family’s former downtown Washington hotel, the Waldorf Astoria, as his father prepared to take office. |
The Lisa Cook Targeting
Opportunity Score: 42 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 85
Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook faced a Justice Department criminal investigation over alleged mortgage fraud that became the basis for President Trump’s attempt to fire her from the Federal Reserve board, an attempt the Supreme Court would rule unconstitutional the following year.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Pam Bondi | Attorney General | Received Pulte’s criminal referral against Lisa Cook, and her Justice Department opened the criminal investigation into Cook, issuing subpoenas and convening grand juries in Georgia and Michigan. |
| Bill Pulte | Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) | Sent the Justice Department two criminal referral letters accusing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook of mortgage fraud, launching the probe that became the basis for President Trump’s effort to fire her. |
| Ed Martin | U.S. Pardon Attorney and Director of the Weaponization Working Group | As the Justice Department’s designated mortgage-fraud prosecutor, he co-received Pulte’s criminal referral and sent a letter to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell urging him to fire Lisa Cook. |
The Probationary Employee Mass Firings
Opportunity Score: 42 Controversy: HIGH Event ID: 103
After the Department of Government Efficiency identified probationary employees as the easiest to fire, the Office of Personnel Management directed federal agencies to dismiss tens of thousands of newly hired workers without civil service protections.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Elon Musk | Head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE); CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and X | As the overseer of DOGE, he brought the private-sector tactics that NPR documented as the emerging pattern behind the administration’s five-week targeting of federal employees, which included these firings. |
| Charles Ezell | Acting Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) | Signed the February 13, 2025 directive ordering federal agencies to dismiss probationary employees, instructing them to cite inadequate performance without any evidence. |
The National Parks Drilling Blitz
Opportunity Score: 41 Controversy: LOW Event ID: 56
The interior secretary’s first orders directed a review of national monuments, including the one surrounding the Grand Canyon, for fast-tracked oil drilling and uranium mining.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Stephen Miller | White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Advisor | Described to House and Senate GOP leadership the planned energy orders - opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, opening offshore drilling, and declaring a national emergency related to energy - before the administration took office. |
| Lee Zeldin | Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) | As EPA Administrator, his office was named in the ‘Unleashing American Energy’ order and directed to issue guidance within 60 days considering eliminating the ‘social cost of carbon’ calculation from federal permitting and regulatory decisions. |
| Gary Washington | Acting Secretary of Agriculture | As acting Agriculture Secretary, his office was named in the ‘Unleashing American Energy’ order and directed to reassess public lands withdrawals for potential revision. |
| Doug Burgum | Secretary of the Interior | Signed six Secretary’s Orders on his first day in office to carry out Trump’s ‘Unleashing American Energy’ executive order, including an order addressing a declared national energy emergency. |
The India Tariff Doubling
Opportunity Score: 40 Controversy: LOW Event ID: 134
Punishing New Delhi for buying Russian oil, Trump doubled tariffs on India to 50%, and the key strategic partner warned it would ‘take all actions necessary’ in response.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Marco Rubio | Secretary of State | Defended the additional 25% tariff on India in an August 2025 Fox Business interview, explaining why China and Europe were spared while New Delhi was punished for buying Russian oil, and warning that secondary sanctions on China’s refined oil would push up global energy prices. |
| Kevin Hassett | Director of the National Economic Council (NEC) | He warned at the White House that Trump would not budge if India did not, accusing New Delhi of ‘intransigence’ as the 50% tariff took effect. |
| Peter Navarro | Senior Counselor to the President for Trade and Manufacturing | He defended the 50% tariff on CNN, calling India ‘the maharaja’ of tariffs and saying Russia-Ukraine is ‘Modi’s war.’ |
The NIH mRNA Cancellation
Opportunity Score: 38 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 118
The Health and Human Services Secretary announced the cancellation of nearly $500 million in mRNA vaccine development contracts, and the National Institutes of Health director said the platform was not viable because it had not earned public trust as vaccine experts condemned the cuts.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Robert F. Kennedy Jr. | Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) | He announced in a video that HHS, after ‘consulting top experts at NIH and FDA,’ had determined that mRNA technology ‘poses more risks than benefits’ for respiratory viruses, and canceled nearly $500 million in mRNA vaccine development contracts. |
| Jay Bhattacharya | Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) | He said on a podcast that the canceled mRNA vaccine contracts were not viable because the public does not trust the platform, and wrote that no matter how elegant the science, a platform that ‘lacks credibility’ cannot fulfill its public health mission, as experts condemned his defense. |
The Dismantling of the Education Department
Opportunity Score: 37 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 46
In early 2025, Trump issued an executive order to dismantle the Education Department as Musk’s DOGE gutted its research arm and cut nearly $1 billion, and state attorneys general sued to block the dismantling.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Elon Musk | Head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE); CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and X | As the overseer of DOGE, his team decimated the Department’s research arm, the Institute of Education Sciences, and terminated more than $900 million in contracts as the order moved to dismantle the agency. |
| Linda McMahon | Secretary of Education | Oversaw the Education Department as it was gutted by executive order and its staff fired, while stressing it would continue to administer its statutory functions. |
The Dismantling of Voice of America
Opportunity Score: 37 Controversy: HIGH Event ID: 87
The state-funded media network was purged of long-time editorial staff and refocused to broadcast pro-administration messaging internationally, and a federal judge blocked the firing of its director and the layoff of all but about 100 of its employees as the dismantling of its parent agency went to court.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Elon Musk | Head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE); CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and X | Called for the shutdown of Voice of America and Radio Free Europe on X in February 2025. |
| Kari Lake | Senior Advisor to the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) | As the special adviser to Voice of America’s parent agency, sent the notices terminating the federal grants of its sister broadcasters, contracted the pro-Trump network One America News to supply the network’s news coverage, and announced the layoff of all but about 100 of the network’s employees, which a federal judge blocked. |
The Convicted Trade Czar
Opportunity Score: 36 Controversy: LOW Event ID: 133
Trump named Peter Navarro - the first former White House official imprisoned on a contempt-of-Congress conviction for defying a January 6 committee subpoena - as his Senior Counselor to the President for Trade and Manufacturing, and Navarro returned to the White House after his release.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Pam Bondi | Attorney General | Her Justice Department moved to strike its own brief in his contempt-of-Congress appeal, saying it was ‘no longer taking the same position as the prior administration’. |
| Peter Navarro | Senior Counselor to the President for Trade and Manufacturing | After serving four months in federal prison for defying a January 6 committee subpoena, he returned to the White House as the president’s senior trade counselor, telling The Hill, ‘I went to prison so that future presidential advisers won’t have to.’ |
The Kazakh Tungsten Deal
Opportunity Score: 35 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 186
The United States struck a deal with Kazakhstan to develop a massive untapped reserve of tungsten with $1.6 billion in federal financing, and the president’s two eldest sons held a 20 percent stake in the mining venture, drawing a records demand from an ethics watchdog.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Howard Lutnick | Secretary of Commerce | He negotiated the agreement with the government of Kazakhstan that let the venture mine the Kazakh tungsten reserves, sent a letter to the Kazakh president urging him to accept the deal while his sons Brandon and Kyle were acquiring stakes in it, and sat on the boards of the two federal agencies that issued its financing letters. |
| Donald Trump Jr. | Executive Vice President of The Trump Organization | He and his brother Eric Trump held a 20 percent stake in the Kazakh tungsten mining venture that the United States backed with $1.6 billion in federal financing. |
| Eric Trump | Executive Vice President of The Trump Organization | He and his brother Donald Trump Jr. held a 20 percent stake in the venture that won the contract to mine Kazakh tungsten reserves, and an ethics watchdog later demanded records on communications between the two families and the mining industry. |
