The Trump Administration’s Continued War Against Science, Research, Public Health, and the Rule of Law – Part 7

This article is the seventh in a series, all of which are referenced above. The second Trump presidency has resulted in a causal chain that by June 2025 morphed into a comprehensive and unending attack against government funded programs, research and scholarship. The attacks quickly escalated and expanded beyond the federal sector into the private and non-profit arenas. In alignment with the Project 2025 roadmap, cultural, historical and political censorship has made deep inroads into American life.

This administration’s war against all facets of our democracy encompasses both public and private sectors, making it highly unlikely that every single political abuse of power can be recorded accurately, and eventually remediated. In addition, government monopolization and domination of formerly “mainstream media” – CBS, MSNBC, CNN, ABC – has left a huge gulf in reporting that has partitioned public consumption of ‘news’ into two main camps – Fox, NewsMax and social media (X, TikTok, and in large measure Reddit), separated from a wave of new independent journalism, reporting, research and knowledge sharing, via sources that include BlueSky and the multimedia publishing platform, Substack. [With the caveat that Substack is in no way an entirely democracy centered ecosystem – and neither is BlueSky).

The Contrarian: “Major news events — including complex wars — highlight the danger in allowing a few MAGA billionaires to control our news. Voters should support political leaders with adequate legal and legislative tools who are determined to halt media consolidation. Unless they reverse this ominous trend, the oligarchs’ grip on America will tighten, disinformation will dominate our mainstream media environment, foreign leaders will shape our news, and democracy will wither…”

The co-opting of the majority of ‘main stream media’ into delivery vehicles for administration sponsored propaganda has left the public in large measure unaware of the breadth and depth of censorship and violations of law. The press gaggles at the White House, the Pentagon other major agencies are now predominantly comprised of representatives from organizations who have declared loyalty to the president. As the administration ping-pongs from banning Anthropic AI, to war with Iran, mainstreaming mass surveillance programs, scaling up illegal immigrant detention centers, to aggressive actions to curtail free and fair mid-term elections, there is a growing feeling of a public experiencing ongoing symptoms of whiplash. All the while, a grab-bag of Executive Orders, Cabinet level memos, and e-government censorship continues – such as deleting the DOJ U.S. Capitol Siege Resource Page, along with mass deportations and intimidation of the public using troops, while the president is blathering about drapery while a holding huge ball in Mar-a-Lago concurrent with declaring war on Iran, while his cabinet and subordinates defy the rule of law, unrestricted by an inert Congress that has ceded constitutional power to the executive branch.

…Throughout President Trump’s second term, his administration has presented the same extortionate choices to a variety of targets, including universities and companies, as well as law firms: agree to our unconstitutional demands and sacrifice your principles, or fight back and suffer our wrath in the form of lost patronage and dollars. Jeffrey Toobin

The second Trump administration has also checked off the completion of specific Project 2025 objectives including the elimination of the Department of Education – as concisely described by Bloomberg – “Republicans have been trying to dissolve the Department of Education since it was created. Under Trump, they’re closer than ever to getting it done. In the early days of President Donald Trump’s second term, he made a blunt promise about the US Department of Education: “We’re going to shut it down as quickly as possible.”

And as the Project 2025 road map continues to add another set of check marks – we can include the censorship and termination of government sponsored data and research.

A Year of Threats to Our Public Information Marking One Year – Over the past year, the Trump administration has moved aggressively to remove public access to federal data, information, and tools. The fields of climate, health, environment, and justice have been particularly targeted. Decades of scientific expertise and institutional knowledge have been lost in cuts to federal staffing and funding for research. Beyond the data itself, the infrastructure supporting it—especially people, technology, and governance—is under attack. This is the first piece in a series. Over the next four days, we will publish four more pieces that detail what we’ve seen and how we have responded to these attacks. The federal data apparatus is complex and far-reaching. Federal agencies produce and maintain hundreds of thousands of datasets, and taxpayers have invested billions of dollars into this system. There are four main pillars of this federal data ecosystem: policies, people, data and information, and data access. This administration is systematically dismantling all four of these pillars.

Add to the list of check marks the complete transformation of public health and human services, including vaccine research, vaccination of children against deadly diseases including measles, and a pivot to the promotion of high fat nutrition guidance and the termination of services to combat food insecurity. “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced [January 5, 2026] an unprecedented overhaul of the childhood vaccine schedule that recommends fewer shots to all children. The new U.S. guidelines recommend all children get vaccines for 11 diseases, compared with the 18, including Covid, previously on the schedule.

STAT News – Federal health officials are unilaterally reducing the number of recommended pediatric immunizations in response to an order from President Trump, the most significant reshaping of the vaccine schedule since Trump took office and empowered health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime critic of childhood shots. The new schedule pares down the number of recommended vaccines from 17 to 11, recommends some vaccines only for “high-risk” individuals, and says that some other vaccines, such as those for flu and rotavirus, can be given through “shared clinical decision-making.” A panel of vaccine advisors handpicked by Kennedy recently recommended that the hepatitis B birth dose be delayed until a baby is at least 2 months old. However, that panel, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, was not consulted on the changes announced Monday, officials said…Vaccine experts have warned that the actions the agency is taking will create chaos in pediatricians’ offices around the country and discourage parents from using demonstrably safe vaccines to protect their children against dangerous diseases. …Meningitis, hepatitis A and B, dengue, and respiratory syncytial virus vaccines will only be recommended for “high-risk” groups. …Parents will be able to choose to get their children vaccinated against rotavirus, Covid-19, flu, meningitis, and hepatitis A and B under “shared clinical decision-making.” Jernigan said pediatricians will be hard pressed to meet the demand for extra visits such a policy will require. “By making these vaccines a shared clinical decision making, it introduces one more barrier that prevents a child from getting a life-saving vaccine,” he said. “This new policy has not been vetted with pediatricians, the public, or the ACIP,” he said.

and

NPR – One of the world’s leading medical journals has issued a scathing rebuke of Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to mark his first year leading the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The editorial — titled “Robert F. Kennedy Jr: 1 year of failure” — appears in the latest issue of the Lancet.  A quote from the piece marks an otherwise blank front cover: “The destruction that Kennedy has wrought in 1 year might take generations to repair, and there is little hope for US health and science while he remains at the helm.” The journal’s editorial board catalogues many of the controversial actions taken under Kennedy’s watch, including the dismissal of agency employees, “revisions of guidelines and recommendations contradicting decades of established science,” cuts to cutting-edge scientific research, the undermining of vaccine policy and promotion of “junk science and fringe beliefs.”

This litany of politicized programs are in opposition to decades of policies that focused on improving the health, welfare and security of average Americans. In the months to come we will experience more disruptions to every aspect of the infrastructure that supports our economy, education, healthcare, and defense. This series will deliver additional updates to identify insight into critical changes as a pathfinder for the next administration to rebuild and reinforce our democracy.

CONTENTS

  1. Censorship using “attempted corporate murder”
  2. Trump Administration’s War on DEI
  3. Public Health and Federal Funding
  4. Research / Libraries
  5. How to Shred a Federal Government Agency
  6. Climate Science
  7. Government Documents – Censorship
  8. Federal Government Data – Deleted
  9. Government Agencies – Censorship
  10. Environmental Protection
  11. Censorship in Education – DEI and Democracy
  12. Harvard – Continued attacks on higher education
  13. Terminating Government Documents with regular publication schedules
  14. Terminating the Collection and Sharing of Government Data
  15. Termination of Federal Funding for Sciences and Reports From Agencies
  16. Termination of the Federal Workforce
  17. Termination of Federal Government Data Collection and Reporting – Dozens of websites no longer updated

1 – Censorship using “attempted corporate murder”

Trump orders US agencies to stop using Anthropic technology in clash over AI safety. AP, February 28, 2026. The Trump administration on Friday [February 7, 2026] ordered all U.S. agencies to stop using Anthropic’s artificial intelligence technology and imposed other major penalties, escalating an unusually public clash between the government and the company over AI safety. President Donald Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other officials took to social media to chastise Anthropic for failing to allow the military unrestricted use of its AI technology by a Friday deadline, accusing it of endangering national security after CEO Dario Amodei refused to back down over concerns the company’s products could be used in ways that would violate its safeguards. “We don’t need it, we don’t want it, and will not do business with them again!” Trump said on social media. Hegseth also deemed the company a “supply chain risk,” a designation typically stamped on foreign adversaries that could derail the company’s critical partnerships with other businesses.

