Trump Appointees Roll Back Enforcement of Fair Housing Laws

Say it aint so said:

In one email, a Trump appointee at the Department of Housing and Urban Development described decades of housing discrimination cases as “artificial, arbitrary and unnecessary.” In another, a career supervisor in the department’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity objected to lawyers being reassigned to other offices; the supervisor was fired six days later for insubordination. In a third, the office’s director of enforcement warned that Trump appointees were using gag orders and intimidation to block discrimination cases from moving forward. The urgent message was sent to a U.S. senator, who is referring it to the department’s acting inspector general for investigation.​

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The emails are among dozens of pages of internal communications, memos and other documents reviewed by The New York Times that show efforts by the Trump administration to limit enforcement of the Fair Housing Act, the landmark civil rights law that has prohibited discrimination in housing for nearly six decades.​

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In interviews, half a dozen current and former employees of HUD’s fair housing office said that the Trump political appointees had made it nearly impossible for them to do their jobs, which involve investigating and prosecuting landlords, real estate agents, lenders and others who discriminate based on race, religion, gender, family status or disability. --NYT. ​

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More retribution?
Trump got sued early on for racial housing discrimination when the org was marking black applicants with a "C" for "colored" then throwing them in the trash can.

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Remember when Republicans raised a mighty ruckus about the Biden administration selectively enforcing certain laws, and how he should be criminally prosecuted for doing that? Good times, good times.

-- A2SG, ah nostalgia....

Say it aint so said:

Trump Scrapping Cash Refunds For Flight Disruptions Bows To Airline Lobby​

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The Trump administration’s move to scrap a Biden-era proposal to give customers cash refunds when flights are significantly disrupted follows relentless and often partisan lobbying from the airline industry, and marks a boon to their efforts.​

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Airlines for America—which represents the carriers Alaska, American, Atlas Air, Delta, Hawaiian, JetBlue, Southwest and United—confirmed to Forbes that it had spent roughly $5.7 million on campaign donations in 2024. The largest amounts went to Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), both members of the U.S. Senate Committee for Commerce & Transportation. On April 2, the DOT quietly opened a docket seeking comments through May 5 on "Ensuring Lawful Governance and Implementation of the President's 'Department of Government Efficiency' Deregulatory Agenda." In response, the airline lobby filed a 93-page comment remarkable in its partisan tone and signed by the CEOs of seven major U.S. airlines. The document referred to “Biden/Buttigieg” 38 times—often modified with adjectives such as “unlawful” or “deceitful”—while beseeching Duffy “to implement the President’s deregulatory agenda.” In a statement to Forbes, Airlines for America echoed this tone. “We are encouraged by this Department of Transportation reviewing unnecessary and burdensome regulations that exceed its authority and don’t solve issues important to our customers,” the group said. “We look forward to working with DOT on implementing President Trump’s deregulatory agenda.” ---Forbes​

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Is the swamp thoroughly drained yet?

For a guy whose politics is so thoroughly built around working class grievance, he sure does like to give handouts to big businesses who'd soak those working class folks.

US HUD whistleblowers say they were fired for raising fair housing concerns​

Two attorneys in the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) anti-discrimination division said they were fired on Monday, a week after going public with a whistleblower report alleging that the Trump administration had dismantled efforts to combat residential segregation.

Paul Osadebe and Palmer Heenan worked in Hud’s office of fair housing (OFH), which is tasked with bringing cases against parties accused of discriminating against tenants and homebuyers under a landmark civil rights law. In a report sent last month to Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren, Heenan, Osadebe and two anonymous colleagues wrote that fighting discrimination under the Fair Housing Act of 1968 was “not a priority” for the administration, and that their office had been targeted for downsizing because it presented an “optics problem”.

“This was purely for whistleblowing activity. There was nothing about conduct, performance, any of that,” Osadebe said in an interview. “They said, this is why we’re firing you, because you spoke out. They are as blatant as can be about it.”

It's good to see the President hasn't forgotten his roots.

Say it aint so said:

Trump Scrapping Cash Refunds For Flight Disruptions Bows To Airline Lobby​

​

The Trump administration’s move to scrap a Biden-era proposal to give customers cash refunds when flights are significantly disrupted follows relentless and often partisan lobbying from the airline industry, and marks a boon to their efforts.​

​

Airlines for America—which represents the carriers Alaska, American, Atlas Air, Delta, Hawaiian, JetBlue, Southwest and United—confirmed to Forbes that it had spent roughly $5.7 million on campaign donations in 2024. The largest amounts went to Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), both members of the U.S. Senate Committee for Commerce & Transportation. On April 2, the DOT quietly opened a docket seeking comments through May 5 on "Ensuring Lawful Governance and Implementation of the President's 'Department of Government Efficiency' Deregulatory Agenda." In response, the airline lobby filed a 93-page comment remarkable in its partisan tone and signed by the CEOs of seven major U.S. airlines. The document referred to “Biden/Buttigieg” 38 times—often modified with adjectives such as “unlawful” or “deceitful”—while beseeching Duffy “to implement the President’s deregulatory agenda.” In a statement to Forbes, Airlines for America echoed this tone. “We are encouraged by this Department of Transportation reviewing unnecessary and burdensome regulations that exceed its authority and don’t solve issues important to our customers,” the group said. “We look forward to working with DOT on implementing President Trump’s deregulatory agenda.” ---Forbes​

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Trying to figure out what this has to do with fair housing??

Broader Context: The firings occurred amid a series of reassignments and staff reductions in the OFHEO, which had already lost several members. Osadebe (a union steward with the American Federation of Government Employees Local 476) and Heenan had previously filed a federal lawsuit in September 2025 (case Heenan v. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, No. 1:25-cv-03343) alongside three other lawyers, alleging unlawful targeting and forced reassignments in retaliation for their advocacy. They are pursuing whistleblower protections and considering further legal action.