The report Climate of Suppression: Environmental Information Under the Second Trump Administration examines management of federal websites related to environmental regulation in the first six months of the second Trump administration. In this time, the Trump administration has significantly altered the federal environmental information landscape as information about environmental justice and climate change have been rewritten and deleted.
To record the changes made to public information by the Trump administration, the Environmental Data & Governance Initiative (EDGI) Website Governance team has been monitoring over 4,000 federal environmental webpages and sharing data about changes to content, language, and information access through the Federal Environmental Web Tracker. The scope and speed of website changes during the second Trump administration has far exceeded that of the first. While EDGI is monitoring only 20% of the webpages monitored during the first Trump administration, we observed 70% more website changes in President Trump’s first 100 days in office in 2025 than in 2017.
The nature of these federal website changes are bolder than in the previous Trump administration: Rhetoric has intensified, statutory authorities for information sharing have been challenged, and information about environmental racism has been universally excised from federal websites. Trustworthy public information is foundational for a functioning democracy. The swift removal of public information at odds with the Trump administration’s viewpoints demonstrates the need for more comprehensive and binding policies to protect the integrity of federal information and, ultimately, to protect American democracy.
Climate of SuppressionAuthor(s): Isabella Pacenza, Gretchen Gehrke, Rob Brackett, Anita Carey, Abby Chernila, Heather Dungey, Jose Gonzalez, Mya Heard, Alejandro Paz, Grace Poudrier, Michael Sholinbeck, Shannan Lenke Stoll, and EDGI
Publication Date: August 6, 2025
Preferred Citation: “Climate of Suppression: Environmental Information Under the Second Trump Administration”, (Environmental Data & Governance Initiative, August 6, 2025)
CONTACT: Report authors are available for interview. To set up media interviews or for other inquiries, please contact Shannan Lenke Stoll at shannanlenke.stoll@envirodatagov.org.