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A SHORTLIST OF FEDERAL DATA THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION HAS TAMPERED
WITH OR DESTROYED  
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Layla A. Jones
October 8, 2025
Talking Points Memo
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_ "I think we're at a point where anything from the federal
government has to be treated with a certain amount of skepticism, if
not suspicion," one expert told TPM. _

Pres. Trump holds charts as he speaks about the economy in the Oval
Office at the White House, Aug. 7, 2025., Photo credit: Mark
Schienfebvein/AP

 

The scale and scope of federal data and statistics that have been
completely removed or otherwise compromised by President Donald
Trump’s administration is too overwhelming to chronicle fully. When
the president’s executive orders banning diversity, equity and
inclusion (DEI) initiatives came down in January and February, the
federal agencies now under his authority scrambled to comply.
Per tallies at the time
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around 8,000 webpages and approximately 3,000 datasets were taken down
or modified. Some went back up, but not without changes that subject
matter experts are still working to quantify nearly nine months later.

“We know that in some cases what was changed was about identity. But
in other cases, there just hadn’t been systematic analysis or
transparency about what was done to them,” said Margaret Levenstein,
director at the University of Michigan’s Inter-university Consortium
for Political and Social Research. “And so we don’t know what else
might have been changed.”

Some of the most sweeping alterations were made to data on transgender
and gender identity-related topics, and diversity and race, thanks to
the so-called “Defending Women” and “Ending Radical and Wasteful
Government DEI Programs” executive orders, respectively. Those
changes, which have been thoroughly reported, are some of the clearest
examples of explicit policy decisions that have compromised the
accuracy and adequacy of information that makes a difference in
people’s lives.

Data has also been compromised as a result of Trump’s firing spree.
Some of the disruption results from deep layoffs at federal
statistical and research agencies like the National Occupational
Research Agenda, United States Agency for International Development,
and the National Center for Education Statistics, as well as the
dismissal of experienced officials like ousted Bureau of Labor
Statistics commissioner Erika McEntarfer. 

Many agencies have long flagged
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budgetary constraints were limiting their ability to accrue accurate,
timely data on which both the private and public sector rely. But the
actions of the Trump administration have made this existing problem
far worse.

“It is hard to disentangle it,” said Levenstein, “but it sort of
doesn’t matter. What we need is sufficient funding and independence
and a commitment to high quality data.” 

“​​Unfortunately, I think we’re at a point where anything from
the federal government has to be treated with a certain amount of
skepticism if not suspicion,” echoed Dana Willbanks of the Climate
Science Legal Defense Fund, “depending on who it’s coming from and
who they’ve brought on board to support those positions.”

White House spokesperson Kush Desai said the administration is still
publishing data.

 “The Administration remains committed to the publication of
timely, reliable, and accurate government data that informs
decision-making by policymakers, businesses, and families,” Desai
said. “That does not include government data programs used to push
DEI and other ideological agendas.”

Ultimately, much has changed for the worse in the world of information
access and transparency since January 2025. Here’s an incomplete
list of federal data and statistics that’ve been deleted or tampered
with.

_Do you know of any high-profile or lesser-known but still important
data sets that have been removed, tampered with or hidden? Let us
know! Email [email protected]__ _

 

Health

Pregnancy and Family-related Data

* The Trump administration moved to eliminate the Centers for
Disease Control’s Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System
(PRAMS), a research program that collects data about people who are
pregnant or have recently given birth. It has been running since 1987
and is “the only national survey dataset dedicated to pregnancy and
the postpartum period,” according to Harvard’s T.H. Chan School
of Public Health
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A disclaimer on a CDC landing page for PRAMS data
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declared the agency isn’t processing data requests.
* An August judicial ruling
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some CDC employees from layoffs but allowed others to go through,
resulting in the permanent termination of at least 600 staffers. While
it’s unclear which specific data sets these layoffs might affect,
some of the affected employees handled issues related to violence
prevention, including rape, child abuse, teen dating violence, and
international violence against children, according to the Associated
Press.

HIV/Aids Data ‘TBD’

* Data collected as part of the U.S. effort to address HIV and AIDS
in foreign countries has been taken offline. The program, started by
George W. Bush, is known as the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS
Relief, or PEPFAR. A message on its program data page
[[link removed]*s1iv85*_gcl_au*NDcyMjk2NTA1LjE3NTY0ODEzMTM.] directs
users to its data release calendar
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four data releases are listed just as “TBD.” A State Department
spokesperson told CNN that the initiative is collecting data that
captures “recent updates to programming,” but shared no indication
of what those updates may be.
* A disclaimer on the restored Department of Health and Human
Services’ “Living with HIV”
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other HHS info pages, contains a Trumpian disclaimer rejecting
“extremely inaccurate” information about “gender ideology.”
But the page doesn’t contain that, calling into question whether
language on the page had been altered.

COVID Vaccine Guidance Manipulated

* According to the Internet Archive
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the COVID vaccine was recommended for use in pregnancy through January
2025, when Trump retook office. But the live version of that CDC
page, dated August 22, says there is no guidance
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pregnant women to take the COVID vaccine. 
* On Oct. 6, CDC then issued new guidelines encouraging people to
consult a healthcare professional before getting the COVID shot, and
said in a press release that the new booster “prompted widespread
risk-benefit concerns about their safety and efficacy.” 

Public benefits

No SNAP, No Measure of Hunger, No Problem?

* The Trump administration ended the annual
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Department of Agriculture survey on food insecurity, just in time for
Republicans’ cuts to SNAP to take effect. The final report will be
released on Oct. 22. The Food Research and Action Center, or FRAC,
condemned the move in a statement from its president, Crystal
FitzSimons. “The most recent cuts to SNAP, for instance, will
undoubtedly deepen food insecurity, but without annual data, it will
be far easier for that reality to be ignored or dismissed,” she
said.

