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May 12, 2025

Blog Post BigLawEthics in GovernmentExecutive BranchTrump 2.0

Democrats at Law Firms That Surrendered to Trump

Trump started his second term in the White House by targeting law firms in retaliation for their past legal work and personnel decisions that displeased him. While some firms pushed back against these assaults on their independence, more than a few BigLaw firms caved. Within the first months of the year, they bowed to Trump’s demands, surrendering in order to avoid (potentially illegal) executive orders that could damage their business interests.

May 09, 2025

Xaver Clarke

Newsletter Consumer ProtectionCorruption CalendarCryptocurrencyDOGEElon MuskEthics in GovernmentRevolving DoorTechTrump 2.0

Corruption Calendar Week 16: The Grift That Keeps On Giving

Welcome to week sixteen of the Revolving Door Project’s Corruption Calendar, where we highlight examples of corporate corruption shaping the Trump administration’s agenda and their material impact on everyday people. Read our first fifteen issues here and follow us on Bluesky and X for updates.

May 07, 2025

Emma Marsano

Newsletter Climate and EnvironmentExecutive Branch

Trump's Lean, Mean, Disaster Machine

Surprising no one, Trump’s 2026 budget proposal reads as a nakedly self-interested list of his priorities. It attacks his favorite targets—DEI and climate programs, social services, and non-billionaires—while directing funds to his favorite pet projects: building the border wall, violent mass deportation efforts, privatizing healthcare, enriching defense contractors, and making more and more data available to be mined by tech companies (see the VA section below), including Trump’s allies in Silicon Valley.

May 02, 2025

Fatou Ndiaye

Newsletter Climate and EnvironmentCongressional OversightConsumer ProtectionCorruption CalendarDOGEElon MuskEthics in GovernmentTech

Week 15: Trump, Binance and MGX—A Crooked Match Made In Dubai.

Welcome to Week fifteen of the Revolving Door Project’s Corruption Calendar. This week, the Trump family continued to blur the line between politics and business with Trump 2028 merch and a billion dollar deal with Binance and MGX. Trump Jr. and Eric Trump’s potential stock sales and a new elite Washington club further expose this convergence. President Trump’s pardons of allies, Elon Musk’s apparent sway over personnel picks, and the rollback of consumer and coal miner protections add to the ethical concerns. Meanwhile, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s timely stock trades and the resignation of “60 Minutes” executive Bill Owens amid pressure from Paramount executives highlight the deepening entanglement of public office, private business, and media, raising alarm growing erosion of norms and the rule of law. 

April 30, 2025

Toni Aguilar Rosenthal

Blog Post Ethics in Government

Inspectors General Tracker 

Inspectors General are a crucial part of the apparatus that keeps the government accountable to the public it is supposed to serve. 

Inspectors General have spent decades building careful systems for overseeing the activities of the Executive branch, acting as crucial watchdogs that root out actual inefficiency, waste, fraud, corruption, and abuse throughout the government.