See also Politico – ‘Attempted corporate murder’: Trump’s threats against Anthropic chill AI industry. The unprecedented conflict over the military’s use of Anthropic’s AI model could transform the relationship between Washington and the tech sector. The high-stakes standoff between the Trump administration and artificial intelligence startup Anthropic is sparking fears in Silicon Valley, on Capitol Hill and across K Street of a fundamental shift in the balance of power between Washington and the AI industry. President Donald Trump’s fiery attack on the company escalated the feud on Friday, as he ordered a government-wide boycott of Anthropic’s Claude AI model and threatened the company with prosecution if it doesn’t cooperate with agencies winding down their use of the technology. Within minutes, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also designated Anthropic a supply chain risk — a label, typically reserved for foreign firms with ties to U.S. adversaries, that blocks companies with government contracts from working with Anthropic.

See also Anthropic Statement on the comments from Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. February 27, 2026. Earlier today, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth shared on X that he is directing the Department of War to designate Anthropic a supply chain risk. This action follows months of negotiations that reached an impasse over two exceptions we requested to the lawful use of our AI model, Claude: the mass domestic surveillance of Americans and fully autonomous weapons. We have not yet received direct communication from the Department of War or the White House on the status of our negotiations. We have tried in good faith to reach an agreement with the Department of War, making clear that we support all lawful uses of AI for national security aside from the two narrow exceptions above. To the best of our knowledge, these exceptions have not affected a single government mission to date. We held to our exceptions for two reasons. First, we do not believe that today’s frontier AI models are reliable enough to be used in fully autonomous weapons. Allowing current models to be used in this way would endanger America’s warfighters and civilians. Second, we believe that mass domestic surveillance of Americans constitutes a violation of fundamental rights. Designating Anthropic as a supply chain risk would be an unprecedented action—one historically reserved for US adversaries, never before publicly applied to an American company. We are deeply saddened by these developments. As the first frontier AI company to deploy models in the US government’s classified networks, Anthropic has supported American warfighters since June 2024 and has every intention of continuing to do so. We believe this designation would both be legally unsound and set a dangerous precedent for any American company that negotiates with the government. No amount of intimidation or punishment from the Department of War will change our position on mass domestic surveillance or fully autonomous weapons. We will challenge any supply chain risk designation in court.

Anthropic Takes a Stand, The Atlantic (Gift Article), February 26, 2026.: “The Pentagon’s version of Claude could not be used to facilitate the mass surveillance of Americans, nor could it be used in fully autonomous weaponry—situations where computers, rather than humans, make the final decision about whom to kill. According to a source familiar with this week’s meeting, Hegseth made clear that if Anthropic did not eliminate those two guardrails by Friday afternoon, two things could happen: The Department of Defense could use the Defense Production Act, a Cold War–era law, to essentially commandeer a more permissive iteration of the AI, or it could label Anthropic a ‘supply-chain risk,’ meaning that anyone doing business with the U.S. military would be forbidden from associating with the company.” Anthropic is refusing to bend. The Atlantic (Gift Article): Anthropic Takes a Stand.

Anthropic to sue Trump administration after AI lab is labelled security risk. FT.com, February 27, 2026. Pentagon bans start-up from government contracts, as OpenAI announces deal to deploy models in classified networks Dario Amodei said his company ‘cannot in good conscience’ agree to the US government’s terms. Anthropic has promised a legal challenge after it was labelled a security risk by the Pentagon and banned from government contracts, escalating a battle between the AI lab and the Trump administration. US President Donald Trump on Friday gave Anthropic six months until it is cut from government contracts, saying the AI start-up made a “disastrous mistake” in challenging the Pentagon over the military use of its Claude technology. The president said in a Truth Social post that he would not “ALLOW A RADICAL LEFT, WOKE COMPANY TO DICTATE HOW OUR GREAT MILITARY FIGHTS AND WINS WARS!” The Pentagon then designated Anthropic a supply-chain risk, an unprecedented action against an American company. In a sign that rivals were moving to take advantage of the rift, OpenAI chief Sam Altman announced on Friday it had reached a deal to deploy models in the government’s classified networks. Elon Musk’s xAI was also close to a deal, said people with knowledge of the matter. Defence secretary Pete Hegseth said Anthropic had “delivered a masterclass in arrogance and betrayal” after a deadline to agree to terms lapsed on Friday. Effective immediately, no Pentagon contractors or suppliers “may conduct any commercial activity with Anthropic”, he added. Anthropic said it intended to challenge that decision in court. “No amount of intimidation or punishment from the Department of War will change our position on mass domestic surveillance or fully autonomous weapons. We will challenge any supply chain risk designation in court,” the company said on Friday evening. Anthropic added Hegseth lacked “the statutory authority to back up this statement. Legally, a supply chain risk designation . . . can only extend to the use of Claude as part of Department of War contracts — it cannot affect how contractors use Claude to serve other customers.” Alan Rozenshtein, associate professor at the University of Minnesota Law School, said “the supply chain risk designation is legally tenuous . . . I wouldn’t be surprised if all sides, including the government, understand this”. Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei has clashed with Hegseth over how the military uses its AI models, sticking to red lines on lethal autonomous weapons or for mass domestic surveillance. Trump in his post said he was “directing EVERY Federal Agency in the United States Government to IMMEDIATELY CEASE all use of Anthropic’s technology”. But the president added he would allow a “Six Month phase out period for Agencies like the Department of War who are using Anthropic’s products, at various levels”, potentially allowing time for the two sides to cut a deal. The Pentagon was negotiating with Anthropic up to the moment the president posted, said two people familiar with the matter. Meanwhile, the department is seeking to work with alternative AI model providers, including signing a deal with OpenAI on Friday. Altman said on X: “Two of our most important safety principles are prohibitions on domestic mass surveillance and human responsibility for the use of force, including for autonomous weapon systems.” He added: “The DoW agrees with these principles, reflects them in law and policy, and we put them into our agreement.” Altman on Thursday told staff the ChatGPT maker would permit “any use except those which are unlawful or unsuited to cloud deployments, such as domestic surveillance and autonomous offensive weapons”. But to date, Anthropic’s Claude is the only AI model deployed in classified operations, having been used in the seizure of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro last month. An administration official told the FT that it remained the best model for military use. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the US Senate’s intelligence committee, said Trump’s move posed “an enormous risk to US defence readiness”. Josh Gruenbaum, the US procurement chief who agreed a deal with Anthropic last August to supply government agencies, said the agreement had been terminated immediately because it would be “dangerous to our nation” to maintain a business relationship with the company. In cutting Anthropic from its supply chain, the Pentagon is implementing a process that up to now has only been used against foreign companies located in countries such as China and Russia. Recommended News in-depthBig Tech Big Tech workers press bosses to back Anthropic in Pentagon clash Dario Amodei and Pete Hegseth appear in front of a blue background with the logos of Anthropic, Amazon, Google and Microsoft. Groups that have previously been deemed a supply-chain risk include China’s Huawei and ZTE Corporation and Russia’s Kaspersky Lab. Anthropic has argued AI models are not reliable enough for humans to be removed from the “kill chain” and that existing surveillance laws are inadequate to prevent mass surveillance. The Pentagon has disputed that, claiming it had no intention of using AI in the ways Anthropic feared and accusing the company of derailing the talks by pushing for excessive control over military operations. Amodei was summoned to Washington for talks on Tuesday, which failed to produce a resolution. On Thursday, he said his company “cannot in good conscience” agree to the US government’s terms. The Pentagon “decided to make Dario a non-patriotic villain, to make an example and intimidate the other companies”, said a former senior defence official. “It’s deeply dangerous.”

