Trump 2025 executive orders and legal challenges

The Justice Department's lawsuit says U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services determined with high confidence that roughly 20,000 people on California's voter rolls were likely noncitizens.

The California secretary of state's office said it was given only 48 hours to review roughly 20,000 names.

The lawsuit asks the court to declare the administration's collection of voter data illegal, block DHS' policy, and order the agency to delete and stop using voter information already obtained.

Brennan filed his lawsuit naming Trump, FBI Director Kash Patel, Attorney General Todd Blanche, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and other officials on July 1, 2026.

A separate investigation is examining whether Brennan made false statements during 2023 congressional testimony about the Steele dossier's role in a 2017 intelligence assessment.

Brennan faces two federal investigations, including a Justice Department probe into whether former intelligence officials conspired to violate Trump's civil rights.

Deputy White House Counsel Josh Hoyt said Trump's executive privilege claim covers conversations with both government and non-government advisers.

Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty is seeking information in a lawsuit challenging the planned closure and renovation of the Kennedy Center.

Beatty's lawyers have argued in court that the blanket assertions of executive privilege are procedurally and substantively improper.

Trump blamed Democrats for leaking information about the Iran nuclear site attacks on social media.

Trump claimed leaked information included timing of the US attacks and that he had to reschedule the bombing campaign two days later.

Journalists at The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal received subpoenas aimed at determining sources of leaked information.

A federal appeals court will hear oral arguments on October 14, 2026, over whether National Guard members deployed in Washington, D.C. should be sent home.

The appeals court paused a lower court's ruling that the National Guard deployment was illegal.

The panel's unanimous ruling was 32 pages long and found that the district had not identified any ongoing injury to its statutory interests.

Jeff Shields, a spokesperson for PJM, said electricity demand is growing faster than new generating capacity can come online.

The TVA initiative is separate from the PJM emergency order.

PJM Interconnection said it does not expect the emergency conditions to affect everyday customers.

The Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office told Rochon the ads would not continue being aired past Sunday.

Judge Jennifer Rochon issued a temporary restraining order barring the Department of Homeland Security from spending any more of the $20 million allocated for the ad campaign.

The money for the ads came from a large appropriation by Congress for immigration enforcement.

Congress reduced NFA manufacturing and transfer taxes to $0 for silencers, short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, and AOWs in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Machine guns and destructive devices remain subject to NFA requirements.

ATF Director Robert Cekada noted that the move follows a federal court decision invalidating key manufacturing and transfer provisions of the NFA.

The National Park Service began cutting down trees on Saturday.

The D.C. Preservation League filed for a temporary restraining order on Sunday.

Trump toured the East Potomac Golf Course in June with golf course architect Peter Fazio, his son Gavin Fazio, and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.

Norm Eisen has engineered a "broad legal resistance" to the president through his group Democracy Defenders Fund.

President Donald Trump wants to transform the East Potomac Golf Links into a championship-caliber golf course.

The UK Independent reported that Judge Ana Reyes excoriated federal counsel for about 15 minutes.

A judge blocked further border barrier construction in the Big Bend region on Friday by approving a preliminary injunction.

The Big Bend sector covers about a quarter of the length of the border but only sees between 1% and 3% of migrant apprehensions by U.S. Customs and Border Protection each year.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the Friends of the Ruidosa Church and Danny William Miller.

The Justice Department said it disagrees with the decision and plans to appeal and seek a stay.

Rogoff filed suit citing similar cases around the country where the Trump administration had unsuccessfully sought to install attorneys and extend their service indefinitely.

Rogoff was fired by President Trump through an email roughly an hour after his appointment.

Trump nominated Simon Peter Serrano to the position of U.S. attorney in Seattle.

Trump fired Tessa Gorman as the top prosecutor in the Seattle office after he took office.

Judge Bastian ruled that Charles Neil Floyd is not the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Washington.

Hearn's attorneys said the case never should have been brought in the first place.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Spence said in a court hearing in September that there is a public interest in allowing a grand jury at a future date to issue an indictment if new information comes to light.

