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What Happened Today – April 18

The official White House account on Elon Musk's X mocked Senator Van Hollen and his constitutent, a Maryland father who was illegally deported.

🧱🏗️ They’re building the machine, but it’s not running smoothly. Trump loyalists are seizing agencies, reviving Schedule F, and wiring up surveillance networks with Palantir and Musk’s operatives. They’ve got their TV cronies in Homeland Security and ICE playing database maker. But here’s the thing: the courts aren’t folding. Protesters are back in the streets. … Read more

What Happened Today – April 17

Sen. Chris Van Hollen meeting with Kilmar Abrego Garcia in El Salvador.

😶😰 The silence is growing because speaking out gets punished. This week, a sitting senator in his own party said she’s afraid of the repercussions from fighting Trump. A retired cybersecurity official quit his private job to defend himself against an improper government probe. Reporters at NBC and the AP are being sidelined. Agencies are … Read more

What Happened Today – April 16

AmeriCorps’ 200,000 volunteers fight hunger, poverty, and disasters. Today, Musk’s DOGE sent relief workers home ahead of a planned purge.

🛠️💥 They’re dismantling the system from every angle, and this week, they escalated. The IRS is being weaponized, science boards are purged, disaster programs axed, and even Medicare data is being turned into a surveillance tool. ⚖️ But resistance is biting back: a judge threatens contempt over illegal deportations, Schumer blocks Trump’s DOJ picks, and … Read more

What Happened Today – April 15

Colstrip Steam Electric in Montana is one of 70 plants Trump exempted from Clean Air Act compliance today. (Image by spotreporting is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.)

🚨👮 The crackdown is here. Trump’s regime isn’t waiting for permission. They are punishing, blacklisting, and threatening anyone who resists. A whistleblower gets drone-stalked. A protester was tased to cheers at Marjorie Taylor Greene’s town hall meeting on Tuesday night. The AP’s victory was short-lived because all wire services got punished. And court orders? Still … Read more

What Happened Today – April 14

Harvard President Alan Garber formally rejected federal demands to overhaul campus policies. Hours later, the Trump administration froze over $2 billion in grants and funding.

👨‍⚖️ 💣 Trump’s not ignoring the courts—he’s daring them to stop him. Judges say “reinstate the AP”? Trump says no. Order a deportee returned? He shrugs. One federal judge literally asked if a constitutional crisis is coming. It’s not coming. It’s here. And while the courts stall, Trump’s team is punishing universities, defunding global alliances, … Read more

What Happened Today – April 13

An F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter launches from the USS Harry S. Truman to attack Houthi positions in Yemen.

🧱 Brick by brick, the Trump administration is gutting norms and tearing down the guardrails. A senior Social Security official gets walked out for objecting to the legality of classifying thousands of migrants as dead. DHS sends a mass email telling people to leave the country, even to at least one U.S. citizen. The CDC … Read more

What Happened Today – April 12

Alhurra journalists received the Burke Award in 2024 for frontline reporting in Gaza. Months later, the U.S.-funded network was shuttered and its staff dismissed after a Trump administration funding freeze.

🧱 Brick by brick, the Trump administration is gutting norms and tearing down the guardrails. A senior Social Security official gets walked out for objecting to the legality of classifying thousands of migrants as dead. DHS sends a mass email telling people to leave the country, even to at least one U.S. citizen. The CDC … Read more

What Happened Today – April 11

​Officials inspect sewage infrastructure in Hayneville, Alabama, where 650 homes were set to receive $8.7 million in federal cleanup funding until the project was blocked by the Trump Department of Justice, dismissing environmental justice as a 'DEI preference'.

🧪🧱🧠 The Trump administration is gutting science and shredding public trust. From fluoride bans to FDA walkouts, and from deporting political dissidents to handing military powers broad new turf, the message is clear: facts are optional, and control is the point. Public health is being politicized. Dissent is punished. Systems are collapsing on purpose. Call … Read more

What Happened Today – April 10

U.S. Ambassador Bridget Brink speaks at the “Victory Harvest” event in Ukraine, December 2024. She resigned this week as the Trump administration pivots toward diplomacy with Russia and a minerals deal that may leave Ukraine out in the cold.

