When President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January, ProPublica’s reporters set out to cover how his second administration would reshape the government and the country.
Our reporters detailed what happened when the Department of Government Efficiency, initially led by Elon Musk, slashed federal agencies, including the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Social Security Administration. We wrote about the people caught up in the administration’s immigration crackdown, including the more than 170 U.S. citizens who had been detained by immigration agents. We profiled key figures in the administration, including the 22-year-old picked to lead terrorism prevention and the man who has been described as Trump’s shadow president.
Our newsroom also focused beyond the White House. Ginger Thompson wrote a five-part series, with research by Doris Burke, that told the story of American health care through the only hospital in Albany, Georgia. Ellis Simani and Lexi Churchill uncovered a Texas charter school superintendent who makes $870,000. And David Armstrong sought to understand why a single pill of his cancer drug cost the same as a new iPhone.
Those were all among the investigations that readers spent the most time with this year. In the new year, ProPublica will keep reporting on these storylines — and new ones.
In the meantime, revisit our most-read stories of 2025, as measured by the total amount of time spent reading them across several of our publishing platforms.
1. The Militia and the Mole
By Joshua Kaplan
Outraged by the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, a wilderness survival trainer spent years undercover climbing the ranks of right-wing militias. He didn’t tell police or the FBI. He didn’t tell family or friends. The one person he told was a ProPublica reporter.
2. Sick in a Hospital Town
By Ginger Thompson, with research by Doris Burke
Why were the people in Albany, Georgia, so sick, when the town’s most powerful institution was a hospital?
3. Inside ICE Air: Flight Attendants on Deportation Planes Say Disaster Is “Only a Matter of Time”
By McKenzie Funk
Current and former flight attendants for GlobalX, the private charter airline at the center of Trump’s immigration crackdown, expressed concern about their inability to treat passengers humanely and to keep them safe.
4. The Untold Saga of What Happened When DOGE Stormed Social Security
By Eli Hager
DOGE has ignored urgently needed reforms and upgrades at the Social Security Administration, according to dozens of insiders and 15 hours of candid interviews with the former acting chief of the agency, who admits he sometimes made things worse.
5. Trump’s Own Mortgages Match His Description of Mortgage Fraud, Records Reveal
By Justin Elliott, Robert Faturechi and Alex Mierjeski
The Trump administration has argued that Fed board member Lisa Cook may have committed mortgage fraud by declaring more than one primary residence on her loans. We found Trump once did the very thing he called “deceitful and potentially criminal.”
6. Getting “DOGED”: DOGE Targeted Him on Social Media. Then the Taliban Took His Family.
By Avi Asher-Schapiro and Christopher Bing
Afghan scholar Mohammad Halimi, who fled the Taliban in 2021, had worked to help U.S. diplomats understand his homeland. Then DOGE put his family’s lives at risk by exposing his sensitive work for a U.S.-funded nonprofit.
7. “The Intern in Charge”: Meet the 22-Year-Old Trump’s Team Picked to Lead Terrorism Prevention
By Hannah Allam
One year out of college and with no apparent national security expertise, Thomas Fugate is the Department of Homeland Security official tasked with overseeing the government’s main hub for combating violent extremism.
8. The Price of Remission
By David Armstrong
When Armstrong was diagnosed with cancer, he set out to understand why a single pill of Revlimid cost the same as a new iPhone. He has covered high drug prices as a reporter for years. What he discovered shocked him.
9. “Incalculable” Damage: How a “We Buy Ugly Houses” Franchise Left a Trail of Financial Wreckage Across Texas
By Anjeanette Damon and Mollie Simon
Charles Carrier is accused of orchestrating a yearslong Ponzi scheme, bilking tens of millions of dollars from both wealthy investors and older people with modest incomes. Despite signs of trouble, the houseflipping chain HomeVestors of America didn’t step in.
10. The White House Intervened on Behalf of Accused Sex Trafficker Andrew Tate During a Federal Investigation
By Robert Faturechi and Avi Asher-Schapiro
Federal authorities were chided for seizing electronic devices from Tate and his brother, and told to return them, records and interviews show. Experts said the intervention was highly inappropriate.
11. This County Was the “Model” for Local Police Carrying Out Immigration Raids. It Ended in Civil Rights Violations.
By Rafael Carranza, Arizona Luminaria. Co-published with Arizona Luminaria.
Under Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Maricopa County was one of the first testing grounds for ICE’s 287(g) program, which lets local police enforce immigration laws. Many Arizonans say those abuses parallel what’s playing out now under Trump.