Trump ordered renovations to the Lincoln Memorial's pool in 2026.

Brinkema said the real concern is the concept of taxpayer money being used to promote particular political views.

Brinkema agreed that the Anti-Weaponization Fund entity is gone but asked whether there is a functional equivalent through the DOJ's Judgment Fund.

The Judgment Fund is a permanent U.S. Treasury account managed by the Bureau of the Fiscal Service that pays court judgments and DOJ legal settlements against the federal government.

Norm Eisen left States United in 2021.

The $177bn finding represents nearly 10% of federal discretionary spending.

The tracker relies on data from USASpending.gov.

Researchers filed a class action lawsuit against the National Institutes of Health accusing the Trump administration of blocking and cancelling scientific grants to censor topics.

More than 4,500 of the disrupted NIH grants have been restored.

The Trump administration has used a list of 235 keywords to prevent certain research topics from being funded.

Robberies in Memphis are down 43%.

The Memphis Safe Task Force has made more than 12,000 arrests in its first year.

Memphis resident Darian Glover was convicted in August of distributing fentanyl that caused three fatal overdoses.

A federal law adopted after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 states that DHS "may not substantially or significantly reduce (FEMA's) authorities, responsibilities, or functions."

A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration's directive for FEMA to cut its workforce in half was unlawful.

Judge Illston said she would presume that the lost Signal messages would have been unfavorable to the defendants because they would have been further evidence of unlawful conduct.

The EPA said the Biden-era rules on power plant emissions had exceeded the agency's authority.

The Biden-era regulations were estimated to stop 4,500 premature deaths annually.

The EPA also proposed a separate rule that could prevent future administrations from regulating greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.

During his first term, the Trump administration attempted to impose a similar policy that was met with legal challenges and subsequently reversed by Joe Biden's administration.

The states' suit was brought by New York, California, Illinois, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia.

The new policy does not specify which safety nets should be considered and allows immigration officers to consider government benefits applied for on behalf of family members, including US citizen children.

Wolfers said the White House estimates are based on a 10% annual rate of return for decades and apply to children whose parents contribute $5,000 annually until age 18 and $7,000 a year when their children are in their 20s.

Employers can contribute $2,500 a year to the account of an employee's child, and that contribution is not counted as taxable income.

The $1,000 seed deposits for newborns are set to expire when Trump's second term ends, while the tax deferrals and tax breaks are to continue indefinitely.

The push for bike lanes began in the 1960s.

The Trump administration has suggested removing existing bike lanes.

The Trump administration has frozen or canceled grants related to bike lanes, calling them 'DEI bike lanes'.

A federal appeals court ruled that the US Energy Department exceeded its authority when it ordered the JH Campbell Generating Plant in Michigan to remain open beyond its planned retirement.

Judge Cornelia Pillard said the authority could be used only when immediate action was required and states or utilities could not address the problem themselves.

Continued operation of the JH Campbell plant has cost approximately $259 million according to financial filings.

The dispute comes amid a broader effort by US President Donald Trump’s administration to reduce the size of the federal workforce.

The ruling centres on thousands of temporary FEMA reservists who are called upon to help communities after hurricanes, wildfires, floods and other disasters.

Labor groups representing federal workers sued to block the administration’s decision to stop renewing many FEMA reservist contracts.

Appeals court judge Cornelia Pillard wrote the opinion for a unanimous three-judge panel.

Sanjay Narayan is a lawyer for the Sierra Club.

Environmental groups and three states — Michigan, Illinois and Minnesota — went to court to try to overturn orders keeping the plant online.

Joe diGenova declined to say exactly why he resigned.

Joe diGenova said in an interview with the New York Post that if someone wants indictments where there is no evidence, they have an ethical problem.

Joe diGenova is 81 years old.

Trump pledged $5,000 dividends to all American adults on Sept. 9 at the Republican National Convention.

The expiration of the enhanced ACA subsidies at the end of 2025 made insurance more expensive for millions of consumers.

Trump said the administration is giving the money back to the people who were wrongly ripped off.

Trump said the government would send a separate $5,000 election dividend to every adult U.S. citizen if Republicans are victorious in the midterm contest.

