Domain 10
Democratic Norm Violations and Institutional Erosion
Actions undermining democratic institutions, norms, and the rule of law.
37 entries
Defiance of Federal Court Orders in the Second Term: Slow-Walking Reinstatement of Fired Workers, Ignoring Funding Freeze Injunctions, and Contempt Warnings from Federal Judges
2025 - 2026
During the first months of Donald Trump's second term, beginning in January 2025, multiple federal judges issued orders directing the administration to halt spending freezes, reinstate fired federal w...
Second-Term Democratic Norm Violations: Gutting of Federal Agencies, Mass Firings of Civil Servants, DOGE and Unauthorized Access to Government Systems, and Defiance of Court Orders
2025 - 2026
Beginning on the first day of his second term on January 20, 2025, Donald Trump pursued an aggressive campaign to restructure the federal government by gutting agencies, mass-firing career civil serva...
Undermining the Peaceful Transfer of Power: Second Inauguration as an Act of Political Dominance (January 2025)
2025 - 2025
On January 20, 2025, Donald Trump was inaugurated for a second term as President of the United States. The inaugural address and the executive actions that followed departed from the historical norms ...
DOGE and the Breach of Government Data Systems: Elon Musk's Operatives Accessing Social Security, Treasury, and IRS Records
2025 - 2026
Beginning in January 2025, operatives affiliated with the Department of Government Efficiency, an initiative led by Elon Musk and established by executive order at the start of President Trump's secon...
DOGE-Driven Mass Firings: The Dismantling of the Professional Civil Service Through Unprecedented Terminations of Federal Employees
2025 - 2025
Beginning in late January 2025, the Trump administration, working through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by Elon Musk, initiated the largest mass firing of federal employees in mod...
Dismantling of USAID: Shutdown of the 64-Year-Old Foreign Aid Agency Affecting Millions of Recipients Worldwide
2025 - 2025
Beginning on January 20, 2025, the Trump administration undertook the systematic dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), a federal agency established by Presiden...
Abuse of the Pardon Power for Personal and Political Loyalty: Clemency for Allies Convicted in Connection with Trump's Own Conduct
2020 - 2025
Across his first and second terms, Donald Trump used the presidential pardon power to grant clemency to individuals whose offenses were directly connected to his own political interests, personal rela...
Refusal to Accept 2020 Election Results and Disruption of the Presidential Transition
2020 - 2021
Following his defeat in the November 3, 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump became the first president in American history to refuse to concede and to actively obstruct the transfer of power to h...
Obstruction of the Peaceful Transfer of Power: Trump's Refusal to Concede in 2020-2021 Contrasted with Biden's Full Cooperation in 2024
2020 - 2025
The peaceful transfer of presidential power following an election is one of the foundational norms of American democracy, observed in every transition since John Adams yielded the presidency to Thomas...
Assault on Election Infrastructure: Pressuring State Officials, Calling for Termination of Constitutional Rules, and Encouraging Legislatures to Override the Popular Vote
2020 - 2022
Following his loss in the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump undertook a sustained campaign to overturn the results by pressuring state election officials, encouraging state legislatures to over...
Attacks on the Constitutional Order: Calling for 'Termination' of the Constitution, Embracing Dictatorial Language, and Refusing to Commit to Peaceful Transfers of Power
2020 - 2023
On multiple occasions between 2020 and 2023, Donald Trump publicly attacked the foundational principles of constitutional governance, including the peaceful transfer of power, the authority of the Con...
Using the White House as a Campaign Venue: The 2020 RNC, the Barrett Super-Spreader Event, and the Abraham Accords Ceremony
2020 - 2020
During the final months of the 2020 presidential campaign, the Trump administration used the White House and official government powers as backdrops for political campaign events on multiple occasions...
Attacking Mail-In Voting While Using It Himself: Trump Voted by Mail in Florida While Calling the Same Method Fraudulent and 'Cheating'
2020 - 2026
Throughout the 2020 presidential election cycle and into his second term, Donald Trump mounted a sustained campaign against mail-in voting, claiming without evidence that it was inherently fraudulent....
Abuse of Emergency Powers: National Emergency Declaration to Fund Border Wall After Congressional Refusal
2019 - 2021
On February 15, 2019, President Donald Trump declared a national emergency under the National Emergencies Act to redirect approximately $6.5 billion in funds that Congress had not appropriated for bor...
Politicization of the U.S. Military: Border Deployments, July 4th Display, National Guard Against Protesters, and Partisan Pressure on Military Leaders
2018 - 2021
Throughout his first term, President Donald Trump used the U.S. military as a political instrument in ways that blurred the longstanding norm of separation between the armed forces and partisan politi...
When the Inner Circle Turns: The Unprecedented Number of Former Senior Officials Who Publicly Warned Against Trump After Serving in His Administration
2018 - 2024
An unprecedented number of senior officials who served in the Trump administration subsequently issued public warnings that Trump was unfit for office, dangerous to democratic governance, or both. The...
Census Manipulation: Blocked Citizenship Question and Excluded Undocumented Immigrants from Apportionment
2018 - 2021
The Trump administration pursued two distinct but related efforts to alter the composition of the decennial census in ways that critics argued would reduce the political representation of immigrant co...
Refusal to Participate in Traditional Presidential Functions: Skipping the Kennedy Center Honors and Using Ceremonies for Political Purposes
2017 - 2019
During his first term, Donald Trump declined to attend the Kennedy Center Honors for three consecutive years, from 2017 through 2019, becoming the only president in the ceremony's history since its in...
