Early in President Trump’s first term, McSweeney’s editors began to catalog the head-spinning number of misdeeds coming from his administration. We called this list a collection of Trump’s cruelties, collusions, corruptions, and crimes, and it felt urgent to track them, to ensure these horrors—happening almost daily—would not be forgotten. Now that Trump has returned to office, amid civil rights, humanitarian, economic, and constitutional crises, we felt it critical to make an inventory of this new round of horrors. This list will be updated monthly between now and the end of Donald Trump’s second term.
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ATROCITYKEY
– Constitutional Illegalities, Collusion, and/or Obstruction of Justice – Environment – Harassment, Bullying, Retribution, and/or Sexual Misconduct – Lies and Misinformation – Musk Madness – Policy – Public Statements and Social Media Posts – Trump Family Business Dealings – Trump Staff and Administration – White Supremacy, Racism, Misogyny, Homophobia, Transphobia, and/or Xenophobia
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SEPTEMBER 2025
– September 1, 2025 – The Trump administration deported Orville Etoria and five other men with criminal records to a prison in Eswatini despite the fact that none of the men hold Swazi citizenship. A Jamaican citizen with legal residency in the US, Etoria was convicted of murder in 1996. After Etoria’s release from prison in 2021, immigration officials allowed him to stay in the US, provided he completed annual check-ins. As of The New York Times’s publication, Etoria was being held indefinitely without charges, had not seen a lawyer, and had had little contact with his family since arriving in Eswatini. Neither Eswatini nor the US could explain why Etoria was being held, and Jamaican officials contested the Trump administration’s claim that their country had refused to accept Etoria.
– September 1, 2025 – The Trump family made roughly $5 billion when trading opened for a digital token belonging to its primary cryptocurrency venture, World Liberty Financial. Last year, the Trump family helped launch World Liberty Financial along with current presidential envoy Steve Witkoff and a corporate entity owned by the Trump family that holds a 60 percent stake in the company. Since taking office, Trump has pushed for weaker crypto industry regulations, and critics have argued that World Liberty partners and investors have sought to curry favor with the Trump administration. According to public disclosures, Trump family members, including Trump himself, hold 22.5 billion $WLFI tokens, just under a quarter of the total $WLFI tokens in existence. The Wall Street Journal called the trading debut “most likely the biggest financial success for the president’s family since the inauguration” and said that “WLFI is likely now the Trumps’ most valuable asset, exceeding their decades-old property portfolio.”
– September 1, 2025 – Hundreds of Labor Day demonstrations took place across the country to protest against Trump administration policies and in support of workers’ rights. The protests, many of which were organized as part of the “Workers over Billionaires” call to action, denounced the Trump administration’s mass deportations, cuts to the social safety net, efforts to undermine unions, and deployment of National Guard troops in American cities, among other concerns. In Manhattan, activists carrying anti-Trump posters and chanting “lock him up” protested outside Trump Tower. “Protests are how you channel energy into activism,” said Andrew Lisa, chair of the Seminole County Democratic Party in Florida. “We are taking that energy and saying, ‘You’ve protested, you’ve taken two hours out of your day. Can you spend two hours knocking on your neighbors’ doors?’”
– September 2, 2025 – President Trump announced that the US had carried out a strike against a Venezuelan boat with “a lot of drugs” and had killed eleven “terrorists” on board. Trump did not provide any evidence to support his claim about the drugs or the identities of the people on board, and it was unclear whether the people on board were given a chance to surrender. Later that afternoon, Trump posted more details on social media along with a video showing what appeared to be an explosion on a crowded speedboat: “Earlier this morning, on my Orders, U.S. Military Forces conducted a kinetic strike against positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists… the strike occurred while the terrorists were at sea in International waters transporting illegal narcotics, heading to the United States.” Later, Secretary of State Marco Rubio contradicted Trump’s account, claiming that the boat was likely headed to the Caribbean, not the US. The strike represented a major shift in drug interdiction, which typically focuses on seizing drugs and identifying suspects to build a criminal case. Congress has not authorized an armed conflict against Tren de Aragua or Venezuela, and experts have questioned the legality of the attack.
Pentagon Releases Video Showing US Strike on Alleged Drug Boat Near Venezuela (ABC News)
– September 2, 2025 – As President Trump prepared to send National Guard troops to other American cities, US District Judge Charles Breyer ruled that Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Los Angeles over the summer was illegal. The judge found that Trump’s actions had violated the Posse Comitatus Act, which limits the power of the federal government to use military force in domestic matters. In response, Trump threatened to send troops back to Los Angeles. “President Trump’s recent executive orders and statements regarding the National Guard raise serious concerns as to whether he intends to order troops to violate the Posse Comitatus Act elsewhere in California,” wrote Breyer, who further warned that the Trump administration ran the risk of “creating a national police force with the President as its chief.”
– September 3, 2025 – The New York Timesreported that the Trump administration had discussed offering jobs to Eric Adams and Curtis Sliwa so that they would leave the New York City mayoral race, clearing the field for Andrew Cuomo to take on Democratic front-runner Zohran Mamdani. According to later reports, Adams was being considered for an ambassadorship to Saudi Arabia and, despite Adams’s claims to the contrary, had indicated his openness to ending his campaign in exchange for a formal offer. In response, Mamdani said that he was confident he would win the election but criticized what he described as “backroom deals” and “corrupt agreements,” calling them “an affront to our democracy, an affront to what makes so many of us proud to be Americans, that we choose our own leaders.”
