A lot of this 'unity' that's being called for obscures active assaults from this administration against our countryfolk
The way I see these lofty calls for unity coming from the WH and other republican leadership sources in the wake of the republican who was slain, is that is has to be a lot easier to agree with that simple notion of 'unifying' with political rivals if you're not one of the people in America under direct attack by this government in ways that have the potential to utterly devastate people in this country to the point of risking or ending their lives.
Plainly put, if you're good with unifying at this point in history with a republican party and following so thoroughly engaged in ending so many of us, you may well not be one of the ones in the crosshairs; or, perhaps, you're unaware if the risks and threats coming from this republican regime in charge of ALL branches of our government.
...reminders:
Trump’s assault on the First Amendment was made explicit in numerous executive orders identifying what courts call “disfavored expression.” These include content implicating diversity, equity and inclusion; environmental justice; so-called “ideologues who deny the biological reality of sex;” “anti-Jewish racism in leftist, anti-American colleges and universities;” and law firms Trump claims were “involved in the weaponization of government” for having represented his “political opponents in the 2016 and 2020 elections.”
Already, the Trump administration has taken unprecedented actions in retaliation against universities, students and law firms for engaging in speech the president doesn’t like — including arrests, detentions, withholding federal funding, withdrawing security clearances and canceling federal contracts “to ensure alignment with the interests of the American people.”
https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/5296179-trumps-executive-orders-are-a-direct-attack-on-free-speech/
Trump administration’s policies have already had devastating consequences on the lives of people in the U.S. and in other parts of the world:
Ending asylum and targeting immigrants: Mass deportations, enforced disappearances under the Alien Enemies Act, family separations, and harsh restrictions on the right to asylum have violated international law. These actions have torn communities apart and created a reality in which immigrants, including those who have come to the U.S. seeking safety, are pushed into the shadows, living in fear.
Attacking freedom of expression and the right to protest: Crackdowns on student protestors, especially those in support of Palestinian rights, have threatened the rights to free speech and peaceful assembly. Especially targeted are students who are not U.S. citizens as they are threatened with detention and deportation for exercising their right to free speech.
Undermining the rule of law: Disregarding court orders, threatening impeachment of judges, attacking law firms and lawyers, abusing executive power and eroding checks and balances are authoritarian practices the Trump administration has used to push forward his anti-rights agenda.
Undermining press freedom: Targeting journalists, suing media outlets, pulling funding that supports free press globally, and abusing regulatory power through the Federal Communications Commission undermine the critical role of independent media in fostering debate, discussion, and dissent, which are essential to the defense of human rights.
Attacking the rights of women and LGBTQIA+ communities: Anti-trans policies and executive orders have contributed to a dangerous climate of discrimination and indicate an attempt to erase transgender people’s existence under the law. Measures have also been taken to weaken sexual and reproductive rights guarantees for all people, particularly the right to abortion for women and people who can get pregnant.
Marginalizing Black and other racialized communities: Forced closures of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs and threats to defund universities that embrace racial equity are a blatant attack on racial justice.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/04/president-trumps-first-100-days-attacks-on-human-rights/
Trump cut millions in grants for predominantly Black institutions, diverted funds to HBCUs
Despite President Trump seemingly keeping his vow to support HBCUs, experts say cuts to minority-serving institutions, including predominantly Black institutions, will hurt millions of students who can't afford to go to an HBCU. While the move is seemingly great for HBCUs, MSI-designated colleges and universities that educate millions of Black, Hispanic, Asian and Native Americans will lose critical funding.
Last week, Education Secretary Linda McMahon announced that the Department of Education was cutting $350 million in grants to MSIs, citing that they “meet racial or ethnic quotas.” The Trump administration has federally banned all programs it considers to be diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), and has threatened to withhold any federal dollars for schools that do not comply with anti-DEI executive orders signed by President Donald Trump.
https://thegrio.com/2025/09/16/trump-cuts-millions-in-grants-for-predominantly-black-institutions-diverts-funds-to-hbcus/
Trump and Republicans Are Leading an Open Assault on Free Elections
Trump’s executive order on elections, Mike Johnson’s SAVE Act, and Republican-backed laws nationwide are threatening many Americans’ right to vote
The SAVE Act — which requires documentary proof of citizenship like a certified birth certificate or passport to register to vote — could disenfranchise tens of millions of voters or prevent them from voting in future elections. The act requires last names on documents like drivers licenses to match those on birth certificates, and could prevent millions of women who have changed their names after being married from registering to vote. The bill must pass the Senate before Trump can sign it.