2 – Trump Administration’s War on DEI

February 18, 2026. Department of Education Backs Down on Unlawful Directive Targeting Educational Equity – In a victory for academic freedom and education equity, the U.S. Department of Education conceded the end of its February 14, 2025, “Dear Colleague” directive that sought to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts in schools and higher education institutions nationwide. Upon the U.S.’s concession that the directive and subsequent certification requirement are vacated – meaning they are formally nullified – the district court issued a final ruling today, permanently invalidating the directive and preventing the government from enforcing, relying on, or reviving it. As a result, the challenged guidance is no longer in effect and cannot be enforced against anyone, anywhere nationwide. “This ruling affirms what educators and communities have long known: celebrating the full existence of every person and sharing the truth about our history is essential,” said Sharif El-Mekki, CEO at The Center for Black Educator Development. “Today’s decision protects educators’ livelihoods and their responsibility to teach honestly. At a time when many communities are facing severe teacher shortages, this signals that teachers can enter and stay in the profession, bringing their full selves to the classroom and fostering inclusive environments that prepare students for the future.

Hegseth threatens to blacklist Anthropic over ‘woke AI’ concerns. NPR, February 24, 2026. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is threatening to blacklist Anthropic from working with the U.S. military over the artificial intelligence company’s refusal to loosen its safety standards. The threat came on Tuesday during a meeting between Hegseth and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, according to two people with direct knowledge of the meeting who were not authorized to speak publicly. While both sides agreed Hegseth vowed to punish Anthropic for not bending to the administration’s demands, accounts of what exactly the threat was vary. One person close to the discussion said Hegseth dangled the possibility of canceling Anthropic’s $200 million contract with the Defense Department, while a Pentagon official said repercussions could include forcing Anthropic to allow the federal government to use its AI tools against its will and blacklisting the company from receiving future work with the U.S. military.

Also see Bloomberg (Gift Article): Anthropic’s Pentagon Showdown Is About More Than AI Guardrails. “The confrontation has exposed the Defense Department’s reliance on Anthropic in a head-to-head military rivalry with US adversaries including China. Yet the battle also amplifies the tension between Silicon Valley and the Pentagon over who controls the future of AI as a tool of war and surveillance, including whether the rapidly evolving technology can be used in a lawful manner.”

National Education Association et al. v. US Department of Education et al. The National Education Association, the National Education Association-New Hampshire, and the Center for Black Educator Development filed a challenge in federal court against the U.S. Department of Education’s February 14, 2026. “Dear Colleague Letter,” which announced that ED will treat diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts as unlawful and threatens to move swiftly to cut schools’ federal funding. ED’s actions violate due process and the First Amendment, as well as basic requirements for agency action. See the library of legal documents associated with this case.

As measles cases climb, these 9 diseases threaten comebacks. Washington Post, February 24, 2026. Measles cases have surged past 900 in early 2026, putting the U.S. at risk of losing its measles elimination status for the first time since 2000. Public health officials warn that falling vaccination rates are allowing outbreaks to grow larger, last longer, and spread into states previously considered protected. Falling vaccination rates, fueled by RFK Jr.’s long record of vaccine conspiracies, are allowing a preventable disease to spread again. Sustained outbreaks increase the risk of deaths and open the door to the return of other once-controlled diseases.

3 – Public Health and Federal Funding

RFK Jr. May Eliminate the USPSTF, Original Task Force Members Warn. Medpage Today, February 23, 2026.HHS could completely eliminate the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) or delegitimize the independent body like it did with CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), two original USPSTF members warned. “The USPSTF, the entity established by the Reagan administration to bring scientific rigor to prevention policy, is now under threat by the Trump administration, particularly Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,” argued Robert Lawrence, MD, the first chair of the task force when it started over four decades ago, and Steven Woolf, MD, MPH, its first scientific advisor, in an Annals of Internal Medicine commentary. The task force has been around since 1984 and is made up of volunteer experts who review evidence and provide evidence-based recommendations on screening and other preventive care. By law, recommendations that garner an A or B grade — such as colorectal or breast cancer screenings — must be covered by insurers without any cost sharing for patients.

The Trump administration this week began cuts to $600 million in funding used to track and prevent HIV and STDs in four Democrat-led states. AP, February 12, 2026. The Centers for Disease Control plans to suspend grants to local public health agencies, hospitals, NGOs and universities in California, Colorado, Illinois and Minnesota. Cuts began the week of February 9 and are expected to continue over the next several weeks. Historically, the groups used the money to study the spread of HIV and STDs, track outbreaks or offer pre-exposure prophylaxis. Some funding cuts would also apply to groups that supported children’s gender transition or provided social programs for LGBTQ+ adults.

Key US infectious-diseases centre to drop pandemic preparation Nature, February 13, 2026.  Staff members have been instructed to scrub this topic and ‘biodefense’ from the agency’s website. Staff members at the United States’s premier infectious-disease research institute have been instructed to remove the words “biodefense” and “pandemic preparedness” from the institute’s web pages, according to e-mails Nature has obtained. The directive comes amid a broader shake-up at the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), one of 27 institutes and centres at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The NIAID is expected to deprioritize the two topics in an overhaul of its funded research projects, according to four NIAID employees who spoke to Nature on the condition of anonymity, because they are not authorized to speak to the press.

$600M in CDC grants to CA, MN, CO, and IL targeted for termination: Full list, Grant Witness, February 10, 2026. Grant Witness is publishing the list of CDC grants the Trump administration has ordered to be terminated in California, Minnesota, Colorado, and Illinois. The Trump administration plans to terminate $600 million in CDC grants to California, Minnesota, Colorado, and Illinois, as reported by the. The vast majority of grants cut are operational funds to state and local health departments to support projects such as public health workforce recruiting, retention, and training, and to update and improve IT and data infrastructure. The administration also circulated a set of talking point examples of grants to be terminated, cherry-picking the most luridly “DEI” language from grant descriptions, titles, and funding programs. You can read the full examples here. The language from these talking points has been reproduced in much of the press coverage. These examples total $33 million in funds to be cut, or approximately 5.5% of the $600 million total. It is unclear whether all of the talking points refer to grants on the congressional list. For example, a grant to Colorado to “Address COVID-19 Health Disparities Among Populations at High-Risk and Underserved, Including Racial and Ethnic Minority Populations and Rural Communities” was not on the list of grants to be terminated shared with Congress. Many of these grants are Public Health Infrastructure Grants (PHIGs). The administration “paused” then restored this $5B national program over 24 hours on January 23-24. All but 5 PHIGs in these four states are on the list of grant to be terminated. While we don’t yet know why some PHIGs may survive while most others are terminated, it’s notable that 4 of the surviving 5 PHIGs are in “red” counties. In Colorado, the only surviving PHIG is to El Paso County, where 54% of voters cast their ballot for Trump in 2024. El Paso County is also represented by a Republican member of Congress (Jeff Crank, CO-5) at the moment. In California, 2 surviving PHIGs are in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties, which also voted for Trump over Harris in 2025. A 3rd surviving in PHIG in California is in Orange County, a traditional Republican stronghold and home to an outsized proportion of wealthy Trump donors. The final surviving PHIG in California is in Sacramento County, and it is the only surviving PHIG outside a Republican stronghold. Grant Witness will be launching a CDC grant termination tracker shortly. If you have information about CDC grants being terminated, please fill out our CDC reporting form.

