House Democrats Accuse Trump of Breaking the Law on Agency Oversight

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee are demanding answers on the Trump administration’s efforts to gut and stymie the work of inspector generals across multiple departments.

In a letter sent Friday to the heads of all 24 federal agencies, and shared exclusively with The New Republic, Oversight Democrats accused the Trump administration of systematically impeding the work of agency watchdogs by obstructing their access, purging their staff, and replacing them with loyalists.

“The Trump Administration’s actions have both deprived [Offices of Inspectors General] of the personnel and resources they need to examine and address waste, fraud, abuse, and corruption in government, and limited agencies’ ability to respond to OIG requests,” the letter stated.

Since entering office, Donald Trump has fired or demoted more than 20 inspectors general, who had collectively carved out more than $50 billion in savings from federal programs in 2024.

In some cases, the removals appeared to be politically motivated. In June, Trump installed a new acting inspector general at the Department of Education, and demoted Acting IG René Rocque. The staffing change came shortly after Rocque’s office reported to committee members that the administration had “[interfered] with the OIG’s ability to conduct an independent and timely review” of changes to staffing and operations.

In May, Rocque’s office reported that the Department of Education “had withheld numerous documents requested by the OIG based on vague claims that the materials are somehow sensitive, deliberative, or related to unspecified litigation,” according to the letter. But the Inspector General Act specifically bars agencies from refusing to hand over documents for those stated reasons, and requires agencies to give OIGs timely access to records. As of July 1, the OIGs still had not received access.

Multiple agency OIGs have reported interference from department leadership. The Department of Education OIG also said that the agency had canceled its interviews with staff, and insisted that a general counsel be present for interviews—a significant break from agency practice. In May, the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency reported to the Oversight Committee that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence had installed a senior adviser at the Intelligence Community IG, creating “significant independence issues.”

According to the letter, the issues at OIGs are more widespread. “Numerous OIGs have reported to Committee staff about alterations of work schedules, delays in agency responses to OIG requests, and recruitment and retention issues,” the letter stated.

To replace the ousted OIG staff, Trump has nominated loyalists with dubious ethical records. Trump nominated former Representative Anthony D’Esposito, who hired his lover, for the IG for the Department of Labor and Thomas March Bell, who was accused of mishandling taxpayer dollars, for the Department of Health and Human Services.

“IGs must have the courage and independence to hold their agencies accountable and to deliver for the American people. By law, they must be watchdogs, not lapdogs,” the letter states.

The lawmakers requested that the agency heads give a response by August 29 “to clarify how you will dutifully uphold our nation’s federal oversight and IG laws.”

Younger Republicans are turning against Donald Trump, according to a survey by Pew Research Center.

A recent Pew survey found that the largest drop in Trump’s support by far was among his youngest voters in 2024, between the ages of 18 and 39. Only 69 percent of Trump’s youngest voters said that they approved of his job performance, down from 92 percent when he entered office, according to the survey. In the last two months alone, Trump’s job performance approval dropped 11 points among this demographic.

It’s not entirely clear why this happened, but there is one theory.

The same survey found that 53 percent of Republicans said that they disapproved of the administration’s handling of the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, with the disapproval rating being higher among younger Republicans. It seems that the president’s ties to the alleged sex trafficker, and his administration’s refusal to publish a long-awaited client list, has resonated more with the party’s newer members. Apparently, not everyone is buying Trump’s knee-jerk reaction to dismiss the Epstein matter as a Democratic hoax.

And it doesn’t look like the president—who privately referred to survivors of Epstein’s abuse as “Democrats”—intends to course-correct anytime soon.

Of course, one must imagine that there may be something wonky at play here—what young Republican would actually respond to a poll?

Trump’s approval rating has slipped nine points since he entered office. Another group that saw a massive loss of enthusiasm for the commander in chief was adults who did not vote in 2024. Trump’s approval rating among this group sank from 45 percent to 32 percent since the beginning of his term.

Immigrations and Customs Enforcement conducted a raid right outside of California Governor Gavin Newsom’s rally on Thursday at the Japanese American National Museum in Downtown Los Angeles.

Newsom held an event to announce his own redistricting efforts in California, a direct response to the Trump administration and the Texas GOP gerrymandering their House map to favor Republicans in the 2026 midterms.

