Two Visions of Government Power: What the White House Gets Wrong—and What Roosevelt’s Research Offers
February 12, 2026
Across housing, health care, energy, labor, childcare and family leave policy, and more, the White House has adopted the language of economic populism—promising lower costs, fairness, and relief from corporate abuse. But rhetoric is not reform.
Many of the administration’s active policy proposals would deepen the very problems they claim to address, leading to higher prices, more household debt, weaker public capacity, and greater discretion concentrated in the executive branch. When these approaches are placed side by side with Roosevelt’s research, it becomes clear that the differences lie not in tone or intent, but in the underlying vision of how the economy should work.
The Roosevelt approach begins from a structural understanding of power. Lasting affordability and economic security do not come from work-arounds, one-off deals, or flimsy consumer-side fixes, but from rebuilding the systems that govern markets in the first place. Across each issue area, these comparisons show how public investment, durable institutions, and clear limits on private extraction deliver outcomes the White House agenda cannot.
At a moment when the administration’s populist language is masking policies that preserve existing hierarchies and risks, this side-by-side view clarifies what a systemic alternative looks like—and why real reform requires changing the structure of the economy, not just its messaging.
Housing Affordability
| White House Approach | Roosevelt Research Shows | |
|---|---|---|
| Diagnosis | Housing is expensive because mortgages are costly and investors crowd out buyers.1 | Housing costs are high due to chronic underbuilding, rent extraction, exclusionary rules, and housing treated as a financial asset. See: No Room for Rent; Shelter Inflation |
| Vision | Drive up housing costs to help current owners while “letting” new owners take on longer loans and draw down their retirement savings to afford housing2 | Treat housing as the essential infrastructure it is through public investment and public power See: No Room for Rent; Lessons from YIMBYism |
| Steps to Address | Demand-side fixes like 50-year mortgages, 401(k) down payments, and mortgage-backed security purchases, which drain resources and, without supply increases, further spike prices3 | Invest directly in affordable and social housing; strengthen tenant protections, curb speculation, and reform zoning laws to boost housing supply See: No Room for Rent; How to Fix Housing |
| Power & Accountability | Landlords and financial actors retain pricing power, especially over renters.4 | Public investment and regulation rebalance power toward tenants and communities. See: Detroit’s Fight Against Housing Greed; Lessons from YIMBYism |
Risks: More debt, higher prices, little relief for renters
The Alternative: Public investment that lowers housing costs, boosts supply, and delivers durable affordability
Bottom Line
White House: Debt-heavy fixes that leave the system intact
Roosevelt: Public investment that lowers housing costs and lasts
Social Security
| White House Approach | Roosevelt Research Shows | |
|---|---|---|
| Diagnosis | Social Security reform is seemingly ignored while rhetoric about its alleged unaffordability abounds.5 | Social Security’s challenges reflect political choices about revenue and inequality—not inevitability. See: What’s Actually Behind Social Security’s Trust Fund Shortfall |
| Vision | Tout Social Security as a priority—without any plan to expand benefits or secure new funding6 | Strengthen Social Security as bedrock insurance through benefit expansion, modernization, and full funding See: Social Security: Protecting America’s Bedrock Social Program; A Generational Crisis |
| Steps to Address | Temporary tax messaging and administrative tightening, with no solvency plan in sight7 | Raise revenue fairly, protect and expand benefits, and reject austerity See: Will Social Security Run Out? |
| Power & Accountability | Long-term decisions about funding and benefits are deferred, leaving future cuts on the table.8 | Democratic accountability is restored by making explicit, durable commitments to revenue and benefits. |
Risks: Quiet erosion: weaker trust fund, harder access, no durable fix
The Alternative: Stable financing without cuts—Social Security strengthened, not hollowed out
Bottom Line
White House: Rhetoric without reform
Roosevelt: Protect, expand, and fully fund Social Security
Prescription Drug Pricing
| White House Approach | Roosevelt Research Shows | |
|---|---|---|
