Trump accused multiple mainstream outlets of engaging in "illegal behavior". His attacks stem from his belief that the press are purposely writing negative stories about him.

“I believe that CNN and MSDNC, who literally write 97.6 percent bad about me, are political arms of the Democrat party, and in my opinion, they are really corrupt and they are illegal,” Trump said, again using his nickname for MSNBC.

He also bashed other outlets, including CBS, NBC, ABC, The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, for their reporting. He claimed that the mainstream outlets were influencing judges and “I don’t believe it’s legal.”

--Deadline

The Trump administration has invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 via executive order. The stated purpose is to apprehend and deport members of a Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.

The powers of this act allow the executive branch allows for the detention and deportation of people without a hearing or due process of the law. People detained in this way are not afforded any legal representation or protection. This law is supposed to be used only during times of war.

The Trump administration issued an executive order barring the law firm, Perkins Coie, from interacting with any federal agency or entering any federal building. This law firm often represents Democratic politicians and causes, including the Hillary Clinton 2016 campaign. The law firm also played a political and legal advisory role in commissioning the anti-Trump dossier compiled by Christopher Steele in 2016, which drove a long running probe in 2016 regarding the Trump campaign's interactions with the Russian government.

The executive order is seen as unconstitutional and has terrible implications regarding a law firm's willingness to take on cases against the Trump administration.

ICE detained pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil on Saturday. The Trump administration revoked his green card status as a result of his role in the pro-Palestinian protests last spring. Mahmoud was denied contact with his lawyer and his wife, pregnant with their 8-month old child and was transported without notice from New York to Louisiana.

The Trump administration has claimed that Mahmoud supports terrorism. Border czar Tom Homan has claimed that Khalil handed out leaflets and incited violence on a college campus. However, there has been no evidence provided to support any of these claims.

As of now, Mahmoud is being held as a political prisoner without ever being charged with a crime.

In addition, Columbia University has had $400 million in grants withheld based on these actions.

The office wrote on its webpage that the president fired David Huitema and that the agency's chief of staff, Shelley Finlayson, is now the acting director.

The Office of Government Ethics negotiates with Cabinet nominees on their ethics agreements so that they can abide by conflict of interest laws. It also collects financial disclosures from thousands of federal government employees.

--USA Today

Trump has again called for CBS to lose its broadcast license. Trump claimed that CBS edited the footage to make Vice President Kamala Harris look better during the campaign.

The Tennessee GOP has passed an immigration bill creating a new state enforcement office, providing grants to law enforcement, creating distinct licenses for noncitizens and making it a felony for public officials to back sanctuary policies

The bill also has a provision creating a Class E felony, punishable by up to 6 years in prison and a $3,000 fine, for any public official who votes in favor of so-called sanctuary policies.

Attorney General James McHenry wrote that he did not believe they "could be trusted to faithfully implement the President's agenda because of their significant role in prosecuting the president," one of the officials said.

The Department of Justice is supposed to be an independent organization free from interference from our political parties.

Trump's acting U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., Ed Martin, issued a memo announcing a "special project" to review the department's prosecutions of Jan. 6 Capitol rioters, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.

"Job-seekers hoping to join the new Trump administration are facing a series of intense loyalty tests, with White House screening teams fanning out to government agencies to check for “Make America Great Again” bona fides and carefully parsing applicants’ politics and social media posts."

"Those seeking jobs have been told they will have to prove their “enthusiasm” to enact Trump’s agenda and have been asked when their moment of “MAGA revelation” occurred."

Screening teams deploy across federal agencies

Some officials have referred to the newcomers sent by the White House to federal agencies disparagingly as “MAGA commissars,” a reference to Communist Party officials from the former Soviet Union.

They are generally young and many do not appear to have particular expertise or background in the portfolios of the agencies in which they are working, according to three U.S. officials, who, like others, spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

They said the screeners seem to be looking for even the slightest divergence between candidates and Trump’s MAGA movement and “America First” policies. A negative social media post or a photograph with a Trump opponent has been enough for some applications to be rejected or put on hold for further review."

--Associated Press

"Inspectors general are tasked with ridding the government of waste, fraud and abuse, one of Trump’s stated goals. But he has remained long suspicious of federal government officials who he blames with stymieing action during his first term in office. Trump’s early picks for top government jobs show the value he is placing on loyalty above all else.

But even many Republicans celebrate the role of these watchdogs in protecting taxpayer interests and providing a check on the consolidation of administrative power.

Grassley told POLITICO in November that Trump shouldn’t pursue a broad ouster of inspectors general.

“I guess it’s the case of whether he believes in congressional oversight, because I work closely with all the inspector generals and I think I’ve got a good reputation for defending them. And I intend to defend them,” he said.

