About

Donald Trump's Palantir Citizenship Database Controversy refers to discourse and memes that followed a New York Times article from late May 2025 alleging that U.S. President Donald Trump has expanded government contracts with data analysis and technology firm Palantir, which currently holds over $900 million in contracts with the U.S. government. The NYT article alleged that a Palantir data analysis product named Foundry had been put into federal agencies like the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Several experts raised an alarm at the possibility that Trump's administration could use Palantir to create a unified citizenship database that tracks information across several federal agencies. The news was met with widespread criticism from Trump's critics and supporters alike, with several internet users likening it to China's Social Credit System.

Origin

On May 30th, 2025, The New York Times^[1] published an article discussing the Trump administration's contracts with Palantir Technologies and its plans to build a centralized database of Americans' personal information.

Palantir's data analysis Foundry software is reportedly being integrated into multiple federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services. The article warned that this software would allow the administration to merge tax records, Social Security data, student debt, medical claims and bank account details to create detailed citizen profiles.

The news was covered by other outlets like MSNBC,^[2] Breaking Points,^[11] Newsweek^[3] and the New Republic^[4] soon after the article was released in late May 2025, with Redditor /u/Aggravating_Money992 reposting an article to the subreddit /r/technology^[5] on May 30th, gathering over 43,000 upvotes in five days.

Online Reactions

Several internet users reacted negatively to the news as it spread online, including conservatives and Trump supporters, who expressed their apprehension about Trump possibly introducing a citizenship database.

On May 30th, 2025, far-right political pundit Nick Fuentes^[6] posted a tweet criticizing the move, stating, "Trump’s promotion of Palantir is the ultimate betrayal of his own people. Feeding every 'MAGA extremist' into an AI database controlled by a CIA/Mossad cutout. Seriously, if Palantir isn’t the deep state, then what is?" The post gathered over 40,000 likes in four days.

Some internet users began drawing parallels between such an American citizenship database and the Chinese Social Credit System.

For instance, on May 31st, X^[7] user @TheMaineWonk posted a video showing a news report about the Chinese surveillance state, writing, "Coming soon to America. Thanks to Trump’s partnership with Palantir. Do you get it now?" The tweet received over 16,900 likes in five days

Coming soon to America.

Thanks to Trump’s partnership with Palantir.

Do you get it now?

pic.twitter.com/cCf3YFpO36

— Maine (@TheMaineWonk) May 31, 2025

Some conservatives defended the move to create a national citizenship registry, including conspiracy theorist and podcaster Alex Jones, who described the backlash as "hysteria."^[8] Other X^[9] users pushed back on this characterization, as seen in a June 3rd, 2025, post by user @Seamus_Malek that called his take a "downfall," gathering over 14,000 likes in a day.

Don't want this to come across as me ever having liked Alex Jones, but man, what a downfall. We're literally in a supposed period he always prophesied, of unchecked government power and openly evil corporate overlords, and now he's just like, "Ahhh, it's all just fear-mongering!" https://t.co/luFSc1wksL

— Séamus Malekafzali (@Seamus_Malek) June 3, 2025

Official Palantir Response

On June 3rd, 2025, the official X^[10] account for Palantir made a post pushing back against the criticism levied against the company in previous days, writing, "The recently published article by the New York Times is blatantly untrue. Palantir never collects data to unlawfully surveil Americans, and our Foundry platform employs granular security protections." The response received over 1.5 million views and 7,200 likes in a day.

Several internet users noted the use of the word "unlawful," as seen in a post that same day by X^[12] user @MiddleOfMayhem that implied that the term "unlawfully" is doing the heavy lifting in Palantir's statement. The tweet, which notably used the Atlas Holding The Earth meme, received over 80 likes in a day.

Search Interest

External References