Trump’s second term has been almost nothing like his first. America is more divided than it has been in a long time, with half of the country supporting the recent changes Trump’s administration has conducted and the other half beginning protests and speaking out against his work.

The beginning of many trade wars, ongoing disregard (according to some) towards our own legal system, and social dilemmas are merely a portion of the controversies that have been occurring over the last few months. Many Americans are wondering; where is the country going to go from here?

The Economy

Trump’s overwhelming victory during the 2024 election was the result of various factors. Though many policies debated throughout America contributed to him winning his second term, there was one pressing topic that stood out the most: the state of economy. Americans were in fear, unsure how far inflation and interest rates would go, not knowing if inflation could lead to a recession, or even if they would be able to continue to buy groceries.

Following Biden’s election in 2020 and the unexpected consequences of CoronaVirus, the economic downturn began to frighten Americans and government officials. The pandemic produced the largest global economic crisis in over a century due to the amount of businesses that had to shut down.

The lockdowns in place all around the world prevented the amount of consumer spending that was previously occurring, and ultimately resulting in plenty of businesses going under. According to The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, under Trump’s presidency, the employment rate fell by 1.4 million in March of 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic, followed by 20.5 million jobs in April. This created a “22 million jobs deficit since the start of the recession” that erased a large portion of gains from job growth over a decade due to this unexpected outbreak.

Just about eight months after Covid-19 had begun spreading about the world, Biden was elected in November of 2020. He quickly began to try to counteract the destruction caused by Covid- 19 and speed up the recovery process by signing the , “American Rescue Plan”  legislative law. According to United States Senate Committee On The Budget, the Senate passed a $1.9 trillion rescue plan to cut child poverty in half, extend lifelines to those who were unemployed, provide aid to working families, and provide resources for schools to reopen safely. Despite Biden’s best efforts to maintain control and conduct, a majority of the country was still left unsatisfied, and began to look for other solutions.

During Trump’s campaign, he and his administration claimed to have plans to create a balance in the economy. His supporters and those who were unhappy with Biden’s administration looked to Trump for help. However, his prowess and confident demeanor led Americans astray as they put trust in his ability to lower inflation, recenter the economy, and build a stable society. Unfortunately since his inauguration back in January, prices of everyday goods, such as eggs and gas, are only going up in price. Now Americans are wondering; what went wrong?

Trump had claimed he would tackle “high prices” and bring them down his first day in office. However, data provides examples of the rise in prices. According to, Fox Business, eggs have seen an increase of 17% since the beginning of 2025. A dozen of eggs currently reside at a price of $6.23.This could be due to various factors. For example, Trump inherited the last economy from the previous leaders, which had been in a dangerous position due to Covid. Though other experts believe this rise in prices is due to his strategy instead.

In the past decades, tariffs had been less common in order to balance trade relationships. Yet that didn’t stop the Trump Administration from setting -25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports from China. Not only that, the US has hinted at the possibility of imposing tariffs on imported goods from the European Union as well. Trade expert at the UK’s Institute for Fiscal Studies, Peter Lavelle, featured on The Conversation, claimed that Trump’s first term, costs were “almost entirely passed on to domestic consumers” which then added to inflation.

Therefore, the excessive tariffs that Trump is imposing onto America and neighboring countries is only degrading our economic system, contributing to the idea that Trump’s strategy is not working.

Overall, the economic crisis currently happening has many feeling uneasy. With fears of a recession and an increase in unemployment, it is hard to say what will happen to our country.

Immigration

Another pressing topic that dictated the American voter’s decisions was immigration. Immigration has been a debated topic for years, but it has been increasingly relevant since Trump took office. His plan to set up mass deportations took action almost immediately. Throughout the country, ICE has made sudden appearances. Trump’s goal was to deport anyone who had come into the country illegally in an effort to prevent both higher tax rates on working Americans and criminal activity.

Currently, more than 1.2 million immigrants enter into the United States each year, both legally and illegally, according to the Center for Immigration Studies. The amount of immigrants in the US has almost tripled since the 1970’s, going from 9.6 million to 24.8 million. These numbers continue to shift.

Some Americans feel threatened by immigrants due to the possibility of a lack of jobs. Due to the increase in immigrant populations in the country, people believe the arriving immigrants are taking away jobs from citizens. This leads to the belief that immigrants can strain resources like education and healthcare. Others believe increased immigration could lead to cultural division and separating due to expected language barriers. Lastly, some believe immigrants are contributing large amounts of crime to the country. As highlighted by, ACLU, Trump claimed, “They’re poisoning the blood of our country. That’s what they’ve done.”