“BORDER PATROL HAS SHOWED UP AT OUR BIG BEAUTIFUL PRESS CONFERENCE! WE WILL NOT BE INTIMIDATED!” Newsom’s press team posted, purposely mocking Trump’s social media syntax as they have been for days now. The post also included a video showing mostly masked Border Patrol agents milling about in full tactical gear.

Newsom also acknowledged the raid during his speech.

“Right outside, at this exact moment, are dozens of dozens of ICE agents,” Newsom said, the crowd booing in response. “Donald Trump … you think it’s coincidental?”

“No!” the crowd fired back.

“We know what Donald Trump knows: He’s going to lose the midterms. He knows, de facto, his presidency ends in seventeen months, when Speaker [Hakeem] Jeffries is back in the House,” Newsom continued. “He’s a failed president. Who else sends ICE at the same time we’re having a conversation like this? Someone who’s weak. Someone who’s broken. Someone whose weakness is masquerading as strength. The most unpopular president in modern history.”

Newson is right—ICE at his event was no coincidence. Trump and the governor have traded barbs for years now, and it only looks to be ratcheting up even further now.

As the Trump administration keeps the Epstein files tight to its chest (the documents reportedly contain numerous redacted mentions of Trump), media appearances by victims of the notorious late pedophile have hampered the president’s hopes of redirecting the public eye anywhere but on his former friend Jeffrey Epstein.

A vexed Trump, Rolling Stone reports, has privately taken to calling some survivors of Epstein’s abuse “Democrats,” suggesting they may be trying to sully his reputation for political purposes.

Citing two sources familiar with the president’s private remarks, Rolling Stone reported Thursday that Trump has, behind closed doors, repeatedly taken issue with such media appearances, claiming that some of the victims “are just trying to make him look bad, or implying that he did something wrong during his time as one of Epstein’s friends and party companions.”

The president has reportedly claimed that some speaking out are “clearly of a ‘Democrat’ political affiliation,” even floating the idea that some could be in cahoots with “prominent liberal attorneys or groups.”

The magazine did not name specific people about whom the president has reportedly complained. However, several of Epstein’s accusers, named and anonymous, as well as victims’ relatives, have vocally criticized the administration’s bungling of the Epstein case as of late.

This has, per CNN, posed “a growing political threat to Trump,” whose approach to the scandal has reflected a concern for “ending a political problem” over “alleviating any further agony” for those affected by Epstein and his convicted co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell (whom Trump conspicuously hasn’t ruled out pardoning, raising concerns that he may corruptly grant her clemency in exchange for clearing his name of Epstein-related wrongdoing).

Trump’s White House vehemently denied Rolling Stone’s story, with a spokesperson insisting that “none of [it] is true.”

The reported remarks, however, would be consistent with the president’s tendency to try positing conspiracies in order to remove political thorns from his side—as seen at the outset of the scandal, when Trump’s knee-jerk reaction was to dismiss the Epstein issue, once a MAGA cause célèbre, as a Democratic hoax.

California has its own plan to combat the Trump administration’s national redistricting efforts.

California Governor Gavin Newsom announced the Election Rigging Response Act Thursday, a Democratic gerrymandering plan intended to offset efforts to strip liberal areas around the country of their electoral votes.

“We’ve got to meet fire with fire,” Newsom said. “We cannot stand back and watch this democracy disappear district by district.”

California will invite residents to vote on whether or not to pursue redistricting in their own state, in reaction to Donald Trump’s heavy hand in Texas politics. The vote will take place on November 4.

Last month, the president demanded that Texas Republicans create five more House seats by redrawing its congressional map, eliminating a handful of blue districts. The move elicited shock and contempt from two of the country’s most populous regions—California and New York—both of which threatened to draw their own new maps should Texas comply. If they do, the two states will give a significant edge to Democrats.

Trump issued similar demands of five other states, claiming that there were nationwide opportunities for redistricting efforts to help the GOP ahead of next year’s midterm elections. Those states include Missouri, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and Florida.

“This is a serious moment, America. Wake up to what is going on,” Newsom said. “These are sober times.”

Newsom pointed to an aggressive rise in ICE raids, censorship at the Smithsonian, federal kowtowing to Russia, voter intimidation, and infringements on civil rights, women’s rights, gay rights, and more as evidence that Trump was “putting America in reverse.”