The legislation is part of a broader attack on Americans’ voting rights. On March 25, Trump signed an executive order that sought to require the same proof of citizenship as the SAVE Act, would effectively eliminate voting machines and drastically reduce mail-in and absentee ballots, and calls for bogus Republican investigations of voter fraud. Republicans in state legislatures have introduced more than 2,000 election-related bills since legislative sessions began in January. Across the country and in Congress, Republicans have worked with key figures in the election-denial movement as it has gone from a fringe right-wing belief to a key plank of the Trump-led GOP. Last week, they rejoiced together.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-republicans-elections-voting-rights-attack-1235316895/
‘Telling the truth is fully under assault’: Local museums, historical nonprofits push back
Much of the national focus has been on the Smithsonian with Trump putting out his concerns about various elements of what he defines as “woke,” from portraits of former National Institutes of Health Director Anthony Fauci to a painting of the Statue of Liberty as a migrant farm laborer holding a basket of tomatoes.
In a letter to Lonnie G. Bunch III, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, representatives for the administration advised him that an executive order, Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History, needs to be followed and why a comprehensive internal review of selected Smithsonian museums and exhibitions is underway.
“This initiative aims to ensure alignment with the President’s directive to celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives, and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions.”
There are two conflicts resulting from this. First, the independence of local nonprofit organizations is more important than ever, whether it be David Ruggles Center for History and Education in Florence and Historic Deerfield, and leaning into stories that tell the whole of American history and challenges people’s understanding.
“That work becomes more important than ever when an executive is trying to control the narrative,” Samuel J. Redman, professor of history and director of the Public History Program at the University of Massachusetts said.
The second conflict is reorienting the grants to be celebratory and about American exceptionalism, narrowing the scope of grants that are already incredibly difficult to win.
https://amherstbulletin.com/2025/08/25/telling-the-truth-is-fully-under-assault/
Trump Administration Civil and Human Rights Rollbacks
January 20: President Trump revoked dozens of Biden administration executive orders, including those that sought to: advance racial equity through the federal government; adopt a whole of government approach to integrating non-partisan voter registration activities and programs throughout federal agencies; advance safe, secure, and trustworthy development and use of artificial intelligence; advance effective and accountable policing and criminal justice practices to enhance public trust and public safety; protect the census and affirm that apportionment counts include all people; and much more.
January 20: President Trump declared a national emergency at the southern border, including directing the Department of Defense to allocate personnel to support the Department of Homeland Security in obtaining complete operational control of the southern border. It also revoked President Biden’s order that blocked funds from being diverted to border wall construction.
January 20: President Trump issued an executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship in direct contradiction to the plain text of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, though the order doesn’t specify how agencies would carry it out. The Department of Justice defended this order in multiple courts.
January 20: President Trump issued an executive order that seeks to revise his plan to strip employment protections for federal workers, including by reinstating Schedule F. Tens of thousands of federal civilian workers could lose protection from being arbitrarily fired and potentially replaced with Trump administration loyalists under the schedule F plan, though the order changes “F” to the words “Policy/Career.”
January 20: President Trump issued an executive order to restore the federal death penalty, instructing the attorney general to “pursue the death penalty for all crimes of a severity demanding its use” and directs the attorney general to “take all necessary and lawful action” to ensure that states with capital punishment have sufficient access to the drugs needed for lethal injection executions.
January 20: President Trump issued an executive order that calls for increased border wall construction, deployment of Department of Homeland Security and Department of Defense personnel to the border, and detention. It also reinstates the “Remain in Mexico” program.
January 20: President Trump issued an executive order that suspends admissions of refugees under the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, subject to a review every 90 days, and revokes a Biden-era executive order on refugee resettlement.
