When President Donald Trump returned to the White Home in January, ProPublica’s reporters got down to cowl how his second administration would reshape the federal government and the nation.
Our reporters detailed what occurred when the Division of Authorities Effectivity, initially led by Elon Musk, slashed federal businesses, together with the U.S. Company for Worldwide Improvement and the Social Safety Administration. We wrote in regards to the individuals caught up within the administration’s immigration crackdown, together with the greater than 170 U.S. residents who had been detained by immigration brokers. We profiled key figures within the administration, together with the 22-year-old picked to guide terrorism prevention and the person who has been described as Trump’s shadow president.
Our newsroom additionally centered past the White Home. Ginger Thompson wrote a five-part collection, with analysis by Doris Burke, that informed the story of American well being care by way of the one hospital in Albany, Georgia. Ellis Simani and Lexi Churchill uncovered a Texas constitution college superintendent who makes $870,000. And David Armstrong sought to know why a single capsule of his most cancers drug value the identical as a brand new iPhone.
These had been all among the many investigations that readers spent essentially the most time with this yr. Within the new yr, ProPublica will preserve reporting on these storylines — and new ones.
Within the meantime, revisit our most-read tales of 2025, as measured by the whole period of time spent studying them throughout a number of of our publishing platforms.
1. The Militia and the Mole
By Joshua Kaplan
Outraged by the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, a wilderness survival coach spent years undercover climbing the ranks of right-wing militias. He didn’t inform police or the FBI. He didn’t inform household or pals. The one particular person he informed was a ProPublica reporter.
By Ginger Thompson, with analysis by Doris Burke
Why had been the individuals in Albany, Georgia, so sick, when the city’s strongest establishment was a hospital?
3. Inside ICE Air: Flight Attendants on Deportation Planes Say Catastrophe Is “Solely a Matter of Time”
By McKenzie Funk
Present and former flight attendants for GlobalX, the personal constitution airline on the middle of Trump’s immigration crackdown, expressed concern about their lack of ability to deal with passengers humanely and to maintain them protected.
4. The Untold Saga of What Occurred When DOGE Stormed Social Safety
By Eli Hager
DOGE has ignored urgently wanted reforms and upgrades on the Social Safety Administration, based on dozens of insiders and 15 hours of candid interviews with the previous performing chief of the company, who admits he typically made issues worse.
5. Trump’s Personal Mortgages Match His Description of Mortgage Fraud, Data Reveal
By Justin Elliott, Robert Faturechi and Alex Mierjeski
The Trump administration has argued that Fed board member Lisa Cook dinner could have dedicated mortgage fraud by declaring multiple major residence on her loans. We discovered Trump as soon as did the very factor he known as “deceitful and doubtlessly felony.”
6. Getting “DOGED”: DOGE Focused Him on Social Media. Then the Taliban Took His Household.
By Avi Asher-Schapiro and Christopher Bing
Afghan scholar Mohammad Halimi, who fled the Taliban in 2021, had labored to assist U.S. diplomats perceive his homeland. Then DOGE put his household’s lives in danger by exposing his delicate work for a U.S.-funded nonprofit.
7. “The Intern in Cost”: Meet the 22-Yr-Outdated Trump’s Staff Picked to Lead Terrorism Prevention
By Hannah Allam
One yr out of school and with no obvious nationwide safety experience, Thomas Fugate is the Division of Homeland Safety official tasked with overseeing the federal government’s fundamental hub for combating violent extremism.
8. The Value of Remission
By David Armstrong
When Armstrong was recognized with most cancers, he got down to perceive why a single capsule of Revlimid value the identical as a brand new iPhone. He has lined excessive drug costs as a reporter for years. What he found shocked him.
9. “Incalculable” Injury: How a “We Purchase Ugly Homes” Franchise Left a Path of Monetary Wreckage Throughout Texas
By Anjeanette Damon and Mollie Simon
Charles Service is accused of orchestrating a yearslong Ponzi scheme, bilking tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} from each rich buyers and older individuals with modest incomes. Regardless of indicators of hassle, the houseflipping chain HomeVestors of America didn’t step in.
10. The White Home Intervened on Behalf of Accused Intercourse Trafficker Andrew Tate Throughout a Federal Investigation
By Robert Faturechi and Avi Asher-Schapiro
Federal authorities had been chided for seizing digital gadgets from Tate and his brother, and informed to return them, data and interviews present. Specialists mentioned the intervention was extremely inappropriate.
11. This County Was the “Mannequin” for Native Police Carrying Out Immigration Raids. It Led to Civil Rights Violations.
By Rafael Carranza, Arizona Luminaria. Co-published with Arizona Luminaria.
Below Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Maricopa County was one of many first testing grounds for ICE’s 287(g) program, which lets native police implement immigration legal guidelines. Many Arizonans say these abuses parallel what’s taking part in out now beneath Trump.
