The following is a timeline of instances of extremism in the Trump administration in March.
President Trump has opened the White House doors to extremism, not only consulting with hate groups on policies that erode our country’s civil rights protections but enabling the infiltration of extremist ideas into the administration’s rhetoric and agenda.
Once relegated to the fringes, the radical right now has a toehold in the White House.
Groups and individuals referenced in the list below are not associated with hate groups and extremist ideology unless indicated by a hate group profile.
Anti-LGBT
Hate Group
Mar 6
Senate confirms Allison Rushing, a former intern at anti-LGBT hate group Alliance Defending Freedom, to a lifetime appointment as a federal judge.
Anti-Immigrant
Mar 7
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen defends Trump administration practice of separating migrant children from their families at the border.
Anti-Immigrant
Mar 7
Reports break that Trump administration deported 471 parents who were separated from their children “without being given the opportunity to elect or waive reunification.”
Anti-Semitic
Mar 11
Trump claims “the Democrats hate Jewish people” during fundraiser, saying they’ve become the “anti-Jewish party.”
Anti-Black
Mar 11
Trump 2020 campaign adviser dismisses question about diversity within Trump administration by asking, “How many black people were in Abraham Lincoln’s West Wing?”
Anti-Black
Mar 11
Federal judge rules Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s illegal delay implementing rule requiring states to address racial disparities in special education programs was “arbitrary and capricious.”
Anti-Immigrant
Mar 12
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services plans to close all 21 international field offices, threatening the processing of family visa applications, foreign adoptions and citizenship petitions.
Read our extremist group profile
Anti-Immigrant
Mar 14
Trump administration considers sending volunteer force to the Southern border, a move one DHS official says is ordinarily used for events like hurricanes.
Anti-Immigrant
Mar 14
Senate votes to overturn President Trump’s national emergency declaration at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Anti-LGBT
Mar 14
Pentagon institutes new transgender policy limiting military service of transgender people to their birth gender; to be implemented April 12.
Anti-Muslim
Mar 15
President Trump deletes tweet to his Breitbart interview that he posted as news was breaking about two mosque shootings in New Zealand, which left 49 people dead.
Anti-Immigrant
Mar 15
President Trump issues first veto of his presidency, rejecting congressional resolution overturning his national emergency declaration at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Anti-Immigrant
Mar 15
Trump administration plans to expand rules disqualifying more visa applicants living abroad and those in the U.S. whom it believes are using too many public services.
Anti-Muslim
Mar 18
President Trump calls for Fox News to bring back Jeanine Pirro after she was suspended for questioning a Muslim lawmaker’s loyalty to the U.S.
White Nationalist
Mar 18
President Trump tweets his support for Tucker Carlson, who once aired a segment on the white nationalist conspiracy theory about white genocide in South Africa.
Anti-Immigrant
Mar 18
Supreme Court rules the government can detain immigrants indefinitely with past criminal records, even if they were previously released from criminal custody.
Anti-Immigrant
Mar 21
Customs and Border Patrol releases at least 250 migrants from detention facilities this week due to overcrowding, reportedly to sow confusion at the border to make the case for President Trump’s national emergency declaration.
Anti-Immigrant
Mar 22
U.S. Marine Corps commander warns in internal memos that sending troops to border under emergency declaration poses “unacceptable risk to Marine Corps combat readiness and solvency” forcing him to cancel training in five countries and to delay base repairs.
Anti-Immigrant
Mar 26
Defense Department transfers $1 billion for new border barrier construction along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Anti-Immigrant
Mar 28
At a rally in Michigan, President Trump mocks people fleeing violence in Central America and seeking asylum in the U.S. He tells crowd that asylum seekers are coached to tell border agents they fear for their lives and calls immigrants’ fear “a big fat con job.”