Both Trump administrations

2026-05-18. Last updated 2026-07-08. These are personal notes, subject to change. None of this is legal advice.

These notes are, and always will be, far from comprehensive. That said, I hope they help you find the truth.

Dates in the headings represent when the event started or when an official announcement was made instead of reporting from anonymous sources.

For vote results, totals are rounded to the nearest 100,000 votes; percents are rounded to 0.1% of all votes.

2016-11-08 - Election Day 2016

Trump won Electoral College 304 to 227 but lost popular vote at 63.0 million (46.1% of all votes) to 65.9 million (48.2%). 2017-12-XX - Election Results for the U.S. President, the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives - Federal Election Commission

2017-01-20 - First day of first Trump administration

2020-11-03 - Election Day 2020

Biden won Electoral College 306 to 232 and won popular vote at 81.3 million (51.3% of all votes) to 74.2 million (46.9%). 2022-10-XX - Election Results for the U.S. President, the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives - Federal Election Commission

2020-11-07 - EXPLAINING RACE CALLS: How AP called the race for Biden - Associated Press - AP called the race on the morning of 2020-11-07.

2021-01-06 - January 6 Capitol attack

2021-01-06 - January 6 Raw Protest Videos - Internet Archive

Includes fatal shooting of Ashley Babbitt: Video 77: A young woman … and (uncensored gore) video 55: Woman after being shot

2022-04-07 - The Trump Self-Coup Attempt: Comparisons and Civil-Military Relations

The storming of the US Capitol building in January 2021 was a presidential attempt at a self-coup.

2022-12-22 - Select January 6th Committee Final Report and Supporting Materials Collection - GovInfo

Bipartisan committee
President Trump had summoned a mob, including armed extremists and conspiracy theorists, to Washington, DC on the day the joint session of Congress was to meet. He then told that same mob to march on the U.S. Capitol and “fight.” They clearly got the message.

2026-01-04 - Jan. 6, 2021: A visual archive of the Capitol attack - NPR

1:10–2:12 PM: Police line holds against packed crowd for over an hour on the West Front of the Capitol
- Rioters used pepper spray, bear spray and other weapons to assault police. At approximately 2 p.m., police played a recorded message on a loudspeaker stating, “All people must leave the area immediately. Failure to comply with this order may subject you to arrest and may subject you to the use of a riot control agent or impact weapon.”
  - Video shows the crowd did not disperse
Violence begins at 2:13 PM:
- a group of rioters broke through police lines and reached a doorway on the northwest side of the Capitol.
  
  A member of the Proud Boys, Dominic Pezzola, used a stolen police shield to break a window, allowing rioters to enter the building. This marked the first breach of the Capitol.”

2021-01-20 - Last day of first Trump administration

2024-11-05 - Election Day 2024

Trump won Electoral College 312 to 226 and won popular vote at 77.3 million (49.8% of all votes) to 75.0 million (48.3%). Official 2024 Presidential General Election Results - Federal Election Commission

2025-01-20 - First day of second Trump administration

Executive Order 14160

On 2025-01-20, Trump signed the unconstitutional Executive Order 14160, titled “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship,” attempting to change the interpretation of the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. The Supreme Court struck down the Order on 2026-06-30. Full article: Immigration to the United States - markwiemer.com.

Executive Order 14169

On 2025-01-20, Trump signed Executive Order 14169, titled “Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid,” which states:

The United States foreign aid industry and bureaucracy are not aligned with American interests and in many cases antithetical to American values. They serve to destabilize world peace by promoting ideas in foreign countries that are directly inverse to harmonious and stable relations internal to and among countries.

It is the policy of United States that no further United States foreign assistance shall be disbursed in a manner that is not fully aligned with the foreign policy of the President of the United States.

…

All department and agency heads with responsibility for United States foreign development assistance programs shall immediately pause new obligations and disbursements of development assistance funds to foreign countries and implementing non-governmental organizations, international organizations, and contractors pending reviews of such programs for programmatic efficiency and consistency with United States foreign policy, to be conducted within 90 days of this order. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) shall enforce this pause through its apportionment authority.

4 days later, on 2026-01-24, Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a stop-work order in an email with subject “Executive Order on Review of Foreign Assistance Programs,” stating among other things that the United States shall not provide foreign assistance through the Department and USAID without the Secretary of State’s authorization. Some exceptions applied.

