Trump's Second Term: Power & Institutions

An analysis published 7 June found that Republican-led redistricting in Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Tennessee and Florida has shifted the national map so that Democrats must outperform their 2024 results by nearly 5 percentage points to retake the House in 2026 — the new maps being worth nearly two extra points to Republicans in the national margin. The Supreme Court's Louisiana v. Callais ruling accelerated the process by making partisan goals a stronger shield against racial-discrimination claims. Former Vice President Kamala Harris will keynote the Louisiana Democratic Party's August fundraiser to lead the counter-fight, consulting with the Congressional Black Caucus and liberal organizing groups while laying groundwork for a possible 2028 run. Analysts judge the tilt may not cost Democrats the House in 2026 if their polling lead holds, but it shrinks the margin and poses a bigger risk for 2028.

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes warned that the Trump administration's push to obtain voter files — having requested rolls from at least 48 states and sued 30 that refused — is part of a plan to build a centralized database of all US citizens that the president could use to target opponents. A federal judge threw out the DOJ's lawsuit against Arizona over its refusal to hand over its voter roll, ruling the list is not a document the Attorney General can demand under federal law — the sixth court ruling against the administration. Fontes, a Democrat facing a November re-election against election-denial challengers, framed the effort as a tool to 'control elections.'

Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry suspended the state's House elections days before voting was set to begin, citing an electoral emergency after the Supreme Court's Louisiana v. Callais ruling — which the Court put into immediate effect, bypassing the standard 32-day waiting period. Early voting was due to start that Saturday and absentee ballots had already been mailed; the delay gives the legislature, working with Attorney General Liz Murrill, time to redraw a map that could cut majority-Black districts from two to one. President Trump praised the move while civil-rights leaders condemned it as devastating for Black voters. Alabama asked the Supreme Court to release its own second-district case and Tennessee moved to redraw, signaling the tactic spreading across the South.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz accused ICE officers of a 'campaign of organized brutality' during a federal immigration operation in Minneapolis that produced thousands of arrests, violent protests and the deaths of two US citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti. The operation, which ended in mid-February, drew national attention as Walz condemned racial profiling and unlawful detentions in his final State of the State address. The deaths of two citizens during a domestic immigration sweep marked the term's most lethal use of the federal enforcement apparatus on US soil.

The Pentagon formally requested congressional approval to rename the Department of Defense the Department of War at an estimated cost of $52.5 million — below the CBO's earlier projection of up to $125 million — backing a change President Trump initiated by executive order. The House Armed Services Committee voted along party lines to codify the renaming in the annual defense bill via an amendment from Rep. Ronny Jackson, with the broader NDAA clearing committee 44-12. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth thanked supporters, saying the Department of War would 'officially be restored soon,' as the administration sought $1.5 trillion in defense spending for fiscal 2027. The provision faces an uncertain Senate, where Democratic votes are needed.

Trump told reporters he 'never' wants to withdraw the National Guard from Washington, D.C., after a federal court ruled in December 2025 that the troops could stay and hinted at a prolonged deployment. Budget allocations keep the troops in the capital into 2027, converting the EO 14339 deployment into a multi-year fixture. By 2 April he had signed 254 executive orders, the breadth of which underscores the term's reliance on unilateral executive action.

Trump announced ending the deployment efforts to Los Angeles, Portland and Chicago — coming after the Supreme Court had rejected an emergency appeal that sought to block the Chicago deployment, and after a federal judge had ruled the Los Angeles troop use illegal. At the same time a federal court allowed the DC Guard to stay, hinting at a prolonged deployment in the capital. The retreat preserved the one foothold where domestic deployment was legally easiest to defend while abandoning the contested cities.

Senior District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie dismissed the September indictment of former FBI director James Comey, finding that the appointment of prosecutor Lindsey Halligan was unlawful. The ruling voided the false-statement-to-Congress and obstruction case on procedural grounds rather than the merits, forcing the campaign to fix its process. It proved a temporary check: a Miami US Attorney later re-indicted Comey on a graver charge.

Former national security adviser John Bolton was indicted in October 2025 over classified documents tied to his memoir, and New York Attorney General Letitia James — who had built civil cases against Trump — was indicted on bank-fraud and false-statement charges. The pair widened the campaign from former officials to active legal adversaries, federalizing a conflict with a sitting state law-enforcement officer. The Bolton case would later end in a guilty plea, while James's indictment marked a turn toward prosecuting those still litigating against Trump.

A federal judge ruled on 2 September 2025 that the administration had illegally sent troops into Los Angeles in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act — the 19th-century statute barring use of the military for domestic law enforcement. The on-the-record finding drew the brightest legal line of the term against troops on US streets. It became the precedent the later retreat from Los Angeles, Portland and Chicago had to respect, even as the administration concentrated on the legally safer DC deployment.

Trump revoked the security clearances of Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton, Antony Blinken, Jake Sullivan and Lisa Monaco, among others, and vowed investigations into perceived enemies. Because clearances can be pulled at presidential discretion with no due process, the move was a low-cost opening strike that named the entire prior leadership as targets. It set the retaliatory tone for the indictments, NSPM-7 and domestic deployments that followed across the term.