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What Happened Today – June 7

One of the first U.S. Army tanks bound for Trump's birthday parade being loading onto a rail car at Fort Cavazos. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Jose Escamilla)

Yesterday’s Most Popular Story Proud Boys leaders sue DOJ for $100 million over Jan. 6 prosecutions after Trump pardons, forcing his administration to defend Biden-era seditious conspiracy convictions. 👥 ✊ Tanks began arriving in Washington today for Trump’s birthday parade while he orders troops to California to confront protesters, but concerted resistance is beginning. Next … Read more

What Happened Today – June 6

Giani Surinder Singh of the Gurdwara South Jersey Sikh Center delivers the House morning prayer on June 6, 2025. GOP Rep. Mary Miller later attacked Singh in a since-deleted post, calling his prayer "deeply troubling" and claiming America is a "Christian nation." (C-SPAN)

Yesterday’s Most Popular Story Activists organize 1,000 No Kings protests across US on June 14 to counter Trump’s Flag Day parade with nationwide day of defiance against authoritarianism. Click for map. 📱 We all had our phones out, refreshing for Trump-Musk reconciliation updates. Would they talk? Were aides scheduling calls? What about the Tesla? While … Read more

What Happened Today – June 5

Protesters in New York City, which then-Mayor Ed Koch designated a sanctuary city in 1989.

Yesterday’s Most Popular Story Trump puts 22-year-old college graduate with no national security experience in charge of government’s main terrorism prevention office overseeing $18 million in anti-extremism grants. 🍅 Today was surely when flood the zone turned into throw ketchup at the wall. While Trump and Musk’s public meltdown dominated headlines, the real story was … Read more

What Happened Today – June 4

USDA headquarters. Trump officials delayed the department's farm trade report to hide deficit projections that contradicted tariff messaging.

Yesterday’s Most Popular Story Musk calls Trump’s agenda bill a “disgusting abomination” days after leaving his government role, surprising officials who expected private disagreement to remain quiet. 🌊 Elon Musk called Trump’s signature bill a “disgusting abomination” on Tuesday. By Wednesday, the White House had unleashed travel bans, Harvard sanctions, Putin threats, Biden investigations, mass … Read more

What Happened Today – June 3

The future USNS Harvey Milk during acceptance trials in San Diego.

The future USNS Harvey Milk during acceptance trials in San Diego.

Yesterday’s Most Popular Story Rep. Nadler calls Trump administration “fascist” and demands House Judiciary investigation after DHS agents handcuffed his staffer in Manhattan office. ⚫ A democracy dies when systematic erasure makes entire communities disappear while everyone argues about social media posts. The government is stripping Harvey Milk’s name from the ship commissioned in his … Read more

What Happened Today – June 2

Hikers in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. (Photo by Alexis Bonogofsky/USFWS)

Yesterday’s Most Popular Story RESOURCE: Dr. Paul Shattuck published this viral list of 80 small moves to help you resist authoritarianism while staying human. (It was inadvertently omitted from yesterday’s email but was popular enough on the website and in social media to best the others. It’s very good.) ⚖️ The institutions are fighting back … Read more

What Happened Today – June 1

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth meets with Southeast Asian allies in Singapore, May 30, 2025, two days before demanding Australia dramatically increase military spending amid Trump's escalating trade wars and alliance threats. (DoD photo by U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Alexander Kubitza)

Yesterday’s Most Popular Story Trump administration expands Palantir contracts to compile comprehensive database on all Americans from IRS, Social Security, medical and banking records to advance political agenda and police immigrants. 🌀 Reality isn’t just bending; our dystopia is now undeniable. Trump shares a post that Biden was “executed and replaced by clones” while Ernst … Read more

What Happened Today – May 31

The proposed budget eliminates 90% of the Ecosystem Mission Area under the Department of the Interior.

