The Hour of Suppression - How Trump Reshapes the State and the World, Gives Away Data, and Erases Truths

The news of this day could hardly be more urgent. While President Donald Trump puts his feet up - swollen, as his doctor casually notes - the political fever in Washington continues to rise. Congress is on the verge of fulfilling Trump’s demand to retract more than nine billion dollars in already approved funds for foreign development aid and public media. It is a cut with a system - and a breach in American budget history. No president in decades has pushed through such a rollback successfully through Congress. But on the evening of July 17, 2025, everything is different. The Senate passed the plan with 51 to 48 votes, cheered on by the Republican majority and without a single Democratic approval. Two Republicans also refused to vote on principle - it didn’t help. The cuts are coming. And with them, an unprecedented loss of parliamentary control: it is now the executive branch that reallocates or annuls already committed funds at will.

But the day does not stop at money. While the House of Representatives debates the withdrawals, a wave of protests sweeps across the country under the banner “Good Trouble Lives On.” In more than 1,600 cities, people demonstrate against Trump’s deportation policy, against Medicaid cuts, against the dismantling of the welfare state. It is an uprising in the name of John Lewis, the late congressman and civil rights activist, and an attempt to resist a government that now treats entire population groups like administrative shadows - a model that is also emerging in its early stages in Europe and Germany. Here, the focus is directed at the judiciary - only those who judge correctly are welcome in the system of missing transparency. The whole thing is fueled, how could it be otherwise, by right-wing conservatives. Human rights organizations and investigative journalists, lawyers are joining forces even more closely to stand as almost the last bastion. Because almost simultaneously it becomes known: ICE receives access to the complete Medicaid data of over 79 million people - including their addresses and ethnic background. The basis is an agreement between the health authorities and the Department of Homeland Security. It was never publicly announced, but the document is available to certain journalists. It means nothing less than the complete profiling of the poorest segments of the population in order to track down allegedly “illegal” migrants. No court, no data protection - just access. It is the new normal of the Trump administration: deportation by dataset, as a global project.

At the same time, foreign policy is also burning. Trump’s administration is cutting aid to foreign partners but handing over sensitive information to ICE - and is simultaneously reviewing a reorganization of intelligence relationships. Senator Tom Cotton and Representative Rick Crawford are calling for an investigation into U.S. intelligence agencies over alleged cooperation between Spain and Huawei. The company, closely tied to the Chinese government, is reportedly providing services for Spanish surveillance systems. Cotton and Crawford demand that in the future, all information sent to Spain be redacted so thoroughly that it can no longer be exploited from Beijing. The direct recipient of the letter: Tulsi Gabbard, now Director of National Intelligence. The geopolitical axis is shifting - and the United States is pushing its allies ahead like adversaries.

Meanwhile, things are simmering within the White House itself. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt must explain why President Trump has bruises on his hand and why his legs are swollen. The answer: age-related, no signs of thrombosis or vascular disease. Just some blood congestion in the veins. The bruises? From handshaking, covered with makeup. “The president is in excellent health,” says Leavitt - and reads aloud a doctor's letter. Whether that is reassuring remains doubtful, as just a few hours earlier the same spokeswoman had to defend Trump’s conduct in the Epstein case when asked. A special prosecutor for the case? Not coming, says Leavitt. The president does not consider it necessary. At the same time, Maurene Comey is dismissed - the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey and lead federal prosecutor in the Epstein and Diddy investigations. Her farewell letter ends with the words: “Fear is the tool of a tyrant.”

And it continues. Columbia University is negotiating with the Trump administration over frozen funds. The university is on Trump’s hit list after it criticized his Middle East policy. At the same time, a new health decree is announced that will immediately be brought to court by more than 20 states: the Trump administration wants to remove gender transition procedures from the mandatory coverage of the Affordable Care Act and drastically restrict access to health insurance. The lawsuit is filed by California, Massachusetts, and New Jersey - supported by 18 other states. They see millions of people at risk of losing their insurance. And then there is Israel. After the bombing of the Holy Family Church in Gaza, Trump calls Netanyahu. The president was “not in a positive mood,” said his spokeswoman. Netanyahu used the call to apologize - it had been a mistake. A few minutes later, Leavitt announces that the president will travel to Scotland - Turnberry and Aberdeen, two locations with personal golf courses. And on September 17, a state visit to London is scheduled. The second - a historic exception. Finally, a technical slip: Leavitt mispronounces the name of Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic mayoral candidate from New York. “Zemdhani,” she calls him - without correction, without comment. It was a brief moment, but a symbolic one. Because in this new state under Trump, names only matter if they are on lists - either for sanctions, deportations, or budget cuts. Everything else is scatter loss.

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