– September 4, 2025 – In what officials have called the largest-ever immigration raid at a single location, nearly five hundred workers, most of them South Korean nationals, were arrested at a construction site for an electric vehicle battery plant in Ellabell, Georgia. The plant, which was still under construction, was owned by two South Korean companies, Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution. Some of those arrested included US citizens, lawful permanent residents, and South Koreans with visas or visa waivers. The move, which was heavily criticized by South Korean newspapers and the South Korean government, also revealed tensions in Trump’s push to seek Korean manufacturing investments amid ongoing tariffs and immigration crackdowns. “The economic activities of our investment companies and the rights and interests of our citizens must not be unjustly violated during US law enforcement proceedings,” said a spokesperson for South Korea’s Foreign Ministry.
Massive ICE Raid Shuts Down Hyundai Battery Site | Hundreds of Korean Workers Arrested (APT)
– September 5, 2025 – During his confirmation hearing, Stephen Miran, Trump’s nominee to fill a Federal Reserve vacancy, said he did not plan to resign from his White House role if confirmed and would instead take a leave of absence. The current chief of Trump’s Council of Economic Advisors, Miran assured the committee he would act independently if confirmed. However, he refused to go on the record to state that Trump had lost the 2020 election, and he ducked questions about whether the president was correct in claiming that officials had faked jobs data for political reasons. Calling Miran a “puppet,” Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren excoriated the nominee, “You have made clear that you will do or say whatever Donald Trump wants. That may work in a political position, but it will take an axe to Federal Reserve independence.”
– September 5, 2025 – In a stark contrast to Trump’s campaign promises to enact “America First” isolationism, his own self-styling as an “antiwar president,” and his stated desire to win a Nobel Peace Prize, Trump signed an executive order renaming the Department of Defense the “Department of War,” a name that was used from 1789–1947. “We won the First World War, we won the Second World War, we won everything before that and in between. And then we decided to go woke, and we changed the name to the Department of Defense,” Trump said at the signing. Added Pete Hegseth in an awkward spoken-word performance: “We’re going to go on offense, not just on defense. Maximum lethality, not tepid legality. Violent effect, not politically correct.” Although the move was largely symbolic, critics argued that the name change exposed Trump’s hypocrisy and underlined his increasingly aggressive use of the military. “[Trump] ran as the supposed antiwar candidate, but has proved to be just the opposite,” said Matt Duss of the Center for International Policy. “This stunt underscores that Trump is more interested in belligerent chest-thumping than genuine peacemaking—with dangerous consequences for American security, global standing and the safety of our armed services.”
DEPARTMENT OF WAR (The White House)
– September 5, 2025 – Trump announced that he would host next year’s G-20 summit at his Doral golf resort in Florida. “I think that everybody wants it there because it’s right next to the airport. It’s the best location. It’s beautiful,” Trump said, claiming that he would “not make any money” from hosting. During his first term, he backed down from a similar plan after facing widespread criticism over the possibility that hosting the summit at his property might violate the emoluments prohibition of the Constitution. Asked at the time whether it was appropriate for the European Union to spend public funds on a Trump business at the summit, the European Council President at the time, Donald Tusk, answered simply, “Not at all.”
– September 5, 2025 – A second weak jobs report in as many months undercut Trump’s claims of a booming economy and showed that the labor market was stalling. The economy added only 22,000 jobs in August, and unemployment rose to 4.3 percent, an almost four-year high. Analysts implicated a number of Trump’s policies for the slowdown, including tariffs, immigration crackdowns, federal job cuts, and canceled grants and contracts. “We’ve got a private sector that’s caught in a pinch here between these higher cost pressures and reduced demands,” said Gregory Daco, chief economist for EY-Parthenon. In response to the weak numbers, Trump again attacked the Fed chair, Jerome Powell, in a social media post: “Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell should have lowered rates long ago. As usual, he’s ‘Too Late!’”
– September 6, 2025 – The president threatened deportations and declared war against Chicago. Alluding to the movie Apocalypse Now, Trump wrote on Truth Social, “‘I love the smell of deportations in the morning.’ Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR.” The post also included a doctored photo depicting Trump as one of the movie’s antagonists, Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore, over a background of fire and helicopters with the text “Chipocalypse Now” superimposed in the foreground. In response, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson wrote, “The president’s threats are beneath the honor of our nation, but the reality is that he wants to occupy our city and break our Constitution. We must defend our democracy from this authoritarianism by protecting each other and protecting Chicago from Donald Trump.”
– September 8, 2025 – The Supreme Court ruled the Trump administration could resume its sweeping ICE raids in Los Angeles, overriding concerns over civil liberties violations. SCOTUS lifted a restraining order from US District Judge Maame E. Frimpong, who found that immigration agents were conducting indiscriminate stops on people solely based on their race, language, job, or location. In her dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote, “Countless people in the Los Angeles area have been grabbed, thrown to the ground, and handcuffed simply because of their looks, their accents, and the fact they make a living by doing manual labor.” One of the plaintiffs in the case, Los Angeles resident Brian Gavidia, was shown in a June 13 video being seized by federal agents as he yelled, “I was born here in the States. East LA, bro!”
