39 not in the printed deck (Promoted: 0) · 144 events in the todo/rejected work files — generated from the 2025/supporters.yaml Promoted-0 list and the work files (scandals_todo.yaml and scandals_rejected.yaml)
Rejected
Supporters not in the printed deck (39)
Promoted: 0 - kept in supporters.yaml for reference and revival.
- Abigail Jackson — White House Spokesperson
- Alexa Henning — White House Deputy Chief of Staff
- Andrea Gacki — Director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN)
- Andrew N. Ferguson — Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
- Andrew S. Boutros — U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois
- Caroline A. Crenshaw — Commissioner of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission
- Dan Caine — Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS)
- David Eisner — Political Appointee, U.S. Department of the Treasury
- David Richardson — Acting Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
- Doug Collins — Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA)
- Frank M. Bradley — Commander of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC)
- Garey Rice — Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Operations (HHS)
- Jim Jordan — U.S. Representative (Ohio 4th district), Chair of the House Judiciary Committee
- John Phelan — Secretary of the Navy
- Jonathan Morrison — Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)
- Joseph Popolo Jr. — United States Ambassador to the Netherlands
- Joshua J. Smith — Deputy Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP)
- Lakshmi Panagiotakopoulos — CDC Official Overseeing Updates to the Agency’s COVID-19 Vaccine Recommendations
- Laura Grimm — Acting Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
- Lori Chavez-DeRemer — Secretary of Labor
- Louis DeJoy — Postmaster General of the United States (USPS)
- Mark Hall — Senior Adviser to White House Border Czar Tom Homan
- Mark Paoletta — General Counsel of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
- Marty Makary — Commissioner of Food and Drugs (FDA)
- Mary Anne Carter — Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)
- Matthew Vaeth — Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
- Melania Trump — First Lady of the United States
- Melinda Hildebrand — United States Ambassador to Costa Rica
- Michael Kratsios — Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP)
- Nicholas Kent — Under Secretary of Education
- Nick Clemens — Special Assistant to the President and Communications Director for the First Lady
- Paul S. Atkins — Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
- Sara Brenner — Acting Commissioner of Food and Drugs (FDA)
- Scott Kupor — Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM)
- Sean M. Curran — Director of the U.S. Secret Service
- Steven A. Stebbins — Acting Inspector General of the Department of Defense (DoD)
- Thomas Corry — Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs (HHS)
- Troy Meink — Secretary of the Air Force
- William K. Marshall III — Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP)
Events rejected (scandals_rejected.yaml) (58)
Pre-Inauguration Meme Coins #3
Donald Trump launched a personal cryptocurrency “meme coin” days before taking office, raising millions for the incoming president.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Donald Trump Jr. | Executive Vice President of The Trump Organization | Served as executive vice president of The Trump Organization, whose affiliate CIC Digital LLC issued the $TRUMP coin, and as ‘Web3 ambassador’ of the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial venture. |
Rejected: Rejected on editorial grounds as a low-controversy single-supporter card to trim the event deck toward the 50-70 target: the pre-inauguration Trump meme-coin launch is documented only as widely-reported fact, with no named-congressional, legal, or petition-based reaction in the sourced coverage.
First Lady’s Token Launch #4
The First Lady launched the $MELANIA cryptocurrency coin the day before the inauguration, selling it through a company she incorporated while her sons’ Trump Organization affiliate, which had sold NFTs in 2022 that made millions before falling dramatically in value for their owners, co-owned the token’s sales site, and the coin crashed from its peak as Democratic lawmakers asked regulators to investigate the Trump family’s meme coins.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Donald Trump Jr. | Executive Vice President of The Trump Organization | Served as executive vice president of The Trump Organization, whose affiliate CIC Digital LLC co-owned Fight Fight Fight LLC, the company that operated the website selling the $MELANIA token. |
| Eric Trump | Executive Vice President of The Trump Organization | Served alongside his brother as executive vice president of The Trump Organization, whose CIC Digital affiliate co-owned the Fight Fight Fight LLC website that sold the $MELANIA token. |
| Melania Trump | First Lady of the United States | Launched the $MELANIA coin on January 19, 2025, the day before the inauguration, and wrote on X that ‘The Official Melania Meme is live! You can now buy $Melania,’ with the token coming from her own incorporated company, MKT World LLC. |
Rejected: Deck-size prune: the token launch was a host card for Melania Trump, a score-3 supporter pruned from the printable deck in this pass; the card is trimmed from the event deck to shrink the deck.
