Roughly halfway through the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, he has already largely transformed areas of American policy, reshaped government institutions and wielded presidential power, setting the tone for the next three and a half years.
Trump signed 170 executive orders since Jan. 20, setting a record for the highest first-year total since 1933. His orders fall under several main topics, according to Ballotpedia, a digital encyclopedic platform for American politics: foreign policy, the administrative state, trade and tariffs and reversals.
Marichelledela Cruz, 17, attends MAST@FIU in North Miami Beach, and said Trump has been far more aggressive in his second term so far.
“The way he’s approaching everything is more forceful than the first time he was president,” she said. “He’s trying to change a lot of laws that are already established in the U.S. and I just don’t agree with that.”
Like Cruz, many others are discontent with Trump and his administration the second time around.
Gallop polling shows that Trump’s approval ratings six months into both of his terms are historically lower than any other modern president in the same time period, at 38% and 40% for each term, respectively.
Several months into the first year of Trump’s second term, some say he’s pushing the limits of his executive power.
“From what I’ve seen, it’s been nothing but negative,” said Judson Septimus, an 18-year-old architecture student at Florida International University. “Obviously everybody doesn’t feel safe anymore.”
On June 14, millions of Americans turned out in demonstrations across the country dubbed “No Kings” protests in response to the president’s military parade. People later rallied throughout the United States again in a series of “No Kings 2.0” protests on July 4. These demonstrations targeted the Trump administration and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act before it was passed.
Trump recently signed a megabill into law – the first major legislative victory marking his second term. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act is an extension of the expiring 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act he enacted during his first term. It also includes a temporary tax break on tips and overtime pay.
The massive tax cut and spending law is partly funded by deep cuts to federal safety net programs like Medicaid and food stamps. The money allocated by the slashing enables increased spending on immigration enforcement and the military, advancing Trump and the GOP’s agenda.
“He’s taking away a lot of benefits that people have, that people’s grandparents even benefit from and younger kids,” Cruz said.
Like the new law, these major changes haven’t been met without friction–sometimes even from his voters.
Solanddy Guerrero, a 45-year-old South Florida woman, originally from Venezuela, voted for Trump in the past presidential election. She said she stands by her choice, but she has mixed feelings about his approach to immigration.
“I think there’s other things that need to be taken into account, for example, with the topic of immigration…the time someone has spent here, if they work, if they don’t work, if they live off of the country,” Guerrero said in Spanish. “There’s things I think they’re doing well, like for example, crime [with immigration] and all those types of things, but there’s some that seem too radical like grabbing a person and taking them out of the country unfounded.”
With more than three years left, Trump’s second term has barely even started, yet the halfway mark of his first year has made a bold impression and serves as an indicator of how his return to the White House will change America and its place in the world.