“It’s about power,” Newsom said. “And we are about to give power back to the people.”

Mayor Eric Adams’s campaign has chosen to lean fully into his reputation for unseriousness and folly.

On Thursday, the mayor’s social media team posted a video of Adams appearing at various events across the city with the audio from the children’s movie The Boss Baby, following a popular TikTok and Instagram Reels trend.

“Every night, at dinner, I’ll be there. Every birthday party, I’ll be there. Every Christmas, I’ll be there,” the audio plays as clips of Adams at festivals and press conferences roll.

“I’m an on-the-ground mayor,” the post’s caption reads. “I’ll be there every step of the way as we make this a safer and more affordable city for all.”

Absurd posts like these—and that Trump pardon—are the only things keeping Adams from fading into relative obscurity. From multiple smoothie-making videos to poorly edited montages, to corny pop music–based skits, the Adams campaign is posting its way through it.

Trumpworld has long theorized about a shadowy deep state pulling the strings in Washington. During a 2023 Fox News appearance, Pam Bondi said deep-state actors had been “hiding in the shadows” throughout Trump’s first term. In his second, they’d “have a spotlight on them.”

Now, as U.S. attorney general, Bondi is purportedly living up to that promise. On Thursday, she produced a rare specific example of supposed deep-state evildoing: A man threw a Subway sandwich at a federal agent stationed in D.C. for Trump’s takeover.

According to court records and video footage of the incident, the man, Sean Charles Dunn, who happened to work for the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, approached a group of officers in front of a D.C. Subway sandwich shop at around 11 p.m.

Dunn reportedly called the heavily armed officers “fucking fascists,” yelling, “I don’t want you in my city!” before hurling a wrapped-up sandwich at the chest of a Customs and Border Protection agent, who—clad in tactical gear—was clearly unharmed. Dunn ran off but was apprehended, later saying, “I did it. I threw a sandwich.”

Clips of the incident went viral on social media, with users finding humor and many opportunities for puns in the episode. (A sampling: “Our gyro,” “Assault with a deli weapon,” “The suspect was acting provolone.”)

Pam Bondi, however, thinks the incident is no laughing matter. In fact, by her lights, Dunn’s sandwich throwing is the deep state manifest. In a post announcing Dunn’s firing, Bondi claimed, quite grandiosely, that “this is an example of the Deep State we have been up against for seven months as we work to refocus DOJ.”

Bondi continued, “You will NOT work in this administration while disrespecting our government and law enforcement”—a statement rendered laughable by the fact that, as NPR reported last week, a J6er who called for police officers to be killed during the Capitol riot enjoys a senior role at the department.

Jared Wise, now a DOJ adviser, spent his January 6, 2021, calling officers “Nazi[s]” and “Gestapo,” and shouting, “Yeah, fuck them! Yeah, kill ’em!” He is “a valued member of the Justice Department,” said a spokesperson, “and we appreciate his contributions to our team.”

The Trump administration’s heavy-handed revision of U.S. history has put fear into Smithsonian employees, eliciting comparisons among staffers to 1930s Germany. 

Workers at the government-created museums are censoring historical content that they believe could upset the president. Tensions have gotten so high that staffers have been warned against putting any complaints about the current climate at the institution in writing, while volunteers are considering quitting, HuffPost reported Thursday.

On Tuesday, White House officials laid out detailed plans to eliminate exhibits that they determined represented “improper ideology,” sparking alarm and panic among staffers. The memo challenged the application of educational lenses on race, gender, and oppression in U.S. history and accused the Smithsonian directly of advancing a “divisive, race-centered ideology.” 

The administration’s critiques also veered toward eugenics, torching a specific Smithsonian exhibit for describing race as “not a biological reality but a social construct” and underscoring that “race is a human invention.”

But the memo wasn’t a suggestion: failure to comply will turn the faucet off on funding for the world’s largest educational institution, effectively crippling the Smithsonian and nixing two-thirds of the organization’s revenue.

“Everyone is so scared,” one longtime Smithsonian worker told HuffPost.

“It’s an impossible position to put us in,” they continued. “We can’t be political with our content, but they have politicized everything. We need to prove we’re not partisan by following this very partisan directive. What are we supposed to do? It’s like up is down. It’s maddening.”