🛰️💰🇺🇸Trump’s return isn’t a campaign — it’s a hostile occupation of government. Generals leapfrogged. Ambassadors purged. Scientists replaced with conspiracy theorists. Dissenters, from Space Force to Columbia, silenced or surveilled. Autocrats don’t just rewrite the rules — they erase the referees. And this time, the purge is wearing a badge, holding a gavel, and calling … Read more

What Happened Today – April 9

The FDA reversed Trump’s telework ban after mass resignations crippled drug approvals and critical work.

🚨📞💻 Trump isn’t just rewriting the rules. He’s coming for your rights. He tried to cut off Social Security phone lines. He handed your tax data to Musk’s private army. He’s punishing lawyers who held Fox accountable for 2020 lies. In your state. At the agency helping your family. Inside your benefits. None of this … Read more

What Happened Today – April 8

An unarmed MQ-9 Reaper drone at Springfield-Beckley Air National Guard Base. Despite Trump’s terror label for Mexican cartels and Musk’s public calls for drone strikes, the Pentagon says the military has no authority to launch attacks, only to monitor.

👉 Beneath the surface, norms are rotting. Trump’s crackdown isn’t random. It’s targeted, strategic, and retroactive. From deporting legally admitted migrants to punishing law firms and gutting civil rights oversight, this is authoritarianism cloaked in legalese. The goal? Instill fear, reward loyalty, and rewrite the rules beneath our feet. 🧯 Use 5 Calls. Use Resistbot. … Read more

What Happened Today – April 7

Vice Adm. Shoshana Chatfield, a decorated combat helicopter pilot and former president of the Naval War College, was one of the Navy’s highest-ranking women before being fired by Trump political appointee Pete Hegseth. Her decades-long career included commanding in Afghanistan, leading U.S. forces in the Pacific, and becoming the first woman to head Joint Region Marianas.

🔧 Cripple the system, then blame the wreck. Trump’s team is torching the machinery of public trust by gagging science, gutting safety hotlines, and cutting off cancer patients mid-treatment. They’re not just breaking government. They’re rewriting history while doing it. Think again if you think it’s all accidental. It’s a playbook: silence the experts, centralize … Read more

What Happened Today – April 6

Dr. Steven Rosenberg, a leading NIH immunotherapy expert, helped develop a breakthrough cancer therapy now helping 1 in 4 patients. Its rollout is being delayed as Trump-era layoffs disrupt treatment capacity.

🔧 Cripple the system, then blame the wreck. Trump’s team is torching the machinery of public trust by gagging science, gutting safety hotlines, and cutting off cancer patients mid-treatment. They’re not just breaking government. They’re rewriting history while doing it. Think again if you think it’s all accidental. It’s a playbook: silence the experts, centralize … Read more

What Happened Today – April 5

USAID workers were fired this week while conducting earthquake relief operations in Myanmar, where over 3,000 people have died. (Photo: courtesy of the Red Cross)

✊📢📉 “Mega API,” mass firings, and mass protests—Trump’s machine is just getting started. Even as Americans flood the streets, Trump’s regime tightens its grip. DOGE is gutting the IRS and eyeing Palantir to wiretap your finances through a single system. Tariffs are crashing markets, and dissenters at FEMA, DHS, and DOE are getting purged. This … Read more

What Happened Today – April 4

Pete Hegseth heads to Panama weeks after Marco Rubio’s visit, as both push Trump’s goal of “reclaiming” the Panama Canal, shown above in this 2021 Coast Guard photo.

🧨 Trump breaks things on purpose — and dares you to stop him. He tanks the markets, targets dissent, opens forests to industry, and turns the federal government into a personal vendetta machine — then smirks from the golf course and tells you to “get rich.” While he defunds disaster prep, mass-fires civil servants, and … Read more

What Happened Today – April 3

Brown awaits word on Trump retaliation: $510 million in federal funding at risk over protest response.

