A Recap of Trump's first 3 months

The opening chapter of Trump's second term has been everything but quiet

Illustration by Daniel Medina/Racket News

Following Trump 2.0 is a difficult task. There has been no calm in President Trump’s first three months. He even generated controversy on Easter Sunday (then again, so did Joe Biden last year when he proclaimed it Transgender Day of Visibility).

Besides Trump’s Happy Easter social media post, there was also news Sunday regarding his much-maligned secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth.

Call it Signalgate 2.0. The New York Times reports that his wife, brother (a Pentagon employee), and personal lawyer were part of a Signal group chat that Hegseth initiated about the March 15 attack on the Houthis. The sources are “four people with knowledge of the chat.” From the Times:

Some of those people said that the information Mr. Hegseth shared on the Signal chat included the flight schedules for the F/A-18 Hornets targeting the Houthis in Yemen — essentially the same attack plans that he shared on a separate Signal chat the same day that mistakenly included the editor of The Atlantic.

The Times had an update on Tuesday — this time from “an official and a person familiar with the conversations” — with a report that the attack plans Hegseth texted on Signal “came from U.S. Central Command through a secure, government system designed for sending classified information.”

Trump doesn’t seem to care. He called it a waste of time to address the Signalgate controversy and added:

“He’s doing a great job — ask the Houthis how he’s doing.”

U.S. attacks against the Houthis have killed about 120 people. The latest, last Thursday, killed 74.

As for Hegseth, he pulled out a version of the same playbook he used last month when Signalgate 1.0 broke. He noted the media’s culpability in pushing the Russia hoax, and also blamed recently-fired staffers.

What a big surprise that a few leakers get fired and suddenly a bunch of hit pieces come out from the same media that pedaled the Russia hoax [and] won't give back their Pulitzers. They got Pulitzers for a bunch of lies, Pulitzers for a bunch of lies, and on hoaxes time and time and time again. And as they pedal those lies, no one ever calls 'em on it. See, this is what the media does.

National Security Adviser Michael Waltz formed the first Signal group chat that included The Atlantic’s editor, but Hegseth has also been heavily criticized for texting specific attack plans on the messenger service.

The White House maintains that nothing in that group chat was classified (National Security Director Tulsi Gabbard called the texts “candid and sensitive”) but that did not calm the concerns of people like Sarah Streyder of the military families group Secure Families Initiative. She told Newsweek:

Leaked war plans aren't just a breach of national security in some impersonal way. They're really a direct threat, both to the safety of service members and for us as military families, those are our parents, our spouses, our kids who now have increased risk and targets on their back.

Here’s a look back at many of the highlights — or, depending on your point of view, lowlights — and multitude of controversies in the first three months of Trump 2.0.

Deportations

The most high-profile deportation case has been that of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man who was legally in the U.S. since 2019. However, in the words of a Justice Department attorney, an “administrative error” resulted in him being deported to El Salvador.

Still, the Trump administration is arguing against his return because it claims Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang — which he denies — and says it has no control over what El Salvador does.

The Trump administration has refused to follow court orders to do what it can to return Abrego to the U.S., prompting concerns of a constitutional crisis. The federal judge in the case made clear in an order Tuesday that the administration has also failed to adequately respond to discovery requests from Abrego Garcia’s attorneys. Judge Paula Xinis granted that request to find out what’s been done to try to get him back to the U.S. She writes in her latest order:

For weeks, Defendants have sought refuge behind vague and unsubstantiated assertions of privilege, using them as a shield to obstruct discovery and evade compliance with this Court’s orders. Defendants have known, at least since last week, that this Court requires specific legal and factual showings to support any claim of privilege. Yet they have continued to rely on boilerplate assertions. That ends now. If Defendants want to preserve their privilege claims, they must support them with the required detail. Otherwise, they will lose the protections they failed to properly invoke.

Xinis set a deadline for 6 p.m. today for the government to provide all requested material.

