Beyond the First 100 Days: Combating Trump Administration Secrecy and Abuses of Power

Tuesday marked 100 days since President Donald Trump returned to the White House for his second term. During that time, he has sought to reshape the federal government to serve his political and personal interests, attempting to evade rules and laws that hold our leaders accountable to the public and assembling an administration in which unflinching loyalty is prized above experience or commitment to the rule of law. 

American Oversight has been investigating Trump’s anti-democratic and authoritarian actions, having filed dozens of public records requests for information about the administration’s anti-immigrant mass deportation efforts, the dismantling of federal agencies, and the work of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. We have filed multiple lawsuits, including to prevent the destruction of government records and ensure compliance with transparency laws. 

While the first 100 days of the administration have now passed, the threats to our democracy from Trump’s actions remain. This includes ongoing efforts to operate in secret by skirting public records laws and dodging oversight as well as abusing the powers of the executive branch to decimate federal agencies, weaponize the government against perceived enemies, and attack due process rights. 

Secrecy and a Disdain for Federal Records Laws

The strength of our democracy depends on the public’s ability to access information about what the government is doing. That becomes impossible when officials fail to release public documents as required by law, or when those records are either destroyed or not properly preserved in the public record. 

Unfortunately, the Trump administration has taken several steps to undermine transparency, prioritizing secrecy over compliance with basic requirements for a responsible and accountable government. This includes evading the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and communicating about official work through non-official channels, which presents major problems for ensuring that those communications are properly preserved. And the risk of public documents being lost to time is even more urgent when top officials are using ephemeral communication platforms that are set to auto-delete.

• As the “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) has wreaked havoc across the federal government, the administration has sought to shield its actions from public scrutiny. We requested several sets of public records to learn more about DOGE’s leadership, structure, and role in the administration’s mass firings of federal employees, dismantling of government agencies, and cancellation of essential programs and contracts. In February, after DOGE failed to turn over the records, we filed a first-of-its-kind FOIA lawsuit against the agency. That lawsuit, combined with outrage over the administration’s use of the autodeleting messaging app Signal for official work, prompted DOGE to create a new records retention policy.
• In March, following reports that staff at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) had been directed to shred and burn classified and personnel documents, we filed suit against USAID, the National Archives, and Marco Rubio (as acting USAID administrator and acting archivist) for violating the Federal Records Act (FRA), the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), and FOIA.
• The news that high-level Trump administration officials had discussed sensitive military operations over Signal ignited a huge scandal, and spurred American Oversight to file a lawsuit against five top officials who participated in the group chat for violating the FRA. We also launched an investigation into the administration’s systemic use of Signal for official government business, which poses serious risks to national security and undermines accountability by opening the door for important government documents to be lost or destroyed.
• The use of secretive messaging platforms has also extended to DOGE. In April, American Oversight filed a second lawsuit against the agency for violating FOIA, the APA, and the FRA by using Signal and other ephemeral communication apps, as well as Google Docs, for government work. In an attempt to evade those laws requiring the preservation or disclosure of records, DOGE has claimed that it is an entity whose function is merely to “advise and assist” the president, and thus not subject to FOIA or the FRA. Of course, DOGE is doing much more than that — read more here about why DOGE is an “agency” subject to federal records laws.
• We’re also investigating other Trump administration officials’ problematic records practices, including National Security Adviser Michael Waltz’s use of Gmail for government work.

Whatever cabinet shuffling the president undertakes to address public outrage over the reckless handling of official communications and information, the administration’s disdain for transparency runs deep. Just this week, the day before he was removed as national security adviser, a Reuters photographer captured Waltz using a modified Signal messaging app to speak with other top officials, including Rubio and Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence. American Oversight is closely monitoring these practices, and our legal actions remain ongoing. And we’ll continue shining a light on major breakdowns in the nation’s transparency infrastructure, including obstacles to compliance with the Freedom of Information Act.

Executive Branch Overreach and Abuses of Power

Trump has attempted to undermine our system of checks and balances that ensures that each of the three branches of government are co-equal — and that the president is not above the law. 

The administration has sought to dismantle federal programs and agencies set up by Congress, firing wide swaths of employees and officials — including those tasked with providing crucial oversight — and enacting retribution on Trump’s perceived enemies.

• Days into his second term, Trump ordered the firing of more than a dozen Senate-confirmed, independent inspectors general responsible for safeguarding the integrity and accountability of government programs that impact millions of lives and save taxpayers billions annually. American Oversight quickly launched an investigation into the unlawful firings, filing multiple FOIA requests for any communications that would shed light on the firings and the president’s failure to notify Congress in advance, as is required by law. 
• The Trump administration has used the power of the government to target perceived political and personal adversaries. The National Archives, which was at the center of the criminal case against Trump for his alleged mishandling of classified documents when he left office in 2021, has been a primary target of his retribution tour, with purges of the agency’s top leadership to make room for loyal officials who may be more likely to do his bidding or turn a blind eye to violations related to the preservation of government documents.
• Trump has targeted major law firms for work he disagrees with or dislikes — including work that promotes transparency and accountability by challenging government actions.
• The administration has also targeted prosecutors who were involved in litigating January 6 criminal cases, having fired more than a dozen career lawyers and directed the dismissal of cases and demotions of prosecutors who worked on those cases. 
• Trump has also abused the power of the presidency by dismantling or attempting to destroy federal agencies that were created and funded by Congress. He and DOGE have set their sights on the Department of Education, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Social Security Administration, and USAID, among others, threatening important programs and services that Americans rely on. He has issued executive orders initiating mass firings across the government targeting any offices, positions, grants, contracts, or programs he claims to be related to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• Additionally, the Trump administration has attempted to undermine the right to due process and exhibited a disdain for co-equal branches of government, especially in the realm of immigration enforcement as it seeks to carry out its mass-deportation plans. At the same time, it has continued pushing false claims about alleged widespread illegal voting by noncitizens. This week, we filed a motion to unseal records in a case regarding efforts by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to obtain data from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) about undocumented immigrants. Our motion — which came after we filed a suite of related requests with both ICE and the IRS — asks that the court unseal documents, including the memorandum of understanding explaining the data-sharing arrangement and the implementation agreement detailing how it will be carried out. 

In just a few months, President Trump and his administration have demonstrated clearly their anti-democratic agenda, from authoritarian-like secrecy and disregard for records-preservation rules to unprecedented executive branch overreach. As we look ahead to the next 100 days — and beyond — it is vital that the administration is held accountable for future efforts to undermine critical democratic safeguards or to operate in secret. American Oversight is keeping close watch on the administration’s actions and will continue fighting for the transparency and accountability the American people deserve.