– September 9, 2025 – The Trump administration worked to dismantle efforts by the IRS to shut down aggressive tax shelters used by America’s biggest multinational corporations and the wealthiest Americans. The administration bowed to pressure from industry groups and congressional Republicans to roll back IRS law enforcement efforts. The IRS announced plans to rescind Biden administration rules requiring companies to report tax shelter strategies to the agency, a change that will make it more difficult for auditors to identify these transactions. The agency also eased a pair of rules that targeted abusive shelters, including one that imposed penalties on wealthy Americans who used an insurance tax scheme that multiple courts have tossed out. The Biden rules were projected to raise more than $100 billion over ten years.
– September 10, 2025 – Charlie Kirk, a right-wing activist and ally of Donald Trump, was shot and killed during a speaking event at Utah Valley University in Orem. Kirk was the CEO and cofounder of Turning Point USA, a conservative youth organization that worked to rally young Republican voters. Immediately before the shooting, Kirk was taking questions from an audience member about mass shootings and gun violence. In an evening video address, Trump blamed “the radical left,” saying, “For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today.” In the video, Trump connected Kirk’s death to other recent attacks on political figures, all of them Republicans. He made no mention of attacks on Democrats, including Melissa Hortman, the former Democratic speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives, who was shot and killed along with her husband Mark in June.
President Trump Delivers Remarks on Charlie Kirk (The White House)
– September 11, 2025 – Senate Republicans destroyed precedent and changed the rules to break a Democratic blockade of Trump’s executive branch nominees. The move, known as “the nuclear option,” was aimed at undercutting the Senate’s future role in vetting executive branch officials. The change passed along party lines and lowered the existing sixty-vote threshold for considering a group of presidential nominees to a simple majority. Republicans resorted to the move in an effort to weaken the ability of individual senators to block nominees they find objectionable. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the change would do irreparable damage to the Senate and its constitutional prerogatives, rendering it “a conveyor belt for unqualified Trump nominees.”
– September 12, 2025 – Under pressure from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the FDAannounced it will examine rare cases involving the deaths of young people after they received COVID vaccines. Kennedy has repeatedly made unfounded claims that the inoculations are deadly. The FDA’s review followed years of exhaustive work by government officials and academic researchers worldwide who have validated the safety of the vaccines. A 2023 analysis published in JAMA Pediatrics reviewed seventeen studies, which included over ten million children ages 5 to 11 who were vaccinated with mRNA shots from Pfizer and Moderna. The shots were shown to reduce the risk of infection and hospitalization in vaccinated children. Kennedy recently fired all the members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and replaced them with his own handpicked members.
– September 12, 2025 – An ICE officer shot and killed a man who resisted arrest and dragged an officer by his car during a vehicle stop in the Franklin Park suburb of Chicago. The man, Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez, was an undocumented immigrant who feared for his safety. An ICE spokesperson alleged the officer suffered severe back injuries, lacerations to his hand, and tears to his knee. The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights said ICE’s operations “jeopardize the safety of everyone, citizens and non-citizens alike, and disrupt the very fabric of our communities.” ICE officials stated that Gonzalez had a “history of reckless driving.” The only Cook County cases for a man with Villegas-Gonzalez’s name are citations for driving with an expired license, speeding, and driving an uninsured vehicle. Bodycam videos from Franklin Park police officers showed the hurt ICE agent describing his own injuries as “nothing major.”
Surveillance Videos Capture Deadly ICE Shooting in Franklin Park, Illinois (CBS News Chicago)
– September 12, 2025 – The EPAproposed eliminating the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program. Implemented in 2009, the program required large, industrial polluters to report their planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions to the government. Since the program started, US industry has collectively reported a 20 percent drop in carbon emissions. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin called the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program “burdensome.” The proposal would end requirements for thousands of coal-burning power plants, oil refineries, steel mills and other industrial facilities. Zeldin also said, “Alongside President Trump, EPA continues to live up to the promise of unleashing energy dominance that powers the American dream.” He added that ending the program could save American businesses up to $2.4 billion in compliance costs over the next decade.
– September 13, 2025 – Trump announced he was ready to sanction Russia over its three-year war in Ukraine, but only if all NATO allies agree to halt buying oil from Moscow. He chided NATO officials on social media, saying, “I am ready to do major Sanctions on Russia when all NATO Nations STOPBUYINGOILFROMRUSSIA.” The demand followed a visit to Brussels by US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, who urged the EU to wean itself off Russian energy and agree to a lopsided trade deal in which the EU would pledge to buy $750 billion of US oil and gas. Trump’s post appeared several days after a flight of multiple Russian drones into Poland, an escalatory move by Russia that violated the airspace of a NATO ally. Trump has repeatedly threatened Russia with additional sanctions but has failed to follow through.
– September 15, 2025 – The United States struck a second Venezuelan boat allegedly carrying drugs, killing three people. “The Strike occurred while these confirmed narcoterrorists from Venezuela were in International Waters transporting illegal narcotics (A DEADLYWEAPONPOISONINGAMERICANS!) headed to the U.S.,” Trump claimed without any evidence in a social media post that included a graphic video of the boat exploding. The following day, Trump also told reporters that a third Venezuelan boat was struck, killing another three people. Former government officials and legal experts have questioned the legality of the deadly strikes. “There has to be a line between crime and war,” said John Yoo, deputy assistant attorney general under President George W. Bush. “We can’t just consider anything that harms the country to be a matter for the military. Because that could potentially include every crime.”