You can read Racket’s detailed timeline, which includes court records, on the first month of the case here.

Meanwhile, the Abrego Garcia case has become especially politicized in the last week. Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and four members of the House of Representatives have flown to El Salvador in the hopes of facilitating Abrego Garcia’s return, and the Department of Homeland Security posted on X documents that show Abrego Garcia’s wife sought a domestic violence protective order against him in 2021. Trump also posted this:

The image of the hand with “MS-13” on it has spurred accusations that the image was doctored, in part because the MS-13 symbols were never mentioned in court documents. Judge Xinis wrote in an April 6 memorandum opinion that in 2019, Homeland Security “relied principally on a singular unsubstantiated allegation that Abrego Garcia was a member of MS-13.”

One of the most consequential policies of Trump’s second term has been his use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to target alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. It’s also another case in which President Trump has criticized the judge.

On April 19, the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily banned the administration from deporting a group of Venezuelans.

For more on the Alien Enemies Act, you can read our timeline in the Racket Library.

Border Security

President Trump signed two executive orders his first day in office to reduce illegal immigration. He also declared a national emergency to enable the military to help with border security.

The result: the number of southern border apprehensions in March — 7,181 — was the lowest since monthly data started being collected in 2000, according to Reuters. The previous low? About 8,300 in February 2025. That prompted Trump to declare “The Invasion of our Country is OVER”:

Apprehensions are not necessarily arrests. For example, they include requests for asylum. During the Biden administration, migrants could apply for asylum through an app. Trump canceled that app, as well as all asylum appointments upon taking office.

Border apprehensions started going down in February 2024, when there were about 140,500. There were roughly 47,000 in both November and December 2024. They went down to about 29,000 in January 2025. Here’s a look at border apprehensions since October 1, 2021, the start of the federal government’s 2022 fiscal year:

Yellow = FY 2022 Blue = FY 2023 Orange = FY 2024. Brown = FY 2025
Source: U.S. Customs and Border Protection

Student Visas — Revocations and Arrests

It’s unclear how many student visas of international students have been revoked. Secretary of State Marco Rubio estimated 300 in late March. Inside Higher Ed reports more than 1,500 international students have lost their visas since April 7. It also has a map that breaks down the numbers by school.

The American Association of Immigration Lawyers says ICE has terminated the records of 4,700 international students since Trump took office. Some are fighting back in court.

Two high profile examples are Mahmoud Khalil and Rumeysa Ozturk.

ICE officers arrested Khalil on March 8. Khalil is a permanent U.S. resident from Syria who came to America on a student visa to attend Columbia University as a graduate student. He served as a lead negotiator for pro-Palestinian protesters. Shortly after his arrest, Khalil was transferred to Louisiana, where he is currently being held at the LaSalle Detention Center.

Two days later, Trump called Khalil “a Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student” and indicated that his apprehension would be “the first arrest of many to come.”

Khalil has not been charged with any crimes. A federal district court judge issued an order staying Khalil’s deportation, as well as ruling that his case be moved to New Jersey. Meanwhile, an immigration judge has upheld Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s authority to deport noncitizens. Here’s a Racket timeline on his case.

Homeland Security officers arrested Ozturk, a Tufts University graduate student from Turkey, on March 25. Like Khalil, Ozturk was transported to Louisiana. In a since-deleted X post, DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin claimed that the DHS and ICE found that Ozturk had “engaged in activities in support of Hamas.”

A year earlier, Ozturk had co-authored an opinion piece in the Tufts student newspaper that was critical of the university’s response to a series of student government resolutions regarding the war in Gaza.

You can read a Racket timeline on her case here.

International relations

Forget the WEF, the WTC, and WHO. After Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to Washington today, the new reigning international body is WTF! Did that really happen?

That was the appropriate opening to Matt Taibbi’s Feb. 28 take on Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to the White House.