By Max Blau, ProPublica, and Zaydee Sanchez, for ProPublica, with illustrations by Dadu Shin for ProPublica
Sofi left behind her little one in Mexico for the promise of offering him a greater life. She ended up a sufferer of an operation that’s alleged to have exploited the H-2A visa program — and the employees it dropped at America.
13. “Ticking Time Bomb”: A Pregnant Mom Saved Getting Sicker. She Died After She Couldn’t Get an Abortion in Texas.
By Kavitha Surana and Lizzie Presser, pictures by Lexi Parra for ProPublica
ProPublica has discovered a number of instances of ladies with underlying well being situations who died once they couldn’t entry abortions. Tierra Walker, a 37-year-old mom, was informed by docs there was no emergency earlier than preeclampsia killed her.
14. To Pay for Trump Tax Cuts, Home GOP Floats Plan to Slash Advantages for the Poor and Working Class
By Robert Faturechi and Justin Elliott
A menu of choices being circulated by congressional Republicans additionally contains new tax cuts for companies and the ultrawealthy.
15. Kristi Noem Secretly Took a Lower of Political Donations
By Justin Elliott, Joshua Kaplan and Alex Mierjeski
A darkish cash group paid $80,000 to Noem’s private firm when she was governor of South Dakota. She didn’t embrace this earnings on her federal disclosure types, a probable violation of ethics necessities, specialists say.
16. We Discovered That Extra Than 170 U.S. Residents Have Been Held by Immigration Brokers. They’ve Been Kicked, Dragged and Detained for Days.
By Nicole Foy, pictures by Sarahbeth Maney
The federal government doesn’t monitor how typically immigration brokers seize residents. So ProPublica did. Our tally — nearly definitely incomplete — contains individuals who had been held for days with out a lawyer. And practically 20 youngsters, two of whom have most cancers.
17. Trump Officers Celebrated With Cake After Slashing Help. Then Individuals Died of Cholera.
By Anna Maria Barry-Jester and Brett Murphy, pictures by Peter DiCampo
Behind closed doorways in Washington, prime advisers made a collection of choices that had devastating repercussions for the poorest nation on earth. We went to South Sudan and located individuals who died because of this.
18. “The President Needed It and I Did It”: Recording Reveals Head of Social Safety’s Ideas on DOGE and Trump
By Eli Hager
In a recording obtained by ProPublica, performing Social Safety Commissioner Leland Dudek portrayed his company as going through peril, whereas additionally encouraging endurance with “the DOGE children.”
19. This Constitution College Superintendent Makes $870,000. He Leads a District With 1,000 College students.
By Ellis Simani, ProPublica, and Lexi Churchill, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune. Co-published with The Texas Tribune.
On paper, Salvador Cavazos earns lower than $300,000 to run Valere Public Faculties, a small Texas constitution community. However taxpayers doubtless aren’t conscious that in actuality, his complete pay makes him one of many nation’s highest-earning superintendents.
20. What You Ought to Know About Russ Vought, Trump’s Shadow President
By Andy Kroll
Vought is the architect of Trump’s broader plan to fireside civil servants, freeze authorities applications and dismantle complete businesses. Listed below are some key issues to know in regards to the D.C. insider who desires to take a hatchet to the federal authorities.
21. “Sluggish Pay, Low Pay or No Pay”
By T. Christian Miller
Blue Cross approved mastectomies and breast reconstructions for girls with most cancers however refused to pay the complete docs’ payments. A jury known as it fraud and awarded the follow $421 million.
22. “We’re Damaged”: As Federal Prisons Run Low on Meals and Bathroom Paper, Corrections Officers Are Leaving in Droves for ICE
By Keri Blakinger
Most of the issues the company is going through now aren’t new, however workers and prisoners concern an exodus of officers may make life behind bars even worse.
23. He Spent Funds Meant for Native Hawaiians on Polo and Porsches. The Federal Authorities Didn’t Cease Him.
By Nick Grube, Honolulu Civil Beat. Co-published with Honolulu Civil Beat.
A small enterprise program allowed Christopher Dawson to win huge contracts if he promised to uplift Native Hawaiians. As an alternative, federal prosecutors allege, he used the cash to line his personal pockets.
24. Younger Women Have been Sexually Abused by a Church Member. They Have been Advised to Forgive and Overlook.
By Jessica Lussenhop, ProPublica, and Andy Mannix, Minnesota Star Tribune, pictures by Leila Navidi, Minnesota Star Tribune. Co-published with Minnesota Star Tribune.
In Minnesota, leaders of an Outdated Apostolic Lutheran Church group enabled a baby abuser by telling his victims that when the sins had been “washed away within the blood of reconciliation,” they may by no means converse of them once more.
25. Texas Banned Abortion. Then Sepsis Charges Soared.
By Lizzie Presser, Andrea Suozzo, Sophie Chou and Kavitha Surana
ProPublica’s first-of-its-kind evaluation is essentially the most detailed look but into an increase in life-threatening issues for girls experiencing being pregnant loss beneath Texas’ abortion ban.