| Diagnosis | US drug prices are high because Americans pay more than other countries—and need price matching and transparency.9 | Transparency is necessary but not sufficient. Monopoly power and corporate capture through lobbying are driving sky-high drug prices. See: The Cost of Capture: How the Pharmaceutical Industry Turns Campaign Contributions into Profits |
| Vision | Achieve lower prices without confronting pharma’s monopoly pricing and political influence | Confront pharma directly and rebalance power—not just chase prices See: Lowering Drug Prices: A Blueprint for Reform |
| Steps to Address | Promote direct-to-consumer sales and transparency efforts that may shift where drugs are bought, but don’t durably lower what people pay | Real tools like price negotiation, compulsory licensing and march-in rights, public drug development and manufacturing, and rules that prioritize the public interest See: Lowering Drug Prices: A Blueprint for Reform |
| Power & Accountability | Drug monopolies retain control over pricing and politics, with little public leverage. | Public authority is strengthened to check monopoly power and hold industry accountable. |
Risks: Politically fragile, easily gamed by pharma, unlikely to deliver durable affordability
The Alternative: Structural reform that builds public capacity and sticks
Bottom Line
White House: Short-term optics—prescription drug giants keep the power
Roosevelt: Durable reform that breaks capture and locks in lower Rx prices
Public Investment in Private Industry
| White House Approach | Roosevelt Research Shows | |
|---|---|---|
| Diagnosis | Strategic industries need government control for national security and competitiveness.10 | State intervention is already widespread—the real question is who it serves and how it’s governed. See: Industrial Policy 2025: Bringing the State Back In (Again) |
| Vision | Intervene in industry through one-off deals, discretionary control, and unclear public bargain11 | Use public investment to build resilience and competition—not to entrench oligarchs or invite self-dealing See: Industrial Policy 2025; Don’t Let Trump Define What State Capitalism Can Be |
| Steps to Address | Ad hoc equity stakes and “golden shares” framed as tough negotiating rather than governed by a public-interest framework12 | Public equity stakes and control rights with transparent terms, enforceable conditions, and a defined public purpose See: Industrial Policy 2025 |
| Power & Accountability | Investment and control decisions are concentrated in the executive branch, with opaque processes and weak enforcement.13 | Public power is grounded in clear rules, transparent oversight, and legally enforceable conditions. |
Risks: Discretionary dealmaking that invites capture, corruption, and weak accountability
The Alternative: Clear guardrails that reduce corruption risk and increase public return
Bottom Line
White House: Dealmaking without guardrails, laying the foundation for capture and corrupt outcomes
Roosevelt: Rules-based public investment, spreading power and securing public benefit
Energy Affordability
| White House Approach | Roosevelt Research Shows | |
|---|---|---|
| Diagnosis | Electricity bills are high because the grid is constrained by regulatory barriers and reliability risks that limit supply and drive up prices.14 | High electricity bills are driven by fuel price volatility and structural grid bottlenecks—especially transmission and interconnection delays—not simply regulation. See: Energy Price Stability; Entrenched Power |
| Vision | Give consumers relief through deregulation and expanded fossil fuel generation; double down on volatile fuels while sidelining cheaper, cleaner sources15 | Reduce exposure to fuel-price swings and build a grid that delivers low-cost, renewable power consistently See: Energy Price Stability |
| Steps to Address | Expand coal, gas, and nuclear; roll back clean energy subsidies for projects like wind and solar16 | Fix the real cost drivers: utility incentives that block transmission, slow interconnection, and delay low-cost generation See: Entrenched Power |
| Power & Accountability | Control is centralized in the executive branch, weakening state authority, and discretionary access for energy firms expands. | Power is rebalanced by strengthening utility regulation, aligning incentives with public goals, and enforcing accountability for costs passed to ratepayers. See: Power Struggle |
Risks: Fossil fuel lock-in and deregulation risking long-term price volatility, stranded assets, and insider access, all without durable rate relief
