Lawfare Daily: A 2025 Retrospective on National Security Law and Policy

Lawfare's 2025: A Year in Review

• 🚀 Lawfare published over 1,000 articles, podcasts, and videos in 2025, covering "hard national security choices" in a year described as "drinking from a fire hose."
• 💡 The team produced multiple podcasts, data visualizations, and trackers to help make sense of complex unfolding events.
• 🎯 This audio debrief highlights key analyses from Lawfare's experts on various critical topics.

Doge and Federal Bureaucracy

• 🏛️ The rebranding of the US Digital Service as "Doge" led to dismantling of aid, mass layoffs, and data access issues, sparking numerous lawsuits.
• ❓ Despite legal challenges and court interventions, the true leadership and impact of Doge remained unclear, with questions about federal norms and civil service protections persisting.
• 📉 Reports suggest Doge has faded, with little evidence of cost savings but a clear reshaping of the federal bureaucracy.

Alien Enemies Act and Deportations

• ⚖️ President Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act for the first time outside of declared war, leading to the secret removal of Venezuelans to El Salvador without hearings.
• ⚠️ Legal challenges ensued, with the Supreme Court ruling on due process but directing challenges to specific proceedings, leading to splintered litigation.
• 🔄 The case of Rego Garcia highlighted issues with deportation orders, due process, and the government's use of criminal inquiries and shifting destination countries for removal.

Politicization of Justice and Executive Power

• 🎯 The Trump administration saw significant politicization of the Justice Department, with purges of civil servants and installation of loyalists.
• 📜 Pardons were granted to January 6th insurrectionists, and cases were dropped for allies, while perceived enemies faced prosecution.
• 🔍 Concerns were raised about prosecutorial misconduct, improper appointments, and the use of statutes to target dissent and political opponents.

Erosion of Internal Checks and Balances

• ⚠️ The administration systematically dismantled internal checks and balances within the Justice Department, including firing Inspectors General and pushing out career staff and ethics professionals.
• 🚫 Programs designed to counter corruption were cut, and there was a shift from prosecuting corruption to other priorities.
• ⚖️ Erosion of civil service and whistleblower protections, along with politicized appointments, left federal workers susceptible to politically motivated actions.

Impoundments and Congressional Appropriations

• 💰 President Trump repeatedly refused to spend money appropriated by Congress, treating appropriations as optional and expanding presidential power.
• 🏛️ The Impoundment Control Act of 1974 was circumvented, with the Supreme Court and Congress offering limited recourse.
• ❓ Issues arose around "pocket rescissions" and the role of the Government Accountability Office in challenging unlawful spending cuts.

Domestic Military Deployments and War Powers

• 🚨 2025 saw an increase in federal military domestic deployments, raising questions about legal authorities and the Posse Comitatus Act.
• 🇺🇸 The administration asserted broad interpretations of presidential protective powers and commander-in-chief authority for National Guard and active-duty deployments.
• 🌍 In foreign policy, the administration leaned heavily on the threat of force, contemplating military action for territorial claims and intervening in conflicts, while also expanding military operations against drug traffickers under novel legal theories.

AI Governance and National Security

• 🤖 The Trump administration prioritized global AI dominance, repealing previous AI executive orders and releasing its own focused on speed and innovation.
• ⚖️ Policies addressed AI use in government, curbing deepfakes, and exploring impacts on labor markets, while also considering international data center investments.
• 🌐 Significant developments occurred at the state level with AI regulation, while federal efforts focused on creating a national framework and challenging state laws, with ongoing debates about AI training and copyright implications.

Election Integrity and Foreign Interference

• 📉 The Trump administration systematically dismantled US election integrity infrastructure, reframing efforts against foreign interference as censorship.
• 🚫 Key agencies like DHS's CISA and the FBI's Foreign Influence Task Force were disbanded or had teams put on administrative leave.
• 🗣️ Tech companies capitulated to the shift, ending fact-checking and altering content moderation policies, while historical narratives of Russian interference were challenged.

The "Situation" and Presidential Restraint

• 🔍 Editor-in-Chief Benjamin Wittes discusses "hamatsav," a Hebrew term for Israel's security situation, used as a metaphor for the chronic security affliction posed by the Trump administration.
• ⚖️ Key themes include lawlessness (impunity, corruption, violating court orders), shamelessness (malevolence, incompetence, lying, betrayal of allies), and repression (targeting political enemies, war on institutions).
• 🤔 Wittes suggests strategies for dealing with the "situation" include stopping cooperation, making fun of it, drawing attention to issues, being strategic, slowing down, taking deep breaths, and not giving up on the country.