A temporary enhancement to ACA premium tax credits expired at the end of 2025.

The refund payments will total about $500 million.

The Trump administration sued New Mexico for providing in-state tuition and state-funded financial assistance to undocumented immigrant students.

Congressional candidate Greg Cunningham called Trump's posts about renaming New Mexico "satire."

Donald Trump called to rename New Mexico as New America.

The Tetris Company said it believes "in the power of connection and building people together, not dividing them".

On 6 March, the White House posted a video mixing footage of US military strikes in Iran with a clip from Halo's protagonist Master Chief saying "finishing this fight".

The Pokémon Company International criticized the White House in March for including Pikachu in a meme posted online with the phrase "Make America Great Again".

Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to federal crimes including facilitating a $130,000 hush payment to Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election and lying under oath to Congress.

Trump has denied the encounter with Daniels and all wrongdoing and is appealing his New York conviction.

Cohen was a key witness at Trump's criminal trial in New York state court in 2024.

The Democracy Defenders Fund and the Campaign Legal Center have jointly filed lawsuits against Trump's 2025 and 2026 executive orders on voting.

The DHS chief said ICE agents could be sent to polling places if there is a threat or a warrant is being served.

The Washington Litigation Group hired about half a dozen new lawyers in the summer of 2026 to handle election-related litigation.

Trump said the U.S. might have to change the name of the Atlantic and/or the Pacific, or maybe both.

Trump's move to rename Lake Ontario came in the midst of a tense trade war with Canada.

The White House has not announced an effort to rename New Mexico.

US attorney general Todd Blanche said the fund he proposed before his confirmation is dead.

Trump said at a cabinet meeting in July that the fund is dead but he wished it were not.

In July, US district judge Kathleen Williams found that the parties in Trump's lawsuit against the IRS had never truly been in conflict and the lawsuit was pretense for setting up the fund.

A US federal judge blocked the Trump administration from enforcing a new executive order limiting who qualifies for birthright citizenship.

The preliminary injunction was issued following an appeal by rights groups who challenged Trump's executive order.

The US supreme court had previously rejected Trump's earlier effort to restrict birthright citizenship.

Judge Deborah Boardman issued a preliminary injunction blocking President Trump's August 2026 executive order on birthright citizenship.

It is already illegal to travel to the US for the purpose of giving birth.

The administration defines 'alien enemies' as those belonging to designated terrorist organisations, including drug cartels.

Trump issued his latest executive order on birthright citizenship on 6 August.

Judge Deborah Boardman wrote that no presidential executive order can undo what the Supreme Court has done.

Trump's latest executive order denied automatic citizenship to children of employees at foreign embassies and employees of international organizations including the United Nations and the World Bank.

Birthright citizenship confers automatic citizenship on anyone born in the US, outside of narrow exceptions such as children of diplomats or invading armies.

Judge Boardman is a United States federal judge in Maryland.

Judge Boardman cited the Supreme Court's June decision in Barbara v Trump as the reason the new order was unconstitutional.

David Bier is the director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute.

Trump signed an executive order on Aug. 6 directing federal agencies to withhold documents recognizing citizenship from certain children born when neither parent is a U.S. citizen.

Chad Mizelle is a senior fellow at the America First Policy Institute and previously served as the Justice Department's chief of staff.

Trump's lawyers announced they would appeal Hellerstein's decision and called it baseless and lawless.

Trump has denied having a sexual liaison with Stormy Daniels.

In November, the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals ordered Hellerstein to reconsider the case in light of the Supreme Court's decision.

Trump made the announcement during an event honoring the four-person Artemis II crew at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Texas on Friday.

The Artemis II mission was an important step in the Trump administration's plan to return astronauts to the moon by 2028.

The Artemis II crew members who received the Congressional Space Medal of Honor were NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen.

Trump said graduates of the new academy would serve the US Space Force, NASA and the civilian flight industry.

The Artemis II mission was a step in the Trump administration's plan to return astronauts to the moon by 2028.

