The Claim

Launched full-scale investigations into deep state abuses — bringing the era of weaponized government to an end and restoring fairness and trust in American institutions.

The Claim, Unpacked

What is literally being asserted?

Three things: (1) the administration launched “full-scale investigations” into “deep state abuses,” (2) these investigations ended “the era of weaponized government,” and (3) these actions restored “fairness and trust in American institutions.” The first is an action claim. The second and third are outcome claims — asserting that the action produced a fundamental transformation in how government operates and how the public perceives it.

What is being implied but not asserted?

That a “deep state” exists as a coherent, organized entity within the federal government that systematically abused its power. That the prior administration weaponized government against political opponents. That the current administration’s investigations are neutral, apolitical exercises in accountability rather than political targeting. That public trust in institutions has measurably improved. That “fairness” has been restored to the justice system. The framing positions the administration as restoring the rule of law rather than bending it.

What is conspicuously absent?

Any mention that the administration’s own use of the DOJ and FBI represents the most documented case of government weaponization in modern American history. That grand juries have declined to indict targets of the administration’s retaliatory investigations — twice refusing to indict New York Attorney General Letitia James. That the FBI has fired agents specifically because they worked on investigations of the president. That the DOJ has fired prosecutors who worked on Trump cases. That 1,500 January 6 defendants — including those convicted of assaulting police officers and seditious conspiracy — were pardoned on Day One. That the DOJ pursued criminal charges against a journalist (Don Lemon) for attending a protest. That the Attorney General instructed DOJ lawyers to “zealously advance, protect and defend” presidential policies — an unprecedented erosion of DOJ independence. That Trump’s face was hung on the DOJ building. That Gallup’s July 2025 survey found Democrats’ confidence in institutions had dropped to the lowest level in the polling organization’s 46-year trend, while overall institutional trust did not improve.

Evidence Assessment

Established Facts

The administration signed Executive Order 14148, “Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government,” on January 20, 2025 — Day One. The order directed the Attorney General to review “all ongoing investigations, civil or criminal” and identify any that were “conducted for improper purposes,” to recommend whether any should be ended or remediated, and to identify individuals within the government responsible for “improper conduct.” The order specifically referenced concerns about “the weaponization of law enforcement and the intelligence community” during the prior administration. It directed DOJ and FBI to take “appropriate action” to “correct past misconduct.” The order cited no specific abuses by name and established no independent oversight mechanism. ¹

The DOJ under AG Bondi fired prosecutors who worked on Trump-related investigations and directed retaliatory investigations against perceived political opponents. Since Bondi’s confirmation in February 2025, the DOJ has: (1) dismissed prosecutors who worked on Special Counsel Jack Smith’s cases against Trump; (2) opened investigations into perceived political opponents including New York AG Letitia James, who had successfully prosecuted Trump’s civil fraud case; (3) opened an investigation into former CISA Director Chris Krebs for his role in affirming the 2020 election was secure; (4) pursued federal charges against protesters and journalists at a Minnesota church protest against ICE, including indicting Don Lemon and 38 others. In February 2026, Bondi instructed DOJ lawyers that their duty was to “zealously advance, protect and defend” presidential policies — a directive that former DOJ officials described as an unprecedented erosion of the department’s tradition of independence from White House political direction. ²

Trump pardoned approximately 1,500 January 6 defendants on his first day in office — including those convicted of assaulting over 140 police officers and leaders convicted of seditious conspiracy. On January 20, 2025, Trump pardoned or commuted sentences for approximately 1,500 individuals convicted in connection with the January 6 Capitol attack. Recipients included Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes (serving 18 years for seditious conspiracy) and Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio (serving 22 years). Trump also ordered the Attorney General to dismiss all remaining pending January 6 indictments — approximately 300 cases. Over 140 police officers had been assaulted during the attack. Trump characterized the defendants as “hostages.” The Fraternal Order of Police and International Association of Chiefs of Police both criticized the pardons as undermining law enforcement. ³

Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigations were terminated following Trump’s election, and the administration subsequently targeted participants. Smith’s office dismissed both the January 6 election interference case and the classified documents case after Trump’s November 2024 election victory, citing longstanding DOJ policy against prosecuting sitting presidents. Judge Aileen Cannon permanently blocked release of Smith’s classified documents report in February 2026, calling its publication a “manifest injustice.” Smith testified before the House in January 2026, stating he had “no second thoughts” and that his team “followed the facts and followed the law.” Prosecutors from Smith’s team were subsequently fired, and FBI agents who worked on the investigations were terminated — effectively punishing career officials for conducting investigations authorized by the Attorney General. ⁴

Trump signed an executive order revoking Chris Krebs’ security clearance and ordering a DOJ investigation into the former CISA Director. On April 9, 2025, Trump signed a presidential memorandum targeting Krebs personally — revoking his security clearance, ordering a DOJ investigation, and suspending security clearances at SentinelOne (the cybersecurity company where Krebs worked). The stated justification was CISA’s role in “censorship” — specifically, Krebs’ work affirming the 2020 election was secure and CISA’s cooperation with social media platforms on election misinformation. Krebs resigned from SentinelOne on April 16, 2025. The action explicitly connected “accountability investigations” to a former official’s legitimate exercise of government duties — confirming election security findings that Trump personally disputed. ⁵