Population

No ‘Short-Term Solution’ for Down Census Bureau Tool

* The Census Bureau’s QuickFacts website
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estimates over several years; age, sex and race; foreign-born and
veteran status; and other demographic information for specific
regions, has been down since at least August, TPM noticed. When
contacted, the Census Bureau’s public information office initially
regurgitated the “ongoing maintenance” language on the  defunct
website. Reached more than a month later, a statement from the
bureau’s Data Tools Team said the application was “undergoing
unplanned maintenance,” with no “short-term solution” in sight.

Climate

Deleted Landing Pages Restored, But With a Caveat

* In January, USDA  employees were forced to remove landing pages
which mentioned climate change. “‘Pending further review’ is
what they were told,” said Willbanks, “but we’ll see if that’s
a real thing.” A group of farmers who rely on climate change-related
data sued the administration as a result, and the USDA said
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May it would restore the pages. Some pages still contain a disclaimer
about potential changes
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‘Safe Drinking Water’ Banned

* A leaked memo showed the USDA’s research division banned more
than 100 words
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their publications, including “indigenous,” “black,” and
“safe drinking water.”

Fifteen-Agency National Climate Assessments Initiative Goes Dark

* The U.S. Global Change Research Program, an intra-agency
initiative between 15 federal agencies which creates the national
climate assessments, went offline in June
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“Even if they don’t delete pages and reports and data,” said
Willbanks, “they make it impossible to find. They bury it in a dark
corner of their webpage.”
* The USGCRP presented the most recent climate assessment report to
Congress but NASA abandoned plans to host the data online, telling
NPR
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the agency “has no legal obligations” to do so.

Top Viewed Data Set Ends Updates

* The Environmental Protection Agency said it would cease updating
research
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to its highly viewed greenhouse gas emissions calculator after the
researcher who created the database was suspended for criticizing the
president. Of the government’s more than 281,000 datasets, the
greenhouse gas emissions calculator was the third-most viewed database
and is used by corporations to calculate their emissions. 

A Potentially Life-Saving Weather Tool Suspended

* Just days after floods in Texas killed more than 100 people,
including more than 35  children, the Commerce Department, which
houses the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration suspended
work on its Atlas 15 project
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an immense undertaking designed to help predict how climate change
would impact extreme rain events. After the historic floods in Texas
and media reports about the Atlas 15 indefinite suspension, the Trump
administration said it resumed work
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the project.

Workplace and Employment

Changes in Race, Gender Tracking for Federal Workers

* The Office of Personnel Management’s FedScope Database provides
a great deal of information about federal workforce demographics and
is undergoing maintenance to change its use of “gender” in
compliance with Trump’s EO, according to a disclaimer on its
website [[link removed]]. The race and ethnicity
modules on the database were completely removed
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Hobbling Research on Workplace Injury and Death

* The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) gutted the National
Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, effectively dismantling
“the sole agency responsible
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research that informs” the Occupational Health and Safety
Administration’s workplace injury and fatality policymaking. “I
have to say for an administration which is supposed to care about
workers, not caring about work or health is particularly egregious,”
said Levenstein.

Politics

Downplaying Right-Wing Violence

* Trump has long attempted to reframe political violence as a
problem on the left
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a stance which isn’t rooted in reality. Days after conservative
podcaster Charlie Kirk was killed, Trump’s Department of Justice
removed a 2024 study
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showed domestic terrorists are most likely right-wing extremists
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Trump Politicizes National Parks and Museums

* Trump’s March EO sought to whitewash America’s past
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removing descriptions that his administration feels “inappropriately
disparage Americans past or living.” Such information, according to
the Trump administration, deals with issues like slavery and racial
segregation. The White House in late August critiqued the Smithsonian
system
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racially inclusive and historically accurate exhibits. He
has threatened the independence
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the National Museum of African American History and Culture
and reportedly removed
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from the institution
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a claim the museum denies
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* The administration ordered National Park Service sites
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remove information related to slavery and indigenous populations,
including a well-known Civil War-era image of a formerly enslaved man
with a deeply scarred back.
* National Parks have also been asked to remove signage
and materials related to climate change
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compliance with Trump’s same March EO.

Congressional Funding Transparency

Theft by pocket recissions, which legal experts flagged as illegal
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which the Supreme Court later ruled
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allow the administration to continue for now, isn’t all the Trump
administration has been doing to obscure the tracking of taxpayer
dollars and snatch Congressional appropriations power. A NOTUS
investigation
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even congresspeople don’t know whether the money they allocated is
being spent in the manner they approved or whether it’s being spent
at all. The investigation drew on a lawsuit filed by Citizens for
Responsibility and Ethics in Washington
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the organization went looking for required posted apportionments of
federal funds and instead found footnotes referring to opaque “spend
plans.”

_[LAYLA A. JONES is a reporter for TPM in Washington, D.C., with
experience covering government and economic policy, race, culture, and
history. She has written for the Philadelphia Inquirer, Billy Penn,
WHYY, NPR, and the Philadelphia Tribune, and participated in the
Knight-Bagehot Fellowship at Columbia University. She attended Temple
University for undergrad.]_

* federal government
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* Federal data
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* Federal statistics
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* cdc
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* Center for Disease Control
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* pregnancy
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* HIV
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* AIDS
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* HIV/AIDS
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* COVID-19
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* SNAP
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* Census Bureau
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* USDA
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* Climate Change
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* Climate Research
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* epa
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* Dept. of Environmental Protection
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* National Weather Service
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* OSHA
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* right-wing violence
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* FBI
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* national parks
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* National Park Service
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