Trump Administration Expands Palantir AI Surveillance Database on Americans

President Donald Trump's second term has seen a significant expansion of federal surveillance and politicization within the government workforce. His administration has forged a close alliance with Palantir, a CIA-linked data analytics firm co-founded by Peter Thiel, to build a massive new database on hundreds of millions of Americans, raising concerns about unprecedented government monitoring of private information such as tax returns, spending, and travel. The Department of Government Efficiency, under Trump’s direction, has pushed contracts with Palantir, extending its technology use across multiple federal agencies, including the Social Security Administration and IRS, to centralize data collection and analysis. Concurrently, Trump's Office of Personnel Management (OPM) introduced a new hiring policy requiring applicants to align explicitly with his executive orders and policy priorities, signaling a shift toward a politicized federal workforce based on personal loyalty to the president rather than merit. The administration has also continued efforts to target political opponents and critics by firing federal workers, revoking security clearances, and reopening investigations into politically charged cases, although some supporters feel these measures have not gone far enough. These developments collectively suggest a deeper entrenchment of what critics describe as a 'deep state' under Trump’s leadership, blending expanded surveillance capabilities with heightened political control over the federal bureaucracy.