Since the Trump Administration took office in January, the onslaught of executive orders, memos, Cabinet appointees’ activities, funding cuts, layoffs and activities by Elon Musk and the temporary U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been overwhelming to follow and cover, especially because many of them have been blocked by the courts, are under litigation, have been walked back, or have been tried again through another loophole once blocked.
Journalists are caught in a monkey-in-the-middle-like state of documenting news that is volleying chaotically between impending problems and ones that have been temporarily stopped. And yet, many problematic effects are continuing, often with far less coverage than the initial warning flares about the worst scenarios. These changes are having profound impacts on science, higher education and health care. Journalists are challenged to figure out which to follow up on when.
It’s imperative that journalists communicate the local, tangible effects of these federal government disruptions to their readers. To do so, journalists need to not only connect with local agencies, government officials, health care institutions, nonprofits, and research institutions, but also know which Trump Administration initiative is advancing when. To help you do so, I’ve compiled a list of legal trackers and databases:
