Tag

#second-term

9 incidents

Grade 2 of 5: Major Abuse of Power

2025 Tariff Shock: Sweeping Import Taxes Trigger Global Trade Crisis

The tariff regime was described by the administration as reciprocal response to trade imbalances, but the methodology for calculating tariff rates — dividing trade deficits by import values — was not a recognized economic method and did not reflect actual foreign tariff levels. Economists across the political spectrum warned of consumer price increases, supply chain disruptions, and reduced trade volumes. The tariffs on Chinese goods — reaching 145% cumulatively — effectively ended routine trade in many product categories. Markets fell sharply in the two trading days following the announcement. A 90-day pause was announced for most countries (excluding China) after Treasury Secretary Bessent and other officials lobbied Trump.

Grade 2 of 5: Major Abuse of Power

Department of Education: Near-Abolition and Mass Staff Terminations

The Department of Education serves approximately 50 million K-12 students through Title I funding to schools serving low-income students, special education grants under IDEA, and civil rights enforcement under Title IX and other statutes. It administers the federal student loan system covering 43 million borrowers. The mass staff reductions — 1,315 employees laid off in a reduction in force announced on March 11, 2025 (which, together with buyouts, roughly halved the department's staff) — severely affected the agency's capacity to process loan applications, investigate civil rights complaints, and distribute funding to schools. Schools serving the highest-need students, which depend most heavily on Title I funding, faced the greatest uncertainty.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Second-Term Transgender Military Ban: Executive Order 14183

The second-term ban was broader and more immediately disruptive than the first-term version. Executive Order 14183 directed the Secretary of Defense to update medical standards within 60 days and to issue implementing guidance within 30 days, mandating that transgender service members serve in their birth sex or face discharge. Service members who had been receiving hormone therapy and other gender-affirming medical care under a Biden-era policy would have that care immediately terminated. Legal challenges were filed promptly; district courts issued preliminary injunctions in March 2025, and in May 2025 the Supreme Court stayed one of them. Estimates of the number affected range from the 4,240 service members the Pentagon said in December 2024 had been diagnosed with gender dysphoria to advocacy estimates of about 15,000 transgender service members.

Grade 4 of 5: Critical Rights and Rule-of-Law Concern

DOGE: Musk-Led Dismantlement of Federal Agencies Without Congressional Authorization

DOGE operated as an unaccountable parallel executive structure. Musk's associates accessed federal payment systems, personnel databases, Social Security administration data, IRS systems, and classified networks. Congress had not authorized DOGE to exist, to fire employees, or to redirect agency funds. Courts issued numerous injunctions against DOGE actions. Multiple agencies had their websites taken offline, their career employees locked out, and their operations functionally suspended within weeks of inauguration. USAID was effectively eliminated — folded into the State Department without Congressional action — ending decades of foreign assistance infrastructure. Federal workers who objected or filed suit faced retaliation.

Grade 4 of 5: Critical Rights and Rule-of-Law Concern

Second-Term Mass Deportations: Largest Enforcement Operation in U.S. History

The administration declared a national emergency at the border on January 20, 2025, and directed federal military and law enforcement resources toward immigration enforcement. ICE operations expanded significantly; worksite raids and community arrests became routine. The administration deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national with a U.S. court order protecting him from removal to El Salvador, to CECOT on March 15, 2025; a federal judge ordered the government to facilitate his return, and the Supreme Court upheld that requirement; the administration resisted for weeks before returning him on June 6, 2025 to face criminal charges in Tennessee. The ACLU and other organizations documented multiple U.S. citizens and green card holders wrongly detained. Trump characterized the deportation operations as removing 'the worst, most violent criminals' despite documented cases of individuals with no criminal history being targeted.

Grade 2 of 5: Major Abuse of Power

Schedule F and Federal Worker Purge: Dismantling Civil Service Protections

Schedule F's reclassification potentially covered hundreds of thousands of federal workers, stripping civil service protections that prevent politically-motivated firing. The 'deferred resignation' buyout offer — which OPM claimed would allow employees to stop working but continue receiving pay until late September 2025 — was criticized as legally uncertain, including under the Antideficiency Act; a federal judge in Massachusetts briefly paused the deadline in February 2025 but then ruled that the unions challenging it lacked standing. Tens of thousands of workers accepted. Agencies including USAID, the Department of Education, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau were simultaneously subject to mass reductions in force. By spring 2025, an estimated 100,000+ federal workers had left or been terminated.

Grade 2 of 5: Major Abuse of Power

Second-Term Press Attacks: AP Barred From Press Pool, Pool Access Restricted

The AP's exclusion from press pool events — a credentialed, nonpartisan wire service — was triggered by the AP's editorial decision to continue using 'Gulf of Mexico' rather than 'Gulf of America,' the name Trump had issued an executive order to adopt. AP's position was that it followed geographic naming standards and could not adopt a contested renaming while it was politically motivated. Press freedom organizations condemned the exclusion as retaliation against a news organization for its editorial decisions.

Grade 4 of 5: Critical Rights and Rule-of-Law Concern

Annexation Threats: Greenland, Panama Canal, Canada — Territorial Expansionism

Trump's January 7, 2025 press conference at Mar-a-Lago was the clearest statement of the annexation posture: asked whether he would rule out military force to take Greenland, he said 'no.' Asked about economic coercion of Canada, he said tariffs were possible. His son Donald Trump Jr. visited Greenland on what was described as a personal trip days before the press conference, raising diplomatic concerns. Denmark's prime minister stated that Greenland was not for sale. Greenland's prime minister stated Greenland's future was for Greenlanders to decide. Panama's president said the canal was and would remain Panamanian. Canada's prime minister described the threats as unacceptable.

Grade 1 of 5: Significant Democratic Concern

NATO Article 5 Threats: Encouraging Russia to Attack Allies Who Don't Pay

NATO's collective defense commitment under Article 5 — that an attack against one member is an attack against all — was the foundational guarantee that had maintained European security for 75 years. Trump's statement that he would encourage Russia to attack members he deemed to be underpaying undermined the credibility of the deterrence that Article 5 provided. NATO allies condemned the statements as dangerous; European leaders described them as a fundamental threat to the alliance's deterrence value. In his second term, Trump continued pressing NATO members with threats of U.S. withdrawal contingent on spending levels, while simultaneously pursuing a Ukraine peace framework that European allies described as favorable to Russia.