During the Trump administration we have seen climate science reports and statistics eliminated from the USDA, DOD, DOT, and EPA websites. Thankfully, scientists are working to preserve and archive this data through initiatives like the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative (EDGI).
Critical health information on vaccines, COVID-19, and reproductive rights have been removed from US public health sites. Even history is being rewritten. For a list of official White House information erasures, see this Wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_United_States_government_online_resource_removals
Hey, I was even impacted in a small way; the White House press release and Briefing Room article about my Presidential nomination (Senior White House adviser and Member, Internal Revenue Service Oversight Board) disappeared. It was supposedly a permalink. (Oddly, my Wikipedia page also vanished; it had been there for at least 15 years. It’s personally disheartening, like my doctor saying I’m shrinking.)
OK, so I’m not terribly important to the White House. But President Obama, who nominated me, has also vanished from the White House’s USA.gov pages (I did a search on “Obama”; nothing comes up). Luckily, the White House materials were archived here: https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/ (btw, this is also where my nomination is still referenced (https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2015/01/22/president-obama-announces-more-key-administration-posts).
I had to check out the new White House Newsroom, and was greeted with a veritable stew of propaganda, demagoguery, and self-aggrandizement, with regal Proclamations (yes, that’s what they call them) and headlines like “President Trump Was Right About Everything” and somewhat inanely, “First Lady Melania Trump Champions U.S. Fashion Leadership” This is how low we have sunk.
When I went to update the links on my LinkedIn profile, I was surprised to see Donald Trump’s glowering face gracing my Experience section. Apparently he has replaced the White House logo with a photo of himself, in his signature Mussolini-styled frown. I suppose that goes with his renaming the Kennedy Center and the Palm Beach International Airport in his name.
What’s next, a golden statue? Don’t laugh, it’s coming: https://www.seattletimes.com/business/don-colossus-a-golden-statue-of-president-trump-waits-for-its-home/