The Alternative: Planned grid investment that lowers risk: more transmission, cheaper clean power, and stable electricity prices over time
Bottom Line
White House: Deregulation sold as rate relief without price stability
Roosevelt: Lowering bills by fixing the grid and breaking the fuel-price cycle
Health Care and Medical Debt
| White House Approach | Roosevelt Research Shows | |
|---|---|---|
| Diagnosis | Insurance and regulation are barriers, meaning coverage itself is the cost driver rather than the protection.17 | Gaps in coverage and high out-of-pocket costs drive unaffordability and push families into medical debt. See: The Health-Care Debt and Cost Crisis |
| Vision | Invoke affordability while backing away from coverage guarantees and failing to address insurer role in price and coverage gaps—shifting toward cash and markets to find better prices18 | Make affordability automatic by expanding and stabilizing coverage—not forcing patients to navigate prices while sick See: Enhanced Premium Tax Credits, Explained |
| Steps to Address | Transparency and “choice”; no commitment to extending ACA coverage.19 | Extend and strengthen ACA subsidies to lock in coverage gains and lower premiums at scale See: Enhanced Premium Tax Credits, Explained |
| Power & Accountability | By weakening protections while claiming affordability, patients are left exposed when coverage fails.20 | Power is shifted toward patients by expanding coverage and enforcing protections against medical debt See: The US Medical Debt Crisis |
Risks: Eroded coverage erodes, expired subsidies, growing debt, and cash replacing protection when care is needed most
The Alternative: Stable coverage reducing debt, improving access, and lowering costs system-wide
Bottom Line
White House: Talks coverage, but leaves patients exposed to debt
Roosevelt: Coverage that prevents debt, not policies that clean it up later
Consumer Protections
| White House Approach | Roosevelt Research Shows | |
|---|---|---|
| Diagnosis | High consumer costs are a problem of “overregulation” and isolated bad actors.21 | High costs are driven by insufficient investment and structural extraction: junk fees, punitive debt, opaque credit markets, and weak household bargaining power. See: The Business of Bank Fees |
| Vision | Rebrand deregulation as consumer protection, narrowing enforcement while preserving corporate pricing power, and ignore systemic extraction by finance and data-driven markets22 | Treat consumer protection as economic infrastructure in a democratic economy: rules and public authority that make affordability automatic, not optional See: Confronting the Cost-of-Living Crisis |
| Steps to Address | Halt CFPB rulemaking, supervision, and enforcement by cutting off lawful funding23 | Expand CFPB authority to create a consumer safety net: automatic forbearance, limits on junk fees, and rights over debt servicing and collection See: Extending the Consumer Safety Net |
| Power & Accountability | Power shifts away from regulators and toward financial firms; enforcement becomes discretionary and politically contingent.24 | Power shifts toward households through enforceable rules, oversight, and public accountability. See: Extending the Consumer Safety Net |
Risks: Hollowed-out consumer protections allowing junk fees, abusive credit, and debt traps to expand under deregulation
The Alternative: Durable affordability by cutting off extraction at the source and rebuilding public enforcement capacity
Bottom Line
White House: Anti-regulation dressed up as consumer protection; corporations keep the leverage
Roosevelt: Real consumer protection, meaning rules, enforcement, and power on the side of households
Tariffs
| White House Approach | Roosevelt Research Shows | |
|---|---|---|
| Diagnosis | “Reciprocal tariffs” are an all-purpose weapon to punish, coerce, and extract concessions.25 | Trade policy should build productive capacity, raise labor standards, and strengthen democracy. See: The New US Trade Agenda |
| Vision | Wield tariffs for leverage, headlines, and economic extortion decoupled from worker-centered strategy26 | Use trade as part of a rules-based industrial strategy: align trade tools with climate goals, supply-chain resilience, labor rights, and public investment See: How Should Progressives Respond to Trump’s Tariff Agenda? |
| Steps to Address | Sweeping tariffs justified through emergency authority, plus country-by-country threats tied to unrelated demands (defense, geopolitics, even territory)27 | Drop the threats, target strategic sectors, pair trade policy with domestic investment and enforceable labor/environment standards, and evaluate trade against climate impact See: How Should Progressives Respond to Trump’s Tariff Agenda? |