Vietnam Golf Project Fast-Track #6
The Vietnamese government approved a $1.5 billion Trump Organization golf development, bypassing domestic legal hurdles during tariff negotiations with Washington.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Eric Trump | Executive Vice President of The Trump Organization | Co-signed the September 2024 Trump Organization partnership agreement with KBC chairman Dang Thanh Tam and traveled to Vietnam in May 2025 to unveil the project at its groundbreaking ceremony. |
Rejected: Rejected on editorial grounds as a low-controversy single-supporter card to trim the event deck toward the 50-70 target: the Vietnam golf project fast-track drew no documented public reaction.
Inaugural Fund Ambassadorships #10
Multiple high-dollar donors who contributed up to $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund were nominated for foreign ambassadorships, including postings to Costa Rica and the Netherlands.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Joseph Popolo Jr. | United States Ambassador to the Netherlands | Was a Trump megadonor nominated and confirmed as U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands, one of a group of high-dollar donors the administration tapped for key diplomatic posts. |
| Melinda Hildebrand | United States Ambassador to Costa Rica | Was nominated by Trump as U.S. Ambassador to Costa Rica, one of a group of high-dollar donors the administration tapped for key diplomatic posts. |
Rejected: Deck-size prune: both supporters, Melinda Hildebrand and Joseph Popolo Jr., carried the lowest opportunity score in the deck; removing them leaves no supporter with a documented, sourced role.
Easter Roll Corporate Sponsorships #11
The White House faced scrutiny for funding its Easter Egg Roll by soliciting corporate sponsors with major regulatory business pending before federal agencies.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Melania Trump | First Lady of the United States | Hosted the first corporate-sponsored White House Easter Egg Roll, whose VIP sponsorship packages included access to a White House brunch she hosted. |
Rejected: Deck-size prune: a low-controversy single-supporter card for Melania Trump, a score-3 supporter pruned from the printable deck in this pass; the card is trimmed from the event deck to shrink the deck.
Insider Trading Leaks #12
Administration officials allegedly leaked confidential trade talk updates directly to friendly Wall Street firms ahead of public announcements, sparking outrage over state-sponsored market manipulation.
Rejected: Insufficient evidence: no retrievable source names the officials who briefed Wall Street on the January 2025 tariff plans, the primary FT report is paywalled, and no secondary coverage was found, so no supporter met the sourced-role requirement; the full search log is in research/012.md.
The Mar-a-Lago Foreign Delegation Bidding #13
Internal memos revealed foreign diplomats were quietly offered preferential seating near the President’s table at Mar-a-Lago in exchange for booking massive corporate events at the resort.
Rejected: No retrievable source documents the internal memo offering foreign diplomats preferential seating in exchange for corporate event bookings at Mar-a-Lago.
Trump Wine Mandate #14
State Department internal guidance suggested that official embassy events use Trump-branded wines for diplomatic toasts whenever feasible.
Rejected: No retrievable source documented a State Department directive for Trump wine at embassy events; the only documented Trump-wine government event was wine and cider sales at military exchanges, which named no official.
The Secret Service Golf Cart Gouging #15
The Secret Service signed a $550,930 golf cart rental contract to support protective operations at the President’s own golf club.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Sean M. Curran | Director of the U.S. Secret Service | As director of the U.S. Secret Service, he oversaw the signing of a $550,930 golf cart rental contract and an $80,385 portable restroom contract to support protective operations at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey. |
Rejected: Unique pair: the sole supporter, Sean M. Curran, appears on no other accepted card.
The DOJ Crypto Case Shutdown #18
The Deputy Attorney General issued a memo dropping active, Biden-era financial investigations into several cryptocurrency firms despite holding personal investments in those same markets.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Todd Blanche | Deputy Attorney General | Issued the April 7, 2025 memo ending active Biden-era investigations into cryptocurrency firms while he held between $159,000 and $485,000 in personal cryptocurrency investments including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and Cardano. |
Rejected: Rejected on editorial grounds as a low-controversy single-supporter card to trim the event deck toward the 50-70 target: the quiet closure of the DOJ crypto case drew no documented public reaction.
Crypto Fraud Unit Dissolution #19
The DOJ entirely disbanded its specialized enforcement unit dedicated to investigating cryptocurrency fraud and international money laundering.
Rejected: No separate unit disbandment exists beyond the April 7, 2025 Blanche memo already documented on the accepted card “The DOJ Crypto Case Shutdown”, so no distinct supporter can be sourced for this card.
Dismissal of Top Ethics Adviser #20
The Attorney General fired the Department of Justice’s top ethics adviser, Joseph Tirrell, in July 2025, alongside at least 20 other staffers.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Pam Bondi | Attorney General | Fired the Department of Justice’s top ethics adviser, Joseph Tirrell, a 16-year career official who oversaw the department’s ethics staff, in a July 2025 purge that also removed at least 20 other staffers linked to the Jack Smith investigations. |
Rejected: Rejected on editorial grounds as a low-controversy single-supporter card to trim the event deck toward the 50-70 target: the dismissal of the top ethics adviser drew no documented public reaction.
