Trumpizona

One week in … "Always excellent" … And a moving soliloquy from Fred.

For Arizona resident Jacob Chansley, the personal impact of Donald Trump’s reentrance to the White House was almost immediate.

The shirtless, tattooed, horn-wearing “QAnon Shaman” was among the roughly 1,500 people who Trump pardoned during his first day in office for their role in the January 6 insurrection. That meant the Shaman could once again “BUY SOME MOTHA FU*KIN GUNS!!!”

It didn’t take long for all Arizonans to start feeling some of the immediate impacts of the second Trump presidency, though not everyone is as stoked about it as Chansley.

Within hours of his inauguration, Trump signed more than 20 executive orders, causing mass panic at the border, deregulating oil drilling, freezing new federal government hires, pulling the U.S. out of climate treaties and limiting what genders the federal government can recognize.

That’s all before the new Republican-dominated Congress sends him a single bill.

Within his first week in office, Trump broke open the dam of radical, nationalistic and far-right policies, and the consequences are trickling down everywhere — from Arizona’s southern border to its state Capitol to its city councils.

State lawmakers are pushing bills to aid Trump’s mass deportation efforts. Republican city council members want to follow his lead on cutting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion positions and firing all “DEI hires.”

As newly elected Maricopa County Supervisor and former Congresswoman Debbie Lesko, who voted in Congress to overturn the 2020 election, said, “the work begins to enact his agenda” the day after Trump’s inauguration.

Today, we’re rounding up what that looks like.

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Pardons

More than a dozen Arizonans who were part of the Jan. 6 riots are now free from criminal liability, including Chansley, who was one of the first rioters to enter the Capitol.

Arizonan Edward Vallejo was supposed to be in prison until March 2026 after being convicted on charges of seditious conspiracy for allegedly setting up a weapons arsenal in a Virginia hotel during the riots. He’s tied to the far-right, extremist Oath Keepers group of insurrectionists.

Trump commuted his sentence, so he’s free now.

A Tucson brother and sister duo were also among the pardoned. The brother, Cory Konold, said he doesn’t think “truly violent offenders should be fully pardoned,” per the Tucson Sentinel.

Federal hiring freeze

Arizona has more than 34,150 federal employees, including postal service and court workers, whose jobs will be affected by a federal hiring freeze as they pick up slack in their shrinking departments.

That hiring freeze doesn’t apply to public safety positions, but there’s a lack of clarity on which jobs meet that definition. Veterans Health Administration officials are worried that the freeze on the already understaffed VA hospitals could hinder veterans’ healthcare.

Federal workers also have to work in the office full-time under Trump’s orders. Nearly 10% of civilian federal employees work remotely.

Infrastructure

The future of some of Arizona’s long-awaited infrastructure projects, like expanding the I-10 bottleneck south of Phoenix, is now in limbo after another executive order, intended to increase oil and gas production, also halted the distribution of Biden’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act-funded funding dedicated to the project.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Greg Stanton wrote a letter to the Department of Transportation asking for clarity on some of the projects already in the works, including water infrastructure projects and airport upgrades.

“Many projects funded under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law are underway right now. … We cannot let a stroke of a pen undo years of bipartisan work to better America’s infrastructure,” he wrote.

The border

The Pentagon is sending troops to the border, migrants waiting to seek asylum here have to wait in Mexico with no way to schedule appointments and ICE officers can now go to “sensitive spaces” like churches and schools in defiance of an 11-year precedent.

As a result, Southern Arizona’s mutual aid and nonprofit network is scrambling to get migrants legal and humanitarian help. And Pima County officials closed down shelters that house asylum seekers. Undocumented workers in South Tucson are running drills in preparation for Border Patrol raids.

Cities like Phoenix and South Tucson said they won’t aid in deportation efforts.

But one of Trump’s immigration-related executive orders says jurisdictions that don’t comply will lose federal funding and be subject to criminal liability.

Meanwhile, Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen recently introduced the AZ ICE Act to force local law enforcement to work with their federal counterparts.

Culture wars

Trump declared the federal government will only recognize female and male genders in the name of “defend(ing) women’s rights.”

On Wednesday, Republican Rep. Lisa Fink — a new lawmaker with ties to Christian nationalists — defended her bill requiring the state to identify every person as either male or female while creating distinct, separate spaces for both genders in places like locker rooms and domestic violence shelters.

Erica Keppler, a transgender woman, teared up while speaking in opposition to the bill.

“The transgender population of this state and this nation are in a state of absolute terror right now. Many of us, including myself, who have the means, are looking at leaving the country,” she said.

