Trump Action Archive

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• Trump signs executive order directing prosecution of flag burning as incitement or fighting words — President Trump signed Executive Order 14341 on August 25, 2025, directing the Attorney General to prioritize enforcement of federal, state, and local criminal laws against flag desecration, framing such acts as potential incitement to violence or fighting words. The order instructs the Secretaries of State and Homeland Security to deny or revoke immigration benefits for foreign nationals engaged in flag desecration. The order acknowledges Supreme Court precedent (Texas v. Johnson) protecting flag burning as speech but asserts the administration will prosecute flag desecration under content-neutral laws and pursue litigation to clarify First Amendment exceptions.
• Trump ordered DOJ to prosecute flag burning — Trump ordered the Department of Justice to prosecute anyone who burns an American flag, claiming such individuals would automatically face one year in prison. This order contradicts the 1989 Supreme Court ruling in Texas v. Johnson, which established flag burning as protected First Amendment speech.
• Trump announced executive order directing DOJ to prosecute flag burning — Trump held a press event in the Oval Office and announced an executive order instructing the Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute instances of flag burning. Trump claimed burning a flag would result in one year in jail and a criminal record. White House Staff Secretary Will Scharf clarified that the order directs DOJ to prosecute flag burning only where it constitutes criminal activity (such as burning someone else's property) and does not violate First Amendment protections, since the Supreme Court previously ruled flag burning as political speech is constitutionally protected.
• Trump issues executive order directing prosecution of flag burning — President Trump issued an executive order on August 25, 2025, directing the Attorney General to prioritize enforcement of federal, state, and local laws against flag desecration. The order instructs the DOJ to prosecute flag burning as a crime where it violates content-neutral laws (disorderly conduct, open burning, property destruction) and authorizes the State Department, Attorney General, and DHS to deny or revoke visas, residence permits, and immigration benefits for foreign nationals engaged in flag desecration. The order acknowledges Supreme Court precedent in Texas v. Johnson but asserts authority to prosecute flag burning that incites imminent lawless action or constitutes "fighting words."
• White House signed executive order directing prosecution of flag desecration — The White House signed Executive Order 14341 on August 25, 2025, directing the Attorney General to prioritize enforcement of criminal and civil laws against flag desecration, including violent crimes, hate crimes, and property crimes. The order instructs the Secretary of State, Attorney General, and Secretary of Homeland Security to deny or revoke visas, residence permits, and immigration benefits for foreign nationals engaged in flag desecration. The order acknowledges Supreme Court precedent in Texas v. Johnson but asserts authority to prosecute flag burning that incites imminent lawless action or constitutes "fighting words."
• Trump signs flag-burning criminalization order — Trump signed an executive order to criminalize the burning of a US flag, an action the Supreme Court ruled was protected under the First Amendment in 1989. The order directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to prioritize prosecuting flag desecration cases and allows officials to deny or revoke visas and residence permits for immigrants who burn flags.
• White House issues fact sheet on executive order prosecuting flag desecration — The White House published a fact sheet on August 25, 2025, describing an executive order signed by President Trump directing the Attorney General to prosecute flag desecration "to the fullest extent permissible" and to "pursue litigation to clarify the scope of First Amendment in this area." The order also directs the Secretaries of State and Homeland Security and the Attorney General to deny, prohibit, terminate, or revoke visas, residence permits, naturalization proceedings, and other immigration benefits for foreign nationals determined to have desecrated the flag, or to seek their removal from the United States.
• Trump signs executive order directing prosecution of flag burning as protest — On Monday, August 26, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order instructing U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to pursue criminal charges against individuals who burn American flags during protests. The order directs prosecutors to explore alternative charges such as disturbing the peace or environmental violations. This action attempts to circumvent the 1989 Supreme Court ruling in Texas v. Johnson, which established that flag burning constitutes protected political speech under the First Amendment.
• Trump signed executive order banning flag burning — Trump issued an executive order criminalizing flag burning. The order drew immediate criticism from conservative legal scholars and right-wing media figures who noted that the Supreme Court had settled in Texas v. Johnson that flag burning constitutes protected free speech under the First Amendment. Multiple conservative commentators, including Justice Antonin Scalia's son, cited the constitutional prohibition on such restrictions.
• Trump issued executive order criminalizing flag burning — President Trump issued an executive order directing arrest and prosecution of Americans for burning the American flag, despite a standing Supreme Court ruling protecting flag-burning as free speech under the First Amendment. Although Trump's order acknowledged the SCOTUS ruling, the Secret Service arrested one man who burned a flag near the White House in protest of the order.

