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May 23, 2025 | Watchdog Weekly
Corruption Calendar Week 18: Trump’s Independent Agency Power Grab
This week the Trump administration continued to dedicate itself to tearing down the safeguards that protect Americans from things like dangerous consumer products and predatory sales tactics, all while his officials and donors (often one and the same) enrich themselves.
May 21, 2025 | Revolving Door Project Newsletter
RDP Work Round Up: Memorial Day Edition
A roundup of recent RDP work on the patent system takeover, bipartisan support for crypto, FAA chaos, and more!
May 16, 2025 | Watchdog Weekly
Newsletter Artificial IntelligenceCorruption CalendarElon MuskEthics in GovernmentFinancial Regulation
Corruption Calendar Week 17: A Great Gesture Of Corruption
This week’s edition covers Trump’s latest grand gesture of corruption—gleeful acceptance of a $400 million gift from the Qatari royal family, Donald Jr.’s moves to cash in on his father’s office, various deregulatory actions across the executive branch, and Musk & company’s numerous conflicts of interest.
May 14, 2025 | Revolving Door Project Newsletter
Newsletter Artificial IntelligenceClimate and EnvironmentEthics in GovernmentLaborRevolving DoorTech
Inside the Age of AI Anxiety
We’re trying something new for you today: a visual exploration of the political and personal consequences of the dawning “age of AI.” Let us know in the comments if you like this approach to storytelling. It was made by a human, so all experimentation, imperfection, and emotion is my own.
May 09, 2025 | Watchdog Weekly
Newsletter Consumer ProtectionCorruption CalendarCryptocurrencyDOGEElon MuskEthics in GovernmentRevolving DoorTechTrump 2.0
Corruption Calendar Week 16: The Grift That Keeps On Giving
This week, the Trump brothers Eric and Don Jr. embarked on a world tour to make real estate deals while the administration used the threat of tariffs to push Starlink into other countries. Trump allies engaged in price fixing and fraud were given a pass seemingly as a reward for their donations to the president, our retirement savings were placed under the eye of a greedy insurance executive, and consumer protections were targeted by House Republicans eager to find tax breaks for the rich.
May 07, 2025
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.
May 02, 2025 | Watchdog Weekly
Newsletter Climate and EnvironmentCongressional OversightConsumer ProtectionCorruption CalendarDOGEElon MuskEthics in GovernmentTech
Corruption Calendar Week 15: Trump, Binance and MGX—A Crooked Match Made In Dubai.
This week, the Trump family continued to blur the line between politics and business with Trump 2028 merch and a billion dollar deal with Binance and MGX. Trump Jr. and Eric Trump’s potential stock sales and a new elite Washington club further expose this convergence. President Trump’s pardons of allies, Elon Musk’s apparent sway over personnel picks, and the rollback of consumer and coal miner protections add to the ethical concerns.
April 30, 2025
Corporate Takeover
This past century of days, we have witnessed an administration wholly committed to executing this warped idea of governing. So let’s unpack a couple of ways that Donald Trump & Associates have promoted the corporate takeover of government.
April 25, 2025 | Watchdog Weekly
Corruption Calendar Week 14: The All-American Meme Coin Oligarchy Wants To Extract Oil and Gas At National Monuments
This week, Trump once again leveraged his office to boost the price of his meme coin, $Trump. Meanwhile, firms that donated to Trump’s campaign or lobbied aggressively seem to be securing exemptions to his tariffs. But as the oligarchs are finding clever ways to enrich themselves, the risks of public health and environmental crises have grown. Read below for the full overview of corruption this week:
April 18, 2025 | Watchdog Weekly
Corruption Calendar Week 13: No Need To Rely On Luck When Cash Dictates Outcomes In MAGA World
In unlucky number 13, we tackle more corruption and pay to play stories in the administration. From Zaslav to Zuckerberg to selling gold visas we have all of the stories.
April 17, 2025
Option A: No More Tax Days for the 1 Percent
This year’s Tax Day was particularly dreary. Headlines outlined the many ways the Trump-Musk administration is attacking the government’s ability to provide public services using tax revenue, while weaponizing the IRS’s access to taxpayer data to terrorize undocumented people, enrich Trump’s allies, and potentially attack Trump’s political enemies. Placed against the backdrop of nine states seeing extended tax filing deadlines due to the continuing impact of fossil-fueled climate disasters, a bleak image of our reality emerges.
April 11, 2025 | Watchdog Weekly
Newsletter Corruption CalendarDepartment of JusticeDOGEDoug BurgumElon MuskEthics in GovernmentScott BessentTrump 2.0
Corruption Calendar Week 12: Ethics Be Damned
This week’s stories show that from the Justice Department to the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the Trump admin is simultaneously eroding, side-stepping, and outright defying the checks and balances that distinguish a government that is accountable to the public from one that exists simply to enrich the elite.
April 09, 2025 | Revolving Door Project Newsletter
Trump’s FAA Nominee Led Republic Airways In Fighting Unions, Safety Regulations
FAA nominee Bryan Bedford’s revolving door path creates a shocking conflict of interest.
April 04, 2025 | Watchdog Weekly
Corruption Calendar Week Eleven: Incomprehensible AI Number-Crunching Slop Sets The Scene Of Trump’s Global Tariff Shakedown
This week has been defined by yet more chaos, as the gaggle of incompetent buffoons that seemingly make up the policy infrastructure of this administration continue to play at political theater while doing all that they can to ruin the rest of our lives. From crashing the global economy to giving corporations free license to do whatever they want, they’re succeeding.