Employees have quietly conceded to the White House’s demands in an effort to save Smithsonian head Lonnie Bunch from losing his job. Staffers described Bunch as “loved” and “respected.” But kowtowing to Donald Trump has not yet proved to be a winning strategy for the Smithsonian.

Earlier this month, the Smithsonian removed Trump from its exhibit on impeachments, under direct pressure from the White House. That left the exhibit focusing on Presidents Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton, effectively returning the exhibit to the way it looked in 2008. The “American Presidency” wing’s revised signage explained that “only three presidents have seriously faced removal” over the course of American history.  The change was the result of a White House–initiated content review in the wake of an art director’s ousting.

The Smithsonian has since re-added Trump to the impeachment exhibit, but with some changes to how the proceedings against him are described.

Donald Trump was caught once again moving the goal posts for Russian President Vladimir Putin ahead of their summit in Alaska Friday.

During an interview on Fox News Radio Thursday, Trump bragged that his “relationship” with Putin had been the deciding factor in the autocrat’s pending decision to resolve his country’s invasion of Ukraine. But the U.S. president didn’t sound all that certain.

“Because of a certain relationship that he has with me running this country, he’s, he really, I believe now he’s convinced that he’s going to make a deal. He’s gonna make a deal—I think he’s going to, and we’re gonna find out,” Trump said.

“The second meeting is going to be very, very important. This meeting sets up—like a chess game—this meeting sets up the second meeting. But there is a 25 percent chance that this meeting will not be a successful meeting.”

Trump has repeatedly downplayed the historic contact between the two superpowers, a move that has frustrated European leaders. In an explosive phone call Wednesday, European leaders claimed Trump was leveraging his time with Putin to coordinate a ceasefire in Ukraine without Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s input, and pressed Trump on the significance of offering a meeting to Putin.

Ahead of the meeting, Putin praised Trump for making “quite vigorous and sincere efforts” toward ending the conflict in Ukraine and “to create long-term conditions of peace between our countries and in Europe, and in the world as a whole.”

A fake story from a Brazilian fugitive accusing former Trump Attorney General Bill Barr of colluding with Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis and Armstrong Williams to indict President Trump swept through MAGA world this summer. 

How did a lie from a Brazilian woman being actively pursued by the FBI dominate the right’s media landscape and turn them against a longtime Trump ally? The Bulwark reports that it originated from Patrícia Lélis, a woman who was indicted last year in a wire fraud case after stealing around $700,000 and using it for her house’s down payment and credit card bill, among other things. She fled the country before serving any time and was last seen in Mexico.  

In Brazil, Lélis is infamous for a false rape accusation against Brazilian pastor and politician Marco Feliciano, which led to her being arrested, with Brazilian law enforcement ultimately releasing a report that claimed she had a mental condition that caused her to lie impulsively. In 2021, she claimed that then-President Jair Bolsonaro’s son Eduardo threatened to kill her over text. Police determined she forged the messages and arrested her instead once again. She was kicked out of the Brazilian Workers’ Party for being extremely transphobic, and even made posts falsely claiming she was pregnant. 

Lélis is essentially a professional international charlatan. How did she become the point person for the accusations of treason against Barr? 

It’s all Armstrong Williams’s fault. The Black conservative talking head hired Lélis without verifying anything about her background or history, as she claimed to be an immigration lawyer to get the job with Williams. She worked for him for two years, 2021 to 2023, stealing money from his organization in the process.  

Lélis concocted a story based on her time working for Armstrong, in which she alleges that, while sitting in as a notetaker during meetings, she witnessed Armstrong, Barr, and Willis coordinating Trump’s prosecutions, which doesn’t make much sense given that Barr was not attorney general while Lélis was working for Armstrong. 

None of the conservative pundits who took up Lélis’s story seemed to care. And neither did Project Veritas, which featured Lélis multiple times as a brave whistleblower whose life was in danger as Barr was trying to silence her.  

“One thing that I understood very well is like Bill Barr and Armstrong and all the politicians too, they’re very focused like in how they go to stop Trump,” Lélis said in a Project Veritas article. 

Brazilians tried to warn Project Veritas. Now no one knows where Lélis is. Let this be  a lesson to at least google someone before you platform their allegations of plots against the president.