Trump administration orders CDC to claw back $602M from blue states. The Hill, February 6, 2026. Trump officials ordered the CDC to rescind $602 million in public health funding from Democratic-led states, targeting programs tied to COVID-19 disparities, HIV prevention, and violence prevention. The White House labeled the grants “woke,” while state officials say they were given no formal notice and are preparing legal challenges. Federal health funding is being weaponized to punish states that defy the White House politically. Pulling lifesaving resources deepens health inequities and signals that access to federal aid now depends on ideological loyalty, and not public need.

Trump administration orders CDC to claw back $602M from blue states – The Hill, February 6, 2026. The OMB directive targeted Colorado, Illinois, California and Minnesota, ordering that $602 million in CDC funding be clawed back along with $943 million by the Transportation Department.  The CDC funds would have gone toward state and local health grants that the administration feels are too “woke.”  An OMB spokesperson said the rescissions are targeting “states fraught with waste and mismanagement.”  These rescinded funds included:

  • $3 million to Colorado to address COVID-19 disparities among racial and ethnic minority groups
  • $5.2 million to Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago for increasing HIV PrEP use among Black cisgender women
  • $500,000 to the University of California for evaluating state-level laws to prevent sexual and intimate partner violence among gender and sexual minorities.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) did not respond when reached for comment by The Hill regarding these rescissions.  Eric Maruyama, spokesperson for Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D), said the state has yet to receive any official cancellation notices.

4 – Research / Libraries

The Trump administration is illegally gutting NASA’s largest research library. Meet the team fighting to save our scientific knowledge. Literary Hub, February 13, 2026.
NASA’s Largest Library Is Closing Amid Staff and Lab Cuts. The New York Times, December 31, 2025. The Trump administration is closing NASA’s largest research library on Friday, a facility that houses tens of thousands of books, documents and journals — many of them not digitized or available anywhere else. Jacob Richmond, a NASA spokesman, said the agency would review the library holdings over the next 60 days and some material would be stored in a government warehouse while the rest would be tossed away. “This process is an established method that is used by federal agencies to properly dispose of federally owned property,” Mr. Richmond said. The shutdown of the library at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., is part of a larger reorganization under the Trump administration that includes the closure of 13 buildings and more than 100 science and engineering laboratories on the 1,270-acre campus by March 2026. “This is a consolidation not a closure,” said NASA spokeswoman Bethany Stevens. The changes were part of a long-planned reorganization that began before the Trump administration took office, she said. She said that shutting down the facilities would save $10 million a year and avoid another $63.8 million in deferred maintenance. Goddard is the nation’s premier spaceflight complex. Its website calls it “the largest organization of scientists, engineers, and technologists who build spacecraft, instruments, and new technology to study Earth, the Sun, our solar system, and the universe.”

5 – How to Shred a Federal Government Agency

Bloomberg – no paywall “Republicans have been trying to dissolve the Department of Education since it was created. Under Trump, they’re closer than ever to getting it done.In the early days of President Donald Trump’s second term, he made a blunt promise about the US Department of Education: “We’re going to shut it down as quickly as possible.” In a matter of months, 40% of the agency’s staff were gone. At the department’s hulking office building just south of the National Mall in Washington, hallways are quiet and rows of cubicles — once occupied by some of the more than 1,500 colleagues who’ve left since Trump took office — are vacant. It’s part of a sweeping attempt by the Trump administration to reshape the federal government. Some agencies, including those that oversee consumer protection and disaster relief efforts, have been gutted. Others, like the Department of Homeland Security, are being beefed up. But the Education Department is the only cabinet agency that has been singled out for complete elimination. The White House has set out to achieve that goal with massive layoffs and a major reorganization effort. Though the changes sound bureaucratic, their impact is anything but: This is the department forged to unite the numerous federal programs born out of the civil rights movement and the war on poverty. It oversees school funding that supports millions of children in low-income families across the US, and is tasked with making sure discrimination complaints are heard quickly and resolved fairly. [Read more: Trump Is Dismantling the Education Department. What’s at Stake.]

Administration officials say they’re removing a layer of red tape, and that students will be better served by state and local governments. But staffers say schools are already struggling with the effects. Some districts and organizations that receive federal support have been hesitant to raise issues or ask questions, worried the administration will use any pushback to justify cutting their grants, according to one current employee, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation. And since Trump began his second term, the department has resolved just two racial harassment cases, federal data show; in 2024 that number was 25. Nearly half a century after the department was established, seasoned staff say it’s a shell of its former self. Senior officials say they’re just getting started…”

The Education Department is handing over more of its programs and grants to other federal agencies, announcing a pair of new agreements Monday that move the Trump administration closer to its goal of .

Under one interagency agreement, the Health and Human Services Department will take over grant programs that send millions of dollars to schools for safety and community engagement efforts. Another calls for the State Department to take over a portal that tracks foreign gifts to universities.

“As we continue to break up the federal education bureaucracy and return education to the states, our new partnerships with the State Department and HHS represent a practical step toward greater efficiency, stronger coordination, and meaningful improvement,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement.

https://apnews.com/article/education-department-trump-state-hhs-e82a5ea582f1b730a9591bc4f767621e

DOGE bites taxman – IRS lost 40% of IT staff, 80% of tech leaders in ‘efficiency’ shakeup. The Register, February 19, 2026. Job cuts at the IRS’s tech arm have gone faster and farther than expected, with 40 percent of IT staff and four-fifths of tech leaders gone, the agency’s CIO revealed yesterday. Kaschit Pandya detailed the extent of the tech reorganization during a panel at the Association of Government Accountants yesterday, describing it as the biggest in two decades. This happened as the Trump administration reshaped the federal bureaucracy last year with Elon Musk’s DOGE wielding the chainsaw. The IRS lost a quarter of its workforce overall in 2025. But the tech team was clearly affected more deeply. At the start of the year, the team encompassed around 8,500 employees.

6 – Climate Science

The “Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence” — updated for the first time in 15 years — eliminates some 90 pages about climate science and comes just as numerous climate cases make their way through state and federal courts. ProPublica. The move by the Federal Judicial Center leaves judges without any official support on how to weigh evidence about basic weather and climate changes just as numerous climate cases make their way through state and federal courts, including two on the docket of the U.S. Supreme Court for the current term. On Dec. 31, 2025, the center released the first update in 15 years of its 1,682-page peer-reviewed guide, called the “Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence,” including more than 90 pages defining climate terminology and describing the state of scientific consensus on climate change and the methods used to attribute specific weather events to climate warming and its causes. The chapter acknowledges uncertainty in some areas of climate science; it generally reflects the conclusions of the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine has maintained a copy of the original manual on its own website even as the Federal Judicial Center has removed the version with the climate change chapter from its own. A representative from the center declined to comment, and members from the House Judiciary Committee could not immediately be reached for comment.

EPA Reverses Long-Standing Climate Change Finding, Stripping Its Own Ability To Regulate Emissions. nbcnews.com, February 13, 2026. President Donald Trump announced Thursday that the Environmental Protection Agency is rescinding the legal finding that it has relied on for nearly two decades to limit the heat-trapping pollution that spews from vehicle tailpipes, oil refineries and factories. From a report: The repeal of that landmark determination, known as the endangerment finding, will upend most U.S. policies aimed at curbing climate change. The finding — which the EPA issued in 2009 — said the global warming caused by greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane endangers the health and welfare of current and future generations. “We are officially terminating the so-called endangerment finding, a disastrous Obama-era policy,” Trump said at a news conference. “This determination had no basis in fact — none whatsoever. And it had no basis in law. On the contrary, over the generations, fossil fuels have saved millions of lives and lifted billions of people out of poverty all over the world.” Major environmental groups have disputed the administration’s stance on the endangerment finding and have been preparing to sue in response to its repeal.