– September 15, 2025 – Seizing on the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s killing, Trump administration officials threatened a broad crackdown on liberal groups. Although investigators were still working to identify a motive for the Kirk killing, Trump and his allies alleged without evidence that the suspect, Tyler Robinson, was part of a coordinated movement committing violence against conservatives. “We have some pretty radical groups, and they got away with murder,” Trump said without naming any groups. Added Stephen Miller, “We are going to use every resource we have at the Department of Justice, Homeland Security, and throughout this government to identify, disrupt, eliminate, and destroy this network and make America safe again for the American people.” The charging documents filed against Robinson did not suggest he was part of a movement; studies, including one removed days later from the Justice Department’s website, also show that far-right groups kill more Americans than other domestic terrorist groups.
– September 15, 2025 – Following Trump’s executive order in March directing the Interior Department to remove “corrosive ideology,” national parks were ordered to remove signs and exhibits related to slavery, including a famous nineteenth-century photograph of a formerly enslaved man’s scarred back. Known as “The Scourged Back,” the photograph was widely circulated to Northern audiences after it was taken in 1863, leading to more support for the Union’s efforts to defeat the Confederacy. More recently, the photograph, likely of former slave Peter Gordon, became an emblem of the Black Lives Matter movement. In 2020, the photograph was incorporated into a New Yorker cover commemorating George Floyd’s death and also alluded to in a Vanity Fair cover photograph of Viola Davis’s back. In addition to “The Scourged Back” photograph, signs referring to racial discrimination, the negative treatment of former slaves, and the nine people enslaved by George Washington were tagged as non-compliant at Harper’s Ferry National Park in Virginia and the President’s House Site in Philadelphia. Later in the week, additional signs referring to climate change, the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, and conflicts with Native Americans were removed from other national parks.
– September 15, 2025 – When asked about his decision to lower US flags to half-staff at all government buildings after Charlie Kirk’s assisination but not after the assassination of Minnesota state representative Melissa Hortman, Trump shifted the onus to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. “Well, if the governor had asked me to do that, I would have done that, but the governor of Minnesota didn’t ask me. I wouldn’t have thought of that. But I would have if somebody had asked me,” Trump said. After Hortman and her husband were killed in June, Trump refused to call Walz to express his condolences, saying it would be a “waste of time” and that Walz was “so whacked out.”
Trump: Gov. Walz Didn’t Ask for Flags at Half Staff After Lawmaker Shootings (FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul)
– September 15, 2025 – After conservatives accused Jimmy Kimmel of inaccurately describing the politics of the suspect in Charlie Kirk’s killing, ABCpulled Kimmel’s late-night show off the air. Two days earlier, Kimmel had said, “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.” ABC’s announcement followed statements made earlier in the day by the chairman of the FCC, Brendan Carr, who criticized Kimmel and threatened to take action against ABC. Trump celebrated Kimmel’s removal on social media: “Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED [sic]. Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done.”
– September 17, 2025 – As part of his crackdown against liberal groups in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, Trump announced that he was designating Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization: “I am pleased to inform our many U.S.A. Patriots that I am designating ANTIFA, A SICK, DANGEROUS, RADICALLEFTDISASTER, AS A MAJORTERRORISTORGANIZATION. I will also be strongly recommending that those funding ANTIFA be thoroughly investigated in accordance with the highest legal standards and practices.” Antifa is not a formal group but a term used to describe a loose group of left-wing people who oppose fascism and the far-right. Although Trump made the same declaration against antifa in May 2020, the US does not currently have any mechanism for formally designating domestic terrorist organizations.
– September 17, 2025 – Former CDC head Susan Monarez testified that she was fired after refusing to agree to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s demands that she preapprove vaccine recommendations and fire career scientists responsible for vaccine policy. “He just wanted blanket approval. Even under pressure, I could not replace evidence with ideology,” said Monarez, who claimed Kennedy told her she “needed to be on board” with changing the childhood vaccination schedule in September. According to Monarez, Kennedy “called the CDC the most corrupt federal agency in the world, emphasized that CDC employees were horrible people… and said that CDC employees were killing children and that they don’t care.”
Key Moments from Senate Hearing with Former CDC Officials Monarez, Houry (PBS)
– September 18, 2025 – The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommended delaying the measles, mumps, rubella, and chickenpox vaccine due to a small risk of febrile seizures that doctors have called generally harmless. “The real question isn’t whether MMRV’s small seizure risk justifies offering separate shots—we already do that. It’s why a new committee appointed by Kennedy is revisiting a policy that’s been working well for two decades. This feels like using a known, disclosed, managed risk to undermine confidence in the entire schedule,” said Dr. Jake Scott, a clinical associate professor of infectious diseases and geographic medicine at Stanford. The following day, after a discussion that included fringe anti-vaccine theories, the committee also recommended limiting the COVID vaccine to people who either have underlying health conditions or are sixty-five and older. The recommendations moved to the acting CDC head, who would decide whether to make them official government recommendations. The previous CDC head, Susan Monarez, testified the previous day that she was fired by Kennedy for refusing to preapprove his vaccine recommendations.
– September 18, 2025 – After praising ABC’s decision to take Jimmy Kimmel’s show off the air, Trump urged regulators to revoke the licenses of broadcasters who criticize him, actions that would likely violate the First Amendment. “I have read someplace that the networks were 97 percent against me, I get 97 percent negative, and yet I won and easily… I would think maybe their license should be taken away,” Trump said. The president’s remarks followed his administration’s crackdown on liberal groups and opposing views in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination. In response, Anna M. Gomez, the only Democrat on the FCC, argued that the commission “does not have the authority, the ability, or the constitutional right to police content or punish broadcasters for speech the government dislikes” and that “we cannot allow an inexcusable act of political violence to be twisted into a justification for government censorship and control.” A day later, Trump continued his assault on the press, calling critical coverage of him illegal. “They’ll take a great story, and they’ll make it bad. See, I think that’s really illegal.”