The UAE Crypto Infusion
Opportunity Score: 34 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 1
A UAE government-linked entity bought a 49% stake in the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial for $500 million and $2 billion of its USD1 stablecoin, enriching the president’s and special envoy’s family entities.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Steven Witkoff | Special Envoy | Co-founded World Liberty Financial, with a Witkoff family firm entitled to 12.5% of the venture, and as special envoy pushed to advance the UAE A.I. chip deal at the same time a UAE government-backed firm invested $2 billion in the company’s stablecoin. |
| Eric Trump | Executive Vice President of The Trump Organization | Was actively involved in the management of World Liberty Financial, the Trump family crypto firm in which a UAE government-linked entity secretly bought a 49% stake and deposited $2 billion into its stablecoin. |
| Zach Witkoff | Co-founder of World Liberty Financial | Served as World Liberty Financial’s chief overseas salesman, pitching the firm to Pakistan’s army chief and prime minister while his father, a WLF co-founder, served as special envoy to the Middle East. |
Siccing DOGE on the Mailman
Opportunity Score: 34 Controversy: LOW Event ID: 96
The U.S. Postal Service signed an agreement granting Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency limited access to agency employee and financial data to identify cost-cutting ‘efficiencies,’ and the postmaster general suddenly resigned days later, alarming postal unions and lawmakers over threats to the agency’s independence.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Elon Musk | Head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE); CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and X | His DOGE team was granted limited access to U.S. Postal Service employee and financial data to hunt for cost-cutting ‘efficiencies,’ a move postal unions and lawmakers decried as a threat to the agency’s independence. |
The Weekly Accomplishments Demand
Opportunity Score: 34 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 104
After Elon Musk posted that federal workers must detail their weekly accomplishments or face dismissal, the Office of Personnel Management emailed all federal employees demanding five bullet points, while the Defense, Justice, and State departments ordered their staff to ignore the demand.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Elon Musk | Head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE); CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and X | He posted on X that federal workers must detail their weekly accomplishments or face dismissal, warning that failure to respond would be taken as a resignation. |
The Government Shutdown
Opportunity Score: 34 Controversy: LOW Event ID: 152
The US government shut down for 43 days, the longest in US history, after Senate Democrats blocked a Republican continuing resolution that lacked an extension of expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies, and Trump called the shutdown an ‘unprecedented opportunity’ to cut agencies.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| JD Vance | Vice President of the United States | After the late-September White House meeting with Senate Democrats ended without a deal, told reporters the shutdown was coming because the Democrats would not do the right thing, saying ‘You don’t put a gun to the American people’s head’. |
| Sean P. Duffy | Secretary of Transportation | Warned on November 4, 2025, that the shutdown’s air traffic controller absences could force ‘mass chaos,’ accused Democrats of perpetuating what he called a ‘senseless shutdown,’ and said the FAA was telling airlines to cancel flights if staffing could not safely manage the system. |
| Russell Vought | Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) | Met with Trump on October 2, 2025, to recommend which ‘Democrat Agencies’ to cut during the shutdown, which Trump called an ‘unprecedented opportunity’. |
Pardon of Changpeng Zhao
Opportunity Score: 32 Controversy: LOW Event ID: 5
Trump issued a full pardon to Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who had served prison time for facilitating illicit transactions, months after the exchange invested in the Trump family’s crypto ventures.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Steven Witkoff | Special Envoy | Was reportedly among the Trump team members involved in the discussions over Binance’s $2 billion investment in the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial stablecoin, which arrived months before Trump pardoned the exchange’s founder. |
| Donald Trump Jr. | Executive Vice President of The Trump Organization | Accompanied lobbyist Ches McDowell, hired by Zhao, to the White House, where McDowell met one-on-one with the President and advocated for the pardon, which Trump signed seven days later. |
| David Sacks | Special Advisor for AI and Crypto | Was reportedly among the Trump team members involved in the discussions over the $2 billion Binance-backed investment in the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial stablecoin, the business relationship that preceded the pardon of the exchange’s founder. |
Pete Hegseth’s Security Breach
Opportunity Score: 32 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 35
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth faced an internal Pentagon investigation after classified details on imminent strikes against Houthi targets were leaked via a compromised Signal chat.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Pete Hegseth | Secretary of Defense | Shared the types of aircraft and missiles and launch and attack times for the imminent airstrikes in the Signal group chat on March 15, 2025, on a personal phone that the Pentagon’s inspector general later found violated department policy. |
| John Ratcliffe | Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) | Shared the name of a CIA officer in the group chat, which The Atlantic withheld from its publication of the thread because CIA officers are traditionally not publicly identified. |
| Michael Waltz | National Security Advisor | Created the ‘Houthi PC small group’ Signal chat and, when trying to add National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes, mistakenly added the number of The Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg, exposing the war-planning thread to a journalist. |
The Tesla Vandalism Crackdown
Opportunity Score: 32 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 99
The Attorney General announced federal charges against three people accused of the ‘violent destruction’ of Tesla vehicles and charging stations during Department of Government Efficiency protests, warning that anyone who joined the ‘wave of domestic terrorism’ against Tesla properties would be put behind bars, and critics said the five-year minimum charges did not fit the crime of property damage.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Pam Bondi | Attorney General | Announced the federal charges against three people accused of the ‘violent destruction’ of Tesla vehicles and charging stations and warned that anyone who joins the ‘wave of domestic terrorism’ against Tesla properties would be put behind bars by the Department of Justice. |
The Passport Sex-Marker Crackdown
Opportunity Score: 31 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 138
The State Department suspended passport applications seeking sex-marker changes and permanently banned transgender visa applicants who listed a sex different from that assigned at birth, following an executive order that scientists said got the biology wrong.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Marco Rubio | Secretary of State | He directed the State Department to suspend all passport applications seeking sex-marker changes, and ordered consular officers worldwide to apply the permanent fraud bar to visa applicants deemed to have misrepresented their sex assigned at birth. |
The ICC Sanctions
Opportunity Score: 31 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 168
The administration sanctioned judges and prosecutors of the International Criminal Court in three escalating 2025 rounds over the court’s war crimes investigations into Israel, measures the court deplored as an attack on its independence.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Marco Rubio | Secretary of State | Issued three 2025 State Department press statements designating International Criminal Court judges and prosecutors under Executive Order 14203, citing the court’s investigations into Israel and the United States. |
The State Department Reorganization
Opportunity Score: 31 Controversy: HIGH Event ID: 169
The administration proposed cutting the State Department’s budget nearly in half, and the secretary announced a sweeping reorganization that would cut more than 700 positions and eliminate 132 offices, defending the overhaul in Congress as a return to the department’s regional roots.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Marco Rubio | Secretary of State | Announced the sweeping State Department reorganization in April 2025, which would cut more than 700 positions and eliminate 132 offices, and defended it at his first Senate Foreign Relations Committee appearance as the department’s sprawling bureaucracy had to change. |
The Academic Freedom Funding Threats
Opportunity Score: 30 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 90
The administration froze nearly $6 billion in federal research funding at nine universities, and the National Institutes of Health began prohibiting new grants to schools with diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Stephen Miller | White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Advisor | As the leader of the administration’s assault on elite universities, he approved pulling Columbia’s federal funding in March as the freeze of research dollars expanded to nine universities. |
