Author: James Cook

On March 1, 2025, 131 residents of the towns of midcoast Maine peaceably assembled at the Knox County Courthouse to petition our government for redress of grievances, the protected right of all people living in the United States under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The following list represents the full 75 grievances identified by members of The Audacity as of March 1, each representing an act of the Trump administration during the first 40 days of its second term. We sadly expect many more to follow. We’re sending our list of grievances to each of our members of Congress now.

But that’s not all. We call on all Mainers of conscience to TAKE ACTION and SIGN OUR PETITION FOR A PUBLIC TOWN HALL in Knox County with our members of Congress, Representative Chellie Pingree, Senator Angus King, and Senator Susan Collins. When we reach 1,000 signatures, we will deliver our petition to each of our representatives for a prompt response.

1. The President has issued an order stripping citizenship from babies born right here in the United States.
2. The Director of ICE has pledged to deport citizens if their parents are immigrants.
3. The President has been deporting people in the United States to the Guantanamo camp without notice or due process. 
4. The President has threatened democratic allies and praised hostile dictators.
5. The administration has given our personal financial information to the world’s richest man.
6. The President has fired the nation’s top generals for questioning the legality of his orders.
7. The President has illegally ousted the inspector generals whose job is to protect Americans from abuses of power.
8. The President has illegally emptied the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, pledged to protect Americans from unconstitutional surveillance, search and seizure, save for one Republican who has been stripped of the power to act.
9. The President has handed out pardons to violent insurrectionists.  
10. The Attorney General has ordered prosecutors to drop criminal charges against the mayor of New York City in open exchange for political cooperation in hunting down immigrants.
11. The President disbanded a task force targeting Russian oligarchs who have aided the war against Ukraine.
12. While people go hungry, the President has ordered $450 million worth of food to be left to rot.
13. Teenagers with HIV are being denied access to life-saving medication that the United States has already shipped overseas.
14. Following anti-vaccination campaigning by the Trump Administration, a child in Texas has died from the measles, the first death in 10 years. The rate of measles infection is higher than it has been in 20 years.  More innocent children will die.
15. The President has fired federal agents for investigating his illegal behavior.
16. Violating the First Amendment of the Constitution, the President has created an office using the government to punish people for disagreeing with Christians.
17. The President has forbidden families from seeking health care for their transgender children.
18. The Trump Administration has expunged statistical reports counting the number of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in the United States and comparing the rate of violent victimization of lesbian, gay, and bisexual people to the rate of victimization of straight people.
19. The President has fired hundreds of people who work for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the people who monitor and give us warnings about weather and climate threats.
20. The President has blamed the people of Ukraine for being invaded and threatened them for defying the tyrant Vladimir Putin.
21. The President has called for the ethnic cleansing of Palestine so he can develop it into a luxury resort.
22. The President has praised and promoted a video depicting Palestinian women working for European tourists in the sex trade and the erection of a 50-foot-tall golden statue in tribute to himself. 
23. The President has closed the Social Security Administration’s civil rights office that investigated discrimination and protected disabled workers.
24. The President has restricted the freedom of the press to cover him, banning news outlets that disagree with him from asking him questions.
25. The President has sued news networks for reporting the truth about his behavior.
26. The President has threatened the people of Maine, promising to withhold already-pledged federal funding from the state of Maine unless Maine’s governor promises to act against existing federal and state law.
27. The President has terminated contracts for work to prevent another Ebola outbreak.
28. The President has demanded that private companies must stop promoting diversity, equity and inclusion.
29. The President’s lawyers have asserted that only the President and his hand-picked Attorney General can review and rule on the legality of the President and his Attorney General.
30. The President has promised to cut Environmental Protection Agency staff by 65%.
31. The President has fired workers for the Food and Drug Administration who ensure our food and medical supplies are safe.
32. The President has declared the confirmed torturer and assassin crown prince of Saudi Arabia to be “tremendously respected.”
33. The President has named right-wing podcaster Dan Bongino, who has repeatedly praised the January 6 insurrection and violence against Trump’s opponents, as deputy director of the FBI.
34. The President’s administration has blocked funds for biomedical research, bringing U.S. research on cancer, dementia, and addiction to a halt.
