Trump's Trials - Trump admin pushes to alter census, reshape voting maps

Episode Date: September 10, 2026

The Trump administration is making a new push to exclude millions of U.S. residents from a key census count that the 14th Amendment says must include the "whole number of persons in each state."Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

You're listening to Trump's terms. I'm Scott Detrow. The president has both an ability and a willingness to use the power of his office, to think outside the box. Nobody makes a better deal than President Trump. We're going to do better and better and better. Nobody can believe what they're watching. Every episode, we bring you one story from NPR's recent coverage of the 47th president. With a focus on ways his administration is pushing the boundaries of presidential power.

Here's the latest from NPR. I'm Stephen Skeep. President Trump's administration is making a new push to reshape voting maps. This time, it's a proposal for changes to the 2030 census. Expect new court battles. NPR's Hansi Lo Wong reports. The 14th Amendment says the, quote, whole number of persons in each state must be included in the census numbers used to determine how many congressional seats and electoral college votes each state gets for a decade. The Constitution is pretty clear. Adjiazipedaderex is an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union. It doesn't mince words. It doesn't say citizens.

It doesn't say green card holders. But the Trump administration is proposing what would be an unprecedented change. And those specific census numbers in 2030 leave out non-U.S. citizens without a green card. The administration says the Constitution's framers did not intend to include those non-citizens among the persons to be counted for the census. It would fly against centuries of constitutional tradition and law in the United States. Sipedaday-Dary-X says the ACLU is now considering suing the Trump administration, like it did when Trump officials tried and failed to make a similar change for the 2020 census, which has been

used to guide trillions in federal funding and informed community planning and policymaking. The administration's proposals for the 2030 count is expected to require some kind of question about people's U.S. citizenship status, which Census Bureau research shows, is likely to discourage households with non-citizens from getting counted. And what happens then is you are going to have inaccurate data. Mehta, Nan of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, is also concerned about having less data. That's because the Trump administration is also proposing

to no longer allow census questions about people's race and ethnicity. The administration argues there's a, quote, reduced need for that information. But Anon points out it's used to enforce civil rights protections. It's what we use to determine health outcomes. It's how we are able to understand the very fabric of who we are as a society. The Trump administration is collecting public comments on its 2030 proposal. Any changes it makes could be reversed by Congress or a new presidential administration in 2009.

Anzi Loong, NPR News. Before we wrap up a reminder, you can find more coverage of the Trump administration on the NPR Politics podcast, where you can hear NPR's political reporters break down the day's biggest political news with new episodes, every weekday afternoon. And thanks, as always, to our NPR Plus supporters who hear every episode of the show without sponsor messages.

You can learn more at plus.npr.org. I'm Scott Detrow. Thanks for listening to Trump's terms from NPR.