However, studies show that immigration has provided benefits to our country. Immigrants help fill jobs that citizens had not participated in. There is also an argument to be made that immigrants contribute to growth in the economy. This is supported by the idea that the more people spend money on necessities, and other services, the more Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is being fueled. As claimed by, fwd.us, immigrants account for 17% of the GDP in the United States, which amounts to $3.3 trillion. In sum, immigration can have its positive and negative effects on the country as a whole. Americans cannot seem to find a middle ground, as the democratic and republican parties continue to disagree with each other.

Trade Wars

The Trade War going on right now is as detrimental to America as it is to the world. There has been a lot of discussion about this topic, especially having to do with the effects of the trade war and our global economy.For example, that the country might go into a recession or that our economy will plummet, so here are some facts about the ongoing Trade war and how it affects Americans and the rest of the world.

First, what are tariffs and how does a country use them to benefit their own economy? A tariff is a duty or tax that is paid on certain goods being imported or exported. According to the University of Chicago, tariffs can be beneficial to America because when implemented in a certain field, they can bring more jobs to America in certain fields of work. But there are also a lot of negatives to tariffs. They were described after being activated in the past as “Everyone will be worse off”. This is due to the fact that when a tariff is implemented the consumer will pay the price from the increased tax to import the merchandise. This is particularly a problem because everyone’s wages will stay the same but prices will go up.

Trump said “Tariffs are about making America rich again and making America great again, and it’s happening and it will happen rather quickly,”(USA Today). But only time will tell how the effects of this administration and its tariffs will affect the U.S.  According to Politico, President Donald Trump on April 2 announced reciprocal Tariffs on dozens of Countries including many of our close allies. The president was calling this day “Make America Wealthy Again” These tariffs consisted of anywhere from anywhere from 10% to 44%.  What’s ironic about this is that economists like Goldman Sachs stated that we are at 45% more likely to go into recession than before due to these tariffs.

After tireless miscommunication from the Trump Administration, the administration has finally issued a hold on all tarrifs for a 90 day grace period.According to BBC, the exceptions to the order are tariffs on China which have now risen to an astounding 145% on all imports from the country. As well as a baseline 10% on any countries importing goods into America. After this was announced china implemented a 86% tariff increase onto the original percentage of tariffs they had on all American goods. Which brings China’s tariffs on the US to 125%.

Finally, it’s important to understand that these tariffs don’t affect the wealthy as much as they hurt the middle class and lower class citizens. People working pay check to paycheck who had hoped grocery prices would go down. Now these prices are going to skyrocket. Even if the products are made in the US, the packaging wasn’t, nor was the truck driving the goods to the stores. So, even though the Trump Administration is saying these tariffs will benefit the country in the long run this has not been economically proven and will affect the majority of Americans.

DEI

There have been many misconceptions about DEI and its purpose to American business. After Trump took office he immediately rolled out anti DEI policies in all government departments. According to Harvard Business School, Diversity means a group of people who have been historically underrepresented and people who have different points of views and backgrounds that contribute to a diverse environment. Equity is fair and equal access to opportunities. Inclusion is a created environment where everyone feels welcome and respected. A lot of people have been describing DEI as hiring jobs based on no merit. While the other side believes these ideas help incorporate just as qualified candidates for jobs and opportunities that might not have been provided to them in the past.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion was only invented because of people who were underrepresented and who didn’t have the same privilege as the majority group. These programs aren’t about giving jobs to people who aren’t qualified or who aren’t as intelligent, they’re described by some as bridging the gap between other groups of people who do not have the same privileges that the majority group had and still has.

Since Trump has gone back to the White House there has been a lot of controversy particularly having to do with representing DEI on federal websites or in federal programs. According to AP News across all websites of branches of the military around, 26,000 images were flagged for removal for promoting DEI. These pictures included a plane called Enola Gay, which was flagged simply because it had the word gay in it. Another picture removed from the US Marines Corps site was one of Harold Gonsalve who has received the Medal of Honor. Among removing pictures, any mention of months like Black History Month or Women’s History month and others were promptly removed from their sites as well.

What might be confusing about this is that DEI is a model intended to give underrepresented groups of people the same opportunities and to create a more diverse workplace to represent the society we live in. So, why are moments in our history being scrubbed out of federal sites? Some think people in minority groups that make history or paved a path for change means they’re promoting DEI but that’s not true. It puts under question the whole soundness and reasoning for canceling DEI programs.