J6 Defendant Prosecution Quashed #23
The interim U.S. attorney for D.C. halted the prosecution of January 6th defendant Joseph Padilla, whom he had represented in private practice.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Ed Martin | U.S. Pardon Attorney and Director of the Weaponization Working Group | As the interim U.S. Attorney for D.C., he personally submitted the motion to dismiss the federal charges against Joseph Padilla, a January 6th defendant he had represented in private practice. |
Rejected: Rejected on editorial grounds as a low-controversy single-supporter card to trim the event deck toward the 50-70 target: the quashed J6 defendant prosecution drew no documented public reaction.
The Joseph Schwarz Pardon #26
Trump pardoned a convicted nursing home mogul who had served only three months of a major fraud sentence involving patient neglect, following a $1 million payment to Trump-connected lobbyists.
Rejected: No supporter could be sourced with a qualifying role: the documented actors were the pardoned nursing-home owner (the object of the event), President Trump (the subject of the set), and outside paid lobbyists hired by the client, while no administration official had a distinct sourced role in this pardon.
The Trevor Milton Pardon #27
Nikola founder Trevor Milton was granted a full presidential pardon after donating hundreds of thousands of dollars to pro-Trump Super PACs [Campaign Legal].
Rejected: No supporter could be sourced with a qualifying role - the documented actors were the pardoned Nikola founder (the object of the event), President Trump (the subject of the set), and outside paid attorneys hired by his defense, and no administration official had a distinct sourced role in this pardon.
The Timothy Leiweke Pardon #28
Former sports executive Timothy Leiweke was pardoned following a multi-million dollar arena bidding-fraud case, occurring directly after his lawyer golfed with Trump at Mar-a-Lago.
Rejected: No supporter could be sourced with a qualifying role - the documented actors were the pardoned entertainment executive (the object of the event), President Trump (the subject of the set), and client-hired outside attorney Trey Gowdy, whose last office ended in 2019, and no administration official had a distinct sourced role in this pardon.
The Hunter Biden Retroactive Sentence Push #29
The DOJ attempted to override existing judicial agreements to retroactively maximize prison terms for Hunter Biden, ignoring established sentencing guidelines.
Rejected: No retrievable source documented a DOJ attempt to override judicial agreements and retroactively increase the sentence of Hunter Biden; he had already been pardoned by his father in December 2024, and his only 2025 legal events were disbarment proceedings, so no supporter met the sourced-role requirement.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons Purge #31
BOP Director Colette Peters resigned on inauguration day and acting director William Lothrop retired within weeks, and Trump filled the top posts with a state corrections chief and his own pardon recipient.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| William K. Marshall III | Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) | Took over the BOP as Trump’s new director and announced the appointment of pardoned former inmate Joshua J. Smith as deputy director in a staff memo calling it unprecedented. |
| Joshua J. Smith | Deputy Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) | Served five years in federal prison on drug charges and, after a 2021 presidential pardon, was named the BOP’s deputy director in June 2025 as the agency’s first formerly incarcerated leader. |
Rejected: Research found no retrievable source documenting the claimed overnight warden replacement or any distinct sourced action beyond Trump appointing the two officials, so the card was parked pending further items for Marshall or Smith.
Fulton County Intervention #32
The DOJ issued unprecedented letters attempting to legally block the state-level racketeering case against Trump in Fulton County, Georgia, claiming executive immunity over ongoing state prosecutions.
Rejected: No retrievable source documented a DOJ letter asserting executive immunity to block the Fulton County racketeering case; the case ended November 26, 2025, when the state prosecutor dropped the charges, and no administration official was tied to a DOJ intervention in it; the full search log is in research/032.md.
Pre-emptive White House Staff Pardons #33
Rumors and leaked drafts emerged detailing blanket, unnamed pre-emptive pardons for lower-level White House aides involved in early executive actions.
Rejected: No retrievable source in this timeline documents rumored or leaked pre-emptive pardon drafts for White House staff; the documented 2025 pre-emptive pardons (the Jan 20 Biden clemencies and the Nov 2025 fake-electors proclamation) do not match the event as described.
Hegseth Family Stock Portfolio #36
Pete Hegseth’s wife held thousands of dollars in active defense contractor stocks while he actively directed Pentagon purchasing agreements.
Rejected: No supporter with a documented, sourced role was found — the event involves only the subject (Secretary of Defense Hegseth, whose purchasing role is his office’s status) and his wife, a private citizen whose stock holdings are a status rather than a sourced action.
