On January 20th, 2025, Donald Trump returned to Washington DC and was sworn in as the 47th President, becoming the second president to serve two nonconsecutive terms as President (the other being Grover Cleveland, who served as the 22nd and 24th President). In just one year, President Donald Trump has managed to retake Washington and transform the political landscape of the United States. Many events have affected the Trump administration, with its ambitious policy agenda goals being implemented across the nation.
On the day his presidency began, Trump shattered records by signing twenty-six executive orders. These expanded across multiple policies, including immigration, foreign affairs, climate, federal workforce, and more. The Associated Press then reported, “In just 100 days, Trump has nearly matched the number of executive orders that his predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden, signed during the previous four years, 162.” Some key executive decisions were withdrawing the U.S. from international climate commitments, such as the Paris Climate Agreement and the World Health Organization, reversing many Biden administration policies, expanding immigration enforcement, and declaring a national emergency at the Southern border. Many of these actions have caused concern both within the international community and within the United States, with the WHO commenting that they “regret” the United States’s intent to withdraw, and immigration activists condemning the rampant ICE raids across the US.
Trump’s first days were also characterized by a significant increase in international tariffs. These taxes targeted China, Canada, Mexico, and the EU as a strategy to address trade imbalances and incentivize domestic production. Such tariffs created trade tensions and drew diplomatic pushbacks. According to Josh Boak, tariffs on countries such as Canada and Mexico reached tariff percentages of 25%, but paled in comparison to China, where tariffs reached 125%. The tariffs come after the president had promised to lower the trade deficit and bring back domestic manufacturing on the campaign trail. Economists have predicted that tariffs will do more harm than good to consumers, as prices and inflation have continued to rise, with the average cost of grocery items, such as ground beef, increasing by up to 17%, while orange juice has increased by 38% compared from 2024 to 2025. According to the latest poll data, only about 36% of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of the economy, a sign that the Trump administration has yet to make good on its promise to fix the economy.
Another large aspect of the president’s second term has been the intensification of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also known as I.C.E.. Trump directed ICE to prioritize deportation in major cities, describing the effort as a large-scale campaign to remove undocumented migrants, even amid protests. The American Immigration Council reports that this controversial shift in policy has caused a “2,459% increase in the number of people with no criminal record held in ICE detention on any given day.” President Trump came into office during a migrant crisis at the southern border and vowed to “seal off the southern border” and deport the “worst of the worst”, referring to criminal aliens.
However, data pulled from both ICE and CBP, Customs and Border Patrol, show that around 75% of detainees have no prior criminal conviction, and of the 25% that do have prior criminal history, a majority are minor offenses such as traffic violations. The recent events in Minneapolis have sparked clashes between protesters and federal law enforcement, causing many to be injured. Most notably, the death of Renee Good has renewed protests and demonstrations across the US as resistance against ICE has increased significantly.
Internationally, President Trump has been involved in various affairs, leading to tensions with Middle Eastern countries, such as Iran. In June, the United States launched air strikes against nuclear sites in Iran, directly targeting three facilities that had been developing Uranium enrichment. The strikes came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shared intelligence with President Trump that Iran was much closer to obtaining a nuclear bomb than previously thought. Although many US advisors dismissed and fact-checked the claim, including Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, President Trump went forward with plans to strike Iran’s nuclear sites.
The bombing of these Iranian sites created fear in America of a possible war, but it fortunately led to no retaliation from the nation. President Trump confirmed the attacks and wrote on his social media, “This is an HISTORIC MOMENT FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ISRAEL, AND THE WORLD.” He added in a later interview that the operation was necessary for global security and preventing nuclear proliferation, and the operation was claimed to be successful. However, according to reports from the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the strikes only managed to set back Iran’s nuclear program by a maximum of six months. Even though the bombing campaign severely damaged the nuclear sites, reports suggest that Iran still retains a small amount of uranium and smaller enrichment facilities that can carry on the nuclear program, although it is unclear whether or not Iran is still actively pursuing a nuclear weapon.
Domestically, the month of October marked the commencement of the longest government shutdown in history. The shutdown lasted a record of 43 days, forcing many federal employees to work without pay, in addition to disrupting services such as air control, benefit programs, etc. The shutdown represented deep partisan budget conflicts, likely due to the heightened political polarization in the country. During the shutdown, the Trump administration and some federal agencies used government sites, emails, and communications to say that “democrats” or the “radical left” were responsible for the government shutdown. This sparked complaints, and many questioned whether these statements violated the Hatch Act, a federal law limiting the political activity of federal employees when using government resources, with the goal of ensuring a nonpartisan government administration. After a month and a half of shutdown, a compromise was reached, and President Trump signed a funding bill in November 2025, ending the shutdown. The shutdown serves as a warning about the implications of increased political polarization in the United States. Without room to compromise, the US is heading down a dangerous path that will lead to more heated political clashes in the future.
After the shutdown, the Epstein Files took over as one of the first major public scandals in the Trump administration. At first, the public was adamant about their release, but the Trump administration disregarded it. When asked about the files, Trump responded by claiming that the files were a “hoax.” However, his stance on the subject changed in November, after it became apparent that the House of Representatives would sign a discharge petition to force a vote on the release of the Epstein Files. Soon, Congress passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act, forcing the Department of Justice to release its investigative records by December 19th, 2025. Many files were released, but the Associated Press wrote that, “the incomplete document dump did not break significant ground about the long-running criminal investigations of the financier or his ties to wealthy, powerful individuals.” As of January 19th, 2026, the DOJ maintains that it is actively working to review all related documents and will continue to release them, despite being a month past the congressionally mandated deadline.
The past year was marked by many different controversies, conflicts, and political discourse. The actions of the Trump administration have fueled the exponential rise of polarization in the United States. As President Trump begins his second year in office, the YUNity Project stands resolute in reaffirming the importance of compromise and a cooling of polarization in our political climate. Through productive dialogue and civil discourse, elected officials can set an example for the next generation of leaders and leave a nation that seeks to unite, not divide.