Meanwhile, Scottsdale City Councilmember Adam Kwasman said Scottsdale should follow Trump’s lead in getting rid of positions intended to advance opportunities for marginalized communities by ending “Radical and Wasteful Government DEI programs” and firing all DEI positions.

Climate

Trump’s executive order paused Inflation Reduction Act funding, which includes a lot of money for climate change mitigation. Local activists told the Arizona Mirrors’ Jerod MacDonald-Evoy that anxiety is at an all-time high.

Trump also revoked a Biden-era plan to get PFAS — a group of synthetic chemicals often called “forever chemicals” because they don’t break down in the environment — out of drinking water.

Arizona’s Department of Environmental Quality has been working to meet the previous federal requirements that cap how much PFAS can legally go into drinking water. It’s unlikely those costly regulations will continue without federal oversight or funding.

Our sister ‘sletter, the Tucson Agenda, is diving into the hyperlocal ramifications of the first week of Trump’s second presidency.

From grants to the University of Arizona, to funding for retrofitting homes, to Tucson’s planned water-purification facility, to humanitarian border efforts — there’s a whole lot up in the air in Southern Arizona.

Meanwhile, small acts of defiance are emerging in Arizona’s bluest corner, as local officials prepare to fight back against Trump’s policies.

Not tired of winning yet: Arizona Republican Party insiders handily reelected chairwoman Gina Swoboda at Saturday’s organizational meeting, with around 56% backing the former election official who led the party to victory last year. Cory McGarr, a Turning Point USA-backed one-term lawmaker who lost his reelection bid in November and cried fraud, pulled in about 44% of the vote in his bid to unseat her. The party picked former lawmaker turned Mohave County Supervisor Ron Gould as its treasurer and Nickie Kelley, who ran in the Republican Primary for Maricopa County School Superintendent last year, as its secretary. With Swoboda’s reelection, the party avoided “shooting itself in the foot,” the Republic’s Laurie Roberts wrote in a column that leaned heavily on our reporting.

“The always excellent Arizona Agenda laid out the drama leading up to Saturday’s party vote in its Friday newsletter,” Roberts wrote.

A text Hank received Saturday referencing his recent appearance on 12News’ “Sunday Squareoff” with Brahm Resnik.

2026 is upon us: Gov. Katie Hobbs is sitting in one of the few gubernatorial swing seats in the 2026 election, per Cook Political Report. Their election analysis crew’s latest rankings declare Arizona one of six states where the governor’s race is a pure “toss up,” alongside Democrat-held governor’s offices in Michigan and Wisconsin, and Republican-held Georgia, Nevada and Virginia. Republicans Karrin Taylor Robson and Andy Biggs are already making moves to challenge her.

Unlike Andy Biggs, we didn’t win $10 million in a sweepstakes.
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Special election incoming?: Democratic U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva was quick to call on Joe Biden to drop out of the presidential race, but he has been slow to resign his own seat, despite his failing health keeping him from hundreds of votes in Congress, the Daily Star’s Tim Steller writes. His office has tried to keep his condition under wraps, and voters in his district deserve someone who can actually represent them under the new Trump presidency, Steller argues.

“If Grijalva is unlikely to be able to return full time to D.C. and resume voting, he should resign as soon as possible, to start the clock running toward the special election. It’s what the residents of CD 7 deserve, and the times call for,” Steller wrote.

Bills galore: Republican Rep. Quang Nguyen wants to require lawmakers to use current photos of themselves, not the 30-year-old pics some put on their public websites. Republican Rep. Selina Bliss wants to limit dispensaries’ ability to advertise, and ban them from using Santa Claus or cartoon characters to promote pot. Republican Rep. Gail Griffin’s bill to exclude taxes from tips passed committee. And Republic columnist EJ Montini likes Republican Rep. Alexander Kolodin’s bill to force the governor to take questions from lawmakers monthly, though he worries it would result in a battle of the wits “where everyone in the room is unarmed.”

Definitely not immigrants: Social media has been flooded with stories of Native Americans being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Republic’s Arlyssa Becenti writes. While it’s not clear how widespread the problem actually is, the Navajo Nation is taking the threat of mix-ups seriously and asking tribal members to carry their tribal ID.

After members of the City Council called constituents who opposed the planned Coyotes Arena “cave people” during a secret and illegal meeting, Tempe man Jack Maverik showed up to a City Council meeting dressed like Fred Flintstone.

The Phoenix New Times’ TJ L’Heureux pulled the clip for your viewing pleasure.

“You guys are on recording behind closed doors making fun of us, calling people names, laughing about it. And then when we come in front of you, it’s sincere looks and head nods. You stand in front of colleges and schools and businesses and you tell them ‘We must disagree better,’” Maverik/Flinstone said.