Elon Musk’s Conflict of Interest #37
Elon Musk was appointed to lead a broad federal efficiency program (DOGE) with deep access to confidential agency data while simultaneously running massive corporations heavily regulated by those exact agencies.
Rejected: The event is too broad to be a card: the ongoing dual role of Musk as DOGE leader and owner of the firms regulated by the agencies DOGE accessed is a general structural conflict of interest rather than a discrete event, and no administration member has a documented, sourced role.
The Tulsi Gabbard Intelligence Boycott #42
Several NATO allies quietly limited intelligence-sharing with the U.S. following Tulsi Gabbard’s confirmation as Director of National Intelligence due to her past controversial foreign policy statements.
Rejected: No source documents a role for any administration supporter in the curbs: the documented actors are external NATO and Five Eyes allies reacting to the DNI confirmation, while the named subject role (confirmed-DNI status and past statements) is not a distinct sourced action.
HUD Fund Diversion #43
The Department of Housing and Urban Development faced a probe after billions in urban development grants were frozen and diverted exclusively to rural development projects in swing-state districts.
Rejected: No retrievable source documents urban development (CDBG) grants being diverted to rural swing-state districts or a probe of that diversion; the documented 2025 HUD events (the general federal grant freeze, fair-housing probes HUD launched against blue-state cities, and a congressional demand to investigate its homelessness-grant handling) do not match the event as described.
The Vivek Ramaswamy Bureaucracy Liquidations #44
As part of the efficiency push, Ramaswamy ordered the complete deletion of regional EPA offices, leaving thousands of toxic spill sites without local monitoring.
Rejected: No retrievable source documents the described deletion of EPA regional offices or the resulting loss of monitoring at toxic spill sites, and Ramaswamy is named in none of the retrieved EPA coverage of the closest documented 2025 threads.
The Labor Secretary Union Blacklist #45
The Department of Labor instituted a fast-track decertification program for federal employee unions, bypassing statutory notice and comment periods.
Rejected: No retrievable source documents a Department of Labor fast-track decertification program or union blacklist - the documented 2025 stripping of federal employee unions’ bargaining rights was carried out by presidential executive orders (March and August 2025) plus an HHS de-recognition of CDC unions, and no fetched source assigns the Labor Secretary a role in any of them.
Online Resource Scrubbing #48
Federal agencies systematically deleted public online databases, climate registries, and civil rights resources from government websites.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Garey Rice | Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Operations (HHS) | Declared in a February 2025 court filing that DOGE employees embedded in HHS had full access to all unclassified agency records and software and IT systems, and were tasked with destroying or erasing copied HHS data. |
Rejected: Unique pair: the sole supporter, Garey Rice, appears on no other accepted card.
Schedule G Civil Service Overhaul #49
Trump signed an executive order on July 17, 2025, creating Schedule G, a new at-will federal hiring category for policy roles expected to turn over with each presidential transition, with the Department of Veterans Affairs cited as the example agency.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Doug Collins | Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA) | Was directed by the order to consider whether Schedule G candidates at the Department of Veterans Affairs would be suitable exponents of the President’s policies. |
| Scott Kupor | Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) | Issued the Office of Personnel Management’s July 29, 2025 guidance requiring every Schedule G appointment to be reviewed and approved by the White House through the agency’s White House liaison. |
Rejected: Deck-size prune: both supporters, Scott Kupor and Doug Collins, carried the lowest opportunity score in the deck; removing them leaves no supporter with a documented, sourced role.
Withholding Climate Funds #54
NOAA terminated over $9 million in congressionally appropriated climate resilience awards in May 2025, and Washington State Attorney General Nick Brown sued the administration in federal court before a judge ordered the funds released.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Laura Grimm | Acting Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) | As Acting Administrator of NOAA, she led the agency when it terminated, effective immediately on May 5, 2025, the $9.3 million Tribal Stewards climate resilience award and the $114,000 coastal resilience award, citing that the award activities no longer effectuated agency priorities. |
Rejected: Unique pair: the sole supporter, Laura Grimm, appears on no other accepted card.
The SEC Crypto Retreat #55
In May 2025, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under Chairman Paul Atkins dropped its lawsuit against Binance, the largest crypto exchange in the world, as the agency retreated from crypto enforcement and turned to regulatory reform.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Caroline A. Crenshaw | Commissioner of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission | As SEC Commissioner, she published a May 8, 2025 statement dissenting from the settlement with Ripple Labs, declaring, ‘I cannot support our settlement.’ |
| Paul S. Atkins | Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) | Oversaw the May 2025 SEC retreat from crypto enforcement, as the agency filed to settle the 2020 case against Ripple and dropped the Binance lawsuit, and delivered the May 12, 2025 keynote at the SEC Crypto Task Force tokenization roundtable outlining the goal of a clear regulatory framework for crypto assets. |
Rejected: Deck-size prune: both supporters, Paul S. Atkins and Caroline A. Crenshaw, carried the lowest opportunity score in the deck; removing them leaves no supporter with a documented, sourced role.
