In a recent video posted to his X account, Kyle Sweetser — an Alabama native and lifelong Republican now running as a Democrat for Tommy Tuberville’s U.S. Senate seat — slammed the Trump administration for collaborating with data analysis company Palantir to compile a master database on American citizens.
“America, our freedom is in danger. This administration just granted a contract to Palantir technologies to create a master database of all U.S. citizens’ data. This includes our medical records and our bank account information,” Sweetser stated in the video.
According to the New York Times, Trump is enlisting Palantir — the data analysis and technology firm founded by far-right billionaire Peter Thiel — in an effort to enforce an executive order issued in March which instructed federal agencies to share data with each other. Critics are warning that the move could mark a significant expansion of government surveillance over the American people.
“The Trump administration has expanded Palantir’s work across the federal government in recent months,” writes Sheera Frenkel and Aaron Krolik of the Times. “The company has received more than $113 million in federal government spending since Mr. Trump took office, according to public records, including additional funds from existing contracts as well as new contracts with the Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon. (This does not include a $795 million contract that the Department of Defense awarded the company last week, which has not been spent.)”
Additionally, Palantir is in talks with the Social Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service to further expand its access to American citizens’ private data. The merging of government data across separate agencies would allow the Trump administration to connect U.S. citizens’ bank account numbers, student debt totals, medical claims, disability statuses and more.
Although the effort to compile a one-stop-shop of American citizens’ personal data was originally pioneered by Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency, Thiel and Palantir appear primed to take up the mantle as Musk steps back from his role in the White House.
In addition to serious national security concerns, critics warn that such a database could be used by the Trump administration to further persecute political dissidents and immigrants. Indeed, just this past week, the IRS agreed to give the Department of Homeland Security access to closely held taxpayer data for the purpose of identifying immigrants for deportation — a decision which has the acting IRS commissioner and other top officials in the agency preparing to resign.
Sweetser echoed these criticisms in his video, highlighting a broader trend of authoritarian actions coming from the Trump White House.
“These folks have been snatching people off the street without due process and have snatched up a couple U.S. citizens without due process,” Sweetser said. “If you think these folks in Washington, D.C. care about our freedom, you are sorely mistaken.”
“As a lifelong Alabamian, as someone that appreciates freedom, that lives in the woods, that loves my individual liberties, I will fight for everyone’s rights and I won’t sell out the same way Donald Trump and the Republican Party sold out. I will fight for you,” he added.
Sweetser is not alone in decrying the Trump administration’s efforts to compile data on American citizens. U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-MD, balked at DOGE’s claims that such a database would help the agency weed out waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government.
“They have not demonstrated a single case in which fraud detection has required some universal governmental access to everybody’s data,” said Raskin. “In fact, the creation of a monster uniform database of all information on all citizens will be an invitation to fraud and political retaliation against the people.”
Several groups, including Democracy Forward, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, and other unions, privacy advocates and immigrant’s rights associations, have also sued to block Trump and DOGE from accessing and assembling this data. However, whether these suits will ultimately prevent Palantir from constructing Trump’s database is yet to be seen.
“This is a big deal. It’s a slippery slope,” Sweetser told APR in a written statement Sunday. “If you talk to most Alabamians, you’ll hear that they don’t want the government prying into and tracking their private lives.”
