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July 09, 2025

Jacob Plaza

Newsletter Climate and EnvironmentEthics in GovernmentExecutive BranchFinancial Regulation

RDP Work Round-Up: 4th of July Edition

As Trump’s Big, Backwards Bill was passed into law, we experienced one of the most frustrating and depressing July 4th celebrations in recent memory. So, we at the Revolving Door Project figured now is as good a time as any to round-up our recent work chronicling the corruption that is spreading across the government and political establishment and wreaking havoc on everyday people.

June 24, 2025

Xaver Clarke

Blog Post Climate and EnvironmentCriminal JusticeEconomic PolicyEducationExecutive BranchHealthImmigrationTrump 2.0

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.

June 06, 2025 | Watchdog Weekly

Jacob Plaza

Newsletter Artificial IntelligenceClimate and EnvironmentCorruption CalendarEthics in GovernmentExecutive BranchIndependent AgenciesTech

Corruption Calendar Week 20: Trump Partners With Palantir To Build A Real World Panopticon 

This week has put on full display the Trump administration’s embrace of the white collar criminals, grifters, harmful extractive industries, and fascist tech bros jointly wreaking havoc on our social institutions and the environment.

June 05, 2025

Dylan Gyauch-Lewis

Blog Post Economic MediaEthics in GovernmentExecutive BranchRevolving Door

Caring About Corporate Conflicts is Cool

The private sector rewards for public sector experience creates a conflict in which the public good and an employee’s own career prospects may be in tension. Not only does it incentivize public servants to consider the interests of the private sector (and how their decisions as a public servant might impact future employment prospects), but it erodes public confidence in civil servants.  

May 30, 2025 | Watchdog Weekly

Kenny Stancil

Newsletter Climate and EnvironmentCorruption CalendarCriminal JusticeCryptocurrencyDOGEElon MuskExecutive BranchHousingImmigrationRevolving DoorTrump 2.0

Corruption Calendar Week 19: “We Reject Regulators.” Pardon Me?

This week the Trump administration deepened its wildly corrupt and lucrative crypto grift, sought to further enrich wealthy supporters at the direct expense of working households, and continued to pardon white-collar criminals who don the red MAGA cap.

May 12, 2025

Blog Post BigLawEthics in GovernmentExecutive BranchTrump 2.0

Democrats at Law Firms That Surrendered to Trump

Trump started his second term in the White House by targeting law firms in retaliation for their past legal work and personnel decisions that displeased him. While some firms pushed back against these assaults on their independence, more than a few BigLaw firms caved. Within the first months of the year, they bowed to Trump’s demands, surrendering in order to avoid (potentially illegal) executive orders that could damage their business interests.

May 07, 2025

Emma Marsano

Newsletter Climate and EnvironmentExecutive Branch

Trump's Lean, Mean, Disaster Machine

Surprising no one, Trump’s 2026 budget proposal reads as a nakedly self-interested list of his priorities. It attacks his favorite targets—DEI and climate programs, social services, and non-billionaires—while directing funds to his favorite pet projects: building the border wall, violent mass deportation efforts, privatizing healthcare, enriching defense contractors, and making more and more data available to be mined by tech companies (see the VA section below), including Trump’s allies in Silicon Valley.