Institutional Memory

I built this page to document changes to American democratic institutions during the second Trump administration.

Day-to-day political coverage often treats events in isolation: a policy change, an executive order, a firing, or a restructuring. Any single action can appear small on its own. What interests me is the cumulative effect.

I think of democratic institutions as a wall made of many bricks: laws, norms, agencies, checks, traditions, and expectations built up over decades. Over time, individual bricks can be removed, replaced, weakened, or rearranged. The wall still stands, but it gradually becomes something different.

This page is an attempt to keep a structured record of those changes: what happened, when it happened, and where it was documented. The current focus is the second Trump administration beginning in January 2025, though the project may eventually expand to include earlier administrations and broader institutional history.

This project is still a work in progress. Entries are being added, revised, sourced, and reorganized over time.

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Lighter bricks are tracked categories. Click to expand. Plain bricks represent the rest of the wall.