Yesterday’s Most Popular Story OPM announces new federal hiring plan requiring job applicants to answer essay questions about patriotism and commitment to advancing Trump’s executive orders while ending racial quotas and DEI statistics. 💾 The PayPal Mafia’s government data heist is complete. Musk spent months mapping federal systems through DOGE, then “exits” just as his … Read more

What Happened Today – May 30

VAC-HIV research vials from NIH labs, part of the HIV vaccine development programs eliminated by Trump administration budget cuts.

Yesterday’s Most Popular Story Trump administration creates Office of Remigration at State Department to implement far-right European policy aimed at expelling minorities and immigrants. 😈 Malice meets power in the Trump administration, and today the mask was off completely. Today we learned that the administration knew 238 Venezuelans they jailed without trial in El Salvador … Read more

What Happened Today – May 29

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., answering a reporter's question on May 22, 2025, as the Make America Healthy Again report is released.

Yesterday’s Most Popular Story Trump lashed out at a reporter who asked about Wall Street’s “TACO trade” nickname mocking his repeated tariff reversals. 🎪 The incompetence is turning more dangerous. Trump will rally tomorrow to celebrate the exact steel deal he campaigned against, while calling the Federalist Society leader who picked his judges a “sleazebag” … Read more

What Happened Today – May 28

The Trump administration canceled Moderna's $766 million H5N1 bird flu vaccine contract despite the company reporting positive trial results.

Yesterday’s Most Popular Story Visibility Brigade publishes 66-page free toolkit for overpass protests aimed at mobilizing 11 million Americans against Trump. 🏛️ Federal judges are blocking Trump at every turn, but he’s auctioning off American democracy faster than they can stop him. While courts desperately defend constitutional protections for immigrants and strike down illegal tariffs, … Read more

What Happened Today – May 27

Trump's backing of a deal between Nippon Steel & US Steel requires that the government have veto power over key decisions.

Yesterday’s Most Popular Story FBI deputy director Dan Bongino announces renewed investigations into Dobbs leak, January 6 pipe bombs, and White House cocaine discovery under Trump’s new FBI leadership. 💰 The price tags are no longer hidden. Million-dollar fundraisers buy private photo ops with the Vice President while Trump’s company raises billions for bitcoin as … Read more

What Happened Today – May 26

Earthjustice is suing the Trump administration for lifting fishing restrictions in the Pacific Marine National Monument.

Yesterday’s Most Popular Story Interior Secretary Burgum orders national parks to post signs asking visitors to report National Park Service displays that negatively depict American history under Trump’s “Restoring Truth and Sanity” order. 🚨 The center cannot hold when power attacks its own foundations. Trump pardons corrupt sheriffs while calling the Justice Department “corrupt,” attacks … Read more

What Happened Today – May 25

Fed Chair Jerome Powell speaks at Princeton on May 25. (Photo: Matthew Raspanti, Princeton University)

Yesterday’s Most Popular Story Seattle police make 16 arrests at counterprotest to conservative Christian group “Mayday USA” event in Capitol Hill after protesters threw bottles and clashed with officers in riot gear. ⚖️🎭 The scales tip and masks slip as Trump’s authoritarian drift accelerates and weaponizes civil power. He’s still demanding Harvard turn over student … Read more

What Happened Today – May 24

Graduates celebrate at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point today.

Yesterday’s Most Popular Story Trump deregulates nuclear industry with “total reform” of independent Nuclear Regulatory Commission, cutting staff and fast-tracking reactor approvals for AI data centers and defense facilities. ⚡ Even Memorial Day weekend can’t slow the unraveling. Trump turned West Point’s sacred graduation into a MAGA rally while claiming he’s more investigated than Al … Read more

What Happened Today – May 23

The working cooling towers at Three Mile Island are emitting water vapor. The dormant cooling towers are from Unit 2, which was permanently damaged in the 1979 accident. Image courtesy of Constellation Energy.