On 2026-01-27, Politico reported that, as of that day, “[t]he Trump administration [had] ordered dozens of top career employees of the U.S. Agency for International Development to go on administrative leave, according to six people told of the decision”: 2025-01-27 - Top USAID career staff placed on immediate leave - Politico.

2025-04-02 - “Liberation Day” tariffs announcement

On 2025-04-02, Trump announced new tariffs via unconstitutional Executive Order 14257: Regulating Imports With a Reciprocal Tariff To Rectify Trade Practices That Contribute to Large and Persistent Annual United States Goods Trade Deficits. He referred to that day as “Liberation Day.” The day is not an official holiday. The Supreme Court struck down the Order on 2026-02-20. By that point, US Customs and Border Protection had reported $200 billion in revenue attributed to 40 of Trump’s executive orders between 2025-01-20 and 2025-12-15. The Supreme Court did not weigh in on how the illegally-obtained money ought to be repaid.

2025-05-21 - Qatar Air Force One plane

2025-05-11 - Trump administration poised to accept ‘palace in the sky’ as a gift for Trump from Qatar: Sources - ABC News

First to report the story

2025-05-12 - Experts: Qatar-gifted Air Force One may be security, upgrade disaster - Defense News

2025-05-16 - What’s wrong with Trump accepting a 747 from Qatar? Everything. - Frank Kendall for Defense News Opinion

Frank Kendall was Secretary of the Air Force under Joe Biden
It is both unethical and a violation of the Constitution for President Trump to accept this “gift.”

I cannot find the official statement: News from 2025-05-20 to 2025-05-22 - war.gov. But multiple sources reported a written statement by Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell on 2025-05-21 confirming this acceptance.

2025-05-21 - Pentagon accepts Qatari jet for Air Force One - Defense News

“The Secretary of Defense has accepted a Boeing 747-8 from Qatar in accordance with all federal rules and regulations. The Department of Defense will work to ensure proper security measures and functional-mission requirements are considered for an aircraft used to transport the President of the United States,” Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell wrote in a statement Wednesday.

2026-05-18 - Anti-Weaponization Fund

2026-05-11 - Trump poised to drop IRS suit, launch $1.7B ‘weaponization’ fund for allies: Sources - ABC News

First to report this story
Since Trump’s blanket pardons of defendants charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, hundreds have begun to seek payouts from the federal government. When asked about the possibility of creating a compensation fund for pardoned Jan. 6 defendants, Trump told Newsmax last year that “a lot of the people that are in government now talk about it” because they “really like that group of people.”

“They were patriots as far as I was concerned,” Trump said last year. “I talk about them a lot. They were treated very unfairly.”

2026-05-15 - The Heist - Nick Catoggio for The Dispatch

The new slush fund originated the same way Trump’s de facto bribe from Paramount did, in the guise of a lawsuit. In January, Trump sued the IRS in his personal capacity for $10 billion because an agency contractor leaked his tax returns in 2019. It fell to the Justice Department, which now functions like a mafia don’s consigliere and displays a giant banner of its boss’s image over its entrance, to oppose that lawsuit.

That’s like Dracula suing Renfield. How vigorous do you suppose the DOJ’s defense will be?

2026-05-18 - Justice Department Announces Anti-Weaponization Fund - United States Department of Justice

Part of settlement agreement in President Donald J. Trump v. Internal Revenue Service
The Fund will consist of five members appointed by the Attorney General. One Member will be chosen in consultation with congressional leadership. The President can remove any member, but a replacement must be chosen the same way as the replaced member was selected.

2026-05-18 - Letter establishing Anti-Weaponization Fund - Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche

The United States has no liability whatsoever for the protection or safeguarding of those funds
Previous cases have been settled on similar terms … Keepseagle v. Vilsack … see also Garcia v. Vilsack
- For example, in the Keepseagle litigation, the plaintiffs alleged improper behavior by the Department of Agriculture over a period of years, and the Obama Administration settled the case by establishing an administrative claims process funded by $680,000,000 paid from the Judgment Fund, which was deposited into a bank account to fund the claims received.

2026-05-18 - DOJ announces $1.7B fund to compensate Trump allies - AP News

Keepseagle

The Justice Department has compared the Anti-Weaponization Fund to the Keepseagle settlement.

Official website: Keepseagle v. Vilsack Settlement

USDA notice: If You are a Native American Who Was Denied a Farm Loan or Loan Servicing by the USDA, You Could Receive Benefits from a Class Action Settlement

Cohen Milstein summary: Keepseagle v. Vilsack - Cohen Milstein

Lead law firm of the plaintiffs in this case

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