Our Blog
March 03, 2026
Personal Information at Risk
The United States federal government knows a lot about you. If you’ve ever applied for federal student aid, the Department of Education has records of your income and assets. The Social Security Administration begins collecting information from the moment your parents apply for your Social Security number at birth, adds new data every time Social Security taxes are deducted from your paychecks, and continues to monitor you until the day you die.
March 03, 2026
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Map: Trump Has Often Delayed or Denied Disaster Aid
The Trump administration so far has refused to allocate federal disaster aid in a timely manner. Check out our interactive map for more details on the White House’s careless approach to major disaster declarations.
February 27, 2026
Righteous Incivility Trumps Silent Defiance
Voters are increasingly calling “bullshit” on opposition tactics that prioritize institutional norms over populist antagonism.
February 23, 2026
Inconsistent Recusals Continue at Corrupt Supreme Court
On Monday the Supreme Court agreed to hear a petition from oil companies Suncor and ExxonMobil who want the Court to shut down the climate deception case being brought against the companies by Boulder County, San Miguel County, and the City of Boulder. This petition is one of the oil and gas industry’s many ongoing attempts to evade liability for concealing the harms of its product.
February 20, 2026 | Watchdog Weekly
Corruption Calendar Weeks 55-57: Internal Revenue Service, Wire Me $10 billion, Pronto.
Trump’s shakedown state continues to weaponize federal government policy in service of friends and corporations.
February 18, 2026 | Watchdog Weekly
Trump Already Decimated the EPA. It Wasn’t Enough for Big Business.
The repeal of the endangerment finding, supported by the Chamber of Commerce, is a final nail in the coffin for a debilitated EPA.
February 13, 2026 | The American Prospect
Doug Burgum, the Regime Toady of Our Time
According to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Donald Trump is the “king of PEACE”—an odd position for a Lutheran like Burgum, as it would rank Trump above the “Prince of Peace,” Jesus Christ—and Europeans should be “cheering” for him to annex Greenland. It’s also odd for the Interior secretary, whose duties principally concern federal lands, to be commenting on European opinion.
February 13, 2026
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Tracking Uses of AI in the Trump Administration
As the Trump administration continues to expand the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in its operations, we are cataloguing examples of how AI is being deployed by federal agencies to replace human workers and undermine transparency and due process.
February 11, 2026 | Watchdog Weekly
Endangered Toad Says “ICE OUT”
Bad Bunny, the most streamed artist in the world for the last four years, has elevated el sapo concho’s profile by transforming the toad into a symbol of Puerto Rico’s imperiled cultural and ecological heritage. At a time of historic institutional cowardice towards combating climate change, he reminds us what the fight is about: nothing less than preserving our treasured places in the world, and those we share them with.
February 10, 2026
An Abundance of Techno-Optimism
The latest pro-Abundance group’s alignment with AI and tech interests is nothing new: abundists have long promoted AI and data centers.
February 10, 2026
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Trump’s War on Public Data
Trump’s antagonistic relationship with facts is well documented. His most egregious attacks on reality aren’t just rhetorical. They threaten physical safety and American democracy. They target the ways we define what we know about the country and ourselves. Trump’s assault on public data is not a side project, it’s a core feature of his authoritarian approach to governance. By hollowing out federal statistics, limiting information gathering, and redacting inconvenient reports, the Trump administration is warping reality to suit its political narrative. The goal isn’t just to obscure the effects of the president’s policies, it’s to prevent the public from seeing them at all.
February 09, 2026
Tracking the Environmental Harms of Trump Actions
Trump’s second term began with drastic announcements on Day One and has been chaotic every day since. It can be overwhelming to try to keep up with the cuts to environmental funding, rollbacks to critical regulations, and track the thousands of staff across agencies who have been fired from their roles. The purpose of this tracker is to monitor some of the most important tangible increases in pollution and environmental and health harms caused by the Trump administration’s actions.
February 09, 2026
The AI Lobbyist Starting An Abundance Nonprofit
Next American Era is hoping to help push abundance policies into the mainstream. It’s headed by OpenAI lobbyist Cheri Bustos
February 06, 2026
The Real Cost of Trump’s First Year
Donald Trump ascended to the presidency for a second time by pledging to bring down the rising cost of groceries and housing, essentials that every American needs, but increasingly few find affordable. Then he flipped that promise on its head. Instead of putting the full weight of the presidency behind addressing economic insecurity, the president’s first year was a blatant exercise in how to turn corruption into a governing principle, enriching the already rich by extracting wealth from the same people bearing the brunt of rising costs.