MS NOW data journalist Philip Bump says the public should no longer take the word of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) seriously anymore.
“The skepticism one ought to bring to any pronouncement of [President Donald] Trump should similarly be applied to those who work for and defend him. Particularly when — as in the case of the Department of Homeland Security — those officials have repeatedly been caught in fabrications of their own,” Bump said.
Trump is a liar, said Bump. And he hires liars to work for him, even in federal departments where credibility is central to function. This includes the justice department.
“The president has repeatedly demonstrated a willingness in the past decade to make false claims that impugn his opponents or celebrate his allies — or both,” said Bump. “This approach has permeated the government, carried into individual agencies by the loyal allies he’s installed as their leaders.
The Department of Justice offers countless examples of uttering blatant falsehoods. Trump officials claim DHS is targeting immigrants who have committed crimes, but Bump said the number of detainees “arrested by ICE without convictions or pending criminal charges rose from 842 on Dec. 1, 2024, to 21,892 on Nov. 30, 2025 — an astounding 2,500 percent increase.”
When the Cato Institute reported that only 5 percent of ICE detainees have convictions for violent crimes, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin claimed their pie chart was a lie. But when a Cato rep posted a DHS document confirming the data, McLaughlin knew better than to reply, and didn’t. McLaughlin has also lied that the U.S. does not arrest or deport U.S. citizens in defiance of proof. In fact, in November online news site Zeteo posted a list of seven incidents of McLaughlin being caught making false claims. That list did not include the department’s false claim that a U.S. mother shot and killed by ICE agents in Minneapolis was a “domestic terrorist” who tried to use her vehicle as a “weapon” despite video evidence proving otherwise.
Even federal judges have acknowledged the lapsing credibility of the DOJ, with U.S. District Court Judge Sara Ellis issuing a 233-page November ruling relating to a lawsuit over the excessive use of force in Chicago, by ICE agents.
“While Defendants may argue that the Court identifies only minor inconsistencies, every minor inconsistency adds up, and at some point, it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to believe almost anything that Defendants represent,” Ellis wrote, adding in the same document that Trump’s department officials are “simply not credible.”
“One might wonder why agents of the federal government would consistently misrepresent the actions of their agency and its employees,” said Bump. “Some of it might be explained by their desire to show allegiance to their workforce. Some might be ascribed to errors or incomplete information. But we cannot assume that this is the sole motivation when the government agency at issue is part of the Trump administration.”
Read the MS NOW report at this link.