⚙️ 🏭 🤖 The authoritarian machine is burning hot and cold—unleashing chaos while pretending it’s all under control. Trump’s economic blitz hits 60 countries (and a few penguins), while law firms and corporations keep folding to pressure, striking deals that trade integrity for survival. At home, mass firings rip through federal agencies. The CDC was … Read more

What Happened Today – April 2

After Gov. Mills opposed Trump, Social Security singled out Maine, requiring parents to register newborns in person at one of just eight federal offices.

👁️‍🗨️🚨 Trump is consolidating power faster than he can spell DEI. From defying court orders to purging national security staff and threatening universities, the administration is rewriting the rules—and punishing anyone who resists. Even Wall Street and the country’s biggest law firm flinched. They’re testing the limits. It’s up to us to show where the … Read more

What Happened Today – April 1

The Naval Academy library removed nearly 400 books from the shelves before Pete Hegseth's arrival.

😡 They’re doing all this in plain view. From ICE deporting a U.S. resident to the mass firings of scientists to judges handing federal buildings to Musk’s agency for free, today’s chaos is coordinated. Trump’s allies are purging public institutions, canceling dissent, and daring anyone to stop them. But not everyone’s rolling over. From Wisconsin … Read more

What Happened Today – March 31

EPA Admin. Lee Zeldin closed a small agency museum he complained was a shrine to climate change and environmental justice.

💥 Power grabs, digital sabotage, and righteous resistance. Trump’s team tried to quietly transfer a $500 million building to the government, crashed the Social Security portal pushing out staff support, and bragged about killing “terrorists” in strikes escalating with Iran. But just blocks from the White House, trans Americans and their allies gathered in defiant … Read more

What Happened Today – March 30

Danish PM Mette Frederiksen with President Biden in the Oval Office, 2023. Frederiksen heads to Greenland this week after Trump revived threats to annex the island.

🌪️ “Third term.” $6 trillion. War-fighting bases. Molotovs. Authoritarians don’t pause. They escalate. Trump’s team leaked strike plans over Signal, dangled third-term fantasies, and proposed tariffs the size of a quarter of the U.S. economy—all while attacking lawyers, lying to the public, and cozying up to a dictator who just tried to erase Ukraine’s leader. … Read more

What Happened Today – March 29

Comedian Amber Ruffin was dumped as the Correspondent Dinner entertainment following WH complaints.

GovBrief Intensity Score: 104 ✅ Below the two-month average. 🧊 They’re not hiding it. They’re banning books, firing peacekeepers, and threatening to annex Greenland. This isn’t a stunt. It’s a strategy — from anime ICE memes to purging the Pentagon, they’re showing us exactly how far they’ll go. Believe them. Read today’s post. Share it. … Read more

What Happened Today – March 28

The FDA's top vaccine official resigned today and said he wouldn't echo RFK Jr.'s "misinfo and lies."

🔥 One man. One mess. A thousand front lines. Trump’s power grabs are detonating across the system—watchdogs gutted, migrants disappeared, Social Security shoved toward collapse, law firms silenced under threat. Now the backlash is everywhere. 🌍 From Boston to Berlin, hundreds of Tesla protests are hitting Musk where it hurts, his wallet and his brand, … Read more

What Happened Today – March 27

National Museum of the American Indian – Smithsonian Institution

💥 The crackdown is accelerating—and the targets are getting bolder. Maine told Trump to shove his trans athlete ban. Michigan gutted DEI after federal threats. And Trump’s slashing up to half the federal workforce while trying to muzzle law firms, rewrite history at the Smithsonian, and erase war crimes evidence. This isn’t reform. It’s revenge. … Read more

What Happened Today – March 26

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem poses in front of a cell filled with Venezuelan prisoners the US has jailed in El Salvador. (Photo: screengrab from Kristi Noem video posted on X)

