right on the money! our chronicle of the trump admin's corruption--https://therevolvingdoorproject.org/trump-corruption-calendar/--is a good starting point for any enterprising pols eager to make a clear contrast and lead a much needed transformation.

Democrats should become the anti-corruption party. 72% of voters think a member of Congress would likely accept a bribe if offered one. 80% say donors run DC. The solution isn’t left vs right, it’s clean vs corrupt. But first, Democrats must reform themselves and reject big money.

Read the latest edition of our Corruption Calendar by my colleague @andreabeaty.bsky.social therevolvingdoorproject.org/weeks-34-35-...

NEW: As Trump and his friends make deals, ordinary Americans are on the menu – to be divvied up proportionately to how well different oligarchs serve Trump. Catch up on the biggest corruption stories of this week with our latest Corruption Calendar newsletter:

Read the full piece here:

Even more concerning, the administration seems to have greenlit hiring at DHS and ICE while freezing hiring elsewhere. Apparently you actually need people to carry out Trump’s draconian deportation agenda.

But hiring didn’t slow everywhere. For one thing, Trump beat out Biden with the pace of his Senior Executive Service appointments.

In March, the SEC saw a surge in retirements, which are usually clustered around December. It’s not all that surprising, given that the agency offered some of its employees $50k to retire, but it will impede the agency’s ability to enforce the law against corporate fraudsters.

In Feb and March 2025, the IRS and the Census Bureau both hired *zero* people. That’s a lot different than Trump’s 2017 hiring freeze, when both agencies hired at relatively normal levels in Feb and March. For the IRS, those months are usually critical—April is tax season.

Still, FedScope data is useful. DOGE seems to appear in the data, as we can see how early retirements among federal employees spiked and how GSA—an early target for DOGE—had a big uptick in separations in March.

To analyze this issue, we use FedScope data, which has important limitations. It… -ends in March 2025 -excludes some types of federal employees -counts people on administrative leave as employed And the Trump admin itself has made the data less detailed (see charts below)

NEW: March 2025 was, by far, the worst month for federal hiring in at least 20 years. Breaking down attrition at federal agencies in the early months of the Trump admin, a thread 🧵: (Full piece here: therevolvingdoorproject.org/attrition-in...)

"[T]he federal government has turned its back on its own people," said Bob Griffin, an emergency preparedness expert from SUNY Albany. Great analysis from AP. See our tracker/map for more on Trump's delayed and incomplete allocation of disaster aid.

As a result of Trump terminations, numerous federal agencies are non-functional without a quorum, revealing another way to effectively shut down the federal government. From our friends at @revolvingdoordc.bsky.social: prospect.org/politics/202...

NEW: Trump and his allies in Congress are continuing their war on the administrative state: 8 independent agencies now lack a quorum to fulfill key functions. Our @kjboyle.bsky.social writes in @prospect.org on how this puts the public’s safety, financial well-being, and civil rights at dire risk.

NEW Corruption Calendar - Weeks 32-33: An Administration Full of Grifters and Grim Reapers The Trump White House is increasing our risk of premature death while helping its wealthy allies get richer quicker.

Trump promised to drain the swamp. Instead he’s delivered the most corrupt administration in American history, and officials are already jumping ship to peddle their influence at lobbying firms. From @jeffhauser.bsky.social and @timi-iwayemi.bsky.social @revolvingdoordc.bsky.social: trib.al/tmtQhfI

Read the full report here: therevolvingdoorproject.org/trump-homici...

Read a condensed version of the report here: revolvingdoorproject.substack.com/p/will-democ...

Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans 20 years ago. Earlier this week, ~180 FEMA workers warned that Trump's cuts are setting the stage for a similar calamity. The next day, dozens of them were punished. This is a perfect summation of Trump's homicidal hurricane policy. Our new report ⬇️has more. 🧵

“The revolving door between the federal government and the corporations that encircle it has been Trump-sized.” The path from administration insider to K Street lobbyist is even easier in 2025. From @jeffhauser.bsky.social and @timi-iwayemi.bsky.social @revolvingdoordc.bsky.social: trib.al/CvstiFe

New in @prospect.org: Trump administration veterans are heading to K Street to cash in on this boom period for lobbying firms with Trump ties. We think this Trump-sized revolving door between the federal government and corporations that encircle it will leave us all worse off.

Read the full article by our @jeffhauser.bsky.social and @timi-iwayemi.bsky.social here: prospect.org/power/2025-0...

"In 2025, the revolving door between the federal government & the corporations that encircle it has been 'Trump-sized.'" As @revolvingdoordc.bsky.social writes, offices on K St are filling up with Trump administration veterans just 7 months in, while lobby firms with Trump ties are rolling in cash.

Latest on tap ⬇️

From me in @prospect.org this morning: a look at the ongoing efforts to keep methane pollution visible, as the Trump administration tries to help the industry go dark. The tools to observe methane from space, the sky, and the ground keep improving—as the gap between policy and reality widens.

New in @prospect.org from @hannahstoryb.bsky.social: as AI data centers are the latest driver for ballooning methane pollution, the Trump admin is making every attempt to disappear the government's controls on this invisible super-pollutant. But what we can see is more than enough to justify action.

🚨NEW REPORT🚨 The "abundance agenda" claims to offer prosperity for all. In reality, it props up corporate power, deregulation, and inequality. Today, we published a comprehensive critique + alternative vision with @openmarkets.bsky.social. READ:

Back to school is always stressful for parents and teachers. This year will be worse. Thanks to Trump and his enablers, school supplies are more expensive, school lunch funding has been cut, and AI is endangering children.

Uber is bad actually. The Trump administration has adopted the rideshare company's disregard for the law — termed "blitzscaling". Any attempt at restoring order in a post-Trump world must address Silicon Valley's lawlessness to restore confidence in the rule of law.

We should be slashing emissions and climate-proofing our cities. Instead, Republicans are turning up the carbon spew and stripping away heat protections — effectively condemning the poor to die under rising temperatures.

Read the whole piece here: jacobin.com/2025/08/heat...

Must read ⬇️

NEW: The Bureau of Labor Statistics does more than help us understand the economy. The data it produces is baked into our economy policy. By law, agencies use BLS data to adjust many safety net programs. A Trump loyalist helming BLS threatens everyone's economic security.

If Democrats are serious about fighting Trump and reversing his war on governance, democracy and history, they need to adapt. The political structures of the past are destined to fail in this moment, they need to create new ones, writes our @maxmoranhi.bsky.social

NEW: Trump's Super PAC filing revealed millions spent by corporations trying to curry favor with the president. Learn which corporations are paying to play and other stories on the Trump admin’s corruption this week:

Student loans are pricier but at least we have higher ed grants. Wait, except the office that gives them out has lost hundreds of employees. Our friends at @revolvingdoordc.bsky.social on the crisis at the Office of Federal Student Aid: prospect.org/education/20...

In this 28th edition of the Corruption Calendar, we tackle everything from the split at the Justice Department over the HPE/Juniper Networks merger to an update regarding the Qatari "gift" Trump got Read more here! therevolvingdoorproject.org/corruption-c...

Stay up to date with Trump’s ever-expanding war on public data by following our tracker:

Trump just ordered the firing of the current BLS commissioner over bogus claims of a "fake" jobs report even as his ongoing hiring freeze and budget cuts cripple the agency’s consumer price data collection efforts.

NEW: Our weekly Corruption Calendar newsletter breaks down the latest stories of Trump admin graft, including Paramount's successful capitulation, the FTC green-lighting collusion with OPEC, the CFPB's baffling priorities, and much more. ⬇️

The truth is that Trump's hollowed-out FEMA failed its first major test. Democrats should make clear that GOP support for fossil fuel expansion & attacks on disaster preparedness and response are putting lives at risk. For more, check out this tracker: therevolvingdoorproject.org/trump-disast...

When testifying before House lawmakers on Wednesday, Acting FEMA Administrator David Richardson had the audacity to say, "I can't see anything that we did wrong" in response to the Texas flooding disaster. Seriously?! Let's review. 🧵

NEW: The destructiveness of mounting climate disasters is undeniable. It's awful for ordinary people, who are told by home insurers that rate hikes/policy cancellations are inevitable. Yet the industry's execs are doing better than ever. From @publiccitizen.bsky.social and RDP in @prospect.org. 🧵

You wouldn't know from coverage of the "collapsing" home insurance industry that it's very profitable for its executives. Lucrative "performance-linked" pay packages incentivize claim denials & other anti-consumer practices, as @revolvingdoordc.bsky.social & @publiccitizen.bsky.social explain.

On Friday, Trump rolled out the welcome mat for increased rates of cancer. "Trump is trading a 96 percent reduction in cancer risk among the most exposed communities for a less than 1 percent profit increase for plastic manufacturers like Dow, Formosa, BASF, TotalEnergies, and Phillips 66."

We learned this week that Trump has already netted $100M from his memecoins. His newly-enacted GENIUS Act will turbocharge crypto corruption in Trump's swamp.

NEW: While the House of Representatives was busy passing crypto-friendly legislation, Trump netted close to $100 million from sales of his memecoin. Check out our Corruption Calendar for the latest stories of grift involving the President and his allies. Link below.

Lina Khan’s FTC exposed a CEO’s campaign to collude with OPEC to inflate oil prices. In response, they prohibited the CEO from serving on Exxon Mobil’s board of directors. But now, Andrew Ferguson’s FTC is reversing the move. THREAD:

With at least 130 having died in the Texas floods, NOAA’s Atlas 15 was the exact kind of tool we need to prepare for future disasters. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick paused it, stalling vital work forecasting extreme rainfall risk and leaving us vulnerable to future tragedies.