| Power & Accountability | Tariff power is centralized in the White House and facilitates high discretion, low transparency, and constant threat-based bargaining.28 | Trade governance is institutionalized and has clear objectives, democratic oversight, and durable rules that can’t be whiplashed by one person’s deals. See:The New US Trade Agenda |
Risks: Tariffs as ransom politics—higher prices, diplomatic blowback, and no durable reset
The Alternative: A trade framework built to raise standards, rebuild capacity, and lock in shared prosperity
Bottom Line
White House: Tariffs as extortion—power without strategy
Roosevelt: Trade policy with rules—strategy with accountability
Higher Education
| White House Approach | Roosevelt Research Shows | |
|---|---|---|
| Diagnosis | Universities are political enemies that need to be coerced.29 | Higher ed is already distorted by financialization and austerity. Public goods can’t serve the public when institutions are run like profit-seeking firms or governed by fear. See: The Neoliberalization of Higher Education |
| Vision | Use conditional funding and threats to enforce ideological compliance—“obey or lose billions”30 | Shift from debt-and-scarcity to public provisioning: fund public colleges directly so affordability isn’t built on household borrowing See: New Ideas for Free College |
| Steps to Address | Freeze or threaten grants, squeeze institutions through federal levers, and expand “compliance” demands tied to funding31 | Build durable public models (Medicaid-style funding, rate setting, direct support) that reduce tuition pressure and limit private extraction See: New Ideas for Free College |
| Power & Accountability | Discretion is concentrated in the executive branch and universities become bargaining chips, not public institutions.32 | Stable public funding and governance that resists financial capture and political coercion fosters democratic accountability. See: The Financialization of Higher Education |
Risks: Academic freedom chilled, research whiplashed, public institutions governed by extortion
The Alternative: Public investment and guardrails that keep higher ed serving students and society
Bottom Line
White House: Financial strangulation as control
Roosevelt: Public funding as structural independence
Labor and Employment
| White House Approach | Roosevelt Research Shows | |
|---|---|---|
| Diagnosis | Job creation and worker empowerment are simply rhetorical themes while the core focus is further empowering businesses and dismantling labor rights.33 | Worker power is the missing institution in the economy. Without unions and enforcement, “good jobs” talk becomes branding. See: A Whole-of-Government Approach to Increasing Worker Power |
| Vision | Replace worker protections with executive discretion: eliminate independent labor enforcement and shrink bargaining rights under national-security pretexts34 | Build worker power across government: procurement, antitrust, employment and labor standards, and robust labor-law enforcement that makes organizing real See: A Whole-of-Government Approach to Increasing Worker Power |
| Steps to Address | Disable labor institutions through executive orders and regulatory disruption35 | Invest in labor and employment law capacity, modernize enforcement, and close the gaps employers exploit to block organizing or deny protections See: Labor Law Breaks Free |
| Power & Accountability | Power shifts to agency heads and employers and workers lose institutional leverage and due process.36 | Power shifts to workers through enforceable rights, credible penalties, and institutions that can’t be turned off by executive fiat. See: Labor Law Breaks Free |
Risks: Union-busting in “pro-worker” clothing, bargaining rights hollowed out, enforcement captured
The Alternative: Worker power as economic policy—unions, enforcement, and real leverage
Bottom Line
White House: Anti-union power grab with populist branding
Roosevelt: Strengthen organizing to rebalance the economy
Leave and Care Policy
| White House Approach | Roosevelt Research Shows | |
|---|---|---|
| Diagnosis | Family stress is a private problem that can be addressed through tax-code tinkering and pronatalist bonuses instead of public care infrastructure.37 | Care is an essential system, not a personal lifestyle choice. Tax credits can’t substitute for universal, reliable childcare and long-term care. See: Building a Vision for Universal Public Childcare |