12. The H-2A Visa Trap
By Max Blau, ProPublica, and Zaydee Sanchez, for ProPublica, with illustrations by Dadu Shin for ProPublica
Sofi left behind her child in Mexico for the promise of providing him a better life. She ended up a victim of an operation that is alleged to have exploited the H-2A visa program — and the workers it brought to America.
13. “Ticking Time Bomb”: A Pregnant Mother Kept Getting Sicker. She Died After She Couldn’t Get an Abortion in Texas.
By Kavitha Surana and Lizzie Presser, photography by Lexi Parra for ProPublica
ProPublica has found multiple cases of women with underlying health conditions who died when they couldn’t access abortions. Tierra Walker, a 37-year-old mother, was told by doctors there was no emergency before preeclampsia killed her.
14. To Pay for Trump Tax Cuts, House GOP Floats Plan to Slash Benefits for the Poor and Working Class
By Robert Faturechi and Justin Elliott
A menu of options being circulated by congressional Republicans also includes new tax cuts for corporations and the ultrawealthy.
15. Kristi Noem Secretly Took a Cut of Political Donations
By Justin Elliott, Joshua Kaplan and Alex Mierjeski
A dark money group paid $80,000 to Noem’s personal company when she was governor of South Dakota. She did not include this income on her federal disclosure forms, a likely violation of ethics requirements, experts say.
16. We Found That More Than 170 U.S. Citizens Have Been Held by Immigration Agents. They’ve Been Kicked, Dragged and Detained for Days.
By Nicole Foy, photography by Sarahbeth Maney
The government does not track how often immigration agents grab citizens. So ProPublica did. Our tally — almost certainly incomplete — includes people who were held for days without a lawyer. And nearly 20 children, two of whom have cancer.
17. Trump Officials Celebrated With Cake After Slashing Aid. Then People Died of Cholera.
By Anna Maria Barry-Jester and Brett Murphy, photography by Peter DiCampo
Behind closed doors in Washington, top advisers made a series of decisions that had devastating repercussions for the poorest country on earth. We went to South Sudan and found people who died as a result.
18. “The President Wanted It and I Did It”: Recording Reveals Head of Social Security’s Thoughts on DOGE and Trump
By Eli Hager
In a recording obtained by ProPublica, acting Social Security Commissioner Leland Dudek portrayed his agency as facing peril, while also encouraging patience with “the DOGE kids.”
19. This Charter School Superintendent Makes $870,000. He Leads a District With 1,000 Students.
By Ellis Simani, ProPublica, and Lexi Churchill, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune. Co-published with The Texas Tribune.
On paper, Salvador Cavazos earns less than $300,000 to run Valere Public Schools, a small Texas charter network. But taxpayers likely aren’t aware that in reality, his total pay makes him one of the country’s highest-earning superintendents.
20. What You Should Know About Russ Vought, Trump’s Shadow President
By Andy Kroll
Vought is the architect of Trump’s broader plan to fire civil servants, freeze government programs and dismantle entire agencies. Here are some key things to know about the D.C. insider who wants to take a hatchet to the federal government.
21. “Slow Pay, Low Pay or No Pay”
By T. Christian Miller
Blue Cross authorized mastectomies and breast reconstructions for women with cancer but refused to pay the full doctors’ bills. A jury called it fraud and awarded the practice $421 million.
22. “We’re Broken”: As Federal Prisons Run Low on Food and Toilet Paper, Corrections Officers Are Leaving in Droves for ICE
By Keri Blakinger
Many of the problems the agency is facing now are not new, but staff and prisoners fear an exodus of officers could make life behind bars even worse.
23. He Spent Funds Meant for Native Hawaiians on Polo and Porsches. The Federal Government Failed to Stop Him.
By Nick Grube, Honolulu Civil Beat. Co-published with Honolulu Civil Beat.
A small business program allowed Christopher Dawson to win big contracts if he promised to uplift Native Hawaiians. Instead, federal prosecutors allege, he used the money to line his own pockets.
24. Young Girls Were Sexually Abused by a Church Member. They Were Told to Forgive and Forget.
By Jessica Lussenhop, ProPublica, and Andy Mannix, Minnesota Star Tribune, photography by Leila Navidi, Minnesota Star Tribune. Co-published with Minnesota Star Tribune.
In Minnesota, leaders of an Old Apostolic Lutheran Church community enabled a child abuser by telling his victims that once the sins were “washed away in the blood of reconciliation,” they could never speak of them again.
25. Texas Banned Abortion. Then Sepsis Rates Soared.
By Lizzie Presser, Andrea Suozzo, Sophie Chou and Kavitha Surana
ProPublica’s first-of-its-kind analysis is the most detailed look yet into a rise in life-threatening complications for women experiencing pregnancy loss under Texas’ abortion ban.