Trump Administration Takes Chainsaw to Science-Based Endangerment Finding Endangering Us All. February 12, 2026. Statement by Dr. Gretchen Goldman, Union of Concerned Scientists. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced its final rule to undo the agency’s 2009 foundational scientific finding that global warming emissions endanger public health and the environment—referred to as the Endangerment Finding. EPA also today repealed standards that reduce the dependence of cars and trucks on fossil fuels, which were among the strongest policies the United States had in place to combat climate change, curb toxic fossil fuel pollution, and save drivers money at the pump. This announcement was made via a press conference, and the final rule has yet to be posted to the federal register. Below is a statement by Dr. Gretchen Goldman, president and CEO of the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).

“Today, Administrator Zeldin took a chainsaw to the Endangerment Finding, undoing this long-standing, science-based finding on bogus grounds at the expense of our health. Ramming through this unlawful, destructive action at the behest of polluters is an obvious example of what happens when a corrupt administration and fossil fuel interests are allowed to run amok.

“The science establishing harm to human health and the environment from heat-trapping emissions was clear in 2009. More than fifteen years later, the evidence has only mounted as have human suffering and economic damages. Meanwhile, the continued burning of fossil fuels is causing global warming emissions to rise. The science, the facts and the law are unassailable: EPA has the obligation and the authority to regulate this pollution under the Clean Air Act, an act of Congress it’s now blatantly violating.

“The transportation sector is the single largest source of U.S. global heat-trapping emissions. By scrapping vehicle global warming pollution standards today, the Trump administration has co-signed the release of more than 7 billion tons of planet-warming emissions nationally in the decades ahead.

“Communities across the country are routinely enduring the consequences and costs of climate change, including deadly heat waves, accelerating sea level rise, worsening wildfires and floods, increased heavy rainfall, and more intense and damaging storms. EPA’s attempts to delay climate action come at a time when scientists warn that the world is on the cusp of breaching 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming—a crucial guardrail to help limit some of the worst climate harms.

“Instead of rising to the challenge with necessary policies to protect people’s wellbeing, the Trump administration has shamefully abandoned EPA’s mission and caved to the whims of deep-pocketed special interests. Sacrificing people’s health, safety and futures for polluters’ profits is unconscionable. We all deserve better and this attack against the public interest and the best available science will be challenged. UCS stands ready to defend the Endangerment Finding in court and beyond.”

UCS filed comments on behalf of its half a million supporters and its network of more than 22,000 scientists to voice strong opposition to repeal of the endangerment finding and vehicle standards. It also submitted a letter to EPA Administrator Zeldin that was signed by more than 1,000 scientists opposing the repeal of the endangerment finding and urging Administrator Zeldin to stop dismantling critical climate regulations and fulfill the mission of the agency to protect public health.

A federal judge recently declared the Trump administration violated federal law when it secretly formed a “Climate Working Group” and tasked it with writing a dangerously slanted report that the administration then used as a basis for its proposal to overturn the Endangerment Finding last year. As part of that lawsuit—brought by UCS and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF)—the administration was compelled to turn over more than 100,000 documents, which UCS and EDF plan to make available to the public in early March.

More UCS Resources:

7 – Government Documents – Censorship

Groups sue over Trump effort to ‘erase’ history, science in national parks. Washington Post, February 17, 2026.  “A coalition of scientific, preservation and historical groups on Tuesday sued the Trump administration, arguing that the removal of information about civil rights, climate change and other topics at multiple national parks amounts to illegal censorship. “Censoring science and erasing America’s history at national parks are direct threats to everything these amazing places, and our country, stand for,” Alan Spears, senior director of cultural resources for the National Parks Conservation Association, said in a statement announcing the filing. “As Americans, we deserve national parks that tell stories of our country’s triumphs and heartbreaks alike. We can handle the truth.”

Anne Applebaum on Trump’s betrayal of Europe – In most of the places where the administration uses its gigantic eraser, it isn’t hard to discern the ideological intent. When information about slavery is purged from National Parks, it’s obviously because this is a white supremacist administration that finds any true accounting of history inconvenient. When the administration takes down information about climate change, it’s because it wants to stop all efforts to mitigate global warming. But there’s nothing partisan or contentious about the CIA World Factbook, and it’s hard to imagine how allowing people to use it could impede the MAGA agenda. Unless, that is, you realize that the Factbook had to go precisely because it was useful. Deleting data — and state capacity. To quote Joni Mitchell, you don’t know what you’ve got ‘till it’s gone, and that is how most Americans may be growing aware of all the useful information the government gathers and makes available. The Trump administration has shut down federal data-collection efforts that have existed for decades, especially in science and public health, on everything from maternal mortality to drug abuse to child drownings. By some estimates, over 3,000 public databases have been taken offline, leaving independent researchers scrambling to download and preserve data sets before the administration can destroy them forever. Agencies such as the National Center for Education Statistics and Energy Information Administration have been reduced to skeleton crews. Often, these data are of immediate interest only to academics and policy wonks. While one can understand why the Trump administration would want to deprive them of access to something like historical climate data, it isn’t as though the outcome of the midterm elections hinges on whether the public can get a look at the numbers. But there’s a deeper goal at work, the same one that motivates the cancellation of billions of dollars in research grants for science and medicine, the virtual shutdown of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the cuts to national parks, the end to funding for public broadcasting, and so much more. Wherever the government is doing something helpful or useful — anything that might make a regular person say, “Thanks, federal government” — it has been targeted for termination. Sometimes that means eliminating what used to exist, and at other times it means making programs and agencies worse even if they remain in existence. The Trump administration has pushed out 350,000 federal workers — including 10,000 with PhDs in science — dramatically weakening the capacity of the government to solve problems and serve the public. At the same time, it has increased red tape and beefed up its ability to make people’s lives unpleasant.

When the Trump administration closes down public access to yet another worthwhile resource, it doesn’t always make news. Public Notice. But the decision last week to shutter the CIA World Factbook stands out for what it reveals. This administration has been fighting a sweeping information war meant to distort and suppress facts, ideas, and history that doesn’t “align with the president’s agenda,” in the phrase they so often use. But at the same time, they’re also waging a war on usefulness. The CIA produced the Factbook, a concise roundup of facts and figures about every country in the world, since the 1960s; it started as an internal resource and then was made public so anyone could access it. If you wanted to know how many square miles Argentina is, or see a list of political parties in Belgium, or find out what the GDP of Cameroon was last year, the Factbook was a handy resource. But not anymore. Not only will the CIA stop producing new iterations, all previous versions have been removed from the web (though they can still be found at the Internet Archive). It’s the latter part that gives away their intentions. What would the cost be of keeping the old versions of the Factbook online? Essentially zero. So what’s the point of deleting them?

8 – Federal Government Data – Deleted

Federal Data Is Disappearing. NOTUS, February 2, 206. The Trump administration has disrupted data collection on everything from homeland security, maternal mortality, hunger, drug use, education, disaster preparation and the economy. Since retaking office, the Trump administration has transformed how the government collects data, cut access to previously-public data and stopped collecting some data altogether. This overhaul has left significant holes in data on everything from substance use to maternal mortality. NOTUS spoke to 18 data experts and researchers who rely on federal data who said the breadth of information no longer being collected or distributed by the federal government has been nearly impossible to track. Researchers estimate that well over 3,000 data sets have been removed from public access. The current reality is that the federal government is no longer a reliable source of widespread data collection.“The status quo was, the federal government is going to collect and disseminate data and statistics,” said John Kubale, a University of Michigan professor who helps direct the world’s largest archive of social science research data, including sensitive U.S. federal government data. “That is no longer a reasonable assumption.”