January 20: President Trump issued an executive order that defines ‘sex’ in unscientific narrow binary terms, mandates that federal policies and documents align with this definition, and prohibits funding or promotion of so-called “gender ideology.” It also directs agencies to remove references to nonbinary people and prohibit recognition of gender identity differently from sex assigned at birth in a blatant attack on trans people. Many of the actions listed in this order would be in direct conflict with much of the Supreme Court’s opinion in Bostock v. Clayton County, binding precedent interpreting Title VII’s prohibition of discrimination on the basis of sex in the workplace. The order also calls on the Bureau of Prisons and the Department of Homeland Security to ignore the guidelines of the Prison Rape Elimination Act and enforce a blanket policy forcing transgender women into men’s prisons and detention centers against their will.
January 20: President Trump issued an executive order calling for an end to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility programs, policies, and activities in the federal government. Specifically, it provides a list of federal grantees who received federal funding to provide or advance DEI, DEIA, or environmental justice programs, services, or activities since January 20, 2021.
January 20: President Trump issued a proclamation that commutes the sentences of several people convicted of violent crimes related to the January 6 insurrection and grants “a full, complete and unconditional pardon to all other individuals convicted of offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.”
https://civilrights.org/trump-rollbacks/#
The Department of Justice is now considering options to ban trans people from owning guns, with senior department officials reportedly dedicating numerous meetings to determining precisely how to strip constitutional rights from an entire category of Americans.
The effort is as cynical as it is transparent: in response to one incident of mass violence linked to a trans perpetrator, the government will further vilify trans people as an a priori public threat, while finding new ways to exclude trans people from the class of rights-bearing individuals.
Anti-trans zealots have for some time attempted to conjure a link between violent crime and trans people. These efforts, however, tend to fizzle because mass shootings in the U.S. are overwhelmingly a cis problem. Across 5,700 mass shootings in the U.S. since 2013, only five shooters have been trans. The vast majority shootings are carried out by cis men; the vast majority of politically motivated attacks are carried out by far-right extremists. Yet the Trump administration is scaling back law enforcement efforts focused on the very real problem of white supremacist extremism to pour resources into kidnapping immigrants – as well as apparently hollowing out of Constitutional protections for trans people.
One need not be a fan of the U.S.’s twisted devotion to guns to appreciate the danger of an anti-trans gun ban and its stakes for trans people’s standing in this country. Like Trump’s ban on trans people serving in the military, any efforts to ban trans people from gun ownership will rely on a dangerous logic with stakes for all trans and gender nonconforming people, gun owners or not.
The military ban rests on the sick premise that there is something inherently untrustworthy or dishonest about being trans that “conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle.” Meanwhile, discussions around a gun ownership ban, according to reports, frame trans identity as a mental illness. (It shouldn’t need repeating, but being trans is not a mental illness; suffering from gender dysphoria without access to gender affirming care, however, can be debilitating if not deadly.)
https://theintercept.com/2025/09/05/trans-gun-ban-trump-doj/
The Supreme Court clears the way for ICE agents to treat race as grounds for immigration stops
GARSD: So the Supreme Court in a temporary ruling - basically, what they said is that immigration agents may consider factors like race, whether Spanish is being spoken, whether English is being spoken with an accent, and employment location or people hanging out outside of a Home Depot - they may consider those factors when deciding to detain and interrogate someone. Yeah.
https://www.npr.org/2025/09/13/nx-s1-5507125/the-supreme-court-clears-the-way-for-ice-agents-to-treat-race-as-grounds-for-immigration-stops
Trump Administration is Harming Women with Almost 100 Policy Mandates - National Organization for Women
Attacked Maine for allowing transgender athletes equal access to sports by cutting off funding through the Department of Education and filing a lawsuit. (April 11, 2025; April 16, 2025).
Endangered Americans’ ability to afford and access crucial medications by moving towards imposing tariffs on foreign-made drugs, including contraceptives (April 15, 2025).
Removed all consideration of race, gender or ethnicity of Air Force Academy applicants throughout the entire admissions process, aligned with the Executive Order from January 27 that banned DEI and “preference based on race or sex” in the Armed Forces (April 11, 2025).
Demanded Harvard University remove all educational programing, hiring practices, and admissions policies that promote diversity on campus or they would lose $9 billion in federal grants (April 11, 2025).
Fired two additional prominent women military leaders within a week. Vice Adm. Shoshana Chatfield served in the Navy as the US representative to NATO’s military committee. Col. Susannah Meyers was the commander of the US military base in Greenland. (April 7, 2025; April 11, 2025)
Threatened to withhold all federal funding from public schools with DEI programming (April 3, 2025).