Strong Inferences

Grand juries twice declined to indict New York Attorney General Letitia James — returning “no true bills” in the Trump DOJ’s retaliatory investigation. The DOJ opened an investigation into James, who had secured a $454 million civil fraud judgment against Trump in February 2024. Grand juries — panels of ordinary citizens reviewing prosecution evidence — twice refused to indict, returning “no true bills.” This is exceedingly rare in federal cases, where grand juries indict over 99.9% of the time. Two failed indictment attempts against the same target strongly suggest the investigations lacked factual basis and were motivated by political retaliation rather than evidence of criminal conduct. ⁶

The FBI under Director Kash Patel fired agents who worked on investigations of Trump. In February 2026, the FBI fired at least 10 additional agents who had participated in the investigation of Trump’s retention of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. Over Patel’s first year as director, the FBI removed “dozens of employees involved in investigations of the president or perceived as misaligned with the administration,” according to sources familiar with the matter. The FBI Agents Association condemned the firings, stating they “weaken the Bureau by stripping away critical expertise and destabilizing the workforce, undermining trust in leadership and jeopardizing the Bureau’s ability to meet its recruitment goals — ultimately putting the nation at greater risk.” Agents who investigated Trump’s 2020 election interference were also terminated. ⁷

The DOJ workforce declined by approximately 8% — roughly 9,000 employees — in the administration’s first year. One-fifth accepted DOGE buyout offers to retire or depart. The departures and firings concentrated among experienced career officials, prosecutors, and investigators — not political appointees. This includes entire office eliminations and the departure of prosecutors who had led significant fraud and corruption cases. ⁸

Gallup’s July 2025 survey found Democrats’ average confidence in key U.S. institutions dropped to the lowest point in the organization’s 46-year trend, while Republicans’ confidence rose significantly. The survey, published July 17, 2025, documented a dramatic partisan divergence: Democratic confidence plummeted to historic lows while Republican confidence climbed. This is the opposite of “restoring trust” across the population — it represents the deepening of partisan polarization in institutional confidence, with the gains for one party’s supporters offset or exceeded by losses among the other party’s supporters and independents. Overall trust in institutions did not show a net improvement. ⁹

The pattern of investigations and firings reveals political targeting, not neutral accountability. The common thread among DOJ and FBI targets is not evidence of criminal conduct but their involvement in actions adverse to Trump personally: investigating his retention of classified documents, prosecuting his election interference, affirming election security against his fraud claims, or prosecuting his civil fraud. Meanwhile, no investigations have been launched into documented misconduct by administration allies — such as Defense Secretary Hegseth’s Signal group chat that the Pentagon IG found violated regulations and endangered troops (item 214), or the administration’s own documented violations of court orders in deportation cases. The selectivity is the evidence: investigations target enemies, not misconduct. ¹⁰

The DOJ has been transformed from an institution with a tradition of independence into an instrument of presidential will. The combination of Bondi’s directive to “zealously advance, protect and defend” presidential policies, the firing of prosecutors who investigated the president, the hanging of Trump’s image on DOJ headquarters, the installation of Trump’s personal lawyer Alina Habba as a U.S. Attorney, and the pursuit of politically motivated investigations constitutes the most thorough erosion of DOJ independence in modern American history. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche declared a “war against judges” — treating the independent judiciary itself as an adversary rather than a constitutional check. These are not the actions of an administration ending weaponization; they are the actions of an administration perfecting it. ¹¹

The “deep state” framing serves a specific political function: it redefines legitimate oversight and law enforcement as illegitimate political persecution, thereby justifying actual political persecution as corrective justice. By labeling career officials who investigated presidential misconduct as “deep state actors,” the administration transforms accountability into conspiracy and retaliation into restoration. This rhetorical inversion — characterizing the rule of law as lawlessness and lawlessness as the rule of law — is essential to the claim’s structure. Without the “deep state” frame, the administration’s actions are straightforwardly retaliatory. ¹²

What the Evidence Shows

The factual core of this claim — that the administration launched investigations — is true. Executive Order 14148 directed the DOJ to review prior investigations and identify “improper conduct.” AG Bondi and FBI Director Patel have conducted investigations and taken personnel actions targeting individuals involved in prior Trump-related cases. This much happened.

But the claim’s three assertions — full-scale investigations into deep state abuses, ending weaponized government, and restoring fairness and trust — are each contradicted by the evidence. The “investigations” have overwhelmingly targeted people whose offense was investigating or prosecuting the president, not people who abused government power. Grand juries — the most basic check on prosecutorial overreach — have refused to indict the administration’s targets. The investigators themselves have been fired not for misconduct but for doing their jobs. The pattern is retaliatory, not restorative.