Zelensky challenged Vance’s assertion that the path to peace depended on diplomacy. This led Vice President JD Vance to accuse Zelensky of being disrespectful. Trump joined the tumult after Zelensky claimed that the U.S., in spite of its “nice ocean,” would “feel [the impact of the war] in the future.” Trump said the Ukrainian leader did not “have the cards right now” and accused him of “gambling with World War III.”

Following the meeting, Trump canceled the signing of a rare earth minerals agreement with Ukraine. However, in April, the U.S. and Ukraine signed a memorandum of intent that would pave the way for a revival of that agreement.

Preceding the Zelensky visit, Vance delivered a speech at the Munich Security Conference in which he criticized “the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values.” Vance voiced concerns about the annulment of the Romanian presidential election, the European Union’s digital censorship, and the prosecution of a pro-life person praying outside an abortion clinic in the UK. He also called on Europe to increase its defense spending and become less dependent on the United States for its security.

The legacy media, of course, had some hilariously bad takes that Matt notes in this piece, After Vance Blasts Europe, the Mask Drops.

Tariffs

This could easily fall under International Relations or even Economic Policy, but we felt it warranted its own category, given how tariffs have been a constant theme throughout Trump’s second term — even before his “Liberation Day” announcement. From the on-again, off-again tariffs on Canada to his use of tariff threats as leverage with other countries, it’s been a defining feature of his approach.

Trump rocked the financial and international world on April 2 when he announced across-the-board tariffs of 10% and additional reciprocal tariffs against 57 countries the administration considers unfair traders. The president then paused the reciprocal tariffs on all countries except China just as they were about to take effect, while also increasing tariffs against China. He did that after China imposed tariffs of 84% on American products.

We’re now in a trade war that’s made Fed Chairman Jerome Powell hesitant to support lower interest rates. He’s worried about inflation caused by tariffs, while Trump is calling him a “major loser” for refusing to lower rates.

DOGE and Elon Musk

The Elon Musk-run Department of Government Efficiency says it’s saved $160 billion so far. Racket has produced timelines on cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Education, which are ranked #1 and #3 on DOGE’s “Agency Efficiency” leaderboard.

The pushback has been intense, with many critics saying Musk has more influence than President Trump. A Feb. 3 piece in The Atlantic is a good example:

He did not receive a single vote. He did not get confirmed. He does not receive a government paycheck.

The world’s richest man has declared war on the federal government and, in a matter of days, has moved to slash its size and reach, while gaining access to some of its most sensitive secrets. He has shaped the public discourse by wielding the powerful social-media site he controls and has threatened to use his fortune to bankroll electoral challenges to anyone who opposes him.

Elon Musk’s influence appears unchecked, triggering cries of alarm from those who worry about conflicts of interest, security clearances, and a broad, ill-defined mandate.

Musk and DOGE are a regular topic at protests, including the nationwide “Tesla Takedown” rallies that Racket covered through its Activism, Uncensored series. There have also been disturbing law-breaking reactions from critics.

But Trump has not wavered in his support of Musk and DOGE. Musk himself brushed off critics last month:

This is a revolution and I think it might be the biggest revolution in the government since the original revolution

However, Musk announced Tuesday his full-time status with DOGE will come to an end next month “now that the major work of establishing the Department of Government Efficiency is done.”

He’ll focus on Tesla — which reported declining profits Tuesday — but Musk says he will still “spend a day or two per week on government matters for as long as the president would like me to do so.”

Higher Education

The Trump administration has suspended federal money or threatened to do so against several universities over what it considers failures to address antisemitism and DEI programs the administration believes are discriminatory.

Harvard is the most notable. The Trump administration froze $2.2 billion in grants and a $60 million contract after Harvard refused to agree to a list of demands. The IRS is now reportedly looking at revoking Harvard’s tax-exempt status.

Harvard responded Monday with a lawsuit. The school’s president says the administration is trying to control “whom we hire and what we teach.”

Here’s a Racket timeline on the Trump administration’s standoff with Harvard.