– September 18, 2025 – The day after a federal judge cited “unconstitutional and inhumane” overcrowding and poor sanitation at an ICE facility in lower Manhattan, eleven Democratic officials were arrested outside the door to the facility’s holding cells. The officials had requested access to inspect the facilities and began protesting after they were denied, which led to their eventual arrests. “There are federal laws and local laws being broken behind these doors. Our neighbors are being illegally held and detained for longer than they are allowed to be, and we’re here to observe,” NYC comptroller Brad Lander had told the facility’s guards. Additional Democratic officials were also arrested outside the building for attempting to block the facility’s garage doors. The arrested Democrats included Lander, NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, New York state senators Gustavo Rivera and Julia Salazar, and New York state assemblywomen Emily Gallagher and Marcela Mitaynes. At least seventy-one people were arrested in total.
Elected Officials Arrested While Protesting Conditions at NYC Immigration Holding Facility (AP)
– September 18, 2025 – The Pentagon said it would impose new restrictions on reporters, including a requirement that they pledge not to gather or use any information not formally authorized for release. According to a memo circulated to the press, “information must be approved for public release by an appropriate authorizing official before it is released, even if it is unclassified.” The memo also designated large areas of the Pentagon off-limits to reporters without escorts. “This policy operates as a prior restraint on publication, which is considered the most serious of First Amendment violations,” said Seth Stern, director of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation. “The government cannot prohibit journalists from public information merely by claiming it’s a secret or even a national security threat.”
– September 19, 2025 – A federal judge dismissed President Trump’s defamation lawsuit against The New York Times, calling the complaint “improper and impermissible.” Seeking $15 billion in damages, the lawsuit accused the newspaper, the reporters Peter Baker, Ross Buettner, Susanne Craig, and Michael S. Schmidt, and Penguin Random House, which published a book by Craig and Buettner, of disparaging Trump’s reputation as a successful businessman. In his ruling, the judge criticized the complaint for waiting until the eightieth page to make its allegation and for including dozens of pages praising Trump and listing his many grievances. “A complaint is not a public forum for vituperation and invective. Not a protected platform to rage against an adversary,” the judge wrote. Trump has frequently targeted the news media. He has sued The Wall Street Journal, CBS News, and ABC News, winning $16 million settlements from CBS and ABC. His past lawsuits against The New York Times in 2020 and 2021 were dismissed.
– September 19, 2025 – On the president’s orders, the White House peace vigil was dismantled. The nation’s longest continuous political protest, the vigil was originally set up in 1981 by anti–nuclear arms activist William Thomas and was maintained by other activists over the years. “The blue tent, which was a public safety hazard to those visiting the White House and the surrounding areas, has been removed. Individuals are welcome to continue wasting their time with deranged, far-left protests and crazy signs that have nothing to do with peace,” said White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers.
– September 19, 2025 – US Attorney Erik Siebert, whose investigations of Trump foes James Comey and Letitia James did not result in criminal charges, resigned after pressure from the Trump administration. Earlier in the day, Trump had told reporters he wanted Siebert “out” because two Democratic senators, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, had supported his nomination. “When I saw that he got two senators, two gentlemen that are bad news as far as I’m concerned—when I saw that he got approved by those two men, I said, pull it, because he can’t be any good,” said Trump, who nominated Siebert after the two Democrats had written to Trump praising him. During the same conversation, Trump also said without evidence that New York Attorney General Letitia James was “very guilty of something.” Later that evening, he also claimed on social media that Siebert had not resigned but had been fired. In August, the Justice Department launched an investigation into James after she successfully won a civil fraud case against Trump in 2023; in July, the FBI began investigating Comey, the former FBI director fired by Trump, in relation to Russian intelligence. James’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, called Siebert’s removal “a brazen attack on the rule of law.”
– September 20, 2025 – Only one day after ousting a federal prosecutor for failing to charge two of his foes with crimes, Trump demanded that Attorney General Pam Bondi prosecute James Comey, Letitia James, and Adam Schiff. “We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility,” Trump wrote in a social media post addressed to Bondi. “They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!), OVERNOTHING. JUSTICEMUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!” In a later social media post, Trump said he would nominate Lindsey Halligan, who has never worked as a prosecutor, to be the US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
– September 21, 2025 – A memorial service was held for Charlie Kirk in Glendale, Arizona. It was attended by tens of thousands, including Trump and other administration officials. In a speech following the service, Trump said, “I hate my opponent, and I don’t want the best for them. I’m sorry, Erika,” in a shrugging apology to Kirk’s widow. Trump also said he was ordering the DOJ to investigate “networks of radical-left maniacs.” He added, “We have radical-left lunatics out there, and we just have to beat the hell out of them.” White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller escalated the rhetoric by declaring, “You have no idea the dragon you have awakened, you have no idea how determined we will be to save this civilization.” Media outlets and social media users claimed that Miller was paraphrasing a 1932 speech by Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels. The claim was investigated by Snopes, a fact-checking and resource site. Snopes found nothing conclusive but did point out some of the similarities between Miller’s and Goebbels’s speeches.