Climate Crisis 

The Trump Administration has a taken a lot of steps to roll back protecting our climate according to people concerned about climate change. The climate crisis has been ongoing for about two centuries. It first began getting noticed when people believed it was the human race that was causing global warming. Since then, there have been many programs and activists that have stood against climate change, and the contributions to it.

Trump has been very open about his stance on climate change in the past. According to, BBC, be has referred to climate change as “mythical” and “an expensive hoax”. Though, he has contradicted those statements by saying climate change was a serious subject and very important to him. Because of this, it is hard to tell what Trump truly believes about the climate crisis. Though, his decisions and orders can highlight that.

Soon after Trump was elected president for the second time, he re-withdrew from the Paris Agreement since he had previously withdrawn the US, but President Biden rejoined. The Paris agreement is an international treaty that was initially established in 2015. This treaty focused on limiting global warming and rising temperatures. Nearly 200 countries had signed this agreement. By adopting this agreement, the US was obeying and endorsing the reducement of gas emissions.

Why did Trump pull away from this treaty? Trump described it as an “unfair, one-sided Paris climate accord rip-off” right before signing the order.

Recently, the Trump administration fired hundreds at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa).

Noaa uses science to explain the weather, coastal restoration, and support marine commerce. Noaa specializes in climate monitoring and plays a key role in shaping international ocean policies. They work with other countries in order to advance their understanding of climate and predict future changes in said climate.

It’s hard for some Americans to grasp why Trump’s administration fired so many workers. He has not made many statements regarding the situation. Some people believe the number of people being fired  could be detrimental to the environment. The mass firings could weaken the agencies’ abilities to provide Americans with accurate information about the climate and harm other safety programs.

D.O.G.E

DOGE is the Department of Government Efficiency which is a new program that was started by the Trump Administration. The head of this program is suspected to be Elon Musk, but the Administration has repeatedly named Amy Gleason as such. As far as the public knows we are unsure of her actual role in DOGE. She has been discussed very little and has not spoken out about any of the claims nor has she been seen, according to AP News.

Many Americans have problems and complaints about the model of the government right now. No one likes inefficiency and especially when it affects people’s wallets. In theory the department sounds great. Its goal claims to get rid of waste and inefficiencies throughout the government. But it’s up for debate regarding what people define as waste in the government. CBS reports that DOGE has laid off as many as 280,000 federal employees across 27 departments and agencies. Almost every person they fired the reason was for poor performance according to House Committee on the Budget. An agency is a loud to reduce its work force but it is not aloud to just mass terminate without proper procedures that which DOGE has not been following. Procedures like ranking all employees in an agency. They are ranked based off of time working at the agency, recent performance, and several other things. This is a problem because it is simply not true and affects these people who chose to work for our government. When trying to find a new job it will be on these ex-employees’ records that their previous employer fired them for poor performance. They chose to support their country and their country fired them. According to CNN, on several occasions Musk  promised the public he would slash 1-2 trillion dollars from the federal government’s budget by 2026. So far he has only cut 150 billion dollars.

These agencies that DOGE is mass firing from are very important to our country. The department has also been firing people without even looking at the job descriptions which has caused turmoil in the Administration and has upset the public. One example of this is when DOGE fired nuclear weapons workers and didn’t realize their job was crucial to the government. So then the department was scrambling to rehire them. These reckless bulldozing tactics are not what the country needs or our government. This strategy is used in tech companies like X but it is not useful for a government.

Elon Musk is not an official government employee, he is what’s called a special government employee, which means he has a 365 day period where he can work a maximum of 130 days legally in the American Government. It’s unsure what will happen by the end of this timeline but hopefully we will know more about what this department will look like in the future.

No one can predict the state of the country after this administration, whether it’s for the better or the worse. But the one thing we can do is stay informed and try to keep an open mind. In conclusion this is not an ever ending list of the things that have occurred since the beginning of the Trump Administration. We’ve been keeping up with some other stories as well, here are some of the ones to watch: the Department of Education, Abortions, Protests, constant misinformation, USAID, War in Ukraine, and rights. One final note is that since Trump’s final day mark some new approval rating polls have come out. According to a poll on The Economist 53% of America disapproves of the Trump Administration’s actions and 41% approve. If the economy continues to fall and inflation stays on the path that it is currently on, these approval ratings could go down.