President Trump announced that the U.S. “successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela” and that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were “captured and flown out of the Country.” Explosions were heard in Caracas early Saturday …
Donald TrumpNicolas MaduroMarco RubioPete Hegsethmilitary-interventionvenezuelaregime-changeexecutive-overreachforeign-policy
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Trump administration must return control of the California National Guard to the state. President Trump announced that day he would withdraw National Guard troops from Los Angeles, Portland, and Chicago. The federal government backed down after …
Donald TrumpGavin NewsomCharles Breyernational-guardfederalismjudicial-interventionposse-comitatusexecutive-overreach
On November 26, 2025, the Department of Justice disclosed in a court filing that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem made the final decision to proceed with deportation flights to El Salvador despite U.S. District Judge James Boasberg’s explicit order on March 15 to turn the planes around. …
Kristi NoemU.S. District Judge James BoasbergDepartment of JusticeTodd BlancheEmil Bove+3 morecourt-defianceconstitutional-violationcriminal-contemptwillful-disregarddeportation-abuse+5 more
The Trump administration’s government shutdown reached its 36th day on November 5, 2025, officially surpassing the previous record of 35 days set during the December 2018-January 2019 shutdown under Trump’s first term. Over 1 million federal employees continued working without paychecks, …
Donald TrumpMike JohnsonSenate RepublicansCongressional Democratsgovernment-shutdownexecutive-overreachfederal-workerslegislative-gridlockpolitical-weaponization
OMB Director Russ Vought systematically used government shutdown planning to execute mass federal purges, cancel funding, block oversight, and reclassify workers across agencies according to the Project 2025 framework. This represents a deliberate conversion of the Office of Management and Budget …
Russ VoughtOffice of Management and Budget (OMB)Trump AdministrationCongressinstitutional-capturesystematic-corruptionexecutive-overreachproject-2025-implementation
On August 22, 2025, the FBI executed simultaneous, court-authorized searches of John Bolton’s Maryland home and Washington, D.C. office, seizing electronic devices and documents related to potential classified information mishandling. The raid stems from an ongoing investigation into …
John BoltonDonald TrumpKash PatelJohn RatcliffeFBI+1 morepolitical-retaliationclassified-documentsbolton-raidtrump-criticsfbi-weaponization+5 more
President Trump signed an executive order expanding travel restrictions to 19 countries, while simultaneously ordering that students and scholars from Harvard University be barred from entering the United States. The Harvard ban represented an unprecedented use of immigration authority to punish a …
Donald TrumpTrump AdministrationHarvard UniversityDepartment of Statetravel-banimmigrationacademic-freedomretaliationexecutive-overreach
Federal judges across multiple courts ruled that President Trump’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose unilateral tariffs was illegal and exceeded presidential authority. On May 29, 2025, U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras granted a preliminary …
Donald TrumpRudolph ContrerasU.S. Court of International TradeSupreme Courtjudicial-pushbackemergency-powersexecutive-overreachtrade-policyconstitutional-crisis+1 more
President Trump declared a national emergency under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 (IEEPA) to impose sweeping ‘reciprocal tariffs,’ marking the first time in IEEPA’s 48-year history that a president used the emergency statute—designed for genuine national …
Donald TrumpSupreme Courtemergency-powersexecutive-overreachtrade-policyconstitutional-crisisinstitutional-capture
President Trump signs Executive Orders 14231 and 14232 amending earlier tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports, citing illicit drug flows across northern and southern borders as justification. The orders expand February 1 tariff regime, using border security and drug enforcement rhetoric to justify …
Donald TrumpTrump Administrationexecutive-overreachtrade-policyborder-security-pretexteconomic-manipulation
President Trump issues executive order doubling tariffs on Chinese imports from 10 to 20 percent, citing synthetic opioid supply chain concerns. The tariff increase follows pattern of using national security and public health rhetoric to justify protectionist economic measures that benefit specific …
Donald TrumpTrump Administrationexecutive-overreachtrade-policyeconomic-manipulationnational-security-pretext
Trump administration launched systematic executive orders targeting law firms, mass firings of prosecutors, and open defiance of court rulings, creating what legal scholars describe as unprecedented constitutional crisis.