Stephen Miller Delivers Heated Remarks at Charlie Kirk’s Memorial Service (ABC News)
– September 22, 2025 – Trump signed an executive order targeting the left-wing antifascist movement known as antifa. The order read, “Antifa is a militarist, anarchist enterprise that explicitly calls for the overthrow of the United States Government, law enforcement authorities, and our system of law.” The order also stated there would be “investigatory and prosecutorial action” against those who financially support it. Trump’s order highlighted his administration’s broader effort to threaten liberal protesters and donors to progressive groups after the killing of Charlie Kirk. Extremism experts questioned Trump’s authority to make such a designation. Heidi Beirich, cofounder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, said the move was “ridiculous on its face” and that Trump’s order appears to have “no basis in law or fact.”
– September 22, 2025 – During a press conference at the White House, Trump instructed pregnant women not to take Tylenol. He said, “Don’t take it. Fight like hell not to take it.” He offered unproven medical advice contradicting decades of research about the use of the common painkiller in pregnancy and infancy. He declared without offering any evidence that there was a link between rising autism rates and the use of acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol. Health agencies from around the world—including the FDA—have not found a conclusive link. Medical experts stressed that acetaminophen is safe. Dr. Nathaniel DeNicola, an adviser to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said, “Doctors have always approached medications in pregnancy by using it only when indicated, lowest dose, for the shortest duration. He added, “That applies to Tylenol tomorrow the same as it does today, the same as it did yesterday.”
Trump Tells Pregnant Women “DON’T TAKE” Tylenol, Contradicting Standard Guidance (The Hill)
– September 23, 2025 – Trump delivered a meandering hour-long address to the UN General Assembly in New York. His speech was filled with insults and misinformation. He began by repeating his dubious claim that he had ended seven wars during his eight month administration. He then attacked UN European leaders about their migration and energy policies, stating, “It’s time to end the failed experiment of open borders. You have to end it now. Your countries are going to hell.” He called climate change “a hoax” and “a con job.” He added, “I love the people of Europe. And I hate to see it being devastated by energy and immigration, that double-tailed monster that destroys everything in its wake.” Before his address, an escalator Trump was riding on broke as he entered the building, and his teleprompter malfunctioned early in his speech. The White House accused UN staff of attempting to sabotage him.
‘Your Countries Are Going to Hell’: Trump Blasts UN in General Assembly Speech (AP)
– September 24, 2025 – A shooter fired from a nearby roof into an ICE field office in Dallas, killing one detainee and wounding two others before taking his own life. At the time, federal authorities had not released any information about the shooter’s possible motivations, but this did not stop Trump and other prominent Republicans from leaping to conclusions and blaming Democrats and the left. Following the shooting, Trump posted on Truth Social that “the deranged shooter wrote ‘Anti-ICE’ on his shell casings–this is despicable!” Trump did not mention the victims of the shooting and instead wrote, “CALLING ON ALLDEMOCRATS TO STOPTHISRHETORICAGAINSTICEAND AMERICA’S LAWENFORCEMENT, RIGHTNOW!” Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick wrote on X, “The radical left and Democrat policies in blue states foster attacks against ICE and all law enforcement.”
– September 25, 2025 – A federal grand jury indicted former FBI director James Comey, in the wake of Trump’s demand for retribution after the bureau investigated his 2016 presidential campaign over possible ties to Russia. Comey was indicted on charges of making a false statement and obstructing a congressional proceeding related to his testimony before a Senate committee in September 2020. His indictment was filed in the Eastern District of Virginia over the objections of prosecutors, who found insufficient evidence to support the charges. Prosecutors were overruled by former Trump defense lawyer, Lindsay Halligan, who was appointed to run the Eastern District office several days before Comey’s indictment. In a statement, Senator Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia, warned, “This kind of interference is a dangerous abuse of power. Our system depends on prosecutors making decisions based on evidence and the law, not on the personal grudges of a politician determined to settle scores.”
– September 26, 2025 – The Supreme Court extended an order allowing the Trump administration to keep frozen nearly $5 billion in foreign aid. The court responded to the Republican administration’s emergency appeal in a case involving billions of dollars in congressionally approved aid. The order stated that the president’s flexibility to engage in foreign affairs outweighed “the potential harm” faced by aid recipients. This came after US District Judge Amir Ali ruled that Trump’s action was illegal and that only Congress had the authority to withhold the funding. The $5 billion was earmarked to fund food security programs, help other countries build trade capacity, and aid victims of torture.
– September 26, 2025 – Trump announced he will send troops to Portland, Oregon, “authorizing Full Force, if necessary” to handle “domestic terrorists.” The announcement expanded Trump’s controversial deployments to Democrat-run American cities. Calling Portland “war-ravaged,” Trump added, “We’re going to get out there and do a big number on those people in Portland.” Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley, a Democrat, said, “Trump wants to stoke fear and chaos and trigger violent interactions and riots to justify expanded authoritarian control. Portland is peaceful and strong, and we will take care of each other.” After the announcement, Portland residents began posting social media images of “war-ravaged Portland” that included yarn bombed trees, outdoor cafés, and sunny riverside walks.