| Jay Bhattacharya | Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) | His agency began prohibiting new grants to universities with diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, and he called the president’s executive orders declaring DEI programs illegal ‘misunderstood.’ |
RFK Jr.’s Anti-Science Orders
Opportunity Score: 29 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 38
The Health and Human Services Secretary ended the CDC’s recommendation of the COVID-19 vaccine for healthy children and pregnant women, then replaced the entire vaccine advisory committee with ideological allies; the reconstituted committee voted in December to end the universal newborn hepatitis B vaccine recommendation over a member’s dissent.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Robert F. Kennedy Jr. | Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) | Ordered the CDC to end its recommendation of the COVID-19 vaccine for healthy children and pregnant women, then fired all 17 members of the vaccine advisory committee and appointed eight replacements, including anti-vaccine activists; the reconstituted committee voted in December to end the universal newborn hepatitis B vaccine recommendation. |
Big Pharma Dinners
Opportunity Score: 29 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 39
The Health and Human Services Secretary attended private, million-dollar dinners with the President at his Mar-a-Lago club with the CEOs of Pfizer and Eli Lilly, whose products fell under his direct regulatory authority.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Robert F. Kennedy Jr. | Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) | Attended several of the dinners ahead of the inauguration and largely stayed quiet as Trump and others talked, prompting a letter from three senators questioning the meetings. |
The FoodNet Cuts
Opportunity Score: 29 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 59
Medical and scientific groups accused the Health and Human Services Secretary of forcing CDC experts to turn their backs on decades of sound science by cutting FoodNet surveillance from eight tracked pathogens to two, including germs that raw milk carries and germs that cause cyclosporiasis, of which an outbreak the following year would kill two people and renew criticism of the change.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Robert F. Kennedy Jr. | Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) | As HHS Secretary, he made the decision to cut the CDC’s FoodNet surveillance from eight tracked foodborne pathogens to two, prompting 22 medical and scientific groups to call for his resignation, saying his agenda forced high-level CDC expert leaders to turn their backs on decades of sound science. |
The FDA Traceability Delay
Opportunity Score: 29 Controversy: LOW Event ID: 62
The Food and Drug Administration delayed enforcement of its Food Traceability Rule by 30 months, and six days later produce processor Taylor Farms donated $1 million to the pro-Trump super PAC MAGA Inc.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Robert F. Kennedy Jr. | Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) | As HHS Secretary, he signed the proposed rule extending the Food Traceability Rule compliance date by 30 months, from January 20, 2026 to July 20, 2028. |
The Mental Health Grant Freeze
Opportunity Score: 29 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 100
President Trump and the Health and Human Services Secretary froze and revoked $11.4 billion in addiction and mental health grants, saying the money should be spent on ‘Make America Healthy Again’ efforts instead.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Robert F. Kennedy Jr. | Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) | Moved with President Trump to freeze and revoke $11.4 billion in addiction and mental health grants, saying the money should instead fund ‘Make America Healthy Again’ priorities. |
Stopping of CDC ads promoting the flu vaccine
Opportunity Score: 29 Controversy: LOW Event ID: 102
During an unusually severe influenza season, the Health and Human Services Secretary instructed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to suspend its successful ad campaign promoting flu vaccination.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Robert F. Kennedy Jr. | Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) | Wanted vaccine advertisements from the CDC to promote ‘informed consent’ in vaccine decision-making, and ordered the agency to shelve the ‘Wild to Mild’ flu vaccination campaign along with its other vaccine promotions. |
The Measles Outbreak Handling
Opportunity Score: 29 Controversy: HIGH Event ID: 163
During the first measles outbreak in a decade, the Health and Human Services Secretary called the outbreak ‘not unusual,’ promoted vitamins and other unproven remedies for measles in a Fox News op-ed, and praised an unmasked measles-infected doctor as an ‘extraordinary healer,’ as Texas doctors reported vitamin A toxicity in children.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Robert F. Kennedy Jr. | Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) | Called the outbreak ‘not unusual,’ promoted vitamins and other unproven remedies for measles in a Fox News op-ed, and praised an unmasked measles-infected doctor as an ‘extraordinary healer,’ as Texas doctors reported vitamin A toxicity in children. |
The Autism Agenda
Opportunity Score: 29 Controversy: HIGH Event ID: 164
The Health and Human Services Secretary announced $50 million in autism research grants alongside a push to fund Tylenol studies, then personally instructed the CDC to abandon its position that vaccines do not cause autism, and the agency’s autism page was rewritten with false claims that bypassed scientific review.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Robert F. Kennedy Jr. | Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) | Announced $50 million in autism research grants alongside a push to fund Tylenol studies, then personally instructed the CDC to abandon its position that vaccines do not cause autism, and the agency’s autism page was rewritten with false claims that bypassed scientific review. |
The NIOSH Gutting
Opportunity Score: 29 Controversy: HIGH Event ID: 165
The Health and Human Services Secretary fired most of the remaining staff of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, shuttering nearly all of its departments and canceling workplace safety equipment approvals and firefighter health research.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Robert F. Kennedy Jr. | Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) | Fired most of the remaining staff of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, shuttering nearly all of its departments and canceling workplace safety equipment approvals and firefighter health research. |
The CDC Director Ousting
Opportunity Score: 29 Controversy: HIGH Event ID: 166
The Health and Human Services Secretary ousted CDC Director Susan Monarez after less than a month for refusing to accept the administration’s new vaccine policy; she initially refused to leave her post, and the agency’s leading medical and disease-tracking officials quit in protest over his anti-science policies.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Robert F. Kennedy Jr. | Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) | Demanded that CDC Director Susan Monarez accept the administration’s new vaccine policy and ousted her after less than a month when she refused to accept it. |
The 28-Point Ukraine Peace Plan
Opportunity Score: 29 Controversy: HIGH Event ID: 179
President Trump approved a 28-point Ukraine peace plan drafted by his special envoy with a Russian envoy that would have Ukraine cede territory, limit its armed forces, and renounce NATO, and senators told it was a Russian wish list while analysts accused the plan of war profiteering through a clause giving the United States up to half the profits of reconstruction funded with frozen Russian assets; in December the special envoy and the president’s son-in-law met Putin at the Kremlin, emerging with no shift in Moscow’s position.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Steven Witkoff | Special Envoy | Drafted the 28-point Ukraine peace plan with Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev, the text calling for Ukrainian concessions that senators called a Russian wish list and that analysts said bore the marks of a Russian original. |
| Jared Kushner | Special Envoy for Peace Missions | Accompanied the special envoy to the Kremlin in December for talks about ending the Ukraine war, emerging with no shift in Moscow’s position as the Russian leader made them wait and blamed Europe for thwarting the peace process. |
The Federal Grant Pause
Opportunity Score: 28 Controversy: LOW Event ID: 47
The Office of Management and Budget paused disbursement of all active federal grants and loans to implement Trump’s executive orders, disrupting thousands of projects nationwide before federal judges blocked the freeze and the White House rescinded the memo.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Karoline Leavitt | White House Press Secretary | Defended the freeze as necessary to prevent public funding of ‘transgenderism and wokeness’ and, after the memo was rescinded, insisted that the funding freeze itself remained in effect. |
| Gary Washington | Acting Secretary of Agriculture | As acting Agriculture Secretary, his department’s communications froze grant disbursements to farmers and ranchers, and Agriculture Committee members in both chambers wrote to him demanding the legal basis for the halt. |
The US Stake in Intel
Opportunity Score: 26 Controversy: LOW Event ID: 129
Days after publicly demanding the resignation of Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan and then reversing at a meeting with him, Trump announced the United States would buy a 10 percent stake in the struggling chipmaker at $20.47 a share, converting unspent CHIPS Act grants into government equity.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Howard Lutnick | Secretary of Commerce | As the head of the Commerce Department that administers the CHIPS Act, he publicly confirmed the administration’s plan to convert Intel’s unspent grant into a non-voting equity stake, telling CNBC that ‘we should get an equity stake for our money.’ |