The claim that this “brought the era of weaponized government to an end” is perhaps the single most ironic assertion in the entire 365-item list. The administration has: fired agents for investigating the president, fired prosecutors for working on Trump cases, hung the president’s image on the DOJ building, installed the president’s personal lawyer as a U.S. Attorney, directed DOJ lawyers to advance presidential policies, declared war on judges, pursued criminal charges against journalists, used executive orders to target individual citizens by name (Krebs), and pardoned 1,500 people convicted of assaulting police officers during an attack on the Capitol. By any neutral definition, this represents the most systematic weaponization of the DOJ and FBI in modern American history — not its end.

The “restoring trust” claim is directly contradicted by polling data. Gallup’s July 2025 survey found Democrats’ confidence in institutions at the lowest point in 46 years of tracking. What the administration has done is not restore trust but redistribute it — increasing confidence among political supporters while devastating it among everyone else. Net institutional trust has not improved; it has become more polarized.

The Bottom Line

Steel-manning this claim: there are legitimate questions about law enforcement and intelligence conduct that deserve investigation. The FBI’s handling of the Russia investigation, FISA warrant applications, and certain counterterrorism surveillance programs raised real concerns that earned bipartisan criticism. A good-faith accountability process — with independent oversight, due process protections, and nonpartisan targets — would serve the public interest.

But that is not what happened. What happened is a systematic campaign of political retaliation dressed in the language of accountability. The targets are not selected by evidence of abuse but by their involvement in investigating or prosecuting the president. Grand juries have rejected the cases. Career officials have been fired for doing their jobs. The DOJ’s tradition of independence from the White House has been explicitly abandoned. And the administration claiming to end weaponized government has committed every form of weaponization it purports to oppose — but directed at its own political opponents rather than the public’s. This is not ending the weaponization of government. It is capturing the weapons.

Footnotes

1. Executive Order 14148, “Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government,” January 20, 2025. Federal Register, 90 FR 8241-8242, January 28, 2025. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/01/28/2025-01900/ending-the-weaponization-of-the-federal-government. White House text: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-the-weaponization-of-the-federal-government/. ↩

2. PBS NewsHour, “How Trump and Bondi transformed the DOJ to push his agenda and challenge detractors,” February 17, 2026. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/how-trump-and-bondi-transformed-the-doj-to-push-his-agenda-and-challenge-detractors. CyberScoop, “DOJ disbands foreign influence task force, limits scope of FARA prosecutions,” February 2025. https://cyberscoop.com/doj-disbands-foreign-influence-task-force/. PBS NewsHour, “30 more people indicted over anti-ICE protest at Minnesota church, Bondi says,” February 27, 2026. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/30-more-people-indicted-over-anti-ice-protest-at-minnesota-church-bondi-says. ↩

3. CBS News, “Trump pardons approximately 1,500 January 6 defendants,” January 2025. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-jan-6-pardons/. The pardons included Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes (18-year sentence for seditious conspiracy) and Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio (22-year sentence). ↩

4. PBS NewsHour, “Jack Smith defends criminal investigations into Trump during House hearing,” January 22, 2026. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/jack-smith-defends-criminal-investigations-into-trump-during-house-hearing. PBS NewsHour, “Judge permanently blocks release of special counsel Jack Smith’s report on Trump classified documents case,” February 23, 2026. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/judge-permanently-blocks-release-of-special-counsel-jack-smiths-report-on-trump-classified-documents-case. ↩

5. White House, “Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Addresses Risks from Chris Krebs and Government Censorship,” April 9, 2025. https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/04/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-addresses-risks-from-chris-krebs-and-government-censorship/. CNBC, “Former cybersecurity agency chief Chris Krebs leaves SentinelOne after Trump targets him in executive order,” April 16, 2025. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/16/former-cisa-chief-krebs-leaves-sentinelone-after-trump-exec-order.html. ↩

6. PBS NewsHour, “How Trump and Bondi transformed the DOJ to push his agenda and challenge detractors,” February 17, 2026. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/how-trump-and-bondi-transformed-the-doj-to-push-his-agenda-and-challenge-detractors. ↩

7. PBS NewsHour/AP, “FBI fires agents who worked on Trump classified document investigation,” February 26, 2026. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/ap-report-fbi-fires-agents-who-worked-on-trump-classified-document-investigation. ↩

8. PBS NewsHour, “How Trump and Bondi transformed the DOJ to push his agenda and challenge detractors,” February 17, 2026. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/how-trump-and-bondi-transformed-the-doj-to-push-his-agenda-and-challenge-detractors. ↩

9. Gallup, “Democrats’ Average Confidence in Institutions Drops to New Low,” July 17, 2025. https://news.gallup.com/poll/1597/confidence-institutions.aspx. Finding: Democrats’ average confidence in key U.S. institutions dropped to the lowest point in Gallup’s 46-year trend dating back to 1979; Republicans’ confidence rose significantly. ↩

10. Pentagon Inspector General report on Hegseth Signal chat, December 2025. See item 214 analysis for sourcing. No investigation opened into Hegseth despite IG finding of regulatory violations. ↩

11. PBS NewsHour, “Trump’s face is now on the Justice Department headquarters,” February 20, 2026. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trumps-face-is-now-on-the-justice-department-headquarters. ↩

12. Analysis based on pattern documented across items 65, 207, 214, 223, and 228. ↩