Tim Dickinson: Live from “War-Ravaged” Portland (BlueSky)
– September 27, 2025 – The State Department said it would revoke the visa of Colombian president Gustavo Petro for his “incendiary actions” during a pro-Palestinian protest in New York. On X, the state department said, “Earlier today, Colombian president Gustavo Petro stood on a NYC street and urged US soldiers to disobey orders and incite violence. We will revoke Petro’s visa due to his reckless and incendiary actions.” On his social media account, Petro shared a video of himself speaking to a large crowd through a megaphone. In the video, he said, “That is why, from here in New York, I ask all soldiers in the United States army not to point their rifles at humanity. Disobey Trump’s order! Obey the order of humanity!” Petro was in New York for the UN General Assembly, where he rebuked the Trump administration and called for a criminal inquiry into recent US strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean.
– September 29, 2025 – Following the indictment of former FBI Director and longtime Trump foe James Comey, Trump suggested that the Justice Department should also investigate former FBI Director Christopher Wray, who resigned before Trump’s second term. “I would imagine. I would certainly imagine. I would think they are doing that,” Trump said. During his tenure, Wray led investigations into election interference related to the January 6, 2021, Capitol attacks and Trump’s handling of classified documents. Trump’s comments came after The Blaze falsely reported that FBI agents were involved in the Capitol attacks. A 2024 DOJ report showed no evidence that the FBI had undercover agents among the crowds that attacked the Capitol.
– September 29, 2025 – Following similar concessionary moves by Meta, X, Paramount, and ABC, YouTube agreed to pay Trump $24.5 million to settle a lawsuit stemming from the suspension of his account after the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack. Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law, said the settlements by YouTube and others amounted to “buying influence” and that the concessions and settlements made by media and technology companies “do seem like they are currying favor with the presidential administration.” Prior to the settlement, YouTube also said it would reinstate content creators who were barred for posting misinformation related to Covid and the 2020 election and that it would relax some of its content-moderation policies in response to a Republican investigation.
– September 29, 2025 – The EPAannounced that it would relax Biden-era rules to rapidly reduce hydrofluorocarbons in grocery stores, air-conditioning companies, and semiconductor plants, among others. Known as HFCs, these man-made greenhouse gases are considered super pollutants; they are thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide at warming the planet, and plans to phase them out have generally enjoyed bipartisan support. In announcing the new changes, EPA administrator Lee Zeldin argued that the regulations had left many families without air conditioning in the summer, a claim that air-conditioning companies called exaggerated. “With this proposal, EPA is working to make American refrigerants affordable, safe, and reliable again,” said Zeldin. However, environmentalists argued that the changes would have a negligible effect on businesses while devastating the environment. “This is not going to make potato chips or computer chips any cheaper,” said David Doniger of the Natural Resources Council.
– September 29, 2025 – A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration illegally targeted noncitizen pro-Palestinian protestors earlier in the year, including the students and scholars Mahmoud Khalil, Yunseo Chung, Rümeysa Öztürk, Badar Khan Suri, and Mohsen Mahdawi. “We are not, and we must not become, a nation that imprisons and deports people because we are afraid of what they have to tell us,” wrote US District Judge William Young, calling the crackdown a “truly scandalous and unconstitutional suppression of free speech.” In his ruling, Young wrote that noncitizens in the US “unequivocally” have the same rights to freedom of speech as citizens and that Trump had “unapologetically increased his attack on First Amendment values.”
– September 30, 2025 – Federal agents with Border Patrol, the FBI, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrested thirty-seven people in an overnight military-style raid in the South Shore neighborhood of Chicago. Residents and witnesses said armed federal agents in military fatigues broke down their doors, pulling men, women, and children from their apartments, some of them naked. The raid was part of what the Trump administration titled “Operation Midway Blitz.” Federal officials claimed the South Shore neighborhood was “a location known to be frequented by Tren de Aragua members and their associates,” but DHS gave no evidence to support the assertion. Authorities didn’t confirm that any of the people arrested were members of the Venezuelan gang. South Shore resident Darrell Ballard, who lives next door to where the raid took place, said, “I’ve been on military bases for a good portion of my life. And the activity I saw—it was an invasion.”
– September 30, 2025 – In a highly unprecedented move, Defense/War Secretary Pete Hegseth gathered hundreds of senior military officials from around the world in Quantico, Virginia. During a politically charged, forty-five-minute rant, Hegseth, who left the military with only a major rank, lectured generals and admirals about lethality, DEI, fitness, and grooming. “No more beards, long hair, superficial individual expression. We’re going to cut our hair, shave, shave our beards, and adhere to standards… Frankly, it’s tiring to look out at combat formations, or really any formation, and see fat troops. Likewise, it’s completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon,” said Hegseth. In his subsequent address to the officials, Trump threatened to fire generals, said the military should use “dangerous” US cities for training, and referenced a racial slur. The large gathering of top military officials in a single location was criticized for being both expensive and dangerous. Many current defense officials and military veterans said they found the speeches “insulting” and “embarrassing.”
Moments from Pete Hegseth’s Speech to Military Commanders (AP)
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October 2025 (FORTHCOMING)
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– September 1, 2025 – The Trump administration deported Orville Etoria and five other men with criminal records to a prison in Eswatini despite the fact that none of the men hold Swazi citizenship. A Jamaican citizen with legal residency in the US, Etoria was convicted of murder in 1996. After Etoria’s release from prison in 2021, immigration officials allowed him to stay in the US, provided he completed annual check-ins. As of The New York Times’s publication, Etoria was being held indefinitely without charges, had not seen a lawyer, and had had little contact with his family since arriving in Eswatini. Neither Eswatini nor the US could explain why Etoria was being held, and Jamaican officials contested the Trump administration’s claim that their country had refused to accept Etoria.