| Scott Bessent | Secretary of the Treasury | As Treasury Secretary, he explained the stake as a conversion of existing grants to stabilize Intel rather than a commercial push, telling CNBC that ‘the last thing we’re going to do is take a stake and then try to drum up business.’ |
Ballroom Donor Procurement
Opportunity Score: 25 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 63
Trump hosted a White House dinner for the high-dollar donors funding his ballroom, a group whose corporate members a watchdog report later found held $279 billion in federal contracts, with most facing or having had federal enforcement actions suspended.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Karoline Leavitt | White House Press Secretary | Defended the donor-funded ballroom in a statement to CBS News, saying ‘the same critics who are wrongly claiming there are conflicts of interests, would complain if taxpayers were footing the bill.’ |
The White House Press Corps Purge
Opportunity Score: 25 Controversy: HIGH Event ID: 83
The administration barred the Associated Press from the White House over the ‘Gulf of America’ naming dispute, while its ‘new media’ pass seated friendly podcasters and influencers in the briefing room.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Karoline Leavitt | White House Press Secretary | Her office barred the Associated Press from the White House over the ‘Gulf of America’ naming dispute, and she announced the ‘new media’ pass that seated podcasters and influencers in the briefing room. |
The Crypto Bank Charter Fast-Track
Opportunity Score: 24 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 68
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency granted the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial a conditional national trust bank charter, a move Sen. Elizabeth Warren denounced as a brazen act of self-dealing.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Eric Trump | Executive Vice President of The Trump Organization | As a co-founder and board member of World Liberty Financial, agreed to cede control of the company’s planned trust bank and limit his influence over it amid the federal review of the charter and accusations of corruption. |
| Jonathan Gould | Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) | As Comptroller of the Currency, approved the trust charter so the Trump family’s crypto venture could issue and manage its own stablecoins. |
| Zach Witkoff | Co-founder of World Liberty Financial | As co-founder of World Liberty Financial and chairman of the board of the trust bank’s holding company, led the venture that won the conditional national trust bank charter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. |
The Electronic Arts Takeover
Opportunity Score: 23 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 194
In September 2025, the president’s son-in-law joined Saudi Arabia’s $1 trillion sovereign wealth fund and Silver Lake in a $55 billion deal to take Electronic Arts private, the largest buyout in history, drawing a letter from Democratic Senators Blumenthal and Warren warning the Treasury secretary of foreign influence and national security risks - the deal was expected to clear the U.S. national security review ‘easily’ on his ties to the president and the Saudi crown prince, and it did in July 2026.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Scott Bessent | Secretary of the Treasury | Received a letter from Democratic Senators Blumenthal and Warren warning of foreign influence and national security risks, and the CFIUS review he chaired as Treasury secretary cleared the deal in July 2026. |
| Jared Kushner | Special Envoy for Peace Missions | Joined Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and Silver Lake in a $55 billion deal to take Electronic Arts private through his firm Affinity Partners, the largest leveraged buyout in history, and issued a statement about the games maker after the deal. |
The Pentagon Purge and Rebrand
Opportunity Score: 22 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 170
Trump ousted Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Charles Brown. The Secretary of Defense fired the Navy’s top officer, Adm. Lisa Franchetti, and the three services’ top military lawyers to avoid ‘roadblocks to orders that are given by a commander in chief.’ An executive order then authorized the Defense Department to be known as the Department of War. At Quantico the new Secretary of War denounced ‘stupid rules of engagement’ as he announced sweeping reforms in a speech that defense officials called embarrassing.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Pete Hegseth | Secretary of Defense | Fired the Navy’s top officer, Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the Air Force vice chief of staff, and the judge advocates general of all three services to avoid ‘roadblocks to orders that are given by a commander in chief,’ then gathered more than 1,000 senior military leaders at Quantico to announce War Department reforms ‘designed to take the monkey off your back.’ |
The Halt on Cyber Operations on Russia
Opportunity Score: 22 Controversy: LOW Event ID: 171
The Secretary of Defense ordered U.S. Cyber Command to halt offensive cyber operations against Russia as the administration pushed for peace talks; the order, for which the administration gave no clear reason, appeared tied to plans to draw President Putin to the negotiating table and was not reported until three days after the Trump-Zelensky row at the White House, amid a freeze on military aid to Ukraine, but the war entered a fifth year without a peace deal.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Pete Hegseth | Secretary of Defense | Issued the February halt order to US Cyber Command and asked for a risk assessment documenting the missions to be halted and the active threats from Russia. |
The Pentagon Press Pledge
Opportunity Score: 22 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 172
The Pentagon implemented a press policy requiring journalists to pledge not to solicit or use unauthorized material or lose their press access, a demand nearly every major news outlet refused to accept, turning in their press badges and clearing out of the building.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Pete Hegseth | Secretary of Defense | Implemented the policy requiring journalists to pledge not to obtain unauthorized material, and answered the outlets that refused to sign by posting on X a list of what he called ‘press credentialing FOR DUMMIES’. |
The Trump Bitcoin Debut
Opportunity Score: 21 Controversy: LOW Event ID: 184
Eric Trump and his brother Donald co-founded the bitcoin-mining firm American Bitcoin in March 2025, adding it to the Trump family’s crypto ventures, which include World Liberty Financial, and after a merger with Gryphon Digital Mining the company began trading on the Nasdaq in September with the brothers’ stake worth $1.5 billion as the president advanced crypto-friendly legislation and planned a federal bitcoin reserve.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Donald Trump Jr. | Executive Vice President of The Trump Organization | Co-founded the bitcoin-mining firm American Bitcoin with his brother Eric, with the Trump family’s 20 percent stake in the company worth $1.5 billion when it began trading on the Nasdaq in September 2025. |
| Eric Trump | Executive Vice President of The Trump Organization | Co-founded the bitcoin-mining firm American Bitcoin and served as its chief strategy officer, with the Trump family’s 20 percent stake in the company worth $1.5 billion when it began trading on the Nasdaq in September 2025. |
The Sons’ Defense Windfall
Opportunity Score: 21 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 185
Mostly after Trump’s reelection, investment funds associated with Eric Trump and his brother Donald invested in more than a dozen defense-tech firms that secured at least $3.2 billion in federal contracts and $3.1 billion in future options, and a Washington Post analysis of the portfolio drew denials from spokespeople for the administration, the brothers, and the contractors, who said the contracts were awarded solely on merit and that there was no corruption.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Donald Trump Jr. | Executive Vice President of The Trump Organization | Was named in the Washington Post analysis as one of the brothers whose associated funds invested in the defense-tech firms, and spokespeople for the brothers dismissed the reported conflict of interest, saying the contracts were awarded solely on merit and that there was no corruption. |
| Eric Trump | Executive Vice President of The Trump Organization | Was named in the Washington Post analysis as one of the brothers whose associated funds invested in the defense-tech firms, and spokespeople for the brothers dismissed the reported conflict of interest, insisting the Pentagon contracts were awarded solely on merit and that there was no corruption. |
The Witkoff Son’s Gulf Pitch
Opportunity Score: 21 Controversy: LOW Event ID: 193
The special envoy to the Middle East’s son solicited billions of dollars in investment from Qatar and other Gulf states for the family’s real-estate firm at the same time the envoy was negotiating a Gaza ceasefire with those same governments.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Steven Witkoff | Special Envoy | Negotiated a Gaza ceasefire with Qatar and other Gulf mediators at the same time his son solicited investment in the family’s real-estate firm from those same governments. |
| Alex Witkoff | Co-founder of World Liberty Financial | Solicited billions of dollars in investment from Qatar and other Gulf governments for the family’s real-estate firm while his father, the special envoy to the Middle East, was negotiating the Gaza ceasefire. |