The Artemis III mission will practice docking with Moon lander models from Blue Origin and SpaceX.

The coalition's lawyers wrote in an August 24 memorandum calling for an injunction against the new order.

The second order would also deny citizenship to children whose parents engage in a commercial transaction to access birthright citizenship.

A United States judge rejected a request for a temporary restraining order to block President Donald Trump's second executive order restricting birthright citizenship.

Trump awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to the crewmembers of NASA’s Artemis II mission.

Trump said he would be choosing a location for the space academy "very shortly."

Astronaut Jessica Meir is the current International Space Station mission commander.

The Supreme Court's conservative majority overturned an earlier ruling by Judge Indira Talwani that had blocked Trump's mail-in ballot restrictions, on the basis that the legal challenges were filed too soon.

Judge Talwani wrote that plaintiff states have neither time nor funds to redesign ballots, update election systems, or train officials on the new USPS portal before the midterm elections.

Nearly one-third of Americans vote by mail.

The executive order does not control the name used by Canada, which borders the lake along with New York.

The order states that the United States has invested nearly $4 billion in protecting the Great Lakes freshwater ecosystem in the last decade.

Trump signed a proclamation declaring February 9, 2025, as the first Gulf of America Day.

Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston said it is Lake Ontario.

Wisconsin's governor joked that he renamed Lake Michigan as Lake Wisconsin.

Canada does not have to recognise name changes made by other countries, and officials there have dismissed the idea.

Trump's renaming suggestion came amid escalating tensions between the US and Canada after trade talks failed.

Trump posted a video of him crossing out Lake Ontario on a map and writing 'Lake America' instead.

Canada retaliated on Tuesday with tariffs as high as 50% on American goods, including steel, dairy, and electronics, set to take effect from September 8.

The Department of Homeland Security issued a public notice on July 31 asserting that administrative errors in New Jersey showed a need for standardized federal oversight.

Tulsi Gabbard resigned on June 30, after which Donald Trump named Bill Pulte as her acting replacement.

New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill announced that 6,600 non-citizens were registered to vote because of a software error.

U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas vacated the State Department's visa freeze policy and any visa refusals based solely upon it.

The State Department enacted the policy in January, halting immigrant visa issuance to nationals of 75 countries deemed at high risk of relying on public benefits.

Judge Vargas ruled in a 61-page opinion that the policy was contrary to law and exceeded Secretary Rubio's statutory authority.

Judge Jeannette Vargas ruled in the Southern District of New York that the visa freeze was patently unlawful and in conflict with federal immigration law.

The lawsuit challenging the policy was brought by Catholic Legal Immigration Network, African Communities Together, visa applicants, and US citizen sponsors.

A US judge struck down a Trump administration policy suspending immigrant visa issuance for applicants from 75 countries.

The first executive order prohibits automatic citizenship for babies born in the US to two non-citizen parents where one parent is a member of a foreign terrorist group, a foreign government employee, has attempted to gain citizenship through fraudulent means, or is living in US territories where citizenship is not conferred by federal statute.

Birthright citizenship for people born in US territories such as Puerto Rico is codified by federal statute.

The Migration Policy Institute estimated that 22,000 to 26,000 babies are born in the US from birth tourism every year.

The executive order was signed on Monday, July 13, 2026.

U.S. Sens. John Curtis and Mike Lee, Gov. Spencer Cox, and House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, were present behind Trump at the signing.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order reducing the size of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments in Utah.

The fourth commissioner, Don Palmer, a Republican, resigned in April.

The Bipartisan Policy Center said the departures are a "significant loss for one of the federal government's few institutions explicitly designed around bipartisan governance."

Trump fired Benjamin Hovland and Thomas Hicks, the Democrats on the Election Assistance Commission.

The EPA estimates the proposed changes would save the trucking industry approximately $12 billion, including up to $6,000 per new truck.

The proposal would reduce costly emissions warranty requirements from the 2023 rule while keeping nearly 90% of the planned NOx emissions reductions.

Trump said in his inaugural speech that his administration would terminate the Green New Deal, revoke the electric vehicle mandate, and unleash American energy.