👀 Authoritarian overreach is now casual.Trump’s team plotted a military strike in an unsecured chat, while Musk’s DOGE scraped private data on millions—and Social Security rushed service cuts that could block benefits for the sick and poor. Judges are under attack. Troops are expelled. Chaos is a feature, not a bug. Subscribe to get your … Read more

What Happened Today – March 25

An F/A-18E Super Hornet prepares to launch from the USS Harry S. Truman, which has been engaged with attacks on Yemen. (Photo March 18, 2025 by the US Navy)

👀 Authoritarian overreach is now casual.Trump’s team plotted a military strike in an unsecured chat, while Musk’s DOGE scraped private data on millions—and Social Security rushed service cuts that could block benefits for the sick and poor. Judges are under attack. Troops are expelled. Chaos is a feature, not a bug. Subscribe to get your … Read more

What Happened Today – March 24

President Donald J. Trump purchases a Tesla on the South Lawn, Tuesday, March 11, 2025. (Official White House Photo by Molly Riley)

👀 Authoritarian overreach is now casual.Trump’s team plotted a military strike in an unsecured chat, while Musk’s DOGE scraped private data on millions—and Social Security rushed service cuts that could block benefits for the sick and poor. Judges are under attack. Troops are expelled. Chaos is a feature, not a bug. Subscribe to get your … Read more

What Happened Today – March 23

President Obama blows a whistle to begin the 2015 White House Easter Egg Roll. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

🔥 Lines Are Being Crossed. Then Redrawn. Again. From Greenland to Venezuela to the South Lawn, the Trump admin is setting fire to norms—and everyone else is racing to catch up. Deportations without due process. Tariffs shifting by the hour. A top law firm buckled under pressure. Even Canada and Denmark are bracing for impact. … Read more

What Happened Today – March 22

Bernie Sanders, AOC, and Greg Casar address thousands in Tucson during their “Fighting Oligarchy” tour. AOC said 23,000 people turned out for the March 23 rally. Image via Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Bluesky (@aoc.bsky.social)

🛑 Trump’s crackdown is accelerating. Lawyers punished. Judges mocked. Kids in court alone. ICE may get IRS data. FEMA gutted. A Cornell Ph.D. student targeted for suing and leading protests. All of this on a Saturday. But across the West, the “Fighting Oligarchy” tour is drawing thousands. AOC and Bernie Sanders showed up. 30,000 in … Read more

What Happened Today – March 21

The U.S. is now forcing Canadians to clear a formal border crossing just to visit the Haskell Library — a building that literally straddles the border and has welcomed both nations for over a century.

Trump cancels legal permission to live in the US for half a million people… after 8 p.m. on a Friday. He also told reporters that he never signed the proclamation invoking the 1798 wartime act that let him deport people, except his signature is published on it. Somehow he found time to threaten Tesla vandals … Read more

What Happened Today – March 20

Pentagon spokesperson John Ullyot was demoted after aggressively defending the administration’s removal of Jackie Robinson’s tribute from the Defense Department’s official website,

🇺🇸 Friday DispatchWhile the cameras chased shiny objects, the Trump administration moved to enter homes without warrants, torch DEI at law firms, recall Cybertrucks again, hand out cash to voters (again), and fold USAID into a blockchain-powered austerity husk. And yet—teachers marched, whistleblowers spoke, and judges weren’t having it. America’s burning at both ends, but … Read more

What Happened Today – March 19

US Institute of Peace HQ in Washington (CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Common)

🔥 20 stories. One night. Democracy under siege. Trump escalates attacks on courts, immigrants, and public institutions. The ICC is crumbling, DHS is detaining academics, and Musk-backed lawmakers push to remove judges. Meanwhile, protests grow as Tesla stock tanks. We’ve never had to cover this much in one night—because it’s never been this relentless.

What Happened Today – March 18

Dozens of Social Security offices are closing as new rules starting March 31 force more people— including seniors and disabled Americans— to handle transactions in person.

