One Year of Wins: Trump’s Top Accomplishments in First Year of ‘Golden Age’

President Donald Trump worked at warp speed to “Make America Great Again” in his first year back in office, and the results, on countless fronts, have been bountiful.

Trump inherited from former President Joe Biden a country reeling from a wounded economy and porous border policies that led to mass illegal immigration and a globe facing destabilization with the advent of two major wars in the Middle East and Europe under his predecessor.

On day one of his administration, January 20, 2025, Trump began to take sweeping action to address issues inherited from the Biden administration with 26 executive orders — a harbinger of the breakneck speed at which he would work to implement the MAGA agenda. In total, the Federal Register shows he signed 228 executive orders throughout the first full year of his second term — and that is without mentioning the transformative legislation he signed into law and highly successful foreign policy initiatives he embarked upon.

“President Trump accomplished more in one year than many presidents did in eight. The President delivered on every major campaign promise — securing the border, stopping Biden’s inflation crisis, signing the largest middle-class tax cuts in history, ending woke DEI nonsense, and restoring American strength on the world stage,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Breitbart News on Monday. “Under President Trump’s leadership, America is safer, stronger, and more prosperous than ever before, and the best is yet to come.”

Trump implemented his wildly successful tariff policies that produced many positive outcomes without spiking inflation, defying critics who claimed it would, began to heal the American economy, secured the southern border, settled or de-escalated numerous conflicts around the globe through his “peace through strength” foreign policy agenda, secured significant tax relief for Americans through his One Big Beautiful Bill Act, protected America’s youth and women from radical leftist trans ideology, and unleashed his and Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) agenda.

Trump’s Tariffs Deliver on Many Fronts

Trade Deals

On “Liberation Day,” April 2, 2025, Trump instituted his worldwide tariff policy, giving the United States tremendous leverage to negotiate trade and pharmaceutical deals, broker peace deals, and drive monumental investment into the United States after policies of his predecessors led U.S.-based manufacturing to flee to foreign countries. In other words, Trump’s tariff strategy has driven many of his second-term accomplishments.

Trump came out with forceful reciprocal tariffs, including a 20 percent duty on goods from the European Union (EU), a ten percent tariff on the United Kingdom, a 24 percent rate on Japanese goods, a 46 percent tariff on Vietnam, a 32 percent tariff on Taiwan, and lofty duties on scores of other countries across the planet.

The results on the trade deal front in the months that followed were profound, headlined by the historic deal he reached with the EU on July 27. During a joint press conference with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at Trump Turnberry in Scotland, the leaders announced the contours of the deal, which include the EU’s commitment to purchase $750 billion in American energy and to invest $600 billion in America on top of existing investments.

Moreover, the EU agreed to pay a 15 percent tariff on goods from Europe to gain access to American markets, and Trump noted that European countries were opening their markets to American goods.

Von der Leyen stressed that the deal was about rebalancing the EU’s trade surplus with the United States when asked about the concessions the U.S. would make.

“The starting point was an imbalance, a surplus on our side and a deficit on the U.S. side, and we wanted to rebalance the trade relation, and we wanted to do it in a way that trade goes on between the two of us across the Atlantic, because the two biggest economies should have a good trade flow between us,” she said.

“I think we hit exactly the point we wanted to find: Rebalance, but enable trade on both sides, which means good jobs on both sides of the Atlantic, means prosperity on both sides of the Atlantic, and that was important for us,” she added.

Trump called the agreement “the biggest deal ever made.” In 2024 alone, the countries swapped €1.68 trillion, or roughly $1.8 trillion, in goods and services, accounting for nearly 30 percent of global trade and 43 percent of global gross domestic product.

The EU deal marks the centerpiece of Trump’s trade progress as a result of tariffs, and followed deals with the United Kingdom, Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Vietnam. The trade bloc of these countries alone accounted for 57 percent of global GDP and 40 percent of international trade.

Trump has also struck new trade agreements with Malaysia and Cambodia, finalized during his October Southeast Asia trip.

Most-Favored-Nations Deals

Trump’s tariffs are paying dividends for Americans through the Most-Favored-Nation (MFN) deals he has struck with leading pharmaceutical companies, which have drastically reduced drug prices.

Trump told Breitbart News outside of Air Force One on August 3 — more than a month before he announced his first deal — that there would be “tremendous” drops in drug prices when asked if he had advice for Republicans ahead of midterm elections in 2026.

“We’ll be dropping drug prices. It’ll start over the next two to three months, by 1,200, 1,300, and even 1,400 percent and 500 percent, but not just 50 percent or 25 percent, which normally would be a lot because the rest of the world pays much less for the identical drug,” he continued. “And we’re going to be paying the same thing. We’re going to have a Favored Nations. We will pay as low as the lowest nation in the world.”