Boycotting the White House Correspondents' Dinner: Trump Broke a 36-Year Presidential Tradition and Ordered Administration Officials to Stay Away
2017 - 2019
During his first term, President Donald Trump refused to attend the White House Correspondents' Dinner in 2017, 2018, and 2019, becoming the first president to skip the event since Ronald Reagan misse...
Attacks on Press Freedom: 'Enemy of the People' Rhetoric and Revocation of Press Credentials
2017 - 2025
On February 17, 2017, less than a month into his first term, Donald Trump posted on Twitter: "The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the...
Muslim Travel Ban: Executive Orders Restricting Entry from Muslim-Majority Countries
2017 - 2021
On January 27, 2017, one week after taking office, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 13769, titled "Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States." The order su...
Politicization of the Department of Homeland Security: Using CBP and ICE as Political Tools and Installing an Illegally Serving Secretary
2017 - 2021
During Donald Trump's first term, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was transformed from an agency focused on counterterrorism, disaster response, and border management into a vehicle for the ...
Nepotism: Appointment of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump as Senior White House Advisers
2017 - 2021
In January 2017, President Donald Trump appointed his son-in-law Jared Kushner as Senior Adviser to the President and his daughter Ivanka Trump as Adviser to the President, giving both unpaid position...
Destruction of Presidential Records: Torn Documents, Flushed Papers, and Missing White House Files
2017 - 2022
The Presidential Records Act (44 U.S.C. Sections 2201-2209) requires the preservation of all presidential records, including documents, correspondence, and memoranda created or received by the preside...
Violations of Presidential Records Preservation Requirements: Private Communications, Unsecured Messaging, and Systematic Failure to Archive Official Records
2017 - 2021
Throughout the Trump administration, senior White House officials, including members of the president's family serving in official capacities, conducted government business using private communication...
Hollowing Out the Diplomatic Corps: Firing Career Ambassadors, Purging Expertise, and Leaving Senior State Department Positions Unfilled
2017 - 2026
Across both his first and second terms, Donald Trump conducted systematic purges of career diplomatic personnel at the U.S. State Department, replacing institutional expertise with political loyalty, ...
Government by 'Acting' Officials: Circumventing Senate Confirmation Through Extended Use of Temporary Designations
2017 - 2021
During his first term, President Donald Trump relied on "acting" officials to fill Senate-confirmed positions to an extent that exceeded all modern precedents, effectively circumventing the constituti...
Executive Orders Used to Bypass Congress: Implementing Policy Through Unilateral Presidential Action
2017 - 2021
During his first term in office, Donald Trump signed executive orders at a pace that exceeded most of his modern predecessors, using presidential directives to implement policies that Congress had dec...
Governance by Social Media: Using Twitter to Announce Policy, Fire Officials, and Attack Individuals
2017 - 2021
During his first term as president, Donald Trump used his personal Twitter account as a primary instrument of governance, bypassing traditional channels of policy development, interagency review, lega...
The Normalization of Presidential Dishonesty: How 30,573 False Claims in One Term Changed the Relationship Between the Presidency and Truth
2017 - 2026
The Washington Post Fact Checker maintained a database of false or misleading claims made by Donald Trump throughout his first presidential term, from January 20, 2017, through January 20, 2021. The f...
Undermining U.S. Intelligence Agencies: Nazi Germany Comparison, Helsinki Deference, and Classified Disclosure to Russian Officials
2017 - 2018
Between January 2017 and July 2018, President Donald Trump engaged in a pattern of publicly undermining, contradicting, and circumventing U.S. intelligence agencies across multiple documented incident...
Politicization of the Intelligence Community: Sharing Classified Intelligence with Russia, Compromising a CIA Source, and Attacking Intelligence Leaders
2017 - 2020
Throughout his presidency, Donald Trump undermined the U.S. intelligence community through a pattern of actions that included sharing highly classified intelligence with Russian officials, compromisin...
Gutting the Office of Government Ethics: Walter Shaub's Resignation in Protest and the Transition from Compliance to Defiance on Executive Branch Ethics
2017 - 2017
Walter Shaub Jr. served as the Director of the United States Office of Government Ethics from January 2013 through July 19, 2017. OGE is an independent executive branch agency responsible for overseei...
Attacks on Voting Rights: Opposition to Mail-In Voting, False Voter Fraud Claims, Voter ID Restrictions, and Efforts to Suppress Turnout
2016 - 2026
Throughout both terms in office and during campaigns, Donald Trump has systematically attacked the legitimacy of voting processes in the United States, making repeated false claims about voter fraud, ...
Attacks on the Judiciary: Racial Targeting of Judges and Erosion of Judicial Independence
2016 - 2024
Throughout his presidential campaigns and presidency, Donald Trump engaged in a sustained pattern of public attacks on federal judges, questioning their legitimacy, impartiality, and competence. The a...
Refusal to Divest or Disclose: Breaking the Norms of Presidential Financial Transparency
2015 - 2021
Donald Trump broke two long-standing norms of presidential financial transparency during his 2016 campaign and presidency. He refused to release his federal tax returns, ending a practice followed by ...
The Degradation of Presidential Discourse: Profanity, Personal Insults, and the Collapse of Rhetorical Norms from the Presidential Platform
2015 - 2026
Donald Trump introduced a level of profanity, personal insult, and crude language into the presidential platform that is without precedent in the modern era. Academic researchers, linguists, and presi...