Declassified, defunded, dismantled. Trump wipes out war crimes data, slashes HIV prevention, and erases FTC guidance—while judges block his transgender military ban and EPA cash grab. Roberts rebukes impeachment talk, and Nebraska voters erupt over Musk, Ukraine, and Medicare cuts.

What Happened Today – March 17

Navajo Code Talkers who contributed to US victory at Iwo Jima are among the Native Americans being expunged from government websites.

⚖️ Trump defies judges. Power grabs escalate. Resistance grows. His admin defies court orders, stacks institutions with loyalists, and cashes in on access—while federal agencies purge records and sideline workers. But cracks are showing: Judges demand answers. Progressives mobilize. The fight isn’t over. 💥 Sanders and AOC rally this week as pushback builds. 📢 Stay … Read more

What Happened Today – March 16

Guided missile destroyer USS Gravely has been deployed to the southern border.

✈️ Defying judges.🚢 Militarizing borders.📉 Shrugging off economic chaos. Trump’s latest power moves: migrants deported despite court orders, a warship at the border, and a $5T market plunge dismissed as “healthy.” Now, he’s testing whether he can void Biden’s pardons, backing away from war crimes probes, and prepping new tariffs. 💡 Resistance is slow to … Read more

What Happened Today – March 15

Sáttítla Highlands National Monument's night sky (Photo: Bob Wick, US Forestry)

✈️ Turning planes around. 🏛️ Erasing scientists. ⛏️ Seizing sacred land. Trump isn’t just making moves—he’s rewriting the rules. A judge halts mid-air deportations. A haunting video exposes Khalil’s arrest. Norms vanish: Fauci erased, monuments threatened, the Kennedy Center put under his thumb. Even law firms aren’t safe. ⚡ Stay informed. Stay engaged.📲 Subscribe free … Read more

What Happened Today – March 14

Arlington National Cemetery removed references to non-white and female service members. (Photo: Eliizabeth Fraser, US Army)

🥊 The administration is making dangerous moves: denying citizenship to U.S.-born children, gutting the Postal Service, plotting mass deportations, and threatening annexation of Greenland while drawing up plans for increased troop presence in Panama. Courts are pushing back, but whistleblowers and protests are doing the heavy lifting. Stay alert, stay engaged. Now’s the time to … Read more

What Happened Today – March 13

Columbia Student protests in 2024 supporting Palestinian and Israeli postions. (Image:Emjackson42, CC BY-SA 4.0)

🥊 The administration is making dangerous moves: denying citizenship to U.S.-born children, gutting the Postal Service, plotting mass deportations, and threatening annexation of Greenland while drawing up plans for increased troop presence in Panama. Courts are pushing back, but whistleblowers and protests are doing the heavy lifting. Stay alert, stay engaged. Now’s the time to … Read more

What Happened Today – March 12

The federal student loan site was down the day after the department was gutted. (Image: @WesleyWhistle on X)

🚨 DON’T LOOK AWAY. The U.S. is shutting down civil rights offices, punishing law firms, gutting climate rules, and forcing Canadians to register like it’s 1925. The last Guantánamo detainees? Shipped to Louisiana. Trump just pardoned a convicted lawmaker 15 days into his sentence. 💡 The fight isn’t just in DC. Local organizing is exploding. … Read more

What Happened Today – March 11

Offices overseeing federally owned art are being closed.

The scale of today’s upheaval is staggering: Ukraine strikes a fragile ceasefire as U.S. aid resumes, but back home, education, food assistance, and climate protections are all on the chopping block. NOAA faces another round of firings, the EPA is gutting its environmental justice offices, and whistleblowers are sounding the alarm on plans to dismantle … Read more

What Happened Today – March 10

GOP House members threatened DC over its Black Lives Matter Plaza. (By Bdward3 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0)

The cracks keep widening: Trump shrugs off a recession, ICE revokes a protester’s green card, and Panama dumps deported migrants. Meanwhile, Musk picks fights, Iran wavers on talks, and Kristi Noem wants lie detector tests for Homeland employees to find out who is leaking information. Stay sharp.