Donald Trump is escalating his misuse of the National Guard in American cities, even as legal challenges mount against his federalization efforts. This week, as a judge extended the order blocking federal troop deployments to Portland, Ore., Trump announced that he was considering sending troops to San Francisco, Calif. — another city he has mischaracterized as being crime-ridden.
As in Los Angeles, Portland, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., such a deployment would directly oppose the wishes of state and local officials.
“Contrary to Trump’s lie, no ‘government officials’ here have requested federal occupation,” state Sen. Scott Weiner posted online Wednesday. “We don’t need Trump’s authoritarian crackdown in our city. Bottom line: stay the hell out of San Francisco.”
In other cities and states, Trump’s allies are using their official power to promote and expand the president’s military deployments on American soil. This week, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said that he hopes to have federal troops in the state by next month.
As these dangerous tactics escalate, we’re investigating Trump’s abuses of power, erosion of transparency, and efforts to use the presidency to punish perceived political opponents, including by usurping state and local power.
Trump’s unprecedented domestic deployments raise serious legal questions about the president’s authority. The governments of Portland and Oregon have sued Trump alleging the deployment was “patently unlawful” and violated the Constitution.
According to recent reporting, the Department of Defense and the White House have used Signal — a secretive, private, and non-governmental messaging app with auto-delete capabilities — to coordinate at least one of the deployments. We launched an investigation earlier this year when high level Trump administration officials reportedly used Signal to coordinate military attack plans in Yemen.
Leaked images of officials’ Signal conversations surfaced earlier this month, revealing details about the administration’s plan to deploy the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division to Portland.
Trump’s extraordinarily unusual deployments overstep the president’s authority and infringe on the power of state and local governments. These actions must not be normalized. We are committed to fighting for transparency, holding the government accountable and informing the public of efforts to seize control and consolidate executive power.
Demanding Answers about DHS’s Taxpayer-Funded ICE Recruitment Ads
As the government shutdown continues, it was revealed this week that the Department of Homeland Security has spent at least $51 million of taxpayer money to run advertisements thanking Donald Trump for his border policies and urging undocumented immigrants to self-deport. The campaign is reportedly the most expensive political ad campaign of the year.
The Trump administration is also spending millions more taxpayer dollars on television ads to recruit U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents as part of its $30 billion initiative to hire 10,000 new ICE officers by the end of the year.
These ads are flooding Youtube, social media platforms, and streaming services like Spotify and Hulu. Thirty-second television ads playing in select cities urge current law enforcement officers to “join ICE and help us catch the worst of the worst.”
To investigate ICE’s ad blitz, we submitted records requests for the agency’s communications, strategy documents regarding recruitment efforts, and advertising budgets.
ICE is also offering new recruits sign-on bonuses as large as $50,000 and up to $60,000 in student debt relief.
Those who decide to take the offer will join an agency whose budget has ballooned to $76.5 billion — 10 times its prior size — thanks to the spending bill Trump signed into law in July.
The administration hopes this influx of funding and officers will help it achieve its goals of arresting 3,000 immigrants each day and deporting one million people a year.
This rapid expansion comes as the Department of Homeland Security is cutting internal oversight and blocking external accountability.
This summer, DHS adopted a policy that blocks members of Congress from accessing detention facilities and the information needed to perform their legally authorized oversight duties. We are representing Congressional members in a lawsuit challenging the administration’s illegal blocking of ICE facility oversight.
At a time when ICE is detaining more individuals than ever before — over 56,000 people — and as reports of mistreatment, deplorable conditions, and in-custody deaths continue to mount, the need for oversight has never been more urgent. We’re demanding the public and members of Congress have access to the information they need to hold ICE accountable.
The Public Deserves the Full Jack Smith Report
More than nine months after Special Counsel Jack Smith submitted his report on Trump’s mishandling of classified documents, Volume II remains hidden from the public. We petitioned the court to vacate the order blocking the full report’s release.
We sued the Justice Department in February for failing to respond to our FOIA request seeking the full report.
This week, the House Judiciary Committee asked Smith to testify about his investigation into Trump before the end of the month.
In a letter to Smith, the committee chairman accused the special counsel of conducting “politically motivated investigations," and the Biden-Harris Justice Department of having “weaponized federal law enforcement.”
Smith refuted accusations that politics played a role in the investigation of Trump’s mishandling of classified documents in an interview released this week.
We’re demanding answers about the administration’s use of executive power to target its political opponents and transparency about the special counsel’s findings. Read more here about our petition for the release of the report.
Other Stories We’re Following
American Oversight in the News
Exclusive: U.S. Secret Service bill revealed for JD Vance’s holiday in Scotland (The Scotsman)
Trump admin must turn over Signal chats, group says (Law360)
Trump Administration Accountability
U.S. kills 6 alleged drug smugglers in new strike off Venezuela, Trump says (Washington Post)
Trump team plans IRS overhaul to enable pursuit of left-leaning groups (Wall Street Journal)
Part enabler, part buffer: The bind of the Justice Dept.’s no. 2 (New York Times)
Hegseth’s legal fixer at the center of Pentagon’s new media restrictions (Washington Post)
U.S. attorney was forced out after clashes over how to handle Russia inquiry (New York Times)
Judge accuses Homeland Security of bullying states into accepting conditions to get FEMA money (Associated Press)
The “presumption of regularity” in Trump administration litigation (Just Security)
Trump picks longtime aide Dan Scavino to head White House personnel office (The Hill)
Key Trump nominee accused of sexual harassment (Politico)
U.S. government pays for 2025's most expensive political ad campaign (Axios)
Voting Rights
Former Republican election official buys Dominion Voting — a target of 2020 conspiracy theories (Associated Press)
Five years after trying to aid Trump, Pennsylvania’s Fulton County faces steep penalty (Votebeat)
North Carolina lawmakers will attempt to redraw congressional districts (WRAL)
Immigration
Trump considers overhaul of refugee system that would favor white people (New York Times)
Virginia surveillance network tapped thousands of times for immigration cases (WHRO)
How a small Chicago suburb became a flash point in ICE’s crackdown (Washington Post)
Judge orders ICE official into court as aggressive tactics continue despite her ruling: 'I'm not blind' (Chicago Sun-Times)
Federal immigration officers in Chicago area will be required to wear body cameras, judge says (Associated Press)
We found that more than 170 U.S. citizens have been held by immigration agents. They’ve been kicked, dragged and detained for days. (ProPublica)
State and National News
Emails show Senate GOP fuming at Interior DOGE aide (E&E News)
Transparency takes a hit during shutdown (E&E News)
West Virginia’s school vaccination law has been effective. That may change. (New York Times)
Missouri appeals court rules against attorney general, allows abortions to continue (Missouri Independent)
How Missouri became a battleground over gender-affirming care (Missouri Independent)
Under federal pressure, Fenway Health ends gender-affirming medical care for trans patients under 19 (Boston Globe)
Judge upholds North Dakota’s ban on gender-affirming care for kids (Associated Press)
Threats to Education
These activists want to dismantle public schools. Now they run the Education Department. (ProPublica)
Students with hearing and vision loss get funding back despite Trump’s anti-DEI campaign (ProPublica)