| Vision | Push for “Working Families Tax Cuts” and baby-bonus-style incentives: benefits routed through accounts and the tax code, making them harder to access and easier to skew upward38 | Bring together universal paid leave, public childcare, and pre-K into one system with stable funding, a well-compensated workforce, and accessibility that doesn’t depend on tax liability or perfect paperwork See: Building a Vision for Universal Public Childcare |
| Steps to Address | Proposals pitched, like a savings account at birth, without building the care economy families actually need39 | Care as an industrial strategy: public investment that raises wages, expands supply, and prevents private extraction; avoiding tax-code half-measures like the Child and Dependent Care Credit See: Investing in Care: Exploring an Industrial Strategy for Care Work |
| Power & Accountability | Power stays with employers, private providers, and the tax system while families shoulder risk, paperwork, and gaps in care.40 | Power shifts to families through public provisioning, ensuring predictable access, stable funding, workforce standards, and universality by design. |
Risks: “Family-values” rhetoric without universal care leaving families to pay more and fill gaps with women’s labor, deepening inequality
The Alternative: Family values in practice—a care infrastructure that supports families, reduces costs, and stabilizes care
Bottom Line
White House: Tax-code parenthood politics where care remains private and precarious
Roosevelt: Universal care where public systems actually support families
Footnotes
- The White House, “Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Stops Wall Street from Competing with Main Street Homebuyers,” The White House, January 20, 2026,
https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2026/01/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-stops-wall-street-from-competing-with-main-street-homebuyers/ ↩︎ - Reuters, “Trump calls 50-year mortgages no ‘big deal’ as right-wing conservatives balk,” Reuters, November 11, 2025, https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/trump-says-50-year-mortgages-would-be-no-big-deal-2025-11-11/ ↩︎
- See e.g. The White House, “Stopping Wall Street from Competing with Main Street Homebuyers,” The White House, January 20, 2026,
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/01/stopping-wall-street-from-competing-with-main-street-homebuyers/; Ann Saphir, “Trump orders his ‘Representatives’ to buy $200 million in mortgage bonds,” Reuters, January 9, 2026, https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-orders-his-representatives-buy-200-billion-dollars-mortgage-bonds-2026-01-08/. ↩︎ - The White House, “Stopping Wall Street from Competing with Main Street Homebuyers”. ↩︎
- The White House, “President Trump Delivers on Social Security Promise: Stronger, Faster, and More Secure for All Americans,” The White House, August 14, 2025, https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/08/president-trump-delivers-on-social-security-promise-stronger-faster-and-more-secure-for-all-americans/. ↩︎
- “OBBB: Families,” The White House, accessed February 9, 2026, https://www.whitehouse.gov/priorities/families/ ↩︎
- Social Security Administration, Office of the Chief Actuary, Letter to Ron Wyden, by Karen P. Glenn, August 5, 2025, https://www.ssa.gov/oact/solvency/RWyden_20250805.pdf; Fatima Hussein, “Social Security Administration to require in-person identity checks for new and existing recipients,” Associated Press, March 19, 2025, https://apnews.com/article/212e3089951f731fd3f83443e104b315. ↩︎
- Social Security Administration, Office of the Chief Actuary, Letter to Ron Wyden, by Karen P. Glenn, August 5, 2025, https://www.ssa.gov/oact/solvency/RWyden_20250805.pdf. ↩︎
- Donald J. Trump, “Executive order 14297, Delivering Most-Favored-Nation Prescription Drug Pricing to American Patients,” May 12, 2025, The White House, accessed February 9, 2026, https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/05/delivering-most-favored-nation-prescription-drug-pricing-to-american-patients/. ↩︎
- Donald J. Trump, “Executive order 14241, Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production,” March 20, 2025, The White House, accessed February 9, 2026, https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/immediate-measures-to-increase-american-mineral-production/. ↩︎
- Dawn Kopecki, Jarrett Renshaw, Sabrina Valle and Ernest Scheyder, “Exclusive: Trump targets deals in pharma, AI, energy, mining before midterm elections,” Reuters, October 2, 2025, https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/trump-administration-targets-deals-dozens-industries-before-midterms-2025-10-02/. ↩︎