Restricted equal opportunity for women service members by eliminating lower physical fitness standards for women in combat units (March 31, 2025).
Cut $12 billion in Department of Health and Human Services grants to states for programs involving infectious disease tracking, mental health services, addiction treatment, and more, weakening already vulnerable public health resources (March 26, 2025).
Defied the Constitution by Dismantling Federal Oversight of Education (Executive Order, March 20, 2025)
Instructed Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return authority over education to the states and local communities.” Claimed “useful functions” such as administration of federal student aid, funding for special education and high poverty districts, and civil rights enforcement would be “preserved in full,” but provided no details on how this would be enacted.
Fired more than 1,300 employees including those working in the Office of Civil Rights. Removed all funding for programs and activities related to DEI or gender ideology.
• DOGE forced the Department of Education to terminate 89 contracts and 29 grants associated with diversity and equity training (February 11, 2025).
Withheld food from hungry Americans by pausing $500 million in Department of Agriculture emergency funding for food pantries nationwide (March 20, 2025).
Extended ban on DEI and accessibility policies to apply to “hiring processes and employee performance evaluations in the Foreign Service” (March 19, 2025).
Reduced accessibility to Social Security benefit applications and changes by requiring in- person or online identity verification and eliminating phone verification options. The majority of adult Social Security beneficiaries are women (March 18, 2025).
Signed the GOP Continuing Resolution budget, reducing funding for non-defense programs and services by $13 billion (March 15, 2025).
The budget cuts over $700 million from rent subsidies for more than 32,000 households of low-income and working Americans who will now face eviction. These households include veterans, survivors of domestic violence, seniors, and families with disabilities.
Approved a $168 million shortage from what is needed to maintain homeless services across 400 communities nationally.
Jeopardized funding allocations for programs assisting underserved populations such as health workforce training, minority health and women’s health, college preparatory programs for low-income students, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and Hispanic Serving Institutions.
Gutted funding for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which oversees crucial programs such as maintaining the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, regulating outpatient clinics that dispense opioid treatment drugs, and monitoring the productivity of local addiction support providers nationwide (March 12, 2025).
Discriminating on Who Receives Student Loan Forgiveness (Executive Order, March 7, 2025)
Blocks student loan forgiveness people employed at nonprofit organizations that support undocumented immigrants and gender-affirming care for children.
Directed the Justice Department to drop a challenge to Idaho’s abortion ban, ending abortion access in nearly all circumstances, including when pregnancy poses serious health risks (March 4, 2025).
Closed the Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity at the Social Security Administration (February 25, 2025).
Disobeyed a court ruling requiring release of federal funding for crucial medical and scientific research on illnesses like cancer and addiction (February 21, 2025).
Cut programs for early-career scientists and public health experts at the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Department of Health and Human Services, diminishing opportunities for the next generation of leaders (February 18, 2025).
Threatened to withhold federal funding from educational institutions that consider race in all “aspects of student, academic, and campus life” including scholarships for underrepresented racial groups and voluntary affinity housing opportunities and student organizations (February 14, 2025).
Pledged to reduce funding for health care navigators who help Americans access Obamacare health insurance (February 14, 2025).
Significantly cut funding allocations for crucial health research, threatening programs that directly impact women and people of color (February 7, 2025).
Not Allowing Everyone to Compete (Executive Order, February 5, 2025) Bans transgender athletes from joining and participating in sports teams that align with their gender identity.
Pledged to investigate schools such as the University of Pennsylvania and San Jose State University for allowing transgender athletes to compete on women’s teams. •
Paused $175 million in federal funding for the University of Pennsylvania for the school’s decision to allow Lia Thomas, a transgender woman, to join its women’s swim team (March 19, 2025).
Reduced protections for students in sexual misconduct cases and reversed President Biden’s expansion of Title IX interpretation that recognized harassment or exclusion based on sexual orientation and gender identity as a form of discrimination (February 4, 2025).
Invalidated legal government labor contracts finalized in the last 30 days before the presidential inauguration, including agreements regarding remote work requirements and protection against policies that make it easier to fire civil servants (January 31, 2025).