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• Fox News hosted Rep. Jim Jordan to defend Ghislaine Maxwell's credibility in Epstein case — Fox News brought Rep. Jim Jordan on air to vouch for the credibility of convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, with Jordan stating that a Maxwell interview transcript "confirms that" President Trump "didn't do anything wrong." Jordan, who faced allegations during his time as a wrestling coach at Ohio State that he downplayed sexual abuse by a team doctor and discouraged victims from reporting it, was presented as a character witness on government handling of Trump's Epstein connections.

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• Fox News personalities knew 2020 election was not stolen, newly unredacted filings reveal — Newly unredacted filings in the lawsuit Smartmatic brought against Fox News included text messages showing that Fox News Channel personalities knew the 2020 election was not stolen. Jesse Watters mused to Greg Gutfeld about ratings if Fox went "ALL in on STOP THE STEAL," and Jeanine Pirro boasted of working hard for Trump and Republicans.

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• State Department fires press officer over Israel-Gaza policy language — AP reported that the State Department fired its top press officer who drafted Trump administration talking points on US policy on Israel and Gaza after complaints from the US Embassy in Jerusalem. The press officer, Shahed Ghoreishi, wrote a draft response to a media request that initially included a line noting that the US doesn't support the forced relocations of Palestinians in Gaza, which was struck from the response by the US Embassy in Jerusalem. Ghoreishi also said he questioned a statement from the embassy that referred to the occupied West Bank as "Judea and Samaria," the Biblical names for the region that is often used by Israelis, especially among the far right, to describe the West Bank.

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• Senator Schiff requests FCC details on Trump-Paramount merger quid pro quo — Democratic Senator Adam Schiff sent a letter to FCC chair Brendan Carr requesting details to determine whether Trump tried to obtain programming or media coverage commitments in exchange for his administration approving Paramount's merger with Skydance. Schiff pointed to Paramount's $16 million settlement with Trump and the cancellation of 'The Late Night Show with Stephen Colbert' as a sequence of events raising concerns that the FCC has become a vehicle for Trump to exact personal retribution and undermine press freedom.

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• Trump attacks MSNBC anchor Nicole Wallace on Truth Social — Trump reposted a meme of MSNBC anchor Nicole Wallace on Truth Social, calling her a "loser, with bad ratings," and claimed without evidence that she "will be fired soon!"

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• Melania Trump's lawyer demanded Hunter Biden retract Epstein claim — A lawyer for Melania Trump sent a letter to Hunter Biden demanding he immediately retract his "false, defamatory, disparaging, and inflammatory" claim from a recent interview that Epstein introduced her to Donald Trump and issue an apology, or face a $1 billion defamation lawsuit. Hunter Biden responded, "Fuck that, that's not going to happen."

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• Kristi Noem attacks IceBlock app and its founder Joshua Aaron — US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem publicly attacked the IceBlock app, which alerts undocumented immigrants to ICE raid locations, claiming it "obstructs justice." Noem stated she wanted to work with the Department of Justice to prosecute CNN for reporting on the app. The app, launched in April 2025 by Joshua Aaron without profit motive, rapidly climbed Apple's app store charts. Aaron claims the app fiercely protects user anonymity while providing real-time safety alerts.

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• Trump Administration Hosts Right-Wing Podcaster at Press Briefing — The White House hosted right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson, known for conspiracy theories and past plagiarism, at a press briefing. Johnson has ties to a media company linked to Russian state media.
• White House hosted conspiracy theorist Benny Johnson at press briefing — The White House hosted right-wing podcaster and conspiracy theorist Benny Johnson in the "new media" seat at a press briefing. Johnson previously said "entire neighborhoods" in DC "need to be bulldozed," was fired from Buzzfeed in 2014 for over 40 acts of plagiarism, and was linked to a media company secretly funded by Russian state media employees that amplified Kremlin interests.

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• Vice President Vance suggested Epstein files withholding protects Democrats — Vice President J.D. Vance appeared on Fox News Channel's Sunday Morning Futures on August 10 and stated that "Jeffrey Epstein had a lot of connections with left-wing politicians and left-wing billionaires" and that "Democrat billionaires and Democrat political leaders went to Epstein Island all the time." Vance's framing suggested that keeping the Epstein files under wraps protects Democrats, despite the administration's own withholding of the files.