The $500,000 Access Club
Opportunity Score: 20 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 8
The president’s son and the special envoy’s sons faced backlash for operating a private club that charged $500,000 memberships for access to Cabinet officials.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Donald Trump Jr. | Executive Vice President of The Trump Organization | Co-founded the Executive Branch private club in Georgetown that charged a $500,000 membership fee and held a launch party attended by at least a half-dozen Trump administration officials, drawing scrutiny from former staffers over its closed-door operation. |
| Zach Witkoff | Co-founder of World Liberty Financial | Served as a co-owner of the Executive Branch club alongside his brother Alex; their father Steve Witkoff was the special envoy to the Middle East when the club charged a $500,000 membership for access to cabinet members. |
| Alex Witkoff | Co-founder of World Liberty Financial | Co-owned the Executive Branch club with his brother Zach; their father Steve Witkoff was the special envoy to the Middle East when the club charged a $500,000 membership for access to the administration. |
The Birthday Kayak Release
Opportunity Score: 20 Controversy: HIGH Event ID: 141
At the U.S. Secret Service’s request, the Army Corps of Engineers temporarily raised the outflow of Caesar Creek Lake to support safe navigation of Vice President JD Vance’s security detail during his family’s August 2, 2025 boating trip on the Little Miami River, drawing national criticism and congressional scrutiny while the administration cut federal staff.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| JD Vance | Vice President of the United States | As vice president, his security detail’s request prompted the Army Corps to raise the lake’s outflow during his family’s August 2, 2025 boating trip on the Little Miami River. |
| Adam Telle | Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works (USACE) | As assistant secretary of the Army for civil works, he defended the Army Corps’ water-level change before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, calling it a ‘successful use of our water resources to ensure we protect a Secret Services protectee.’ |
The Clean Water Act Redefinition
Opportunity Score: 19 Controversy: LOW Event ID: 67
The EPA and the Army Corps proposed a new definition of Waters of the United States that the agency said would cut red tape for developers and energy producers, while environmental groups warned it would strip federal protections from close to 80 percent of America’s remaining wetlands, putting drinking water, flood protections, and critical habitats at risk.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Lee Zeldin | Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) | As EPA Administrator, he signed the proposed ‘Updated Definition of Waters of the United States’ rule with the Army Corps of Engineers, saying it would protect navigable waters, advance cooperative federalism, and result in economic growth. |
| Adam Telle | Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works (USACE) | As Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, he signed the proposed ‘Updated Definition of Waters of the United States’ rule, which the Army Corps of Engineers co-issued with the EPA to fully implement the Supreme Court’s Sackett decision. |
The Taiwan Chip Tariff Threats
Opportunity Score: 19 Controversy: LOW Event ID: 79
Trump threatened TSMC with a 100% tariff on its chips unless it built them in the United States, and the administration’s semiconductor tariff campaign, including a Section 232 national security probe, destabilized global tech markets and intensified the trade war with China.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Howard Lutnick | Secretary of Commerce | Told ABC News that the electronics tariff exemptions were only temporary, that the exempt products would come under semiconductor tariffs ‘coming in probably a month or two’ with ‘a special-focus type of tariff to make sure that those products get re-shored.’ |
| Kevin Hassett | Director of the National Economic Council (NEC) | Told CNN the administration was launching a Section 232 investigation into semiconductors, saying ‘it’s a very uncomfortable amount of Chinese input in our actual weapons systems.’ |
The Federal Reserve Autonomy Assault
Opportunity Score: 18 Controversy: LOW Event ID: 84
Trump publicly threatened to fire Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell over the bank’s refusal to cut interest rates, mounting a pressure campaign against the central bank’s independence.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Scott Bessent | Secretary of the Treasury | As Treasury Secretary, he called for the entire Federal Reserve institution to be examined in a July 2025 interview, becoming the latest administration official to attack the central bank as firing threats mounted. |
| Russell Vought | Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) | As OMB Director, he led the White House’s investigation into the Fed’s $2.5 billion headquarters renovation, accusing Powell of bungling the project as a possible basis for firing him. |
The Witkoff-Ushakov Call Leak
Opportunity Score: 18 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 178
A leaked transcript of an October 2025 call between the president’s special envoy and Yuri Ushakov, President Putin’s top foreign-policy aide, showed the envoy coaching the Kremlin on how to pitch the Ukraine peace plan to President Trump, drawing calls from members of Congress, including Republicans, that he be fired, while Trump defended him.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Steven Witkoff | Special Envoy | Told Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s top foreign-policy aide, during their Oct 14 call, according to the transcript Bloomberg published, that Putin should call Trump before the planned Zelenskyy White House visit, congratulating and flattering him as a man of peace, and that a peace deal would require Moscow to gain control of Donetsk. |
The Oman Iran Talks
Opportunity Score: 18 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 181
On Apr 12 2025, the United States and Iran held indirect nuclear talks in Muscat, Oman, shuttled by Omani mediators, the president’s special envoy leading the American side; a demand for complete dismantlement would have broken the round, and a day after suggesting the United States would be satisfied with low-level uranium enrichment, the envoy reversed course and demanded that Iran eliminate its nuclear enrichment and weaponization program, and the talks were suspended when Israel’s June strikes led Iran to cancel the next round.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Steven Witkoff | Special Envoy | As the special envoy to the Middle East, admitting he lacked technical expertise in nuclear disarmament programmes, he led the American side of the Muscat talks, saying Iran need not enrich uranium past 3.67 percent a day before demanding that Iran eliminate its nuclear enrichment and weaponization program. |
The Tether Turn
Opportunity Score: 18 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 190
In July 2025, Trump signed the GENIUS Act, the first federal law to regulate payment stablecoins, and in September Tether, the world’s largest and most controversial stablecoin issuer, announced a U.S.-compliant coin, USAT, to be led by the former White House crypto official who had overseen the administration’s crypto agenda. The administration’s ties to the stablecoin ran deeper still: the sitting Commerce Secretary’s firm, Cantor Fitzgerald, had long managed Tether’s U.S. Treasury-bill investments.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Howard Lutnick | Secretary of Commerce | His firm Cantor Fitzgerald had long managed Tether’s U.S. Treasury-bill investments, tying the sitting Commerce Secretary to the stablecoin and raising conflict-of-interest concerns. |
| Bo Hines | Executive Director of the President’s Council of Advisors on Digital Assets | Became the CEO of Tether’s U.S. stablecoin operation in September 2025, weeks after leaving his role as executive director of the President’s Council of Advisers on Digital Assets, taking charge of the world’s largest and most controversial stablecoin issuer as it launched a GENIUS Act-compliant coin. |
The Hunter Biden Whistleblower Promotions
Opportunity Score: 16 Controversy: LOW Event ID: 110
Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, the IRS agents who investigated Hunter Biden and alleged political interference in the case, were promoted to senior advisers in the Treasury Secretary’s office to investigate alleged wrongdoing in the Hunter Biden tax case, and Shapley was named deputy director of the agency’s criminal investigation division.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Scott Bessent | Secretary of the Treasury | As Treasury Secretary, he promoted the two agents to senior advisers in his office, telling Fox News he was giving them ‘a year to investigate the wrongdoing that’s going on at the IRS’ and that they will make sure ‘this Hunter Biden nonsense’ doesn’t repeat itself. |
| Gary Shapley | Acting Commissioner of Internal Revenue (IRS) | As the auditor who investigated the Hunter Biden case, he was promoted to a senior adviser in the Treasury Secretary’s office and named deputy director of criminal investigations at the agency, and in a joint statement he said the agents were ‘motivated by one singular mantra: do what’s right.’ |
The Munich Ideological War Speech
Opportunity Score: 16 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 131
Delivering his first major speech as U.S. vice president at the February 14, 2025 Munich Security Conference, Vance told European leaders the greatest threat to their continent was ‘the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values’ - not Russia or China - while sidestepping the Ukrainian question, in a ‘fiery’ address a German official called ‘insane and worrying’ that European media described as a declaration of ‘ideological war.’
