Public Trust Tracker

About & method

About the Public Trust Tracker

The Public Trust Tracker documents official investigations, inquiries and public records concerning US federal executive officials, and tracks what Donald Trump promised on the record. It is nonpartisan, source-based and free to use, cite and reuse.

Being listed is not a finding of wrongdoing. Many cases are allegations or open inquiries. Each page says exactly what has and hasn't been established, and quotes the response of the people involved where one exists.

Who runs it

The tracker is run privately and independently by Martin Waiss in Austria. It is not funded by, affiliated with or coordinated with any party, campaign, government or advocacy group. It carries no ads, takes no donations and sells nothing. Research and drafting are assisted by AI tools; every entry is checked against the sources it cites before it is published.

What is covered

  • Money & ethics: corruption, fraud and ethics matters involving federal executive officials of any party, and people acting with or for them.
  • Elections: official federal actions on how elections are run, from either party, and court outcomes. No speculation about ways elections could be manipulated.
  • Press & media: official government actions against the press, such as access bans, funding cuts, licence pressure and searches. Private lawsuits and insults by officials are not cases.
  • Promises: commitments Donald Trump made himself, on the record, as a candidate (2023-2024) and as president, quoted verbatim with date and venue.

A family member's private business is not a case on its own. It appears only as context to an official decision that is under inquiry.

The five stages

  1. Reported: news reporting only, no official step yet.
  2. Inquiry: letters, records requests or minority reports from members of Congress or watchdogs.
  3. Official review: an inspector general, ethics office, GAO or a committee majority is reviewing it.
  4. Legal action: lawsuits, subpoenas or charges.
  5. Outcome: closed, settled, decided or blocked, with the result stated.

A case moves to a new stage only when a dated official step is on the record.

How entries are checked

  • Primary records first: court dockets, agency and inspector-general reports, congressional letters and reports, DOJ, SEC, FEC and CFTC filings.
  • Mainstream reporting where no primary record exists, named and linked. Partisan outlets and aggregators are traced back to the original reporting.
  • Claims from advocacy groups are checked against the primary record before they are used.
  • Estimates are labelled as estimates, with who made them. Money totals are shown by type and never added up into one "fraud" number.
  • Promise statuses are judged on measured outcomes, using official data first (BLS, FRED, EIA, CBO, court rulings). Trump's own explanation is shown where he gave one, and "Blocked" marks promises stopped by courts or Congress.
  • A daily check scans committee releases, inspector-general reports, court records and news for updates. Nothing is published without a human review.

Corrections

Every page has a "Suggest a fact check" button. Corrections are made promptly and listed publicly on the corrections page. Email corrections@publictrusttracker.org.

Send a lead

Know of an official action, record or report that belongs here? Write to leads@publictrusttracker.org.

  1. Send a link to a public record or published reporting, with a line on why it matters.
  2. It is checked against the primary records and other reporting.
  3. If it holds up, it is added to a case, or becomes a new case, with its sources shown.

Not every lead becomes a case, and we can't reply to every email.

Email is not a secure channel. Please send links to public records, and don't send confidential documents.

Beware of impersonators. The Public Trust Tracker never asks for money, donations, passwords or personal documents, and only writes from addresses ending in @publictrusttracker.org.

Reuse

All case and promise data is free to download as JSON or CSV on the open data page, under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Please cite the case page you used.

Photo credits

Portraits are official US government photos (public domain) or Creative Commons photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited below.

  • Alina Habba: The White House. Public domain (work of the US federal government), via Wikimedia Commons. Source
  • Bill Pulte: Federal Housing Finance Agency. Public domain (work of the US federal government), via Wikimedia Commons. Source
  • Bo Hines: Xuthoria. CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped, via Wikimedia Commons. Source
  • Brendan Carr: Federal Communications Commission. Public domain (work of the US federal government), via Wikimedia Commons. Source
  • Bryan Bedford: Federal Aviation Administration. Public domain (work of the US federal government), via Wikimedia Commons. Source
  • Cameron Winklevoss: TechCrunch. CC BY 2.0, cropped, via Wikimedia Commons. Source
  • David Sacks: The White House. Public domain (work of the US federal government), via Wikimedia Commons. Source
  • Donald Trump: Daniel Torok. Public domain (work of the US federal government), via Wikimedia Commons. Source
  • Donald Trump Jr.: Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped, via Wikimedia Commons. Source
  • Elon Musk: U.S. Air Force / Trevor Cokley. Public domain (work of the US federal government), via Wikimedia Commons. Source
  • Eric Trump: Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped, via Wikimedia Commons. Source
  • Howard Lutnick: Daniel Torok. Public domain (work of the US federal government), via Wikimedia Commons. Source
  • Jared Kushner: The White House. Public domain (work of the US federal government), via Wikimedia Commons. Source
  • Justin Sun: MelfarraTron. CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped, via Wikimedia Commons. Source
  • Kimberly Guilfoyle: U. S. Embassy & Consulate in Greece. Public domain (work of the US federal government), via Wikimedia Commons. Source
  • Kristi Noem: Tia Dufour; United States Department of Homeland Security. Public domain (work of the US federal government), via Wikimedia Commons. Source
  • Marco Rubio: U.S. Department of State. Public domain (work of the US federal government), via Wikimedia Commons. Source
  • Pam Bondi: U.S. Department of Justice. Public domain (work of the US federal government), via Wikimedia Commons. Source
  • Pete Hegseth: U.S. Department of Defense. Public domain (work of the US federal government), via Wikimedia Commons. Source
  • Peter Navarro: White House. Public domain (work of the US federal government), via Wikimedia Commons. Source
  • Richard Grenell: Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Public domain (work of the US federal government), via Wikimedia Commons. Source
  • Scott Bessent: United States Department of the Treasury. Public domain (work of the US federal government), via Wikimedia Commons. Source
  • Steve Witkoff: The White House. Public domain (work of the US federal government), via Wikimedia Commons. Source
  • Todd Blanche: Ryan M. Biller. Public domain (work of the US federal government), via Wikimedia Commons. Source
  • Tom Homan: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Public domain (work of the US federal government), via Wikimedia Commons. Source