35. The President has ignored the rulings of federal judges who have issued direct rulings that he must end his conduct.
36. The President has asserted to right to control federal spending, a power expressly assigned to the Congress by the U.S. Constitution.
37. The President has laid off agents who investigate tax fraud by the richest people and corporations in the United States.
38. The President has illegally fired the leadership of the Kennedy Center and installed a new director with the promise of using the Center to celebrate Christianity over other religions.
39. The President has violated federal law to end all activities of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the people who investigate and report on corporate fraud against Americans.
40. The President’s administration has announced a cut of 84% to federal staff who respond to disasters and help people get back on their feet. 
41. The President has ordered federal officials to stop investigating foreign influence into United States elections. 
42. The President has fired hundreds of employees at the Transportation Security Administration, making the nation more vulnerable to terrorist attack.
43. Ignoring the existence of intersex and infertile people, the Trump administration has declared it a matter of law that only males and females exist and that they are defined by their reproductive potential.
44. The President has packed the executive and judicial branches with politicians who have vowed to end women’s control over their own bodies.
45. The President and his administration have circulated media giving Donald Trump a crown and naming him “The King.” 
46. The President has fired health inspectors at the border who prevent human, plant, and animal diseases from entering the United States. 
47. The President has illegally ordered independent watchdogs to submit to his authority and accept his interpretation of law. 
48. The President has forbidden teachers and schools across the country from Kindergarten to the university level from mentioning the existence of discrimination and prejudice.
49. The President and his party have made inclusion, the bedrock principle of democracy, an insult to be abolished.
50. The President has allowed pregnant women to die rather than allow them medical treatment.
51. The President has declared and then reiterated that “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.”
52. The President has forbidden communities from requiring Covid vaccinations during outbreaks. 
53. Amidst a backlog of nearly 4 million federal immigration cases, the President has fired federal immigration judges. 
54. The President has deleted all federal references to the existence of transgender people, and revised history to remove mention of the central role played by transgender people in the Stonewall movement. 
55. The President has directed his Health Secretary to initiate actions that would end women’s access to abortion pills.
56. Ignoring long waiting lists for military veterans to receive health care and other benefits, the President has ousted more than a thousand people who work for the Department of Veterans Affairs. 
57. While cutting dozens of federal programs that help people, DOGE head Elon Musk has maintained a steady flow of government contracts to his private corporation.
58. The President has ended the longstanding practice of asylum for people being persecuted in their home countries. 
59. The President has purged members of the Intelligence Advisory Board and replaced them with loyalists.
60. The President has canceled regulations that require America’s wealthiest corporations to disclose the impact of their activities on our climate.
61. The President has used his office to obtain unreported gifts and promote his private businesses. 
62. The President has halted enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which makes it illegal for companies to bribe political leaders.
63. The President and his Attorney General have disbanded a task force to stop foreign influence over U.S. elections.
64. The President and his Attorney General has blocked the enforcement of laws preventing pollution of our air and water. 
65. While granting Elon Musk and his DOGE team access to the personal financial data of every American, President Trump has declared all DOGE records to be immune from Freedom of Information Act requests for public records. 
66. The President has ousted the nation’s archivist, who preserves government documents for history. 
67. The Trump administration has prohibited federal workers from using pronouns to refer to themselves in communication. 
68. The President has banned Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the U.S. Military.
69. The President has banned the Holocaust Days of Remembrance in the U.S. military.
70. The President has made it legal to discriminate against trans people in the U.S. military. 
71. The President and his administration have gutted Federal Aviation Administration staff, leading to a rash of safety incidents and outright plane crashes across the country.
72. President Trump has repeatedly mentioned running for a third term, an unconstitutional act. 
73. President Trump threatened to revoke the broadcast license of CBS after it aired an interview with Kamala Harris.
74. The President has halted mine-clearing operations across the world.
75. The President has declared his intention to close the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which provides disaster relief to millions of Americans.