The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to block the Biden administration’s CDC eviction moratorium covering areas with high COVID transmission, finding the agency exceeded its statutory authority. The Court held that ‘[i]f a federally imposed eviction moratorium is to continue, Congress must …
Supreme CourtCDCJoe BidenAlabama Association of Realtorsexecutive-overreachemergency-powerssupreme-courtcovid-19housing
President Trump signed Executive Order 13769, titled “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States,” banning citizens from seven predominantly Muslim countries—Syria, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen—from entering the United States for 90 days. …
Donald TrumpRudy GiulianiJim MattisState Departmentmuslim-banauthoritarianismreligious-discriminationimmigrationrule-of-law+1 more
Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin, a former hedge fund partner at Waycross Partners, issues an executive order abolishing the existing Kentucky Retirement Systems board of trustees and creating a new board that gives him authority to appoint 10 of 17 board members. The restructuring comes two months …
Matt BevinKentucky Retirement SystemsThomas K. ElliottKentucky LegislatureAndy Beshearinstitutional-capturepension-lootingkentuckyregulatory-captureexecutive-overreach+1 more
Maine Governor Paul LePage threatened to withhold $500,000 in state funding from Good Will-Hinckley, a nonprofit charter school serving at-risk youth, to force the organization to rescind a job offer to Democratic House Speaker Mark Eves. Good Will-Hinckley had announced on June 9, 2015 that it …
Paul LePageMark EvesGood Will-Hinckleyabuse-of-powerinstitutional-capturepolitical-corruptionexecutive-overreachretribution+1 more
Alberto Gonzales and Chief of Staff Andy Card went to George Washington Hospital ICU to pressure hospitalized Attorney General John Ashcroft to reauthorize the NSA surveillance program that the Department of Justice had deemed illegal. Acting Attorney General James Comey raced to the hospital with …
John AshcroftJames ComeyAlberto GonzalesAndy CardRobert Muellerrule-of-lawexecutive-powersurveillancestellarwindconstitutional-crisis+5 more
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942, authorizing the Secretary of War and military commanders to designate “military areas” from which “any or all persons may be excluded.” Though the order never mentions Japanese Americans by name, …
Franklin D. RooseveltWar Relocation AuthorityU.S. Army Western Defense CommandJohn L. DeWittMilton Eisenhower+1 morecivil-libertiesracial-discriminationexecutive-overreachconstitutional-violationproperty-seizure+1 more
President James K. Polk presented Congress with a war message on May 11, 1846, claiming that Mexico “has at last invaded our territory and shed the blood of our fellow-citizens on our own soil” after Mexican forces killed or wounded 16 U.S. soldiers in disputed territory between the …
James K. PolkZachary TaylorU.S. CongressAbraham LincolnWhig Partyinstitutional-capturepolitical-deceptionexecutive-overreachterritorial-expansionslave-power
Face-to-face negotiations for Texas annexation secretly commenced on October 16, 1843, between Secretary of State Abel P. Upshur and Texas minister to the United States Isaac Van Zandt, following President John Tyler’s order to open secret talks on September 18. Tyler, politically isolated …
John TylerAbel P. UpshurIsaac Van ZandtSlave Powerinstitutional-captureslave-powerpolitical-deceptionexecutive-overreachterritorial-expansion
The Whig congressional caucus expelled President John Tyler from the party on September 13, 1841, after he vetoed national bank legislation for the second time in August, revealing that one of the main political principles guiding him was states’ rights ideology and protection of slavery …
John TylerHenry ClayWhig PartyCabinet Membersinstitutional-capturesystematic-corruptionexecutive-overreachparty-realignmentstates-rights
The Senate voted 26-to-20 on March 28, 1834, to censure President Andrew Jackson for unconstitutionally removing federal deposits from the Second Bank of the United States and placing them in state-chartered “pet banks.” The resolution, introduced by Henry Clay, declared that Jackson …
Andrew JacksonHenry ClayRoger TaneyWilliam DuaneU.S. Senateinstitutional-capturesystematic-corruptionfinancial-deregulationexecutive-overreachdemocratic-erosion
President Andrew Jackson orders the removal of federal government deposits from the Second Bank of the United States and their redistribution to state-chartered banks derisively called “pet banks” because they are selected based on political loyalty rather than financial soundness. The …
Andrew JacksonRoger TaneyLouis McLaneWilliam J. DuaneU.S. Congress+1 morefinancial-manipulationinstitutional-corruptionpatronagejackson-erabanking-system+1 more
The U.S. Supreme Court rules 5-1 in Worcester v. Georgia that states lack authority to impose regulations on Native American lands, with Chief Justice John Marshall writing that Indian nations are “distinct, independent political communities retaining their original natural rights” and …
John MarshallAndrew JacksonSamuel WorcesterCherokee NationGeorgia+1 morejudicial-nullificationexecutive-overreachindian-removalconstitutional-crisisrule-of-law+2 more