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• Trump posted attack on Nancy Pelosi on social media — President Trump posted a message on social media on Saturday, August 9, attacking former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, accusing her of insider trading and calling her "a disgusting degenerate" who impeached him twice "on NO GROUNDS" and lost. The post came amid administration efforts to withhold Epstein investigation files in which Trump's name appears.
• Trump renewed baseless claims about Nancy Pelosi insider trading — On Truth Social, Trump repeated unfounded allegations that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi engaged in insider trading, calling her a "disgusting degenerate" and asking if anyone was investigating the claim. No evidence supports the allegation.

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• Stanford Daily sued Secretary of State Rubio and DHS Secretary Noem — Stanford University's student newspaper, the Stanford Daily, sued Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem over their targeting of pro-Palestinian international students, alleging that "writers present on student visas are declining assignments related to the conflict in the Middle East, worried that even reporting on the conflict will endanger their lawful immigration status."

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• FBI releases 2024 crime report showing historic decline in violent and property crime — On August 5, 2025, the FBI released its comprehensive crime report for 2024, documenting that violent crime fell to its lowest rate since 1969 (349 per 100,000 Americans) and property crime to its lowest since 1961 (1,760 per 100,000). The murder rate declined 14.9 percent, described as "the fastest drop in murder ever recorded." Crime fell across all seven FBI crime categories and all ten population groups measured. Despite this historic decline, major news outlets including the New York Times and Washington Post provided minimal or no coverage of the report.
• New York Times and Washington Post minimize coverage of historic crime decline — The New York Times did not place the FBI's 2024 crime report on its front page on August 6, 2025, and as of Wednesday afternoon had not covered the story at all, despite having made front-page news of the 2020 crime spike. The Washington Post republished a 230-word Associated Press article without including it in the physical paper, while giving front-page coverage to President Trump's threat to federalize Washington, D.C. over an alleged assault. The Post article did not note that D.C. violent crime declined 35 percent in 2024 and is at its lowest in over 30 years.

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• Kevin Hassett initially defended Trump's false claims about jobs data, then walked them back — White House economic advisor Kevin Hassett appeared on Sunday news programs and questioned the validity of jobs data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, echoing Trump's claims of rigging. After criticism from experts, Hassett walked back his position on CNBC, acknowledging that revisions reflect more complete data and do not indicate fraud. He admitted that "if the data are not being manipulated," revisions are "likely a better read of the data."
• New York Times and Washington Post minimize coverage of historic crime decline — The New York Times did not place the FBI's 2024 crime report on its front page on August 6, 2025, and as of Wednesday afternoon had not covered the story at all, despite having made front-page news of the 2020 crime spike. The Washington Post republished a 230-word Associated Press article without including it in the physical paper, while giving front-page coverage to President Trump's threat to federalize Washington, D.C. over an alleged assault. The Post article did not note that D.C. violent crime declined 35 percent in 2024 and is at its lowest in over 30 years.

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• FCC Chair Brendan Carr argued for constraining national media outlets — FCC Chair Brendan Carr argued on Fox that media organizations "need to operate in the public interest" and that the FCC is working to determine how it can "constrain the power of these national programmers" like ABC, CBS, and NBC. When asked whether "fair coverage" means coverage more favorable to Trump, Carr did not directly deny the implication.
• Trump sued Wall Street Journal parent company for $10 billion over Epstein birthday letter story — Trump sued the Wall Street Journal's parent company Dow Jones and owner Rupert Murdoch for $10 billion after the Journal published a story by Khadeeja Safdar and Joe Palazzolo reporting that Trump contributed a bawdy birthday letter to an album Epstein's associate Ghislaine Maxwell compiled for Epstein's fiftieth birthday in 2003. The lawsuit was characterized as written primarily to rile up Trump's base, and the Wall Street Journal stood firm on the accuracy of its reporting while defendants moved to dismiss.

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• White House issues press release attacking Star Tribune coverage of immigration enforcement — The White House published a press release on its official website attacking the Minnesota Star Tribune for its reporting on immigration enforcement cases. The release characterizes the newspaper's coverage as "shameful interference" for illegal immigrants, citing a specific case of a Honduran national charged with drunk driving that resulted in deaths. The release accuses the Star Tribune of defending "criminal illegal immigrants" and sympathizes with Governor Tim Walz's sanctuary policies, framing the newspaper's editorial approach as enabling dangerous criminals.

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• FCC Commissioner warned of government weaponization of licensing power — On PBS News Hour, FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez warned that the Trump administration is "weaponizing" the commission's licensing power, saying, "Self-censorship, whether it's pressured or imposed by the government, is in and of itself a violation of the First Amendment, and I'm concerned that this will breed more corporate capitulation."

