Headline Roundup • June 3rd, 2025
Trump Admin Deepens Ties With Palantir, Prompting Surveillance Concerns
Summary from the AllSides News Team
The Trump administration has deepened software company Palantir’s work with the federal government, according to The New York Times (Lean Left bias), prompting concerns of extended government surveillance.
The Details: Since Trump took office in January, Palantir has received over $113 million in federal government spending, according to public records. Last week, it also received a $795 million contract with the Department of Defense.
Agencies Involved: Citing anonymous government officials and Palantir employees, The Times reported Palantir is currently working or in talks to work with six government agencies: the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Social Security Administration (SSA), and Department of Education.
For Context: In March, President Trump signed an executive order that called for federal agencies to share data on American citizens with each other. In April, Palantir signed a $30 million contract with ICE to build a platform for tracking migrants. According to DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin, Palantir “has had contracts with the federal government for 14 years.” Founded in 2003, the company struggled to find funding in its early days before it received $2 million from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
How The Media Covered: The story was not the most widely covered by mainstream media. The Times highlighted the potential for government surveillance and concerns from Palantir employees. Newsweek (Center) highlighted perspectives from Trump supporters who were upset with the news. Several outlets highlighted that Palantir’s stock jumped in light of The Times’ report. ZeroHedge (Lean Right) was the only outlet from the right AllSides found coverage from.
Written by the AllSides staff (of humans). Learn more. Support our mission. Suggest an improvement to this summary.
Featured Coverage of this Story
On Friday the NY Times published a report highlighting the Trump administration's increasing use of software from data analysis firm Palantir, which has been deployed across at least four federal agencies for the stated purpose of increasing operational efficiency through data modernization.
Caroline Gutman for The New York Times
In March, President Trump signed an executive order calling for the federal government to share data across agencies, raising questions over whether he might compile a master list of personal information on Americans that could give him untold surveillance power.
Mr. Trump has not publicly talked about the effort since. But behind the scenes, officials have quietly put technological building blocks into place to enable his plan. In particular, they have turned to one company: Palantir, the data analysis and technology firm.
Supporters of President Donald Trump expressed anger and disbelief online following reports that his administration had advanced plans to create a national citizen database with technology firm Palantir.
Newsweek reached out to Palantir for comment.
The White House has contracted Palantir, a Colorado-based analytics company co-founded by Trump supporter Peter Thiel, to assist in compiling a database of personal information on American citizens, according to unnamed government officials and Palantir employees who spoke with The New York Times. The purported deal follows project talks Palantir had with the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the Department of Education.
AllSides Picks
Red Blue Translator
Peace
Red Blue Translator
War on Terror
Blog
We’re Bringing Ads Back — But You Can Turn Them Off For Free
John Gable, AllSides Co-founder
June 1st, 2026