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| JD Vance | Vice President of the United States | Delivered the February 14, 2025 Munich Security Conference speech naming ‘the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values’ - not Russia or China - as the continent’s greatest threat, a ‘wrecking ball’ address that European leaders and media described as a declaration of ‘ideological war.’ |
The Greenland Scolding
Opportunity Score: 16 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 132
On a March 28, 2025 visit to the U.S. Pituffik Space Base amid a U.S. push to take over Greenland, Vice President Vance told Denmark it had ‘not done a good job’ securing the island and urged it to push for independence, as President Trump said ‘we can’t’ do without it and Denmark’s foreign minister replied, ‘This is not how you speak to your close allies.’
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| JD Vance | Vice President of the United States | Toured U.S. troops at the Pituffik Space Base, told Denmark it had ‘not done a good job by the people of Greenland’ and ‘underinvested’ in the island’s security, and encouraged the island to push for independence from Denmark. |
Ousting of U.S. Attorney Siebert
Opportunity Score: 15 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 22
U.S. Attorney Siebert was ousted after refusing Trump’s pressure to bring criminal charges against Letitia James.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Bill Pulte | Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) | Pressed his case against Siebert in the Oval Office, arguing that Siebert was slow-walking the Letitia James investigation to get confirmed by the Senate, and urged Trump to fire him. |
| Lindsey Halligan | Interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia | Was installed as Siebert’s replacement, sworn in by Attorney General Pam Bondi as interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia after his resignation. |
| Sergio Gor | Director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office | Moved to dismiss Siebert after Trump said multiple times that he wanted him fired. |
Rare-Earth Magnet Defense Contractor Windfall
Opportunity Score: 15 Controversy: LOW Event ID: 69
The Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital extended a record $620 million loan to rare-earth magnet maker Vulcan Elements, a startup tied to the President’s son, after a White House adviser pushed the deal through without public bidding.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Donald Trump Jr. | Executive Vice President of The Trump Organization | His venture capital firm 1789 Capital took an undisclosed stake in Vulcan Elements about three months before the Pentagon announced plans to lend the company a record $620 million. |
| Peter Navarro | Senior Counselor to the President for Trade and Manufacturing | He initiated the White House request that led the Pentagon to extend the record loan to Vulcan Elements, the only deal in the program started by a senior aide. |
The Endangerment Finding Rescission
Opportunity Score: 15 Controversy: HIGH Event ID: 153
The EPA proposed rescinding the 2009 finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health and safety, the determination that had underpinned federal vehicle emission standards since the Obama era. Earthjustice called the rescission climate denialism as official policy and California said it could lead a resistance, and the EPA finalized the rescission on February 12, 2026.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Lee Zeldin | Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) | Released the EPA proposal to rescind the 2009 finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health and safety, saying it would ‘end sixteen years of uncertainty for automakers and American consumers.’ |
The PFAS Drinking Water Rollback
Opportunity Score: 15 Controversy: HIGH Event ID: 154
The EPA announced it would roll back some of the limits on PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ in drinking water, giving utilities additional time for compliance, a move the NRDC called illegal.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Lee Zeldin | Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) | As EPA Administrator, he announced the rollback of some of the drinking water limits on PFAS ‘forever chemicals,’ calling it ‘common-sense flexibility in the form of additional time for compliance.’ |
The Coal Plant Email Exemptions
Opportunity Score: 15 Controversy: HIGH Event ID: 155
The EPA offered coal plants a way to avoid limits on mercury and other toxic emissions by sending an email to an agency official, exempting nearly 70 plants, a move the Center for Biological Diversity called a dereliction of duty.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Lee Zeldin | Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) | As EPA Administrator, his agency offered coal plants a way to avoid mercury and other toxic emission limits by sending an email to an agency official, and he said he would allow coal ash exemptions. |
The Environmental Justice Office Shutdown
Opportunity Score: 15 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 156
The EPA closed its 10 regional environmental justice offices and eliminated its environmental justice division, then announced plans to terminate nearly 300 environmental justice employees, a move a former EPA official said would gut environmental justice gains.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Lee Zeldin | Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) | As EPA Administrator, he announced the 31-action deregulatory package that terminated the agency’s environmental justice and DEI arms, and his EPA closed the 10 regional environmental justice offices before announcing plans to terminate nearly 300 environmental justice employees. |
The Climate Justice Grant Termination
Opportunity Score: 15 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 157
The EPA terminated the environmental and climate justice block grant program, cutting $2.8 billion in grants, a decision a federal court later ruled unlawful.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Lee Zeldin | Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) | As EPA Administrator, his agency began terminating the entire environmental and climate justice block grant program under the direction of the Trump administration, and the class action over the termination named him as a defendant. |
Lutnick’s Tesla Endorsement
Opportunity Score: 14 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 7
The Commerce Secretary told Fox News viewers to buy Tesla stock, saying ‘It’ll never be this cheap again’ even though he was not allowed to buy any stock himself, and Tesla shares fell in pre-market trading the next day as House Oversight Democrats launched an investigation into what they called the unlawful promotion of plummeting Tesla stock on live television.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Howard Lutnick | Secretary of Commerce | On March 19, 2025, told Fox News viewers that ‘if you want to learn something on this show tonight, buy Tesla,’ saying ‘It’ll never be this cheap again’ and asking ‘Who wouldn’t invest in Elon Musk?’ |
The H20 Chip Reversal
Opportunity Score: 14 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 191
The Commerce Department banned Nvidia from selling its H20 AI chips to China in April 2025, then reversed the ban in July amid trade de-escalation with China. Security experts and Democrats accused the administration of turning national-security export controls into a fee on chip sales, and the move cast doubt on Nvidia’s prospects in China: regulators summoned the company over alleged backdoors, Nvidia and AMD agreed to pay the government 15% of their China chip sales to secure export licenses, and Nvidia paused production of the H20.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Howard Lutnick | Secretary of Commerce | His department banned the H20 chip from sale to China in April and reversed course in July, and he told CNBC the administration wanted to keep China ‘addicted’ to American technology. |
The NOAA Contract Bottleneck
Opportunity Score: 14 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 192
The Commerce Secretary required his personal approval for every NOAA contract over $100,000, and the one-by-one reviews left replacement contracts stalled at headquarters: emergency alert translations lapsed, key websites nearly went dark with unrecoverable data loss possible, and scientists at a Seattle lab cleaned bathrooms and reconsidered experiments, while a union representative called the pressure part of a large-scale campaign to push out federal workers.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Howard Lutnick | Secretary of Commerce | He required his personal approval for every NOAA contract over $100,000, and the reviews left the agency’s maintenance, janitorial, and emergency alert contracts lapsed. |
The Polymarket Probe Drop
Opportunity Score: 13 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 183
In July 2025, the Justice Department and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission dropped their investigations into prediction-market platform Polymarket, and days later the company acquired CFTC-licensed exchange QCEX for $112 million to re-enter the United States; the president’s son then joined its advisory board as his venture firm 1789 Capital invested in the company, and by early September the CFTC gave the company a green light to return to U.S. markets.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Donald Trump Jr. | Executive Vice President of The Trump Organization | Joined the advisory board of prediction-market platform Polymarket in August 2025 as his venture firm 1789 Capital invested in the company, weeks after the administration dropped the Biden-era probes into the platform. |