The Endangered Species Act De-listing #57
After a biotech company claimed to have resurrected the dire wolf, the interior secretary called for cutting the endangered species list, arguing that de-extinction could serve as a bedrock for modern species conservation.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Doug Burgum | Secretary of the Interior | Declared in an April 2025 post on X that the endangered species list has become like the Hotel California, that once a species enters they never leave, and that 97 percent of species added to the list remain there because the status quo is focused on regulation more than innovation. |
Rejected: Rejected on editorial grounds as a low-controversy single-supporter card to trim the event deck toward the 50-70 target: the endangered species de-listing drew no documented public reaction.
The OSHA Heat Regulation Repeal #58
The administration rescinded planned workplace safety standards for extreme heat, leading to a wave of state-level worker safety challenges.
Rejected: No retrievable source names an administration official with a role in the rescission - the January 20, 2025 regulatory freeze memorandum was signed by the president alone, the acting Labor Secretary and the acting OSHA head appear in no fetched coverage of the halted heat rulemaking, and the only actors cited in the event coverage are an outside attorney and a union communications director.
Big Tobacco Vape Push #60
The FDA reversed its 2022 ban on Juul’s e-cigarettes, authorizing the company’s device and tobacco and menthol cartridges as senators cited the appearance of a conflict of interest between the administration and the e-cigarette industry.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Marty Makary | Commissioner of Food and Drugs (FDA) | His agency issued marketing grant orders authorizing Juul’s e-cigarette device and tobacco and menthol cartridges, reversing the 2022 ban on the company’s products and prompting a senatorial letter citing the appearance of a conflict of interest between the administration and the e-cigarette industry. |
Rejected: Unique pair: the sole supporter, Marty Makary, appears on no other accepted card.
Nursing Home Rule Revocation #61
The administration repealed a federal nursing home staffing safety standard immediately after industry executives poured millions into a pro-Trump Super PAC.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Robert F. Kennedy Jr. | Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) | As HHS Secretary, in the December 2, 2025 HHS announcement repealing the federal nursing home minimum staffing rule, he stated the administration would safeguard access to care by removing federal barriers rather than imposing requirements that limit patient choice. |
Rejected: Rejected on editorial grounds as a low-controversy single-supporter card to trim the event deck toward the 50-70 target: the documented reaction to the staffing-rule repeal is the reporting on the industry-donations link and the White House denial, with no named-expert, congressional, or legal pushback recorded.
The Bounty-Hunter Bounty #64
DHS opened a no-cap program paying private bounty hunters and surveillance firms per-case fees and speed bonuses to locate immigrants targeted for removal.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Kristi Noem | Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) | Turned to private bounty hunters to supplement a faltering ICE recruitment drive for the mass-deportation push. |
Rejected: Rejected on editorial grounds as a low-controversy single-supporter card to trim the event deck toward the 50-70 target: the bounty-hunter bounty program drew no documented public reaction.
The Lindell Audit Intervention #86
A Treasury political appointee intervened with senior IRS officials on behalf of wealthy allies of the President, urging a review of their tax audits and asserting they had been inappropriately targeted, a move a former IRS taxpayer advocate called so inappropriate that it marked a sea change in how political appointees engage the tax agency.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| David Eisner | Political Appointee, U.S. Department of the Treasury | As a political appointee at the Treasury Department, he wrote to senior IRS staff in March 2025 that MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, whom he called a ‘high profile friend of the president,’ had received a second audit letter in two years and was ‘concerned that he may have been inappropriately targeted,’ then repeated the intervention a week later on behalf of Kansas state Sen. Rick Kloos. |
Rejected: Unique pair: the sole supporter, David Eisner, appears on no other accepted card.
The National Endowment for the Arts Defunding #89
Executive orders, including one that scientists said got the biology wrong, led the National Endowment for the Arts to bar funding for programs promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion or gender ideology, and the agency revoked dozens of arts grants as Trump proposed eliminating it.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Mary Anne Carter | Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) | Served as a senior adviser to the endowment and was nominated to lead the agency days after the administration proposed eliminating it. |
Rejected: Deck-size prune: a single-supporter card for Mary Anne Carter, a score-3 supporter pruned from the printable deck in this pass; the card is trimmed from the event deck to shrink the deck.