Trump’s War on Measurement Means Losing Data on Drug Use, Maternal Mortality, Climate Change and More. ProPublica, April 18, 2025. By slashing teams that gather critical data, the administration has left the federal government with no way of understanding if policies are working — and created a black hole of information whose consequences could ripple out for decades. More children ages 1 to 4 die of drowning than any other cause of death. Nearly a quarter of adults received mental health treatment in 2023, an increase of 3.4 million from the prior year. The number of migrants from Mexico and northern Central American countries stopped by the U.S. Border Patrol was surpassed in 2022 by the number of migrants from other nations. We know these things because the federal government collects, organizes and shares the data behind them. Every year, year after year, workers in agencies that many of us have never heard of have been amassing the statistics that undergird decision-making at all levels of government and inform the judgments of business leaders, school administrators and medical providers nationwide. The survival of that data is now in doubt, as a result of the Department of Government Efficiency’s comprehensive assault on the federal bureaucracy. Reaction to those cuts has focused understandably on the hundreds of thousands of civil servants who have lost their jobs or are on the verge of doing so and the harm that millions of people could suffer as a result of the shuttering of aid programs. Overlooked amid the turmoil is the fact that many of DOGE’s cuts have been targeted at a very specific aspect of the federal government: its collection and sharing of data. In agency after agency, the government is losing its capacity to measure how American society is functioning, making it much harder for elected officials or others to gauge the nature and scale of the problems we are facing and the effectiveness of solutions being deployed against them. The data collection efforts that have been shut down or are at risk of being curtailed are staggering in their breadth. In some cases, datasets from past years now sit orphaned, their caretakers banished and their future uncertain; in others, past data has vanished for the time being, and it’s unclear if and when it will reappear…

9 – Government Agencies – Censorship

New Report Finds Trump’s Attack on the CFPB Has Cost Americans $19 Billion in One Year Alone – Read the Full Report (PDF) “Today, the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Minority Staff released a new report analyzing the cost to American consumers of President Trump’s attack on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the agency that has returned $21 billion directly to Americans who were cheated by big banks and giant corporations. Today’s report comes on the one-year anniversary of the Trump Administration’s locking the CFPB’s front doors, issuing stop-work orders, and attempting to fire nearly the entire staff….The Banking Committee Minority Staff calculated that the Trump Administration’s attack on the CFPB has cost American consumers $19 billion. They analyzed documents from the CFPB, reports by other federal agencies, and publicly available data, breaking down the costs to consumers into four major categories:

  1. The Trump Administration permanently dismissed at least 22 enforcement actions to redress more than $3.5 billion in alleged harm to consumers, $3.5 billion of potential restitution that would have gone directly into Americans’ bank accounts. This number includes only the enforcement actions with decided monetary amounts – the Trump Administration dropped additional cases against big financial institutions and giant corporations that likely would have resulted in billions more being returned to Americans.
  2. The Trump Administration dropped, reduced, or failed to distribute payments from 23 settlements or consent orders against companies—including repeat offenders—that cost consumers up to $225 million.
  3. The Trump Administration, working with Republicans in Congress, rescinded CFPB rules and guidance that could have saved consumers up to $15 billion in overdraft fees and credit card late fees.
  4. The CFPB gutted its Consumer Complaint Program, which likely cost $40 million in direct consumer relief…”

Termination of 1/29 – Defense Science Board (1/23/26 IA capture) replaced by Science, Technology, and Innovation Board with heavily revised website; some pages still “under construction” with no content (see also, DOD release)

10 – Environmental Protection

Under Trump, EPA’s enforcement of environmental laws collapses, report finds. Ars Technica, February 7, 2026. The Environmental Protection Agency has drastically pulled back on holding polluters accountable. Enforcement against polluters in the United States plunged in the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, a far bigger drop than in the same period of his first term, according to a By analyzing a range of federal court and administrative data, the nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project found that civil lawsuits filed by the US Department of Justice in cases referred by the Environmental Protection Agency dropped to just 16 in the first 12 months after Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025. That is 76 percent less than in the first year of the Biden administration. Trump’s first administration filed 86 such cases in its first year, which was in turn a drop from the Obama administration’s 127 four years earlier. “Our nation’s landmark environmental laws are meaningless when EPA does not enforce the rules,” Jen Duggan, executive director of the Environmental Integrity Project, said in a statement. The findings echo two recent analyses from the nonprofits Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and Earthjustice, which both documented dwindling environmental enforcement under Trump. From day one of Trump’s second term, the administration has pursued an aggressive deregulatory agenda, scaling back regulations and health safeguards across the federal government that protect water, air, and other parts of the environment. This push to streamline industry activities has been particularly favorable for fossil fuel companies. Trump declared an “energy emergency” immediately after his inauguration.

11 – Censorship in Education

Professors Are Being Watched: ‘We’ve Never Seen This Much Surveillance’. Scrutiny of university classrooms is being formalized, with new laws requiring professors to post syllabuses and tip lines for students to complain. The New York Times, February 4, 2026. …The increased oversight of professors comes as conservatives expand their movement to curb what they say is a liberal tilt in university classrooms. In the last couple of years, they have found sympathetic ears in state legislatures with the power to pressure schools, and their efforts have gained momentum as the Trump administration has made overhauling the politics and culture on campuses a focus. But all of this, some professors and free-expression groups say, is leading to a wave of censorship and self-censorship that they argue is curbing academic freedom and learning.“We’ve never seen this much surveillance,” said John White, a University of North Florida education professor who was asked to remove words such as “diversity,” “equity,” “inclusion” and “culture” from his syllabus. He said he changed his syllabus under threat of his course being canceled…Conservative groups that have monitored campuses have applauded the moves. Sarah Parshall Perry, vice president of Defending Education, a group that has publicly posted college syllabuses, said more transparency will help parents and students decide which courses to take. “Exactly what are you teaching that you’re ashamed of?” she said. The scrutiny has been especially intense in departments like gender studies and Middle Eastern studies that touch on contested issues. Some professors say the new rules have turned teaching into a minefield in those disciplines, inviting online trolls looking for keywords and directing online mobs toward professors. Jonathan Friedman with PEN America, a free-expression group, said in an interview that posting syllabuses so the public has a better grasp of what occurs in college classrooms may sound innocuous. But “publishing syllabi when it is coupled with this McCarthyist environment is really dangerous,” he said. Some states, including Florida, have mandated that the syllabuses be in databases searchable by keywords. “There you see the clear aim to essentially scan and scrutinize for hot-button topics,” he said.

https://www.businessinsider.com/list-schools-pentagon-marked-as-risks-internal-email-2026-2

  • The Pentagon flagged 33 universities as risky for military education programs, per an internal Army email.
  • The Defense Department has cut ties with Harvard, which the email identified as “fully off limits.”
  • No criteria were provided for risk assessments.

The Pentagon is rethinking its ties with dozens of universities, which could affect tuition assistance and other programs for military students.The Department of Defense severed its ties with Harvard University earlier this month, sharing that it was reviewing other schools as well. The Pentagon hasn’t publicly identified the additional schools under review.An internal US Army email that leaked last week offers some indication: the message lists 33 private universities that the Pentagon had labeled as “moderate” to “high” risk. The email did not explain what classifies a school as a risk.Prospective military students should have a “backup plan” in case the Pentagon cuts ties with these schools, the email said.

HBCU Law School Not Allowed To Use The Word ‘Black’ For Black History Month Event. Above the Law, February 9, 2026. This headline should have been written by someone who works at The Onion. February 09, 2026 This headline should have been written by someone who works at The Onion. Last month, the Trump administration tried to minimize Black history by removing plaques honoring people enslaved by George Washington. Not to be one-upped by the federal government, the effect of Florida’s legislation is minimizing Black in the present — literally. Florida A&M University College of Law, a law school housed in a historically Black college, had its speech chilled as they tried to draw attention to Black History Month events. Click Orlando has coverage: Aaliyah Steward says she is in her final year at Florida A&M University College of Law, and she has encountered obstacles while trying to promote Black History Month events for the Black Law Students Association.According to Steward, certain words were flagged during the approval process for event flyers. “It was ‘black,’ ‘affirmative action,’ and ‘women’ as well,” Steward said. Steward says she was told those words could not be broadcast or published.