Erasing Our History for K-12 Schools and Threatening Educators (Executive Order, January 29, 2025) Censors teaching about race and gender inequality.
Restricts educators’ ability to support inclusion of students exploring their gender identities. Will not Allow Children to Receive the Care they Need (Executive Order, January 28, 2025)
Restricts access for transgender youth to gender-affirming care by withholding federal grants and threatening criminal enforcement of medical providers. Will Not Allow Everyone to Serve in the Military (Executive Order, January 27, 2025)
Bars transgender service members from the military. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also signed a memorandum declaring “Military service by Service members and applicants for military service who have a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria is incompatible with military service,” blocking recruitment of transgender service members.
Fired three Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Democratic commissioners and the general counsel, blocking the agency’s ability to perform formal actions due to lack of quorum. The EEOC defends worker’s rights in employment discrimination disputes (January 27, 2025).
Fired National Labor Relations Board general counsel and Democratic board member, blocking agency activities. The NLRB protects worker’s rights, including the right to unionize and take collective action (January 27, 2025).
Removing Women’s Healthcare Access (Executive Order, January 24, 2025) Blocks the use of Federal funding for elective abortion services by enforcing the Hyde Amendment.
Blocked U.S. funding to any organizations that provide, counsel, refer, or advocate for abortion in their country, even if they are using non-U.S. funding to do so (January 24, 2025).
Pardoned 24 anti-abortion protesters prosecuted for blockading a Washington, D.C. abortion clinic in 2020 (January 23, 2025).
Forced Education Department to remove all mentions of DEI in outward-facing guidance documents, reports, and training documents and place employees involved in DEI efforts on administrative leave (January 23, 2025).
Department of Justice ordered a freeze on all litigation involving civil rights cases and investigations. (January 22, 2025).
Restricted health and science officials from communicating with colleagues and the public, limiting their effectiveness in warning about and combatting current public health concerns (January 22, 2025).
Ending inclusivity in the private and public sectors for diverse Americans (Executive Order, January 21, 2025)
Eliminates all DEI activities in the federal government. All federal contractors and grant recipients must certify they do not have any DEI programs. In the private sector, the Attorney General is directed to identify specific large companies, nonprofits, foundations, and associations for civil compliance investigations if they continue with their DEI initiatives. Reversed 36 previous presidential orders impacting women’s safety, healthcare, and economic justice (Executive Order, January 20, 2025 ; Executive Order, March 14, 2025)
Disbanded the White House Gender Policy Council created on March 8, 2021 to “ensure that the Federal Government is working to advance equal rights and opportunities, regardless of gender or gender identity” and encourage “full participation of all people—including women and girls—across all aspects of our society.” The full list of 36 rescinded orders impacting women can be found here. Erasing Gender Identification in the Federal Government (Executive Order, January 20, 2025)
“Sex-based definitions” to be distributed to the public and federal agencies recognizing only two sexes: male and female. Transgender inmates in federal prisons will not be allowed to be held in facilities that align with their gender identity and will not receive gender-affirming healthcare while incarcerated. Transgender inmates will be segregated. They will be transferred to segregated housing units that greatly restrict their movements and access to equal amenities as other inmates. Identification documents such as passports, visas, Global Entry cards, and federal government forms will only have two gender options: male or female. Agency communications materials with mentions of gender ideology or gender identity will be removed.
• For example, references to transgender and queer people on National Park Service webpages related to the Stonewall National Monument were removed.
Termination of all federal programs, grants, and contracts involving gender ideology or identity. Shutting down gender-inclusive “intimate spaces,” including all-gender restrooms in federal buildings.
Banning use of pronouns in email signatures for federal employees. Revoked access to gender-affirming medical treatment through the Department of Veteran Affairs for newly diagnosed veterans with gender dysphoria on March 17.
End Government DEI Programs and Preferencing (Executive Order, January 20, 2025) Shut down all DEI-related offices, activities, trainings, and public-facing materials within federal agencies, including any attempt to support and amplify women’s achievements.
• For example, NASA was forced to remove the declaration that Artemis 3 lunar mission will aim to land the first person of color and first woman on the moon.
“Tens of thousands” of workers are on notice of requirement to report DEI-related activities within federal agencies.
https://now.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/APPROVED-PENDING-PUBLICATION-Trump-Fact-Sheet-April-22.pdf
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