The Ousting of the Cyber Command Chief #93
The administration abruptly fired General Timothy Haugh, the four-star general leading both the National Security Agency and US Cyber Command, a move Democrats decried as leaving the country exposed at a time of unprecedented cyber threats.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Pete Hegseth | Secretary of Defense | Directed by Trump to dismiss Haugh from the head of the NSA and US Cyber Command. |
Rejected: Rejected on editorial grounds as a low-controversy single-supporter card to trim the event deck toward the 50-70 target: the ousting of the Cyber Command chief drew no documented public reaction.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics Leak #94
Key inflation data was leaked to select trading groups hours before public release, causing immediate chaos on the stock market floor.
Rejected: No retrievable 2025 source documents a BLS leak of inflation data to select trading groups before release; the documented 2025 BLS events are Trump’s Aug 1, 2025 firing of Commissioner Erika McEntarfer over a weak jobs report and the shutdown-era CPI delays - a firing hours after release and a data blackout, not a leak to traders.
The National Weather Service Muzzling #95
Meteorologists were instructed not to use terms related to climate shift in public forecasts during a historic hurricane season.
Rejected: No retrievable 2025 source documents an instruction to NWS meteorologists not to use climate-related terms in public forecasts; the documented 2025 NWS/NOAA events are the Feb 13, 2025 clearance limits on scientists’ external communications, the Feb 27, 2025 OPM mass firings of ~880 staff, the “Gulf of America” map renaming, and the Jul 2025 confirmation hearing of NOAA nominee Neil Jacobs - communications limits, layoffs, a geographic rename, and a hearing, not a climate-terminology directive in forecasts.
The Census Data Interruption #97
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency targeted the Census Bureau’s ongoing surveys, terminating several as ‘wasteful’ and reviewing the rest one by one, threatening the agency’s ability to prepare for the next decennial census.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Elon Musk | Head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE); CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and X | His DOGE unit launched a ‘2025 Survey of Surveys’ review of the Census Bureau’s data-collection work, terminating five surveys costing $16.5 million as wasteful and reviewing more than 100 others one by one. |
Rejected: Rejected on editorial grounds as a low-controversy single-supporter card to trim the event deck toward the 50-70 target: the census data interruption drew no documented public reaction.
The Emergency Broadcast System Misuse #98
The administration used the national mobile alert infrastructure to broadcast political policy announcements directly to citizens.
Rejected: No retrievable 2025 source documents the administration using the national mobile alert (Wireless Emergency Alert / Emergency Alert System) infrastructure to broadcast political policy announcements; the documented 2025 mobile-alert events are the Jan 9, 2025 L.A. County erroneous evacuation alert, the Jul 26, 2025 Warren County (Ohio) accidental shelter-in-place alert, and the administration’s hold on emergency-alert funding - county operational errors and a funding freeze, not a political broadcast by the administration.
The Bovino Reporting Line #101
In a September 2025 email to Homeland Security leaders, Customs and Border Protection officer Gregory Bovino stated that in matters of interior immigration enforcement he reported directly to Lewandowski, not to the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Todd Lyons.
Rejected: Rejected as overly broad: the September 2025 email revealed a standing reporting arrangement (Bovino reporting directly to Lewandowski rather than to the acting ICE director), which was a general structural fact about how interior immigration enforcement was run rather than a discrete event; the research was retained in research/101.md for future Bovino-related cards.
The Meta AI Review of the Fork in the Road Emails #114
Materials viewed by WIRED showed that the administration’s DOGE used Meta’s open-source Llama 2 model to review and classify federal workers’ responses to the ‘Fork in the Road’ email, sorting the replies to determine how many accepted the deferred-resignation offer.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| 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 email service that sent out the ‘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. |
Rejected: Folded into card 105 per the user’s instruction of 2026-09-14 (the fork emails and their handling are one event), so this standalone card would duplicate it.
The Packing of the Fine Arts Commission #120
After firing all six members of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, Trump quietly installed loyalists who in February 2026 voted 6-0 to approve the $400 million White House ballroom project despite public comments that were overwhelmingly in opposition.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Mary Anne Carter | Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) | Was appointed by Trump on January 14, 2026 to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, the panel that in February 2026 voted 6-0 to approve the White House ballroom project. |
Rejected: Deck-size prune: a low-controversy single-supporter card for Mary Anne Carter, a score-3 supporter pruned from the printable deck in this pass; the card is trimmed from the event deck to shrink the deck.
