Trump Administration Deletes 28 Federal Datasets, Alters 338 More Across Health and Education
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Aug 18
Trump Administration Deletes 28 Federal Datasets, Alters 338 More Across Health and Education
1 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Aug 18
Summary
A new tracker from dataindex.us says the administration has deleted 28 federal datasets and modified 338 others across more than 60 agencies over the past 18 months.
About 40% of the affected collections are health-related, with multiple CDC surveys dropping gender-identity questions under Trump’s order on “gender ideology” and “biological truth.”
At least four health datasets have stopped updating entirely, including SAMHSA’s Drug Abuse Warning Network, which researchers used to spot overdose trends through near-real-time emergency-room data.
Other losses include a USDA farm-employer wage survey used to set H-2A minimum pay rates and an NCES survey on teachers’ and principals’ pay and working conditions.
Researchers say the tally is likely an undercount because agencies need not announce terminations, raising broader concerns that public-health, labor and education policymaking is losing critical baseline data.
If crucial public data can vanish without warning, who ultimately controls the evidence used to shape national policies?
How are critical labor wages and education standards being calculated now that foundational surveys have quietly disappeared from government archives?
Without real-time federal tracking, how will communities detect sudden public health crises like overdose spikes before it is too late?
Erased Evidence: The Systematic Deletion of 8,000+ Federal Datasets and the Collapse of U.S. Public Data Infrastructure (2025–2026)
Overview
Since January 2025, executive directives have driven a rapid and systematic dismantling of federal public datasets, online tools, and information portals. This began with a presidential order targeting 'gender ideology' and diversity initiatives, leading to the removal of thousands of webpages and the deletion or alteration of critical datasets in health, environment, and food security. As a result, local emergency planning and public health surveillance have been severely impeded, with permanent data gaps emerging. Advocacy groups and scientists have scrambled to archive threatened data, while legal challenges have forced some restoration. However, millions of vulnerable Americans now face hidden risks and reduced access to essential information.