– September 1, 2025 – Hundreds of Labor Day demonstrations took place across the country to protest against Trump administration policies and in support of workers’ rights. The protests, many of which were organized as part of the “Workers over Billionaires” call to action, denounced the Trump administration’s mass deportations, cuts to the social safety net, efforts to undermine unions, and deployment of National Guard troops in American cities, among other concerns. In Manhattan, activists carrying anti-Trump posters and chanting “lock him up” protested outside Trump Tower. “Protests are how you channel energy into activism,” said Andrew Lisa, chair of the Seminole County Democratic Party in Florida. “We are taking that energy and saying, ‘You’ve protested, you’ve taken two hours out of your day. Can you spend two hours knocking on your neighbors’ doors?’”
– September 4, 2025 – In what officials have called the largest-ever immigration raid at a single location, nearly five hundred workers, most of them South Korean nationals, were arrested at a construction site for an electric vehicle battery plant in Ellabell, Georgia. The plant, which was still under construction, was owned by two South Korean companies, Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution. Some of those arrested included US citizens, lawful permanent residents, and South Koreans with visas or visa waivers. The move, which was heavily criticized by South Korean newspapers and the South Korean government, also revealed tensions in Trump’s push to seek Korean manufacturing investments amid ongoing tariffs and immigration crackdowns. “The economic activities of our investment companies and the rights and interests of our citizens must not be unjustly violated during US law enforcement proceedings,” said a spokesperson for South Korea’s Foreign Ministry.
– September 5, 2025 – During his confirmation hearing, Stephen Miran, Trump’s nominee to fill a Federal Reserve vacancy, said he did not plan to resign from his White House role if confirmed and would instead take a leave of absence. The current chief of Trump’s Council of Economic Advisors, Miran assured the committee he would act independently if confirmed. However, he refused to go on the record to state that Trump had lost the 2020 election, and he ducked questions about whether the president was correct in claiming that officials had faked jobs data for political reasons. Calling Miran a “puppet,” Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren excoriated the nominee, “You have made clear that you will do or say whatever Donald Trump wants. That may work in a political position, but it will take an axe to Federal Reserve independence.”
– September 5, 2025 – In a stark contrast to Trump’s campaign promises to enact “America First” isolationism, his own self-styling as an “antiwar president,” and his stated desire to win a Nobel Peace Prize, Trump signed an executive order renaming the Department of Defense the “Department of War,” a name that was used from 1789–1947. “We won the First World War, we won the Second World War, we won everything before that and in between. And then we decided to go woke, and we changed the name to the Department of Defense,” Trump said at the signing. Added Pete Hegseth in an awkward spoken-word performance: “We’re going to go on offense, not just on defense. Maximum lethality, not tepid legality. Violent effect, not politically correct.” Although the move was largely symbolic, critics argued that the name change exposed Trump’s hypocrisy and underlined his increasingly aggressive use of the military. “[Trump] ran as the supposed antiwar candidate, but has proved to be just the opposite,” said Matt Duss of the Center for International Policy. “This stunt underscores that Trump is more interested in belligerent chest-thumping than genuine peacemaking—with dangerous consequences for American security, global standing and the safety of our armed services.”
– September 11, 2025 – Senate Republicans destroyed precedent and changed the rules to break a Democratic blockade of Trump’s executive branch nominees. The move, known as “the nuclear option,” was aimed at undercutting the Senate’s future role in vetting executive branch officials. The change passed along party lines and lowered the existing sixty-vote threshold for considering a group of presidential nominees to a simple majority. Republicans resorted to the move in an effort to weaken the ability of individual senators to block nominees they find objectionable. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the change would do irreparable damage to the Senate and its constitutional prerogatives, rendering it “a conveyor belt for unqualified Trump nominees.”
– September 15, 2025 – Following Trump’s executive order in March directing the Interior Department to remove “corrosive ideology,” national parks were ordered to remove signs and exhibits related to slavery, including a famous nineteenth-century photograph of a formerly enslaved man’s scarred back. Known as “The Scourged Back,” the photograph was widely circulated to Northern audiences after it was taken in 1863, leading to more support for the Union’s efforts to defeat the Confederacy. More recently, the photograph, likely of former slave Peter Gordon, became an emblem of the Black Lives Matter movement. In 2020, the photograph was incorporated into a New Yorker cover commemorating George Floyd’s death and also alluded to in a Vanity Fair cover photograph of Viola Davis’s back. In addition to “The Scourged Back” photograph, signs referring to racial discrimination, the negative treatment of former slaves, and the nine people enslaved by George Washington were tagged as non-compliant at Harper’s Ferry National Park in Virginia and the President’s House Site in Philadelphia. Later in the week, additional signs referring to climate change, the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, and conflicts with Native Americans were removed from other national parks.
– September 15, 2025 – When asked about his decision to lower US flags to half-staff at all government buildings after Charlie Kirk’s assisination but not after the assassination of Minnesota state representative Melissa Hortman, Trump shifted the onus to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. “Well, if the governor had asked me to do that, I would have done that, but the governor of Minnesota didn’t ask me. I wouldn’t have thought of that. But I would have if somebody had asked me,” Trump said. After Hortman and her husband were killed in June, Trump refused to call Walz to express his condolences, saying it would be a “waste of time” and that Walz was “so whacked out.”