The SEC Climate Rule Defense Withdrawal #121
In March 2025, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) voted to stop defending the 2024 climate-related disclosure rule in the Eighth Circuit, where challenges to the rule are consolidated, leaving the Biden-era rule on the books but undefended in court.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Caroline A. Crenshaw | Commissioner of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission | As SEC Commissioner, she published a statement after the Commission’s March 27, 2025 vote, calling the attempt to dismantle the rule ‘by way of politics’ and an attempt to ‘unlawfully’ circumvent the Administrative Procedure Act. |
Rejected: Rejected on editorial grounds as a low-controversy single-supporter card to trim the event deck toward the 50-70 target: the quiet SEC withdrawal from defending the climate rule drew no documented public reaction.
The Firing of U.S. Attorney Beckwith #126
Acting U.S. Attorney Michele Beckwith was fired by Trump after she insisted on following a court order restricting the California immigration raids, telling the Border Patrol’s field commander to follow it.
Rejected: No retrievable live source documents the firing; the primary report (The New York Times, Sep 26 2025) now 404s via its archive.nytimes.com redirect and no alternative article URL could be recovered.
The Gabbard NSA Firing #139
The Director of National Intelligence fired more than 100 intelligence officers over group-chat messages on the National Security Agency’s secure intranet about pronouns, gender transition, and polyamory deemed sexually explicit, and their security clearances were revoked.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Tulsi Gabbard | Director of National Intelligence (DNI) | She issued the directive to terminate more than 100 employees across the intelligence community who participated in the NSA’s ‘sexually explicit’ chatrooms and to revoke their security clearances. |
| Alexa Henning | White House Deputy Chief of Staff | She posted on X that the DNI’s memo directed all intelligence agencies to identify employees who participated in the NSA’s ‘obscene, pornographic, and sexually explicit’ chatrooms, terminate their employment, and revoke their security clearances. |
Rejected: Rejected as policy enforcement rather than a scandal: the DNI terminated employees over the content of their group chats and revoked their clearances, with no documented misconduct by an administration official. Although this seemed to border anti-DEI actions, the controversy seems low.
The NIH Gender-Keyword Grant Termination #140
The National Institutes of Health terminated hundreds of active research grants containing keywords relating to LGBT people and gender identity, including at least 68 grants focused on LGBTQ health research.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Jay Bhattacharya | Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) | In his first public remarks as director, he defended the terminations of grants on topics such as transgender health, explaining that NIH’s ‘limited resources’ did not extend to studying ‘anything I want.’ |
Rejected: Rejected on editorial grounds as a low-controversy single-supporter card to trim the event deck toward the 50-70 target: the NIH gender-keyword grant termination drew no documented public reaction.
The Enbridge Line 5 Reroute #142
The Army Corps of Engineers issued a federal permit for Enbridge’s $450 million reroute of the Line 5 oil pipeline around the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa’s reservation in northern Wisconsin, which the tribe argued would violate its water quality standards after a 2023 federal judge ordered the pipeline removed from tribal lands by June 2026.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Adam Telle | Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works (USACE) | As assistant secretary of the Army for civil works, he called the permit ‘a great success’ that ‘will advance the president’s energy dominance agenda for America,’ and described the decision as a balanced approach consistent with statutory direction. |
Rejected: Rejected on editorial grounds as a low-controversy single-supporter card to trim the event deck toward the 50-70 target: the Army Corps permit for the Line 5 reroute is documented as a permit decision amid the tribal water-quality objection, with no named-congressional, legal, or petition-based reaction recorded.
The Artemis III Rebid #148
NASA reopened the bidding for the Artemis III lunar lander contract held by SpaceX after its progress stalled, triggering a days-long public feud in which Elon Musk attacked Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on X.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Sean P. Duffy | Secretary of Transportation | As acting NASA administrator, he said SpaceX was behind schedule and reopened the bidding for the Artemis III lunar lander contract, prompting Elon Musk’s days-long attacks on him on X. |
Rejected: Rejected as routine agency action rather than a scandal: NASA reopening the Artemis III lunar lander bidding after the incumbent contractor’s progress stalled was standard contract oversight, and the documented fallout was the vendor’s CEO attacking the acting administrator on X rather than misconduct by an administration official.
The Library of Congress Standoff #161
After the White House fired Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, Trump appointed Deputy Attorney General Blanche as acting librarian, and a standoff erupted at the James Madison Memorial Building when two Justice Department officials claimed his authority to access the Copyright Office and library staff called the Capitol Police.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Todd Blanche | Deputy Attorney General | Was named acting Librarian of Congress on May 12, 2025, and stood at the center of the standoff at the James Madison Memorial Building when Justice Department officials claimed his authority to access the Copyright Office and library staff called the Capitol Police. |
Rejected: Rejected on editorial grounds as a low-controversy single-supporter card to trim the event deck toward the 50-70 target: the Library of Congress standoff drew no documented public reaction.