Yesterday’s Most Popular Story Trump claims autism “has to be artificially induced” while citing inflated statistics at MAHA event. 💼 Trump is weaponizing economic pressure to bend people and companies to his will. Law firms offer millions in tribute, companies cut thousands of jobs as their contracts are canceled while others have to abandon workers … Read more

What Happened Today – May 22

The Treasury Department ordered its final shipment of penny blanks today. Production is expected to end in early 2026.

Yesterday’s Most Popular Story Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem shocks Senate committee by incorrectly defining habeas corpus as presidential power to deport immigrants. 🏴‍☠️💰 They’re not even hiding it anymore. Trump hosts crypto investors at his golf club with the presidential seal while his officials dump stocks before tariff announcements, Vance declares courts shouldn’t check … Read more

What Happened Today – May 21

Secretary of State Marco Rubio meeting with the foreign ministers of the DRC and Rwanda in April 2025.

Yesterday’s Most Popular Story Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem shocks Senate committee by incorrectly defining habeas corpus as presidential power to deport immigrants. 🌍💲✈️ While House Republicans spent today negotiating baby bond names and appeasing budget holdouts, Trump’s government violated court orders to deport migrants, fired independent oversight boards, and accepted a $400 million jet … Read more

What Happened Today – May 20

Trump announcing the U.S. will build a 175 billion dollar missile defense shield in three years, despite no funding, approval, or plans.

Yesterday’s Most Popular Story Trump falsely claims Biden has ‘Stage 9’ cancer and delayed diagnosis disclosure as part of White House cognitive decline coverup. 🎭 Every Trump policy comes with its opposite. They deport legal immigrants while claiming to target criminals. They dismantle surveillance oversight after condemning it. They promise billion-dollar defense systems with no … Read more

What Happened Today – May 19

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy sold stock in 34 different companies just two days before Donald Trump's announcement about reciprocal tariffs.

Yesterday’s Most Popular Story Local Democratic officials join thousands in making a 30-mile human chain across Chicago suburbs to protest Trump administration policies. 👑 Trump was never subtle about wanting things his way. He is spending his days remaking America in his own image, using the system to settle grudges while elevating his preferences. This … Read more

What Happened Today – May 18

President Joe Biden greets Ambassador Caroline Kennedy and her son Jack Schlossberg on Monday, September 12, 2022, at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston. (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz)

Yesterday’s Most Popular Story Oklahoma adds debunked 2020 election fraud claims to high school history curriculum. 🔍 Even on a quiet Sunday, the machinery of power grinds forward. Trump’s budget bill advances behind closed-door deals while Americans form a 30-mile human chain of resistance spanning Chicago suburbs. Meanwhile, as Biden faces a devastating cancer diagnosis, … Read more

What Happened Today – May 17

National Weather Service meteorologists in Jackson, Kentucky rallied to track deadly tornadoes despite Trump administration staffing cuts that now leave this local weather office closed overnight, with the storms claiming 18 lives statewide out of 27 nationwide.

🌪️ 📡 🚩 From a deadly terrorist bombing in Palm Springs to devastating tornadoes tracked by understaffed weather offices, Trump’s America faces real-life violence while his administration quietly enables more. Now they’re lifting bans on rapid-fire gun triggers, teaching debunked election fraud claims in classrooms, and amplifying assassination conspiracy theories online. Meanwhile, his “solution” to … Read more

What Happened Today – May 16

CDC map showing measles cases. 13% of people diagnosed are hospitalized. Two doses of the MMR vaccine are 97% effective at preventing measles.

🕵️🥊 Threats and intimidation are the Trump administration’s playbook. Trump officials join the president in targeting judges, artists, and even their own employees who stand in their way. They use more than words. Senior intelligence officials are fired, the former FBI director is accused of calling for Trump’s assassination, and federal agencies purge employees who … Read more

What Happened Today – May 15

Walmart said it would raise prices because of Trump's tariffs after its first quarter profit decreased.

