PRESIDENT TRUMP’S ONE YEAR EVALUATION

The contents of this blog are a compendium of multiple media reports supplemented by my personal opinion where indicated.

President Trump rode into office with a decisive mandate. He garnered 312 Electoral College votes to Harris’ 226, won the popular vote with a plurality of 49.8%, the first Republican to do so since George W. Bush in 2004, and carried all seven swing states.

However, the hopes and expectations of the electorate were formidable. He was expected to, among other things, (1) secure the border, (2) deport the millions of illegals that had infiltrated our country under the Biden Administration, (3) protect us from terrorist attacks, both internal and external, (4) eliminate (or at least mitigate) the flow of drugs into the US and the power and influence of the drug cartels, (5) restore respect (and fear) of the USA viz a vis both our allies and our enemies, (6) eliminate Iran’s nuclear capabilities, (6) settle various conflicts and wars such as those in Gaza and Ukraine, (7) restore us to energy independence, (8) reduce inflation and (9) rehabilitate the economy. Furthermore, he was expected to accomplish all of the above while dealing with a hostile Dem Party and mainstream media that continually sought to undermine him at every turn. No problem, right?

So, after one year, to what extent has he fulfilled his mandate? Has he accomplished some, all, or none of the above goals? I’m sure you all have your own opinions and analyses. If nothing else, Trump is controversial. Read on for mine.

1. Within the first few days of his tenure Trump executed hundreds of Executive Orders, many of which countermanded EOs that had been issued by former president Biden, to get the ball rolling. For example, one EO designated eight drug cartels and transnational organizations responsible for violent attacks as “Foreign Terrorist Organizations.” Those designations gave law enforcement officers wide latitude to combat these organizations.
2. He focused on the cartels that had been disseminating cocaine, fentanyl and other deadly drugs throughout the US. Trump averred these cartels “functionally control[ling] — through a campaign of assassination, terror, rape and brute force — nearly all illegal traffic across the southern border of the United States.” Solutions have included increased border seizures, tougher prison sentences, offering rewards for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of narcotics traffickers, and blowing up “cigar boats’ on the open seas loaded with drugs.
3. Through his “drill baby, drill” policy he reversed Biden-era drilling restrictions, approving nearly 6,000 applications for permits to drill for oil and gas even on federal and Native American land — a 55% increase from the same time period in 2024-2025.
4. For years the Dems had insisted that the huge influx of illegal immigrants across our southern border could not be controlled without Congress’ passing new laws. Trump closed the border in a few weeks by applying EXISTING laws, which were not being enforced. His immigration policies as enforced by DHS, the DOJ and ICE have largely restored control over immigration for the first time in decades. They have reduced illegal border crossings to their lowest level since the 1970s, facilitated the removal of in excess of 2.6 million illegal aliens from the United States through arrests, detentions and deportations, both forcibly and voluntarily, prioritizing the “worst of the worst” – murders, rapists, gang members, and repeat offenders, led to negative net migration in 2025 for the first time in some 50 years, and reduced the trafficking of fentanyl and other dangerous drugs at the southern border by some 56%.
5. He formed a new department, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) headed up by Elon Musk, to ferret out and eliminate waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government. According to the Office of Personnel Management by November 2025 DOGE had reduced the number of federal employees by some 317,000 through mass buyouts, terminations, and early retirements.
6. In a remarkable display of military might and efficiency U.S. forces succeeded in capturing Venezuelan President Maduro without any loss of life and transporting him to the US to face justice for his crimes. The action was a military necessity since Maduro had been cozying up to China, Russia and Cuba, terrorizing his own people and through his socialist policies had been ruining the country’s economy. Trump declared that the U.S. would be taking control of Venezuela’s oil infrastructure temporarily and selling the oil for the benefit of Venezuelans, Americans and U.S. oil companies. Also, we sent a not-so-subtle message to the rest of the world that we were reinstituting the precepts of the Monroe Doctrine and had the military power to do so. Although the operation was a military success it will only be a political success if Venezuela manages to form a stable government to fill the current void in leadership.
7. Trump promulgated an audacious tariff policy to reshape our international trade relations with other countries. He maintained that our trading partners had been ripping us off for decades by levying excessive tariffs on our products thereby hindering our exports. He made it clear that the US would no longer tolerate this practice. He negotiated more beneficial tariffs with virtually all of our trading partners.
8. This policy has been controversial. It has raised some $300 billion for the country and stimulated foreign investment and construction of manufacturing plants in the US. On the other hand, critics claim that ultimately consumers will pay higher prices for some products. This opinion is consistent with survey results that three out of four Americans claim Trump isn’t focusing enough on lowering prices. Moreover, three out of four Americans complain that their income isn’t keeping up with inflation. More on this issue below. 
9. He has been negotiating deals with certain pharmaceutical companies to bring down the prices of drugs for Americans.
10. The financial markets have been climbing substantially. For example, the Dow Industrial Index has increased from 42,392 when Trump took office to 49,098 currently, an increase of 13%. This bodes well for the economy in 2026 and beyond since the financial markets are a leading economic indicator.
11. His policies with respect to crime have resulted in the largest one-year decline in homicides in U.S. history. These policies focused on federal crime crackdowns, terminated the Biden Administration’s soft on crime policies, and reversed the nationwide violent crime surge of recent years. Rapes, robberies, and aggravated assaults have declined by 6%, 19%, and 10%, respectively. In addition, the FBI has captured a record number of criminals on its Most Wanted List. In one year it exceeded the total of Biden’s all four years.
12. All of the foregoing accomplishments are fine, but when people cast their votes on Election Day the paramount issue is always the economy. Voters are more concerned with how they will be able to provide for their family than the other issues I have discussed above. Trump is cognizant of this, and he has promulgated many policies to boost the economy.
13. For example, he has reduced the price of gas at the pump to its lowest in five years. According to AAA the average price of a gallon of regular gas nationally is $2.89. Prices vary by region, with highs up to $4.50 in CA and lows of under $2.40 in the Gulf Coast area. 
14. He has reduced inflation to a multiyear low chiefly by enforcing fiscal restraint and reversing the runaway spending that had characterized the Biden Presidency. Inflation peaked at 8% in 2022. The current level is 2.7%.
15. He reduced mortgage rates to around 6%, which is the lowest in three years by stabilizing the mortgage-backed securities markets, reducing the Prime Rate, and expanding liquidity thus rendering buying a house affordable to more people.
16. He passed the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill,” which will, among other things, provide a substantial boost to the economy through various tax cuts, the elimination of taxes on tips and overtime, tax reductions for seniors and other measures.
17. He created “Trump Accounts” that will encourage families to establish tax-advantaged savings accounts for newborns.

Conclusion

Trump’s mantra has consistently been “America First,” and all of his actions have been aimed at that goal. As I said above some of his policies are controversial, and you may not agree with all of them. I, myself, have doubts about a few of them. I have discussed most of them in detail in previous blogs.

Overall, I maintain that Trump’s first year in office has been very successful. He inherited a chaotic situation, especially with respect to the economy. I say give him a chance to clean it up. The Big Beautiful Bill has many elements, particularly the tax cuts and rebates, that I feel will boost the economy. In my lifetime every set of tax cuts and rebates has done so. They just need a few months to work.

The 2026 off-year elections are looming. We all know that typically the president’s party loses congressional seats, sometimes a myriad of them. Trump still has much work to do to clean up the aforementioned mess that he inherited. If the Dems were to gain control of one or both Houses of Congress, it will be most unfortunate for the country. The Dems will likely block all of Trump’s initiatives and probably impeach him and others. Nothing of substance would be accomplished for the next two years.