The Biden Autopen Investigation #175
Trump announced a wide-ranging investigation into former President Joe Biden and his administration, accusing aides of using ‘autopen’ signatures to cover up Biden’s cognitive decline and assert presidential power, and Biden called the probe a ‘distraction,’ saying, ‘Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency.’
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| David Warrington | White House Counsel | Was directed by Trump, jointly with Attorney General Bondi, to investigate whether anyone ‘conspired to deceive the public about Biden’s mental state and unconstitutionally exercise the authorities and responsibilities of the President.’ |
Rejected: Rejected on editorial grounds as political bickering that does not rise to the level of controversy given the current size of the event deck: the documented record centers on the announcement of the probe and Biden’s rebuttal statement.
The Gaza Ceasefire Deal #177
Days before his inauguration, the president-elect threatened ‘hell to pay’ if the hostages were not freed, and the outgoing and incoming teams jointly sealed a three-phase ceasefire ending 15 months of war in Gaza, releasing 33 Israeli hostages for up to 1,904 Palestinian prisoners. The two presidents raced to claim credit for the deal. It collapsed in March after the United Nations and mediators condemned Israel’s aid cut as a ceasefire violation; Israel then resumed a full-scale offensive, and Washington blamed Hamas for the collapse.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Steven Witkoff | Special Envoy | Led the incoming administration’s side of the ceasefire negotiations as the president-elect’s Middle East envoy, landing in Israel on the Jewish Sabbath to press Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept the three-phase deal. |
Rejected: Rejected on editorial grounds as political bickering and a foreign-policy outcome below the controversy bar, with the deck’s Gaza ceasefire story carried by ‘The Gaza Peace Plan’: the documented record centers on the deal and the two-presidents credit fight, and the March collapse - Hamas’s extension refusal, Israel’s aid cut condemned by the UN and mediators, and the resumed offensive - drew an NSC statement blaming Hamas, with no documented administration misconduct.
The Peptide Deregulation #182
As HHS Secretary RFK Jr. moved to lift the federal ban on performance-enhancing peptides, the Enhanced Games — the pro-doping multi-sport event backed by the president’s son’s venture firm 1789 Capital and Peter Thiel — began selling the peptides, aligning the event with the health secretary’s wellness agenda.
Rejected: Rejected on editorial grounds as primarily a 2026 event outside the 2025 set’s scope: the peptide-deregulation push and the Enhanced Games’ launch of peptide sales (Mar–Apr 2026) fell after the set’s 2025 focus, and the 2025 background (the 1789 Capital Series B investment) was a private business act with no documented government actor.
The Korea Wine Payment #187
Base Group, a South Korean company, paid the Trump holding company two million dollars while its aluminum division fought a Commerce Department trade case, building on years of selling Trump-branded wine in South Korea, and Senate Democrats opened a probe into the payment.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Eric Trump | Executive Vice President of The Trump Organization | He publicly expressed his excitement to develop the Trump-branded golf club in Hanam with Base Group and introduce the Trump brand to the Korean market for the first time, having met the chairman of the company at a Florida golf club and been hosted by the company at its Seoul headquarters. |
Rejected: No direct evidence that the president or his family intervened with federal trade officials on behalf of Base Group or Korea Aluminium; the link between the payment and the Commerce case was a Democratic allegation the Trump Organization publicly denied.
The Sanctioned-Entity Token Probe #188
Democratic senators pushed for a probe into World Liberty Financial after reporting alleged sales of the firm’s tokens to buyers in North Korea, Iran, and Russia, and Eric Trump, a co-founder of the firm, called the allegations laughable.
| Supporter | Title | Involvement |
|---|
| Eric Trump | Executive Vice President of The Trump Organization | He called the allegations that the firm had sold its tokens to buyers in sanctioned countries laughable, defending World Liberty Financial against the Senate probe. |
Rejected: No fetchable source documents a specific role for the sole supporter, Eric Trump; the laughable denial appears only in an unreachable CNBC article (sandbox DNS artifact), and the fetchable probe coverage (Il Sole 24 ORE, TradingView/NewsBTC) documents the Warren/Reed letter, the WLFI wallet-breach response, and the analyst pushback but not his denial.
The Moscow Kremlin Talks #195
On Dec 2 2025, the president’s special envoy and son-in-law met Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin for hours on the latest version of the 28-point peace plan, emerging with no compromise on Ukrainian territory as Putin made them wait and blamed Europe for stalling the peace process.
Rejected: Combined into card 179, The 28-Point Ukraine Peace Plan: the Dec 2 2025 Kremlin talks over the same plan were folded into that accepted card per the user’s decision, which gained the president’s son-in-law as a second supporter.