On September 30, he announced his first agreement with Pfizer, followed by deals with Amgen, AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb, Boehringer Ingelheim, Eli Lilly, EMD Serono, Genentech, Gilead Sciences, GSK, Merck, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi through the end of the year.

Trump’s deals are bringing prices down dramatically on a plethora of drugs, and his agreements with Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly provide prime examples. Novo Nordisk-produced Ozempic and Wegovy are dropping to $350 per month in the United States, down from $1,000 and $1,350, respectively, while Eli Lilly-made GLP-1 drug Zepbound is falling to $346 per month from $1,086. Trump is now calling on Congress to codify the MFN deals in the “Great Healthcare Plan.”

He told Breitbart News on Friday that he gave countries an ultimatum: either agree to MFN prices for America or face tariffs.

“We’re doing that by most-favored nations and other nations, whoever pays the lowest in the world, that’s what we’re going to pay. Right now, we’re paying sometimes ten times higher than other nations. So, we have favored nations, that’s been approved. Other nations have, for the most part, agreed to it, and they had no choice. Otherwise, we were going to put tariffs on them,” he said before taking off on Marine One en route to Palm Beach, Florida, for the weekend.

Investments

In large part thanks to Trump’s tariffs and deregulation, he has attracted massive investment into the United States from countries and companies around the world, including drug companies as part of MFN deals.

Trump puts the number at $18 trillion in investment in just one year, while the White House lists $9.6 trillion in investments on its website, with some of the most consequential commitments being:

• The United Arab Emirates: $1.4 trillion
• Qatar: $1.2 trillion
• Japan: $1 trillion
• Meta: $600 billion
• Apple: $600 billion
• Saudi Arabia: $600 billion
• EU Firms: $600 billion
• Softbank, Oracle, and OpenAI: $500 billion
• NVIDIA: $500 billion
• India: $500 billion

“In four years of Biden, they secured less than $1 trillion of new investment in the United States … In less than one year, I have secured commitments for over $18 trillion from all over the world, the most ever for any country,” he told the Detroit Economic Club on Wednesday.

Leverage for Peace

The president has also wielded tariffs to secure peace agreements. He described to Fox News in October how his strategy helped yield a ceasefire or de-escalation in most of the conflicts he has settled around the world:

“I think we top everybody by a lot with the tariffs and all of that. But, you know, having the ability to deal with trade, having the ability to use tariffs to help me make a point — the tariffs have brought peace to the world. I’m telling you, they brought peace to the world. And not only here, but with so many other deals. You know, I’ve made seven peace deals where countries were in many cases, 30, 31 years, 135, 137 years they’ve been fighting and millions of people being killed. And I brought peace. And I did it through — in not all cases, but probably in at least five of the seven that we’ve done so far, it was through trade. That we’re not going to deal with people that fight. We’re not going to deal, and we’re going to put tariffs on you. We’re not going to let you deal in the United States. We’ll put tariffs on you.”

“And without that, without the tariffs — I mean, far more than even the money that we’re taking in, which is trillions of dollars, essentially trillions of dollars,” he continued. “Far much — more importantly, it gives you a tremendous road to peace and the saving of millions of lives, just millions and millions of lives. You look at India and Pakistan. I said, ‘Well, we’re not going to do business with either of you if you don’t — if you don’t put it together.’ These are two nuclear nations that were — seven planes were shot down as you know, and they were really at it. They were going at it, and I said, ‘We’re not going to do any business with you. We’re not going to have anything to do with you. We’re going to put massive tariffs on you, both — in both cases.’ And they said, ‘Well, we got to start talking about this. This is tremendous amounts of money and power we’re dealing with.’”

Trump added, “And within 24 hours, I had a peace deal. They made — they stopped. They stopped the fighting. And we can go one after another. You’ve been really nice enough to announce all of the deals, but there have been many deals. And a lot of them — a lot of the settlements were based on trade.”

The “Trump Economic Boom” Is Underway

Speaking at the Ford facility in Dearborn, Michigan, last Tuesday, Trump touted that his “economic boom” is underway. The data from a full year in office backs it up.

The Atlanta Fed projects the Trump economy grew at 5.3 percent GDP in the fourth quarter — an extremely robust number despite likely being hindered by the 43-day Democrat government shutdown in the fall.

National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett predicted in November that the Democrat shutdown was costing the United States $15 billion per week and would drop fourth-quarter GDP growth by one percent to 1.5 percent. Based on Hassett’s comments, the highly impressive fourth-quarter projection would presumably be even higher if there were no shutdown. This immense growth comes on the heels of a third quarter in which GDP “rose at a seasonally and inflation-adjusted 4.3 percent annual rate,” as Breitbart News noted.

The substantial GDP figures come as Trump has halted Biden-era inflation while overseeing rising wages for workers, giving Americans more buying power with their dollar. Over the last three months, core inflation registered at just 1.6 percent, the president said last week — a welcome reprieve after runaway inflation under Biden at levels unseen since the Jimmy Carter administration in the late 1970s.