📺🎖️ The government that should protect you is being weaponized against you instead. While Trump offers donors VIP access to military parades featuring soldiers who get only one hot meal per day and will sleep on office floors, his administration revokes security clearances despite court orders, investigates critics, deports students over traffic tickets, and even … Read more

What Happened Today – May 14

Trump's Surgeon General nominee advocates the use of psychedelics in therapy. "4-AcO-DMT, Bacardi, Clonazepam, & LSD" by Rachel Elaine. Licensed under CC BY 2.0.

🏥🚑🩺 Your health secretary refuses to give health advice while your surgeon general promotes illegal psychedelics. Meanwhile the Houston weather office has no managers and a Kansas office can’t stay open 24/7 as extreme weather season begins. They’re gutting Medicaid to close hospitals, dismantling the very systems meant to keep us alive. They’re not breaking … Read more

What Happened Today – May 13

Before the cuts: NIOSH scientists test firefighter respirators and monitor workplace hazards, life-saving work that's been eliminated. RFK Jr. fired 90% of the agency's 1,300 workers but today reinstated only the director. After 54 years protecting Americans from toxic exposures, these labs sit empty.

🏴 They shook hands with dictators and sold out America while you were working for a living. Trump lifts sanctions on Syria’s al-Qaeda-linked president and pockets a $400 million Qatari jet while Musk cuts Saudi deals and Tesla’s board dumps stock. At home? They’re purging intelligence officials, downsizing military brass, poisoning your drinking water, and … Read more

What Happened Today – May 12

Operation Allies Refuge evacuees lose protected status under Trump administration, face deportation to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Brandon Cribelar)

💸 $148 million for dinner with Trump. That’s what 220 annonymous crypto buyers finally paid today while white South Africans got refugee status and millions fleeing actual genocide remain blocked. America is dying off and being auctioned to the highest bidder. The price of admission is cruelty: 9,000 Afghans face deportation to Taliban rule, EPA … Read more

What Happened Today – May 11

One of the twin Boeing 747s serving as Air Force One. They have special military features, including the ability to refuel in midair, a medical suite with permanent onboard doctor, and two galleys that can feed 100 people.

💰 While Qatar gifts Trump a $400 million flying palace and China buys tariff relief, everything in America is for sale except mercy for a mother torn from her child or healthcare for those who can’t afford $35 copays. Foreign powers write checks while judges are terrorized at home and families are destroyed in the … Read more

What Happened Today – May 10

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka protesting the Trump administration in Washington, D.C. on January 14, 2017. Photo: CC BY-SA 2.0 / Lorie Shaull

100 Days of GovBrief What started as me behaving like an old man yelling at a cloud has turned into a necessary chronicle of this administration’s chaos: arresting mayors, threatening Congress members, detaining students and professors. Today we learned that Trump is conducting global diplomacy like a bad improv scene with no prep, no depth, … Read more

What Happened Today – May 9

Donald Trump's cryptocurrency revenue is now nearly $3 billion, or 40% of his estimated worth, according to CBS News. Most retail investors have lost money as its price plunged.

👩‍👧 While many of us were planning Mother’s Day brunches, Trump’s team is planning to dismantle constitutional protections. A federal judge blocked his sweeping government overhaul for 14 days, while sources revealed discussions in the White House with him about suspending habeas corpus, the 800-year-old protection against imprisonment without trial. Censorship is also increasing. The … Read more

What Happened Today – May 8

This tornado devastation in Barnsdall, OK along with critical meteorological data collection will disappear from public record as Trump limits NOAA's resources and discontinues its weather disaster database.

⚖️ When Supreme Court justices break their typical silence to defend democracy, we’re beyond normal politics. It’s happened four times in the past three months, a shocking public display for the usually taciturn jurists. Trump’s systematic purging of officials who won’t bend to his will reveals an administration that demands absolute loyalty over competence or … Read more

What Happened Today – May 7

Casey Means, 37, is the new Surgeon General nominee. She works as a wellness influencer, dropped out of her residency program, and has an inactive medical license.

