After one of the most historic elections in United States history, Trump is one year into his devicism presidency. His agenda, which earned him his first popular vote victory in 2024, has drawn loud praise from his supporters but also faces greater challenges than ever before. Below, I have broken down his first year by executive orders, domestic policy, foreign policy and checks and balances.
Executive orders
In 2025, Trump signed 225 executive orders, and the most ever in the first 100 days of a presidency (147). For comparison, Biden signed 162 in four years and Obama signed 276 in eight years. In the most significant expansion of executive power by a president since Franklin D. Roosevelt, Trump’s orders have ranged from harsh tariffs to ending birthright citizenship.
While dozens of issues have been addressed in these orders, the main areas Trump has taken executive action on are border security, climate rollback, trade & tariffs and reversals of progressive social policies. For example, Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement and the World Health Organization. Along with this, he ended many Biden-era climate and diversity initiatives, while defunding federal LGBTQ+ programs.
Under his “America First” policy, Trump has been involved with symbolic nationalist branding by renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of “America,” along with renaming other monuments to highlight American history, even history attributed to the Confederacy.
From an economic standpoint, the most influential of Trump’s policies have related to trade and workforce layoffs. He threatened China, Canada, Venezuela, and European nations with tariffs to take over trade policy from Congress. These tariffs have been enacted despite stable relationships with many countries and have led to price spikes on domestic goods. Along with this, with the help of the now-defunct Department of Government Efficiency, the Trump administration has fired approximately 300,000 federal civil service workers, according to the New York Times.
Domestic policy, economy, and pushback
As mentioned with his executive orders, muchof Trump’s domestic policy has centered around the economy and tariffs, immigration, federal workforce shrinkage and social issues.
Per the Washington Post, Trump invested $100 million to push Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids and recruitment. The result has been dramatic increases in arrests and deportations of undocumented immigrants in the United States, though the administration has faced legal battles for wrongful deportations, such as Kilmar Abrego Garcia of Maryland. Trump also looked to end birthright citizenship, which courts prevented him from doing, as it would take a Constitutional amendment to reverse it.
In major cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., Trump has increased law enforcement presence by deploying the National Guard. This initiative aimed to lower crime in these areas with high crime rates, but according to The Economic Times, the effects have been hard to measure. Following a Supreme Court ruling that found Trump lacked sufficient grounds for these deployments, he has ramped down these efforts.
The economy has fluctuated much under Trump thus far due to decreased consumer confidence and uncertainty about tariffs. The stock market has overall improved since last January, but inconsistently. While, according to The Economist, it peaked in October and November, it hit a low in April, lower than at any point in Obama’s and Biden’s presidencies or Trump’s first term. Inflation decreased in the first few months of Trump’s second term, but rose to 2.7% in November, similar to when he took office.
Due to unpopular immigration and economic policies, along with his increased use of executive power, Trump has received backlash multiple times in “No Kings” protests around the country, along with republicans facing overwhelming losses in the 2025 elections.
Foreign policy
Trump campaigned on and affirmed his “America First” doctrine in his foreign policies, prioritizing American geopolitical and economic interests over allies and multilateral agreements. Public views on this approach have been overall negative, with Americans worried about relationships with foreign partners and questions about what the U.S. has gained from “America First.” The Institute for Global Affairs finds that more Americans think Trump is making foreign policy situations worse than better.
On Jan. 3, 2026, Trump carried out a military operation to capture the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro. Maduro, considered a dictator by the U.S. government, had led Venezuela since 2013 and oversaw his 2024 election victory in an election that was neither free nor fair. This operation has faced mixed reactions: celebrations from the people of Venezuela, but global criticism towards Trump for taking over the nation to control its oil assets.
Before this, Middle Eastern relations have been a primary focus of Trump’s foreign policy. He has reinstated maximum pressure on Iran to prevent it from making nuclear weapons and cutting its oil exports. This has led to economic and political turmoil within the country. Trump has also been involved with ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas, though the U.S. has not taken any action in Gaza, and all ceasefire deals have been unsuccessful in ending the war (thus far). Trump has also met with Presidents Putin of Russia and Zelenskyy of Ukraine, looking to de-escalate military intervention. No end of the war is in sight, and despite some progress in peace talks, Trump has been criticized for treating Putin with more diplomacy than Zelenskyy.
The other branches: congressional dysfunction and the courts
Outside of expanding executive power, Trump has faced many challenges from the legislative and judicial branches. Despite Republicans holding majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, the MAGA agenda has faced barriers from the filibuster and a few non-MAGA congressmen. Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson oversaw the longest government shutdown in U.S. history and consistently relied on continuing resolutions rather than long-term funding bills. In various military strikes, Trump has also skipped getting necessary congressional approval.
Because much of Trump’s agenda has been implemented without legislation, his executive orders have faced numerous court challenges. His agencies have been slowed down by judges who have ruled that they failed to follow required rulemaking procedures. While he has regularly followed court orders, Trump has gone so far as to call some of the judges who rule against him “rogue” and disapprove of these checks on his power. He often questions the legitimacy of unfavorable rulings and attacks judges personally.
Overview and looking forward
Whether or not the first year of Trump’s second term has been productive comes down to opinion. Likely, if you did not support his 2024 presidential campaign, you would not support his year in office, while if you did support him initially, that support would more than likely remain. According to the New York Times, Trump’s approval rating sits at 42% on Jan. 3, a fall from his 49.8% share of the popular vote in 2024. Heading into midterm elections in 2026, the incumbent party of the presidency historically struggles, and that trend is expected to continue, as shown by the 2025 Democratic victories. While democrats will have a hard time flipping the House, which they have a 47-to-53 minority, they have a legitimate chance to flip the House, where they hold the slimmest minority in U.S. history.