He struck a more measured tune Saturday morning, saying in a statement that there “may be a good reason the IGs were fired” and that he would like “further explanation” from Trump about the dismissals. But, he added, Congress was still not given the 30-day notice required by law."

Rep. Andy Ogles has proposed to change the 22nd amendment to allow a president to serve three terms.

ICE agents raid NJ seafood store, detaining a U.S. military veteran in the process.

"Store owner Luis Janota said 10 or 12 ICE agents entered the retail area after receiving complaints and were looking for documentation. They did not ask for anyone specific, he said."

“I was confused; they took three people who did not have any documentation on them,” Janota said. “I asked them [the agents] what documentation they were looking for, and they said it was a license or a passport. I thought, who walks around with a passport?”

"Janota said three people were taken into custody, and some received a court date to appear before a judge.

“One of the guys was a military veteran, and the way he looked to me was because he was Hispanic. He is Puerto Rican and the manager of our warehouse. It looked to me like they were specifically going after certain kinds of people — not every kind, because they did not ask me for documentation for my American workers, Portuguese workers, or white workers,” Janota said." -Pix11 News

A memo from the US Office of Personnel Management sent out a memo on January 21st, 2025 to all agencies within the federal government. In this memo, they asked employees or contractors to report any "DEIA or similar ideologies" being practiced in their agency.

This tactic was also used during Stalin's Terror or "Great Purge". Soviet leader Joseph Stalin encouraged reporting of anyone suspected of having "Trotsky ideologies" to be reported to the Interior Ministry's secret police. This created a culture of fear as neighbors and co-workers turned on each other in extreme paranoia, and allowed Stalin to further consolidate power and prevent anyone from rising against him.

TikTok has started blocking searches for content that is against Trump. Searches result in "results not found". However, those outside the US are able to see the results of these searches and find millions of results. In addition, adding a misspelled word can trick TikTok into showing results in the US.

On January 20th, 2025, Meta began blocking searches for #democrats, #Democrat and #DNC, along with #Jon Stewart, #Bernie sanders, #Stephen colbert and johnoliver. These restrictions were removed, but there are still concerns that the algorithm is ensuring that these searches come up with results in a negative light.

During the Senate confirmation hearings, Secretary of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth refuses to answer whether he would push back against any illegal orders issued by the President. Specifically, he would not refuse deploying military forces on US soil in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act.

Ann Telnaes writes in her substack post: As an editorial cartoonist, my job is to hold powerful people and institutions accountable. For the first time, my editor prevented me from doing that critical job. So I have decided to leave the Post. I doubt my decision will cause much of a stir and that it will be dismissed because I’m just a cartoonist. But I will not stop holding truth to power through my cartooning, because as they say, “Democracy dies in darkness”.

Elon Musk has two political action committees (PACs) created to fund and support candidates. He has threatened Republicans that do not completely support Trump by replacing them with loyalists in the next election.

“Elon and Vivek talked about having a naughty list and a nice list for members of Congress and senators and how we vote and how we’re spending the American people’s money,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.

Trump wants to appoint Brendan Carr to the Federal Communication Commission based on loyalty. Carr has threatened to revoke broadcast rights of any channel that criticizes Trump.

Donald Trump has issued several legal challenges to various groups claiming defamation. Legal experts acknowledge that these lawsuits tend to be frivalous and lack standing. ABC and George Stephanopoulos were the subjects of the defamation lawsuit based on Stephanopoulos' use of the word "rape" instead of "sexual assault" in describing his actions with E. Jean Carroll.

Kash Patel threatens to target journalists and attempt to “prosecute them for crimes”.

“We will go out and find the conspirators, not just in government but in the media. Yes, we’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections – we’re going to come after you,” Patel said on a podcast hosted by another former Trump adviser, Steve Bannon.

“Whether it’s criminally or civilly, we’ll figure that out. But yeah, we’re putting you all on notice,” Patel added. “We’re actually going to use the Constitution to prosecute them for crimes they said we have always been guilty of but never have.”

Nominee for the FBI director, Kash Patel, is threatening a guest on MSNBC with legal action for defamation, demanding that the statements made be retracted. The statements were made by Olivia Troye regarding their time during the first Trump administration.

Kash Parel has an "enemies list" that he intends to prosecute if elevated to the FBI director position.

“So now he’s got a mission statement. His mission, his goals and objectives, whatever that is — we need to embrace it. All of it, every single word,”

"If Donald Trump says 'Jump three feet high and scratch your heads,' we all jump three feet high and scratch our heads," he said.

Rep. Troy Nehls (R., Texas): "If Donald Trump says tariffs work, tariffs work. Period. Because Donald Trump is really never wrong."