It’s been a year since Donald Trump took office as President of the United States. As the 47th president, he made 7 key promises to “Make America Great Again.”
Trump has since issued a flurry of bold orders on immigration, justice, the economy and more.
Here’s a breakdown of what he said and what actually happened over the year:
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Justice
Donald Trump has promised to “put America first.” “Our sovereignty will be regained. Our security will be restored. The scales of justice will be rebalanced. The vicious, violent and unjust arming of the Department of Justice and our government will end,” he said during his inaugural address on January 20, 2025.
According to a report by The Guardian, during Trump’s first year in office, crime actually fell in all major categories across the US.
Citing the Real-Time Crime Index, which uses data from nearly 600 jurisdictions, the report said there were 20% fewer homicides in 2025 than in 2024.
Trump declared, “We are the federal law,” and fired 17 independent inspectors general despite legal objections.
Immigration
“I will declare a national emergency on our southern border,” Trump promised, speaking on the first day. By December, more than 622,000 deportations and 1.9 million self-deportations had been reported in the US.
“All illegal entry will be stopped immediately and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places they came from,” Trump said.
As promised, he designated the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations and invoked the Alien Enemy Act, which deported Venezuelans to a mega-prison in El Salvador. Trump also reinstated the Stay in Mexico policy as promised, ended catch-and-release and deployed troops, reducing border clashes to a low since the 1970s.
Trump also earmarked $170 billion for a “big, beautiful bill” for enforcement, including expanding detention and border barriers and deploying the National Guard, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal forces to Democratic-controlled cities.
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Color pickers
Trump received record support from the black (13%) and Hispanic (46%) communities in the 2024 election. He thanked them and said, “I heard your voices in the campaign and I look forward to working with you in the years to come.”
But his policies have drawn criticism for harming those communities — he eliminated diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs across the U.S. government, while his crackdown on immigration has left Latino communities in fear.
According to The Guardian, Trump has the least diverse US government this century – his cabinet is filled with white men at the expense of people of color. A Washington think tank reported that nine out of 10 individuals confirmed by the Senate in the first 300 days of the second Trump administration were white.
In an interview with the New York Times, Trump claimed that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 led to white people being treated “very badly.”
Economy
“…defeat record inflation and rapidly reduce costs and prices,” Trump promised.
He has often tried to show that he is focused on reducing prices, but according to The Guardian, he has undermined those efforts by simultaneously claiming that the economy is strong and the issue of affordability is a democratic fraud.
In numbers: When Trump took office, the inflation rate was 3%; the consumer price index rose by 2.7% in the year to December, a small improvement over 2025 but still showing persistent inflation.
Other economic data was mixed. In the fourth quarter of 2025, real GDP grew by an annualized 4.3% from 3.8% in the second quarter. Employment remains mostly stable; the unemployment rate in December was 4.4%.
The stock market has hit record highs, largely thanks to technology companies and investments in artificial intelligence.
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Tariffs
“Instead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries, we will tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens,” Donald Trump said, vowing to “protect American workers and families.”
He has since described “tariffs” as his favorite word, which he says is the key to bringing manufacturing back to American shores. They were also his favorite diplomatic weapon.
On April 2, 2025, called “Liberation Day”, Trump imposed a 10% import tax and other tariffs on imports from around 90 countries. He also invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 to justify them.
But companies and several states have gone to court, arguing that Trump overstepped his authority. According to The Guardian, if the Supreme Court, which is currently hearing the case, throws out Trump’s tariffs, he will be forced to refund the money to American importers who paid them.
The tariffs fueled market volatility and raised prices for consumers, as opposed to the economic apocalypse that was predicted.
Energy
With the motto “We will drill, drill, drill”, Trump promised to “export American energy to the whole world”.
“…we have something that no other producing nation will ever have — the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on Earth — and we’re going to use it,” he said.
In pursuit of Trump’s “energy dominance” agenda, the US has become the world’s leading producer and net exporter of oil and natural gas, reaching record production levels through policies that have encouraged fracking and expanded access to wells. Permits to extract oil and natural gas rose by 55%, The Guardian reported.
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Doge
Donald Trump has put his biggest donor to the 2024 campaign, Elon Musk, in charge of the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), which aims to “restore competence and efficiency to our federal government.”
The actual financial impact of Doge, which aims to drastically cut federal spending, remains highly debated and difficult to verify.
Citing critics and watchdog groups, The Guardian highlighted the widespread chaos caused by the trillion-dollar bailout initiative, including the elimination of essential foreign aid and mass layoffs of government employees.
The Doge disbanded in November, eight months early.