- The White House, “American Steelmakers Are Thriving Under President Trump,” The White House, July 22, 2025, https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/07/us-steelmakers-are-thriving-under-president-trump/. ↩︎
- Paul Ray, “The Trump Administration’s Enhanced Use of Executive Orders,” Global Policy Watch, January 6, 2026,
https://www.globalpolicywatch.com/2026/01/the-trump-administrations-enhanced-use-of-executive-orders ↩︎ - Donald J. Trump, “Executive order 14154, Unleashing American Energy,” January 20, 2025, The White House, accessed February 9, 2026, https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/unleashing-american-energy/; Donald J. Trump, “Executive order 14156, Declaring a National Energy Emergency,” January 20, 2025, The White House, accessed February 9, 2026, https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/declaring-a-national-energy-emergency/ ↩︎
- The White House, “Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Establishes the National Energy Dominance Council,” The White House, February 14, 2025, https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/02/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-establishes-the-national-energy-dominance-council/ ↩︎
- See e.g. The White House, “Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Reinvigorates America’s Beautiful Clean Coal Industry,” The White House, April 8, 2025,
https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/04/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-reinvigorates-americas-beautiful-clean-coal-industry/; The White House, “Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Ends Market Distorting Subsidies for Unreliable, Foreign-Controlled Energy Sources,” The White House, July 7, 2025,
https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/07/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-ends-market-distorting-subsidies-for-unreliable-foreign-controlled-energy-sources/. ↩︎ - “The Greet Healthcare Plan,” The White House, accessed February 9, 2026, https://www.whitehouse.gov/greathealthcare/; The White House, “Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Announces Actions to Make Healthcare Prices Transparent,” The White House, February 25, 2025,
https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/02/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-announces-actions-to-make-healthcare-prices-transparent/. ↩︎ - See e.g. The White House, “President Trump Unveils The Great Healthcare Plan to Lower Costs and Deliver Money Directly to the People,” The White House, January 15, 2026,
https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2026/01/president-trump-unveils-the-great-healthcare-plan-to-lower-costs-and-deliver-money-directly-to-the-people/. ↩︎ - The White House, “Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Calls on Congress to Enact
The Great Healthcare Plan,” The White House, January 15, 2026,
https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2026/01/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-calls-on-congress-to-enact-the-great-healthcare-plan/; Jeff Mason and Steve Holland, “Trump says he would prefer to not extend Obamacare subsidies,” Reuters, November 25, 2025, https://www.reuters.com/world/trump-not-considering-straight-two-year-obamacare-subsidy-extension-white-house-2025-11-25/. ↩︎ - See e.g Reuters, “US consumer watchdog asks court to scrap medical debt regulation,” Reuters, May 1, 2025, https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/us-consumer-watchdog-asks-court-scrap-medical-debt-regulation-2025-05-01/; Ken Sweet, “Trump administration moves to overrule state laws protecting credit reports from medical debt,” Associated Press, October 28, 2025,
https://apnews.com/article/fdb5ad61e4ca0f18943045d314dd7b3b. ↩︎ - See e.g. Christopher Rugaber, “Trump administration orders consumer protection agency to stop work, closes building,” Associated Press, February 9, 2025, https://apnews.com/article/1b93c60a773b6b5ee629e769ae6850e9. ↩︎
- Donald J. Trump, “Executive order 14331, Guaranteeing Fair Banking for all Americans,” August 7, 2025, The White House, accessed February 9, 2026, https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/08/guaranteeing-fair-banking-for-all-americans/. ↩︎
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, “CFPB Notifies Court it Cannot Lawfully Draw Funds from the Federal Reserve,” CFPB, November 11, 2025, https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-notifies-court-it-cannot-lawfully-draw-funds-from-the-federal-reserve/. ↩︎