| Caroline D. Pham | Acting Chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) | As acting chair, she forbade the enforcement division from issuing new subpoenas and ended the CFTC’s probe over her enforcement attorneys’ objections, then cleared the platform’s return while her senior counsel intervened on the side of the Trump family’s prediction-market companies and the officials who questioned them were placed on leave and under investigation. |
Automotive Emission Standard Rollbacks
Opportunity Score: 12 Controversy: LOW Event ID: 65
At a Dec 3, 2025 White House event with top auto industry executives, Trump announced a reset of fuel-economy standards that would cut the 2031 fleetwide average to roughly 34.5 miles per gallon from the 50.4 set under Biden, sparking criticism from environmental groups over rising emissions in light of climate change.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Sean P. Duffy | Secretary of Transportation | Urged his agency soon after taking office to reverse the existing Corporate Average Fuel Economy requirements, and at the announcement event said the new rules would let automakers build the vehicles Americans want to buy. |
The Federal Employee Loyalty Oaths
Opportunity Score: 12 Controversy: LOW Event ID: 91
Reports emerged that a governmentwide hiring plan required federal job applicants to submit personal essays pledging loyalty to the Constitution and commitment to advancing the President’s executive orders.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Charles Ezell | Acting Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) | As acting director of OPM, co-wrote the governmentwide Merit Hiring Plan, which directed agencies to recruit individuals committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government. |
| Vince Haley | Director of the Domestic Policy Council | As the assistant to the president for domestic policy, co-wrote the Merit Hiring Plan with OPM, which directed agencies to make hires in 80 days or less, on average. |
The Border Czar’s Detention Contracts
Opportunity Score: 12 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 122
Border czar Tom Homan, who pledged to recuse himself from contracting, was reported to be involved in conversations with companies bidding for the $45 billion in immigration detention work, while a businessman who had Homan on his consulting payroll led at least six firms to believe their connection to him could advance their bids.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Tom Homan | White House Border Czar | After pledging no ‘involvement, discussion, input, or decision of any future government contracts,’ he was reported to have been involved in conversations with industry players about the detention expansion, while a former employer of his led at least six companies to believe their connection to him could win them detention work. |
The Congestion Pricing Termination
Opportunity Score: 12 Controversy: HIGH Event ID: 149
The DOT withdrew federal approval of New York City’s congestion pricing program and set a deadline for its end, prompting the MTA to sue in federal court, and federal lawyers later accidentally filed an internal memo admitting the administration’s legal case was weak.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Sean P. Duffy | Secretary of Transportation | He sent Governor Kathy Hochul a letter stating his intention to revoke the program’s federal approval and, hours before the administration’s deadline lapsed, extended it by 30 days while calling the tolls ‘unlawful’ in a social media post. |
The Rainbow Crosswalk Directive
Opportunity Score: 12 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 150
The DOT’s ‘free from distractions’ directive led states to remove rainbow crosswalks, including the memorial crossing for the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, which the mayor called a ‘cruel political act’, and the Buddy Holly crosswalk in Lubbock, Texas.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Sean P. Duffy | Secretary of Transportation | He sent a SAFE ROADS letter to all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico instructing officials to eliminate rainbow crosswalks and other ‘political messages or artwork’ from roadways, writing that ‘political banners have no place on public roads.’ |
The $18 Billion Transit Freeze
Opportunity Score: 12 Controversy: HIGH Event ID: 151
The DOT froze $18 billion in federal funding for two of the country’s largest New York transit projects, citing contract concerns and the government shutdown, and New York mayoral front-runner Zohran Mamdani condemned the freeze as the act of ‘one who is cruel to this city.’
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Sean P. Duffy | Secretary of Transportation | He said the department would pause the $18 billion in funding during a review of the projects’ contracts, and the pause deepened as the government shutdown furloughed the employees who would have conducted the reviews. |
The Kushner Affinity Fund Access
Opportunity Score: 11 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 16
A fund run by a chief Middle East negotiator for the president sought at least $5 billion in new financing from Gulf sovereign wealth funds while he pursued peace deals.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Jared Kushner | Special Envoy for Peace Missions | Broke his pledge to forgo fundraising during Trump’s second term by soliciting at least $5 billion in new financing for his firm Affinity Partners from investors including the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates while acting as one of the president’s chief Middle East negotiators. |
The Charlie Kirk Suspect Misstep
Opportunity Score: 11 Controversy: HIGH Event ID: 197
Hours after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the FBI Director posted that the subject of the attack had been apprehended and retracted the claim within 90 minutes, and his handling of the investigation drew bipartisan criticism as he defended his record before the Senate and House Judiciary Committees.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Kash Patel | Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) | Posted within hours of the Charlie Kirk assassination that the subject had been apprehended, retracted the claim within 90 minutes, and defended his handling of the investigation before the Senate and House Judiciary Committees, drawing bipartisan criticism. |
The Smithsonian Exhibit Review
Opportunity Score: 10 Controversy: LOW Event ID: 115
The White House launched a ‘comprehensive internal review’ of eight Smithsonian museums, demanding the museums produce materials and interviews on a 30-, 75-, and 120-day schedule to align exhibits with the president’s directive to celebrate ‘American exceptionalism’ and remove ‘partisan narratives.’
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Russell Vought | Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) | As director of the Office of Management and Budget, co-signed the August 12, 2025 letter directing the Smithsonian exhibit review and setting the 30-, 75-, and 120-day deadlines for the museums to produce materials and interviews. |
| Vince Haley | Director of the Domestic Policy Council | As director of the Domestic Policy Council, co-signed the August 12, 2025 White House letter to the Smithsonian’s secretary launching the ‘comprehensive internal review’ of eight museums to align exhibits with the president’s ‘American exceptionalism’ directive. |
Anti-Woke AI Directives
Opportunity Score: 9 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 51
The “Preventing Woke AI in the Federal Government” executive order used anti-DEI rhetoric to impose ideological standards on federal AI purchases and their vendors, the first explicit federal attempt to shape the behavior of AI.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Russell Vought | Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) | Was named in the order, in consultation with other administration officials, to issue guidance for agencies to implement its Unbiased AI Principles in AI procurement. |
| David Sacks | Special Advisor for AI and Crypto | Recruited conservative strategist Chris Rufo to help define ‘woke’ for the order and declared on X that ‘the federal government will not be buying WokeAI.’ |
The Bethesda Declaration
Opportunity Score: 9 Controversy: HIGH Event ID: 117
More than 300 staff at the National Institutes of Health signed the ‘Bethesda Declaration’ condemning the Trump administration’s deep cuts to public health research and calling on their director to restore terminated grants, and the director, who had pledged at his confirmation hearing to foster dissent, stood by the terminations.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Jay Bhattacharya | Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) | He said the signatories of the declaration were ‘colleagues’ who were not auditing him, and defended the terminations, saying NIH would not fund research that was ‘purely ideological’. |
The HHS Gender Dysphoria Report
Opportunity Score: 9 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 119
The Department of Health and Human Services released a report on gender dysphoria that contradicted the medical consensus on youth treatments in response to an executive order, and the National Institutes of Health director defended it, saying the government must follow the ‘gold standard of science, not activist agendas.’
