Trump's Transparency Opportunity

President Trump has a historic opportunity to restore our founders’ vision for transparency while clearing the incredibly low bar set by his predecessor. He can do this in two important ways.

STEP ONE: Restore our founders’ vision for transparency

After our framers wrote a transparency provision into the Constitution, they wisely followed up with a Bill of Rights that not only reinforced individual liberties but also severely limited the federal government’s ability to restrict those liberties. The First Amendment gave us the freedom of speech, assembly, and religion while the Fourth Amendment forbade the government from engaging in search and seizure without cause.

With these combined acts, our founders made a critically important point that is especially relevant in our high-tech age: Transparency is not a two-way street. The government does not have a right to inspect your checkbook (or debank you); you, on the other hand, have not only the right, but an obligation, to inspect the government’s checkbook and hold elected officials accountable for how they spend your money.

The Biden administration blurred and even outright eroded this standard. They did this in a few dramatic ways. As our misinformation report showed, they spent $267 million of your money on coercive efforts to censor your speech. But they also offered more subtle forms of obstruction and obfuscation.

STEP TWO: Strive for real-time transparency

For instance, in the waning days of Biden’s tenure we asked his Department of Education for an employee headcount dating back to when the agency was created in 1979. Our team decided citizens who want to hold government accountable might want to understand how each of the 441 agencies listed in the Federal Register has grown over the years as measured by spending outlays and headcounts. To us, it seemed liked a reasonable question. Yet, Biden’s Department of Education effectively said, “Sure, we’ll give you that information. In nine months.”

---

Download the Dept. of Education's Full Response

176KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

As their letter shows, they informed us it would take the agency 185 business days to gather this basic data – something that ought to take them seconds to compile given the resources within that agency, let alone the wider Administration. We’re not going to wait nine months to do our work, and we’ll find workarounds, but the new administration has an opportunity to dramatically outperform this standard. Taxpayers should not have to acquire a de facto search warrant to see how government is spending their money. When the Biden administration told us it would take nine months to answer a simple question, they weren’t just undermining one organization, they were undermining democracy.

President Trump has asked his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to report its recommendations on July 4, 2026, but the time for maximum transparency is now. Cooperating with organizations like ours to make government data available in as close to real time as possible will be crucial to DOGE’s success.

I’ve learned from experience (I worked with arguably the most effective budget cutter in decades, U.S. Senator Tom Coburn) that the outcome of budget cutting efforts depends more on resolve than recommendations. I’m optimistic Elon Musk will come up with bold, innovative insights and recommendations that people who have worked on these issues for decades may have missed. But no list of recommendations, however groundbreaking, will succeed if people in office lack the will and resolve to get them over the finish line.

Working to give We the People greater transparency now, not in nine months, will build a movement – and create a reservoir of resolve – DOGE will need if it is to succeed.