🚨 The Trump regime is building a dystopian surveillance state, but they’re so incompetent they can’t even protect their own passwords and chat groups. Your taxes, medical records, and Social Security data are merging into one hackable database, overseen by amateurs who leak national secrets on Signal. Meanwhile, corruption is shamelessly out in the open: … Read more

What Happened Today – May 5

Evening departures at Newark Liberty International Airport, the nation’s 12th busiest airport. qwesy qwesy, CC BY 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

⚠️⛰️ The avalanche is roaring; Newark’s radar fails, FEMA stops knocking, health labs go dark, and wind energy stalls while the White House hollers about migrants. Courts pulled a few people from the slide, yet the mountain keeps charging toward us all. Raise hell now. Call your reps and demand they shore up the systems … Read more

What Happened Today – May 4

Trump shared this AI image of himself just days after Pope Francis's death. Catholic leaders called it blasphemous. His vice president, a recent Catholic convert who was granted a papal audience just hours before Francis died, is his only prominent defender.

😳 “I don’t know.” That’s what Trump said on TV multiple times when asked if he has to uphold the Constitution or guarantee due process in the U.S. Believe him. He’s told us over and over: he’s your retribution, he’s here to get rid of people, and now he’s not even sure the law applies. … Read more

What Happened Today – May 3

Springfield, Ohio, home to a large, legal Haitian community. During the campaign, Trump and Vance falsely accused residents of eating pets. New terror designations make that community newly vulnerable.

🇲🇽🇩🇪🇦🇺✝️ Today, the world said enough. From bishops to border neighbors and longtime allies, it was a Find Out Day for Trump. Mexico rejected his call for a soft military invasion. Germany held Rubio accountable for defending an extreme far-right group. Australia’s conservatives blamed Trump for their landslide loss. And Catholic leaders condemned his desecration … Read more

What Happened Today – May 2

Dr. Terry Adirim was fired from the CIA after pressure from right-wing extremists. A pediatric emergency doctor turned Pentagon health chief, she built her career across military medicine, DHS, and HHS before becoming a political target.

📻💸 This is how authoritarians punish. This is also how authoritarian regimes fund their activities. Trump’s team is gutting health, housing, education, and science. Not to save money, but because courts will not let them completely erase these programs established by the co-equal legislative branch. And you can be certain that the Trump administration is … Read more

What Happened Today – May 1

A U.S. soldier watches the Santa Teresa sector of the southern border in New Mexico during expanded military operations, April 12, 2025. (Photo: Army Pfc. Sean Hoch)

🎖️📺🕍 They renamed a holiday, planned a loyalty parade, and put Dr. Phil on a national religious commission. And why does a country with separation of church and state enshrined create a state-run religion committee? This isn’t about patriotism. They’re creating fake traditions.A parade here, a flag there, a sermon on TV–all of it part … Read more

What Happened Today – April 29

A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from firing 1,500 remaining workers at the CFPB.

🚧💸 Trump’s default playbook today is clear: fortify the border with troop-policed “defense strips,” mass-deport declaring Haitian migrants as terrorists, and even using postage images as clues to their whereabouts. Judges, watchdogs, and charities are pushing back, but the squeeze keeps tightening until enough of us raise hell. There are marches and events all over … Read more

What Happened Today – April 28

The FDA is reportedly slowing vaccine approvals, including a new COVID vaccine, and relying on a sports medicine doctor to review some cases.

🥊 This is bullying, not governing. Trump’s team is using federal power to punish anyone they disagree with: immigrants, universities, cities, prosecutors. It is not leadership. It is a flood of cruelty meant to dominate headlines and crush opposition. Lawsuits and rallies are fighting back because there is no other choice. Today’s news shows the … Read more

What Happened Today – April 27

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Sen. Corey Booker lead a sit-in on the U.S. Capitol steps. (Photo by J. Kay for GovBrief Today)

🧱 America is being divided in two. The split isn’t coming. It’s already here. Inside the gates, loyalty buys you protection, wealth buys you access, and history is rewritten by decree. Trump’s inner circle is building a private empire where $500,000 gets you a key to power, human rights offices are shuttered, Indigenous people are … Read more

What Happened Today – April 26

Historic meeting: President Trump and President Zelenskyy seated knee-to-knee at St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican. Photo posted publicly by Trump on Truth Social, April 26, 2025.