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Jay Bhattacharya | Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) | He defended the report in a statement, saying the government must ‘follow the gold standard of science, not activist agendas,’ as the report claimed low evidence that puberty blockers are safe for children with gender dysphoria. |
The FCC’s DEI Crackdown
Opportunity Score: 9 Controversy: HIGH Event ID: 146
The FCC used its regulatory power to force media companies to abandon diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, opening investigations into Comcast, NBCUniversal, Disney, and ABC and making the agency’s merger approvals conditional on the companies ending DEI (Paramount/Skydance, T-Mobile/Lumos, Verizon/Frontier), drawing a statutory-authority dissent from Commissioner Geoffrey Starks.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Brendan Carr | Chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) | As chair, opened the FCC’s investigations into the companies’ DEI practices, told Bloomberg he would block any merger involving a company with DEI, and made the agency’s merger approvals conditional on the companies ending their programs. |
The Harvard Tax-Exempt Review
Opportunity Score: 8 Controversy: LOW Event ID: 108
The administration asked the IRS to review and revoke Harvard University’s tax-exempt status, extending the political use of the tax agency against a major institution.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Gary Shapley | Acting Commissioner of Internal Revenue (IRS) | As the acting IRS commissioner, he told staff that one of his first orders of business was to review and revoke the tax-free status of groups suggested by Republican allies in Congress. |
| Andrew De Mello | Acting Chief Counsel of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) | As the IRS’s acting chief counsel, he received the Treasury Department’s request to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status and was the official tasked with deciding whether to implement it. |
The Crypto Trust Charter Boom
Opportunity Score: 8 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 135
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency conditionally approved national trust bank charters for five crypto firms, including Circle, Ripple, Paxos, BitGo, and Fidelity, in a single day, a fast track Sen. Elizabeth Warren criticized as enabling crypto companies to act like banks while evading bank safeguards, creating conflicts of interest and threatening the banking system’s safety and soundness.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Jonathan Gould | Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) | As Comptroller of the Currency, he announced the conditional approvals and defended them, saying new entrants into the federal banking sector are good for consumers, the banking industry and the economy. |
The Big-Bank Debanking Findings
Opportunity Score: 8 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 136
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency released preliminary findings accusing nine of the nation’s largest banks, including JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, of ‘debanking’ lawful customers by restricting services to industries such as coal, firearms, and digital assets as contrary to bank values, in a push toward conservative agendas under President Trump’s “Guaranteeing Fair Banking for All Americans” executive order that Bank of America rejected, saying it never closes accounts for political reasons and has no political litmus test.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Jonathan Gould | Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) | As Comptroller of the Currency, he released the preliminary findings naming the nine banks, declaring the OCC committed to ending efforts that would weaponize finance and holding the banks accountable. |
The Trump Donors’ Crypto Bank
Opportunity Score: 8 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 137
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency conditionally approved a national bank charter for Erebor, a crypto-focused bank backed by Trump billionaire donors Peter Thiel and Palmer Luckey, a fast track some criticized given the political ties.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Jonathan Gould | Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) | As Comptroller of the Currency, he conditionally approved the de novo national bank charter for Erebor, calling it the first de novo bank to receive a preliminary conditional approval since he arrived at the OCC. |
Dismissal of U.S. Inspectors General
Opportunity Score: 5 Controversy: HIGH Event ID: 24
The administration fired independent Inspectors General across multiple departments, eliminating internal oversight of federal agencies.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Sergio Gor | Director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office | As Director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office, his office sent the overnight termination emails that dismissed the inspectors general. |
FTC Commissioner Firings
Opportunity Score: 5 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 50
Trump fired the two Democratic commissioners at the Federal Trade Commission, Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Slaughter, defying the 90-year-old Supreme Court precedent Humphrey’s Executor in a test of his power over independent agencies.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Sarah M. Harris | Acting Solicitor General of the United States | As Acting Solicitor General, she sent the letter to Congress announcing that the Justice Department would seek to overturn the 90-year-old Supreme Court precedent holding that the president could dismiss the head of an independent agency only for cause. |
The Federal Lands Wind Ban
Opportunity Score: 5 Controversy: LOW Event ID: 75
On his first day, Trump halted all new offshore and federal-land wind leasing and permitting, and 17 states and the District of Columbia sued in federal court, alleging the freeze exceeded its authority under the Clean Air Act and other federal laws.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Gary Washington | Acting Secretary of Agriculture | As acting Agriculture Secretary, his department was named in the day-one wind freeze memorandum and bound to hold new wind approvals, permits, and leases until the federal review concluded. |
| Doug Burgum | Secretary of the Interior | Named in the day-one wind freeze memorandum, he was directed to lead the federal review of wind leasing and in April 2025 ordered BOEM to halt construction on the Empire Wind project. |
The Firing of BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer
Opportunity Score: 5 Controversy: LOW Event ID: 128
Hours after the July jobs report came in far below forecasts with the largest downward revision since 1979, Trump fired Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner Erika McEntarfer, claiming that she had ‘RIGGED’ the figures ‘to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad.’
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Kevin Hassett | Director of the National Economic Council (NEC) | Defended the firing on Fox News Sunday, calling for a ‘fresh set of eyes at the BLS’ after the weak jobs report. |
The Left-Targeting IRS Overhaul
Opportunity Score: 4 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 112
The Hunter Biden auditor Gary Shapley, tapped to lead the IRS criminal investigation division, planned to pursue left-leaning donors and organizations, including the financier George Soros, after the president urged investigations of the funders of Antifa.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Gary Shapley | Acting Commissioner of Internal Revenue (IRS) | As the Hunter Biden auditor tapped to lead the IRS criminal investigation division, he planned a list of left-leaning donors and organizations to examine, including the financier George Soros, and said he would let ‘evidence, not politics’ guide the agency’s decisions on tax probes. |
The D.C. Triumphal Arch
Opportunity Score: 4 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 116
The administration announced plans to build a 250-foot triumphal arch on the National Mall to mark the country’s 250th anniversary, a project Vietnam War veterans sued to block arguing the project lacks required congressional approval and will disrupt historic sightlines and the solemnity of nearby Arlington National Cemetery.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Vince Haley | Director of the Domestic Policy Council | Was put in charge of the administration’s plan to build a triumphal arch on the National Mall for the country’s 250th anniversary, a project Trump called his ‘primary thing.’ |
The White House-DOJ Guidance
Opportunity Score: 4 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 176
The White House issued non-legally binding guidance explicitly allowing the President and Vice President to discuss ongoing criminal and civil cases with the attorney general and her deputies, after prior administrations had established tighter procedural curbs and narrow communication channels to shield specific law enforcement decisions from partisan or inappropriate influences.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| David Warrington | White House Counsel | Established the non-legally binding guidance explicitly allowing the President and Vice President to discuss ongoing criminal and civil cases with the attorney general and her deputies. |
The Strategic Bitcoin Reserve
Opportunity Score: 4 Controversy: MEDIUM Event ID: 189
In March 2025, Trump announced and then signed an executive order creating a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve from the government’s seized bitcoin and a digital-asset stockpile for other coins, a move that sent XRP, Solana, and Cardano prices soaring and drew criticism from economists over the president’s personal crypto holdings.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Bo Hines | Executive Director of the President’s Council of Advisors on Digital Assets | As executive director of the President’s Council of Advisers on Digital Assets, stated on March 24, 2025 that the White House was exploring selling part of the U.S. gold reserve to buy more bitcoin, and defended the president’s accumulation of crypto as accumulating ‘assets for the American people.’ |
The Student Loan Forgiveness Rescission
Opportunity Score: 3 Controversy: LOW Event ID: 66
The Department of Education finalized a rule that would deny Public Service Loan Forgiveness to public workers such as teachers and nurses at employers deemed to have a ‘substantial illegal purpose,’ which opponents said would let it punish sanctuary cities and LGBTQIA+ and trans communities, drawing lawsuits from states and unions.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Linda McMahon | Secretary of Education | Was directed by Executive Order 14235 to propose revisions to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness rules to exclude organizations with a ‘substantial illegal purpose,’ and her department published the final rule in the Federal Register on October 31, 2025. |