12 – Harvard – Continued attacks on higher education

Pentagon says it’s cutting ties with ‘woke’ Harvard, discontinuing military training, fellowships. February 6, 2026. The Pentagon said Friday it’s cutting ties with Harvard University, ending all military training, fellowships, and certificate programs with the Ivy League institution. The announcement marks the latest development in the Trump administration’s prolonged standoff with Harvard over the White House’s demands for reforms at the Ivy League school. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a statement on Friday that Harvard “no longer meets the needs of the War Department or the military services,” per the AP. “For too long, this department has sent our best and brightest officers to Harvard, hoping the university would better understand and appreciate our warrior class,” Hegseth said. “Instead, too many of our officers came back looking too much like Harvard—heads full of globalist and radical ideologies that do not improve our fighting ranks.” In a separate post on X, Hegseth wrote, “Harvard is woke; The War Department is not.” Starting with the 2026-27 academic year, the Pentagon will discontinue graduate-level professional military education, fellowships, and certificate programs, the statement said. Personnel currently attending classes at Harvard will be able to finish those courses. Hegseth earned a master’s degree from Harvard but symbolically returned his diploma in a 2022 Fox News segment. Similar programs at other Ivy League universities will be evaluated in coming weeks, Hegseth said. The military offers its officers a variety of opportunities to get graduate-level education, both at war colleges run by the military, as well as at civilian institutions like Harvard. Broadly, while opportunities to attend prestigious civilian schools offer less direct benefit to a service member’s military career than their civilian counterparts, they help make troops more attractive employees once they leave the military. Harvard has long been President Trump’s top target in his administration’s campaign to bring the nation’s most prestigious universities to heel. His officials have cut billions of dollars in Harvard’s federal research funding and attempted to block it from enrolling foreign students after the campus rebuffed a series of government demands last April. The White House has said it’s punishing Harvard for tolerating anti-Jewish bias on campus. Harvard leaders argue they’re facing illegal retaliation for failing to adopt the administration’s ideological views.

Trump Drops Demand for Cash From Harvard After Stiff Resistance. The New York Times, February 2, 2026 -The Trump administration has lowered the bar for a deal with the university, backtracking on its insistence on a $200 million payment to the government, The New York Times has learned. But almost immediately after this article was online – Donald Trump now said he’s seeking $1 billion in “damages” from Harvard University. It’s not clear under what authority Trump is seeking the cash, and what damage he’s referring to exactly.

Trump has sued universities for billions. Here’s what the strategy tells us – NPR.org, January 29, 2026. A year ago, President Trump issued an executive order that put U.S. universities on notice. The Jan. 29, 2025, directive targeted antisemitism on campus and launched investigations at five schools — later widened to 60. But within weeks of the executive order, federal agencies started withholding billions of dollars in contracts and grants from several high-profile schools and pressuring them to align their policies more closely with Trump’s on a range of issues that extended beyond antisemitism. Elite universities soon began reaching settlements, starting with the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University in July. Harvard University was a notable exception, challenging the administration’s actions in court. In September, a federal judge ruled in Harvard’s favor that the government illegally froze more than $2 billion in federal grants and contracts, a decision the government is appealing. Despite Harvard’s victory, more schools agreed to deals. Some universities paid the government millions of dollars; others paid nothing but agreed to policy or personnel changes. But a common theme has emerged over the past year: The administration is seeking to alter the culture at these powerful institutions, barring them, for instance, from supporting programs aimed at diversity, equity and inclusion.

Hold Fast, Harvard. LLRX.com, January 24, 2026. Since 2025 the Secretary of Education Linda McMahon has engaged in battles with major American institutions of higher education and research. Using the Trump administration’s Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education, McMahon demands strict adherence to “educational principles” that include elimination of ‘DEI’ programs to quality for ‘preferential federal funding.’ In the case of Harvard University, this funding is on the order of $2.2 billion annually. Lawyer Kyle K. Courtney unravels the litigation at the heart of Harvard’s effort to preserve academic freedom and deny the administration another huge payoff with no transparency as to where the exortion money actually ends up.

13 – Terminating Government Documents with regular publication schedules

Close the cover on the CIA World Factbook AP, February 4, 2025: The spy agency announced Wednesday that after more than 60 years, it is shuttering the popular reference manual. The announcement posted to the CIA’s website offered no reason for the decision to end the Factbook, but it follows a vow from Director John Ratcliffe to end programs that don’t advance the agency’s core missions. First launched in 1962 as a printed, classified reference manual for intelligence officers, the Factbook offered a detailed, by-the-numbers picture of foreign nations, their economies, militaries, resources and societies. The Factbook proved so useful that other federal agencies began using it, and within a decade, an unclassified version was released to the public. After going online in 1997, the Factbook quickly became a popular reference site for journalists, trivia aficionados and the writers of college essays, racking up millions of visits per year. The White House has moved to cut staffing at the CIA and the National Security Agency early in Trump’s second term, forcing the agency to do more with less. The CIA did not return a message seeking comment Wednesday about the decision to cease publication of the Factbook.

Yesterday, the CIA made the surprising decision to shut down the World Factbook after more than sixty years of operation. This move was not just a simple website update. By removing the site and setting up redirects that lead away from historical data, the agency effectively broke millions of links used in schools, news reports, and scientific research. The takedown also removed all historical archives of the World Factbook. The loss of this resource is a significant blow to the world of open data and public knowledge.

The World Factbook began in 1962 as a secret tool for intelligence officers but eventually became the most popular public reference for global information. Its value was rooted in the fact that it was a public domain resource. Unlike private encyclopedias, anyone could use Factbook data for free without asking for permission and it became a standard reference material in school libraries. When I was a kid, we had both print and CD-ROM versions available to use in school projects at Errol Consolidated Elementary School in New Hampshire. It provided an accessible way to look at statistics about every country on Earth, covering everything from geography, to health, to government structures. One of the coolest features was the public domain photographs and documents that CIA operatives contributed from their field operations.

The CIA has offered no explanation for the takedown. The line is likely going to be that the World Factbook “no longer effectuates agency priorities” or is not necessary for agency operations and mission. However, there are consequences to other federal agencies and initiatives that either contribute to, or depend upon, data provided by the Factbook. It relied heavily on the U.S. Census Bureau and its International Database. The Census Bureau provided demographic and economic data, such as population growth, migration trends, and GDP, while the Factbook made that data easy for the average person to read. It also helped track global progress toward the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, usually led by the Department of State and the U.S. Chief Statistician in the Office of Management and Budget (who is required by law to coordinate international statistical activities of the United States). Since these interagency collaborations are not free, Census gets reimbursed for the work it does with other agencies. It’s unclear how the end of the World Factbook will impact the contributions Census received to its International Database budget from the CIA. Resourcing for this critical database already took a major hit in 2025 with the shuttering of USAID, which also reimbursed Census for data it contributed to their international statistical work.

The end of the World Factbook is a reminder of how fragile public access to federal data can be. Federal data is paid for by taxpayers and should remain available to them. Losing the official site makes it harder to access reliable statistics about the world and breaks the chain of historical record. There are a few options to access archived versions of the site. Developer Simon Willison created both a GitHub repository and a browseable live version of the 2020 archive of the site (that was the last year the CIA provided full zip archives). The Internet Archive’s WaybackMachine has taken over 28,000 snapshots of the World Factbook since January 20th, 2017.

Data preservation initiatives that seek to save public resources like the World Factbook from erasure, whether contributed by individuals like Simon, community-led like the Data Rescue Project, or established organizations like the Internet Archive need support to be sustainable. To that end, I purchased the domain worldfactbook.us and will hand it over to anyone interested in funding, developing, and maintaining an open-source full-stack restoration of the World Factbook.