📖✝️✈️ Trump met Zelenskyy knee-to-knee inside St. Peter’s Basilica, a rare moment of solemn diplomacy. At home, the brutality never paused: ICE raids tore through cities. Citizen children were deported, including a four-year-old with stage four cancer and no medical assistance. A Coast Guardsman’s wife was arrested over an old immigration charge while settling into … Read more

What Happened Today – April 25

Rochester, NY, a sanctuary city since 1986, is now facing a federal lawsuit challenging its policies on cooperation with ICE. (Image: Theresa Marconi, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia)

A two-year-old American citizen was sent to Honduras after ICE ignored her family’s legal plan to keep her safely in the U.S. and exiled her alongside her undocumented mother. A conservative federal judge is furious. Meanwhile, a Wisconsin judge was arrested, cuffed, and detained for telling ICE to get the right warrant for a man … Read more

What Happened Today – April 24

Pete Hegseth's Chief of Staff Joe Kasper is the FIFTH senior Pentagon aide to leave in the last week.

🤡 They still think they’re in charge. We see their panic. Courts crushed Trump’s crackdown today, blocking his attacks on voting, immigration, public schools, and civil rights. The Pentagon is leaking. DOJ lawyers are faceplanting. Trump is posting desperate pleas to Russia from his phone. Meanwhile they’re selling “Trump 2028” hats and picking fights with … Read more

What Happened Today – April 23

News broke late Wednesday that Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth installed Signal on classified government PCs. (Image courtesy of Signal Corp.)

💵💰 Trump went full-on rich guy trying to control the economy today. He said millionaires would flee the country if taxed more, then turned around and attacked the World Bank, IMF, and Federal Reserve—all while his personal crypto spiked 58% after he promised a private dinner for the 200 biggest holders. Trump always makes sure … Read more

What Happened Today – April 22

Gov. Laura Kelly today asked unvaccinated Kansas residents to vaccinate. 37 Kansans currently have measles.

⛔ The guardrails protecting our society keep disappearing. Imagine any other U.S. president insisting on the right to deport people without trials. Or imagine a government building registries of people with autism. What could those possibly be used for? The outrages come daily. So do the lies. And we can’t stop calling them out.Remember: “First … Read more

What Happened Today – April 21

A federal judge has temporarily blocked ICE from setting up facilities at NYC's infamous Riker's Island prison complex.

🚓🚨 Trump is done pretending that the courts matter. People fumed about his refusal to follow orders from the Supreme Court and a federal judge last week. Today, he attacked the justices because they won’t rubber-stamp the parts of his deportation agenda that they say are illegal. He claims that trials aren’t possible for migrants. … Read more

What Happened Today – April 20

Vice President JD Vance greets Pope Francis on Easter Sunday, just hours before the Vatican announced the pontiff’s death. (Image via Vance Facebook account)

🧩 They protect each other and lie about us. From billionaires buying appointments to military strike plans dropped in family group chats, today’s leaders aren’t defending America. They’re shielding themselves and calling it patriotism. Meanwhile, the leader of the nation’s health infrastructure is spreading lies about people with autism, backtracking, and trying to pin the … Read more

What Happened Today – April 19

The 50 nation African leaders conference hosted in 2022 by the State Department's African Bureau.

🕰️ Even with Trump not having any public events yesterday or today, the chaos kept rolling. Airstrikes, book bans, censorship, deportations, and rewired diplomacy all kept moving. This wasn’t a sleepy Saturday. It was a quiet churn of structural change while the boss stayed offstage and out of sight. Have an Easter candy, a matzoh, … Read more