Press Releases

Washington, D.C. (April 29, 2025)—Today, Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the House Committee on the Judiciary, issued the following statement on President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office:

“It’s 100 days into his second term, and Donald Trump has brought numerous sectors of society in the United States to the precipice of authoritarian rule. But people are fighting back everywhere every day and the courts are hanging tough for the Constitution.

“Donald Trump has destroyed trillions of dollars of American wealth and retirement savings by plunging us into an imbecilic trade war with the world (except Vladimir Putin). He has turned our best friends in the world into our enemies and the enemies of American democracy into his best friends, making brutal common cause with the autocrats, theocrats and plutocrats of the world.

“Like all aspiring authoritarians, Trump is waging war on the rights, freedoms and living standards of the great majority of the people while gobbling up new powers, rights and privileges for himself and his own class of billionaire oligarchs and plundering kleptocrats. 

“He has attacked the free speech and data privacy rights of the people, the free press rights of the media, the civil service rights of federal workers and Due Process rights of immigrants. His confederate Elon Musk is trampling the data privacy rights of everyone. 

“Trump has sacked 18 Inspectors General, who actually saved us $91 billion last year in waste, fraud and abuse, and has been disassembling the anti-corruption and anti-kleptocracy infrastructure at the Department of Justice. He forced at least 10 lawyers out of the Justice Department who refused to go along with dismissing the corruption indictment of New York City Mayor Eric Adams; he pardoned nearly 1,600 convicted January 6 rioters and insurrectionists, including hundreds who violently assaulted our police officers. 

“He is constructing a gangster state, steeped in political and financial corruption and spectacularly disrespectful of the rule of law. He punishes dissent while rewarding blind loyalty, and wants to give his politically packed and stacked federal workers the ‘right’ to wear MAGA caps to work. He silences independent voices and wields fear as a constant weapon against the American people. And he is cutting away at the rights and freedoms of the people, making all of us less free. These are not the warning signs of authoritarianism; they proclaim its arrival in America.

“Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress have utterly abandoned their oath to support and defend the Constitution against enemies foreign and domestic. Having aided and abetted Donald Trump’s assault on our democracy throughout the past 100 days, they are now working to pass Trump’s class-war budget by demolishing Medicaid, Meals on Wheels, Head Start, maternal nutrition and food assistance, and public safety—all to bankroll more giant tax cuts for Trump’s billionaires. 

“House Judiciary Democrats are fighting on every front. In courtrooms across America, we are filing amicus briefs to defend federal workers, federal rights and Congressional lawmaking and spending powers. On Capitol Hill, we are wielding every investigative tool we can find to expose and confront the corruption that infects this Administration. In communities nationwide, we are bearing witness—listening, rallying, and uplifting the stories of people suffering at the hands of this outlaw regime.

“We must all hang tough for the Constitution and for each other.”