14 – Terminating the collection and sharing of Government Data

Dozens of CDC vaccination databases have been frozen under RFK Jr. Anti-vaccine Kennedy may be “enacting a self-fulfilling prophecy,” expert says. Ars Technica, January 26, 2026. “Nearly half of the databases that public health officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were updating on a monthly basis have been frozen without notice or explanation, according to a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The study—led by Janet Freilich, a law expert at Boston University, and Jeremy Jacobs, a medical professor at Vanderbilt University—examined the status of all CDC databases, finding a total of 82 that had, as of early 2025, been receiving updates at least monthly. But, of those 82, only 44 were still being regularly updated as of October 2025, with 38 (46 percent) having their updates paused without public notice or explanation. Examining the databases’ content, it appeared that vaccination data was most affected by the stealth data freezes. Of the 38 outdated databases, 33 (87 percent) included data related to vaccination. In contrast, none of the 44 still-updated databases relate to vaccination. Other frozen databases included data on infectious disease burden, such as data on hospitalizations from respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). The most common vaccination types included in the out-of-date data were vaccinations against influenza, COVID-19, and RSV. Two frozen databases included data on all three vaccines. When the researchers checked in on the databases again in December, only one had been updated, leaving 37 still entirely out of date. The finding stood out given that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a fervent anti-vaccine advocate who has worked for decades to undermine trust in and use of life-saving vaccines…”

Federal Data Is Disappearing. NOTUS, February 6, 2026. The Trump administration has disrupted data collection on everything from homeland security, maternal mortality, hunger, drug use, education, disaster preparation and the economy. The Trump administration has disrupted data collection on everything from homeland security, maternal mortality, hunger, drug use, education, disaster preparation and the economy. Since retaking office, the Trump administration has transformed how the government collects data, cut access to previously-public data and stopped collecting some data altogether. This overhaul has left significant holes in data on everything from substance use to maternal mortality. NOTUS spoke to 18 data experts and researchers who rely on federal data who said the breadth of information no longer being collected or distributed by the federal government has been nearly impossible to track. Researchers estimate that well over 3,000 data sets have been removed from public access. The current reality is that the federal government is no longer a reliable source of widespread data collection. “The status quo was, the federal government is going to collect and disseminate data and statistics,” said John Kubale, a University of Michigan professor who helps direct the world’s largest archive of social science research data, including sensitive U.S. federal government data. “That is no longer a reasonable assumption.”

15 – Termination of Federal Funding for Sciences and Reports From Agencies

U.S. government has lost more than 10,000 STEM PhDs since Trump took office. Science, January 26, 2026. Some 10,109 doctoral-trained experts in science and related fields left their jobs last year as President Donald Trump dramatically shrank the overall federal workforce. That exodus was only 3% of the 335,192 federal workers who exited last year but represents 14% of the total number of Ph.D.s in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) or health fields employed at the end of 2024 as then-President Joe Biden prepared to leave office. The numbers come from employment data posted earlier this month by the White House Office of Personnel Management (OPM). At 14 research agencies Science examined in detail, departures outnumbered new hires last year by a ratio of 11 to one, resulting in a net loss of 4224 STEM Ph.D.s. The graphs that follow show the impact is particularly striking at such scientist-rich agencies as the National Science Foundation (NSF). But across the government, these departing Ph.D.s took with them a wealth of subject matter expertise and knowledge about how the agencies operate.

16 – Termination of the Federal Workforce

A Science analysis reveals how many were fired, retired, or quit across 14 agencies – “Some 10,109 doctoral-trained experts in science and related fields left their jobs last year as President Donald Trump dramatically shrank the overall federal workforce. That exodus was only 3% of the 335,192 federal workers who exited last year but represents 14% of the total number of Ph.D.s in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) or health fields employed at the end of 2024 as then-President Joe Biden prepared to leave office. The numbers come from employment data posted earlier this month by the White House Office of Personnel Management (OPM). At 14 research agencies Science examined in detail, departures outnumbered new hires last year by a ratio of 11 to one, resulting in a net loss of 4224 STEM Ph.D.s. The graphs that follow show the impact is particularly striking at such scientist-rich agencies as the National Science Foundation (NSF). But across the government, these departing Ph.D.s took with them a wealth of subject matter expertise and knowledge about how the agencies operate…”

A new report from a government watchdog suggests the Trump administration’s efforts to fire staff at the U.S. Department of Education cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars. The report, from the nonpartisan U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), focuses on the department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), which investigates complaints of discrimination in schools based on students’ sex, race, national origin, disability and more. In March, the administration attempted to fire more than half of OCR’s civil rights attorneys and staff. At the time, Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the cuts reflected the department’s commitment to “efficiency” and “accountability.”

17 – Termination of Federal Government Data Collection and Reporting – Dozens of websites no longer updated

Notus: The Trump administration has disrupted data collection on everything from homeland security, maternal mortality, hunger, drug use, education, disaster preparation and the economy. Joy Binion worked for the federal government collecting data on emerging substance abuse trends in emergency rooms across the country. Her work was part of the Drug Abuse Warning Network, which President Donald Trump’s first administration funded at the recommendation of his commission on the opioid crisis. Six months into Trump’s second term, his administration axed the data collection effort entirely, laying off Binion and her division. “They flat out eliminated DAWN, which was actually surprising to me, because DAWN was kind of the Trump administration’s baby in 2016 as they really looked toward fighting the opioid epidemic,” Binion told NOTUS, adding that healthcare providers no longer have a comprehensive resource to learn about the new drugs that could require emergency medical responses. Since retaking office, the Trump administration has transformed how the government collects data, cut access to previously-public data and stopped collecting some data altogether. This overhaul has left significant holes in data on everything from substance use to maternal mortality. NOTUS spoke to 18 data experts and researchers who rely on federal data who said the breadth of information no longer being collected or distributed by the federal government has been nearly impossible to track. Researchers estimate that well over 3,000 data sets have been removed from public access. The current reality is that the federal government is no longer a reliable source of widespread data collection. “The status quo was, the federal government is going to collect and disseminate data and statistics,” said John Kubale, a University of Michigan professor who helps direct the world’s largest archive of social science research data, including sensitive U.S. federal government data. “That is no longer a reasonable assumption.” NOTUS verified dozens of instances of lapsed federal data to capture the range of information that is no longer being collected, has been paused or is now not available to the public. This is only a small sample of the data collection the Trump administration has made changes to

  • The Department of Agriculture terminated a report on household food security in September, claiming it was “redundant, costly, politicized, and extraneous.” Feeding America said it relied on this survey to guide its programs.
  • The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stopped releasing data on maternal and infant mortality in April 2025 after the administration placed all of the agency staff managing the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System on administrative leave. The data collection resumed in at least some states in July 2025, but recent data contains gaps.
  • Trump directed the Justice Department last year to suspend a Biden-era database tracking misconduct by federal law enforcement officers.
  • The administration removed questions on gender identity from the National Crime Victimization Survey, the National Health Interview Survey and other surveys. Homeless shelters, mental health hotlines and substance use recovery programs all used this data for policymaking and planning.
  • The Department of Homeland Security ended public access in October to its public safety and infrastructure dataset, called Homeland Infrastructure Foundation-Level Data.
  • The National Center for Education Statistics missed a mandated deadline to release its annual report on the condition of the American education system, and the materials released were lacking in data compared to previous years.
  • The Health and Human Services Department’s 2024 National Survey on Drug Use and Health omitted information about drug use based on race and ethnicity. HHS laid off the team that collected the data, though the agency is reportedly working with a contractor to resume its collection.
  • The Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Education and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration no longer allow researchers to apply to access and study their data.
  • The Bureau of Labor Statistics produces fewer calculations for its producer price index program and has cut down where it collects data from.

Some of these cuts were made without any public fanfare, like the administration’s decision to end DAWN. In other cases, agencies slipped the news into routine announcements. And occasionally, like when the White House mandated that questions about gender identity be removed from federal surveys, the administration touted the deletions as quelling “gender ideology extremism.” Researchers told NOTUS that the federal government’s reasoning for terminating data collection is flawed. And in some cases, the Trump administration has run afoul of congressional mandates to produce data, including by failing to publish required reports on time and removing reports required by law.

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