America’s “Golden Age”? – Trump’s First-Year Impact

On January 21, 2025, Donald J. Trump took his oath of office, promising to usher in America’s “Golden Age” amongst a diverse crowd in the Capitol. As we enter the second year of his historic, second non-consecutive term, let’s review how Trump has upheld his core campaign promises to put “America First” and “Make America Great Again,” again, thus far.

Trump began his second shot at the presidency with a splash, signing a record-shattering 26 executive orders on his first day in office. Among these actions was a renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, a series of commutations and pardons for January 6th insurrectionists, and a directive that “ended birthright citizenship” – now hotly contested in the pending Supreme Court case Trump v. Barbara. While the impact of these executive orders varies, they instantaneously set the tone for Trump’s presidency: a culmination of superficial, polarizing, yet still impactful change. 

Along with these executive orders, the infamous Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was formed. Spearheaded by billionaire and former Trump confidant Elon Musk, this organization sought to reduce federal spending — not through legislation — but through a series of bureaucratic reforms that slashed expenditures on research, and even dismantled long-standing institutions such as the US Agency for International Development (USAID). DOGE also cut the Federal Emergency Management Agency's staff in half, threatening to negatively impact future natural disaster responses, as one of Trump’s early bureaucratic reform initiatives. Although concrete data is difficult to come by to determine DOGE’s legitimate impact on reducing federal spending, it is clearly limited in scope, and the organization has ceased to exist following Musk’s departure from governmental duties. 

Arguably, Trump’s crowning achievement of 2025 was the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Passed by a razor-thin majority in the House and the congressional reconciliation process in the Senate, this legislation eliminated taxes on tips under a total sum of $25,000, promised over $100 billion to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — ten times its 2024 appropriation — by 2029, and slashed taxes to the tune of $4.5 trillion over the next ten years. To fund this federal revenue reduction, the bill cut funding to welfare initiatives, primarily the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Medicaid, that provide essential services to underserved Americans.

Trump’s performance in the latter half of 2025 was controversial, to say the least. The longest government shutdown, lasting 43 days, stemmed from budget disputes and was only solved by a short-term funding package that expired at the end of January. Both Democrats and Republicans shared reservations about this resolution, particularly regarding the notable omission of funding for Affordable Care Act subsidies, which reduce healthcare premiums for eligible beneficiaries. The loss of this healthcare assistance will particularly impact the poorest Americans, forcing them to spend more on their insurance in 2026. Beyond these budget concerns, Trump’s administration faced forced compliance with legislation to publicize the Jeffrey Epstein files, many of which have been questionably redacted—or even removed—when Trump’s name or likeness has been present in any manner. More recently, Trump, along with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, executed an arrest of Venezuela’s authoritarian president Nicolás Maduro in his home country, breaching the nation’s sovereignty without congressional approval. This situation is still evolving, as the question regarding how the administration plans to transfer power among Venezuelan leaders and utilize the nation’s copious natural resources, namely oil, looms large. Meanwhile, ICE agents in Minneapolis have come under fire for the shooting deaths of two American anti-deportation protestors, Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti. In the scenario of Good, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) asserted that she aggressively accelerated her car toward an ICE officer, who fired in “self-defense.” Kristi Noem of the DHS also claims that the killing of Alex Pretti was to ensure officer safety, occurring because he had a concealed semiautomatic handgun—although there is limited evidence to suggest that Pretti was threatening officers with his weapon in any way. In response to these tragic incidents, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, among other Democratic leaders, has expressed their outrage in response to these deaths, and has been subpoenaed by the Department of Justice in a case alleging Minneapolis officials impeded ICE’s law enforcement duties. 

What will 2026 hold for the Trump administration? In all honesty, it is difficult to predict, as is the president himself. Whatever our political allegiances may be, let us hope that, wherever President Trump leads us and our country in this new year, we can begin to move forward, beyond paralyzing partisan gridlock and into a new era of profound progress.