Changes That Have Been Made

Donald Trump has officially completed the first year of his second term in office. After being reelected back in November of 2024, Trump has changed America through executive orders, with 225 passed in 2025 alone. On the legislative front, he has passed five bills in 2025, and vetoed two bills.

When it comes to bills, the most notable one Trump passed was the Big Beautiful Bill. This divisive bill was passed on July 4, 2025. According to the White House’s website, the bill cut taxes on working class families, while also enabling working families to more take home money. It ended taxes on tips, overtime, and social security, lowered taxes on American auto loans, gave 12.5 million dollars to the air traffic system control, and increased child tax for 40 million families. As for additional spending, it upped defense spending for ICE officers and border patrol and ordered a wall along the Mexican-American border to be completed. An additional provision of the bill was to create “Trump Accounts” for 2025-2028 newborns, which are similar to tax reductions for the families that have the kids. They removed certain people from medicaid from those who didn’t meet the requirements for it. It also cut Medicaid and food stamps for many families, while affecting tipped and hourly workers. As a consequence, some people were against the Big Beautiful Bill because it added to the US’s national debt, which Trump aimed to fix with this bill.

In regards to domestic policy, Trump modernized the foster care system, which was done by making sure anyone aging out of the system was able to get an education. The executive order also helped with job training for kids, aiding them with financial independence through new public-private partnerships. This was done so anyone in foster care could have a good start in life.

Trump campaigned on reducing government spending, and to facilitate this, Trump created the DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) in conjunction with entrepreneur Elon Musk, to cut spending that was wasting money within the government. It was also created to modernize the technology within the government and maximize productivity, while also cutting funding and excess regulations within the government. Portions of the public didn’t like DOGE for various reasons, such as DOGE not looking into the ways that the budget cuts were affecting Social Security and the economy. Also, many claimed it was acting without lawful permission and not being honest with the public. All these combined led to federal lawsuits against DOGE for its actions, and it was ultimately disbanded in late 2025.

When reviewing Trump’s first year back in office, it is clear that his administration has impacted how the nation operates in only one year in regards to both foreign and domestic policy, culminating in a number of ways that the USA has changed. There are many more bold changes that Trump plans to make in the second year of his second term, but only time will tell about the impacts on the American people.