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• Trump attacked Jessica Tarlov for gun control comments — On Truth Social, Trump lashed out at Jessica Tarlov, one of the few regular Democratic Party-supporting personalities on Fox, saying he "can't stand" her, and calling her a "real loser!!!" after she suggested on 'The Five' that stricter gun control laws could have prevented Monday's deadly mass shooting in New York City.

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• Trump filed motion for expedited deposition of Rupert Murdoch — Trump filed a motion in his lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal over their publication of his birthday card to Epstein, seeking to take an immediate deposition of Rupert Murdoch on an expedited basis before other discovery takes place. Trump cited Murdoch's age of 94 and claimed he has suffered from multiple mental health issues.
• Trump's lawyers requested expedited deposition of Rupert Murdoch in libel lawsuit — In a court filing, lawyers for Trump requested that Rupert Murdoch be deposed within 15 days in the president's $10 billion libel lawsuit against him and the Wall Street Journal. The lawyers argue that the deposition should take place as soon as possible because Murdoch is 94 and "has suffered, but thankfully overcome, multiple health issues throughout his life," and that it would be unlikely that he could appear in person at a trial.
• Trump files $10 billion defamation lawsuit against Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch — Trump filed a $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal and its owners, including billionaire Rupert Murdoch, over a mid-July article reporting that Trump wrote a "bawdy" birthday note to Jeffrey Epstein in 2003. Trump's attorneys submitted a court filing in Florida describing an interaction in which Trump allegedly told Murdoch before publication that the note was "fake" and Murdoch said he would "take care of it." A federal judge ordered Murdoch to respond by August 4. The Journal was subsequently banned from Trump's press pool for an upcoming Scotland trip.

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• South Park creators defended animated depiction of Trump against network censorship pressure — South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone appeared at Comic-Con following the Season 27 premiere and disclosed that Comedy Central network executives pressured them to blur an animated depiction of Trump's genitalia in the episode. Parker and Stone resisted the censorship demand, with Stone stating they "put eyes on the penis" to ensure it was not edited out by network management.

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• Trump called for revocation of broadcast licenses for critical networks — Trump posted statements on social media calling for the revocation of broadcast licenses for NBC and ABC, claiming they are "political pawns for the Democrat Party" and have become "outrageous." He cited NBC's viewership decline and criticized their programming and management, demanding they be "held accountable."

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• Trump demanded prosecution of Black celebrities and called for broadcast license revocation — On Truth Social, Trump demanded that Kamala Harris, Beyoncé, Oprah Winfrey, and Reverend Al Sharpton be prosecuted, baselessly claiming the Democratic Party paid them to endorse Harris. He also falsely claimed NBC News and ABC News "are an arm of the Democrat Party" and called for their broadcasting licenses to be revoked, escalating threats against media outlets critical of his administration.

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• Laynez-Ambrosio charged with obstruction for recording arrest; police threatened deletion of video — After recording his own arrest during the 2 May 2025 incident, Kenny Laynez-Ambrosio was charged with obstruction without violence and sentenced to 10 hours of community service and a four-hour anger management course. While in detention, police threatened him with additional charges if he did not delete the video footage from his phone. His attorney characterized the charges as retaliation for exercising his right to record law enforcement activity.

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• Attorney General Bondi proposes removal of DOJ Public Integrity Section oversight — Attorney General Pam Bondi introduced a proposal in 2025 that removes the DOJ's Public Integrity Section from the approval process for cases against public officials and political candidates. The change gives presidentially appointed U.S. attorneys greater authority to pursue prosecutions of lawmakers without the oversight historically exercised by the Public Integrity Section. This structural change facilitates the targeting of political opponents without institutional checks.
• Interim U.S. Attorney Martin seeks grand jury investigation of Senator Chuck Schumer — Ed Martin, Trump's first pick for interim U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., sought a grand jury investigation into Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for saying that Supreme Court Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch would "pay the price" for ruling against abortion rights. Martin's efforts were rebuffed by the DOJ's Public Integrity Section, which exercises oversight in cases against public officials. A proposal by Attorney General Pam Bondi earlier in 2025 cut the Public Integrity Section out of the approval process, giving presidentially appointed U.S. attorneys more authority to pursue lawmaker prosecutions.

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• VP Vance attacked media coverage of Trump-Epstein connection — Vice President JD Vance criticized the Wall Street Journal for publishing a "hit piece" about Trump's connection to Epstein without showing the letter or book in question. Vance claimed the media is attempting to "assassinate the president's character" by "dribbling little details out for days or weeks" and accused the WSJ of acting like a "Democrat SuperPAC."