- Douglas Gillison, “Trump’s CFPB rollback has cost Americans $18 billion, consumer groups say,” Reuters, June 24, 2025, https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/trumps-cfpb-rollback-has-cost-americans-18-billion-consumer-groups-say-2025-06-24/. ↩︎
- See e.g. Bo Erickson and Katharine Jackson, “Trump threatens Canada with 100% tariff over pending trade deal with China,” Reuters, January 24, 2025, https://www.reuters.com/world/china/trump-threatens-canada-with-100-tariff-over-possible-deal-with-china-2026-01-24/. ↩︎
- See e.g. The White House, “Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Declares National Emergency to Increase our Competitive Edge, Protect our Sovereignty, and Strengthen our National and Economic Security,” The White House, April 2, 2025,
https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/04/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-declares-national-emergency-to-increase-our-competitive-edge-protect-our-sovereignty-and-strengthen-our-national-and-economic-security/. ↩︎ - Donald J. Trump, “Executive order 14257, Regulating Imports with a Reciprocal Tariff to Rectify Trade Practices that Contribute to Large and Persistent Annual United States Goods Trade Deficits,” April 2, 2025, The White House, accessed February 9, 2026, https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/regulating-imports-with-a-reciprocal-tariff-to-rectify-trade-practices-that-contribute-to-large-and-persistent-annual-united-states-goods-trade-deficits/. ↩︎
- See e.g Michael Martina and Jason Lange, “Trump vows tariffs on eight European nations over Greenland,” Reuters, January 17, 2026, https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/trump-vows-tariffs-eight-european-nations-over-greenland-2026-01-17/. ↩︎
- See e.g. Rishabh Jaiswal, Shivani Tanna and Helen Coster, “Trump seeks $1 billion deal from Harvard as deal proves elusive,” Reuters, February 2, 2026, https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-seeks-1-billion-harvard-university-damages-2026-02-03. ↩︎
- Jaiswal, Tanna, and Coster, “Trump seeks $1 billion deal from Harvard as deal proves elusive.” ↩︎
- “Higher Education & the Trump Administration,” American Council on Education, accessed on February 9, 2026, https://www.acenet.edu/Policy-Advocacy/Pages/2025-Trump-Administration-Transition.aspx. ↩︎
- See e.g. Kanishka Singh, “US memo to colleges proposes terms on ideology, foreign enrollment for federal funds,” Reuters, October 2, 2025, www.reuters.com/world/us/white-house-sets-hiring-foreign-enrolment-terms-colleges-get-funding-advantage-2025-10-02. ↩︎
- See e.g. Kyle Cheney and Nick Niedzwiadek, “Labor regulator Trump fired must be reinstated, judge rules,” Politico, March 6, 2025,
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/06/trump-wilcox-nlrb-reinstated-00216685. ↩︎ - Darlene Superville, “Trump signs executive order to end collective bargaining at agencies involved with national security,” Associated Press, March 28, 2025, https://apnews.com/article/deabc796751dc038a8500774fe174a99. ↩︎
- Superville, “Trump signs executive order to end collective bargaining at agencies involved with national security.” ↩︎
- Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, “Trump Will Strip Protections from Career Civil Servants, Miller Says,” New York Times, January 19, 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/19/us/politics/trump-inauguration-stephen-miller.html. ↩︎
- The White House, “Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Fosters the Future for American Children and Families,” The White House, November 13, 2025, https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/11/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-fosters-the-future-for-american-children-and-families/. ↩︎
- The White House, “Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Fosters the Future for American Children and Families.” ↩︎
- Hannah Demissie and Katherine Faulders, “Trump administration looking at $5,000 ‘baby bonus’ to incentivize public to have more children,” ABC News, April 23, 2025, https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-administration-5000-baby-bonus-incentivize-public-children/story?id=121094707. ↩︎
- The White House, “Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Announces Actions to Lower Costs and Expand Access to In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) and High-Quality Fertility Care,” The White House, October 16, 2025, https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/10/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-announces-actions-to-lower-costs-and-expand-access-to-in-vitro-fertilization-ivf-and-high-quality-fertility-care/. ↩︎