Per White House data, while Biden’s policies led to a 22 percent increase in car prices, a 37 percent rise in hotel rates, a 32 percent jump in airfare, and a 31 percent increase in gasoline prices, Trump, as of late December, had presided over price decreases across all such categories.

Wages under Biden for the typical private-sector worker dwindled $2,919 on average, according to White House data. In contrast, wages climbed $1,048 for the typical private-sector worker in just 11 months under Trump. Blue-collar workers are seeing particularly significant boosts. Factory worker wages were up $1,300, construction worker wages climbed $1,826, and miners’ wages soared by $3,336 from January into December.

“For the first time in years, wages are rising much faster than inflation,” Trump said in a December address to the nation.

The stock market has repeatedly hit all-time highs under the 47th president. White House data states the S&P reached 37 record highs in 2025, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average broke records 18 times.

Securing the Border and Mass Deportations

On New Year’s Day, Breitbart News Texas’s Bob Price and Randy Clark exclusively reported that “the Trump administration’s border team closed out [2025] with a historically low apprehension rate of less than 109,000 illegal aliens” for the year.

The figure, which includes approximately 6,400 apprehensions along the southern border in December, underscores the effectiveness of the Trump administration’s border crackdown after policies of the Biden administration, including catch-and-release, allowed for historic illegal immigration.

“Once again, we have a record low number of encounters at the border and the 7th straight month of zero releases. Month after month, we are delivering results that were once thought impossible: the most secure border in history and unmatched enforcement successes,” said Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem in a statement released in early December. “Thanks to President Trump’s leadership and the dedication of DHS law enforcement, America’s borders are safer than ever before.”

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Breitbart News Texas that in under one year, “President Trump has delivered some of the most historic and consequential achievements in presidential history — and this Administration is just getting started.”

“Under President Trump’s leadership, we are making America safe again and putting the American people first,” McLaughlin added. “In record-time we have secured the border, taken the fight to cartels, and arrested thousands upon thousands of criminal illegal aliens.”

Border crossings throughout 2025 dropped a staggering 93 percent, and 130,000 feet of temporary barriers were erected, according to the DHS, while the construction of the rest of Trump’s border wall is underway as commissioned through the One Big Beautiful Bill. The DHS removed over 622,000 illegal aliens in 2025 alone. The removals are in addition to 1.9 million illegal aliens who had self-deported as of December.

Peace Through Strength: Eight Conflicts or Wars De-Escalated or Settled

Trump has settled or de-escalated eight conflicts or wars around the globe since returning to office, led by his historic Middle East peace deal to stop the war between Israel and Hamas, which began after Hamas’s brutal October 7, 2023, terrorist attacks.

The president announced in a Truth Social post on October 8 that Hamas had agreed to his framework for a 20-point peace deal to end the war, including releasing all living and deceased hostages. Within days, the president jetted off to the Middle East to speak at the Knesset in Israel on October 13.

Hamas released all 20 remaining living hostages on October 13. As of December 4, the remains of one deceased hostage, Ran Gvili, had not been returned, according to the American Jewish Committee.

Trump, along with Arab leaders in the region, participated in a “Peace in the Middle East” signing ceremony in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, hours after he spoke at the Knesset.

“So together, let us continue in the spirit of cooperation and goodwill that has finally brought us to this incredible, historic breakthrough,” Trump said at a press conference with world leaders following the signing ceremony.

“If we do, together we will reach the Middle East’s incredible destiny — a safe and prosperous and beautiful crossroads of culture and commerce, faith in humanity, and geographic center,” he added. “This will be the geographic center of the world.”

On December 4, Trump signed another historic peace agreement, brokered by his administration, between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of Rwanda at the recently renamed Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace in Washington, DC.

The agreement marked the end of three decades of conflict between the two countries.

“In this holy season we prepare to celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace, we have come to the U.S. Institute of Peace, to sign a historic agreement that will end one of the longest-running conflicts anywhere in the world, with far more than ten million people killed,” Trump said.

“Today, we commit to stopping decades of violence and bloodshed and to begin a new era of harmony and cooperation between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda,” he added. “I want to thank the two courageous leaders. They are courageous leaders.”

These are just two of many conflicts or wars Trump helped end since returning to office. He has also quelled disputes between Armenia and Azerbaijan, India and Pakistan, Thailand and Cambodia, Egypt and Ethiopia, and Iran and Israel. A ceasefire to end “The 12 Day War” between Israel and Iran came days after the United States carried out operation “Midnight Hammer” to neutralize Iran’s nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan.

Trump and his administration also halted what could have been an escalation between Serbia and Kosovo, Turkish media reported.

Trump’s foreign policy footprint continued to grow to start 2026, with operation “Absolute Resolve” on January 3, in which the United States captured former Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, without a casualty of U.S. servicemembers or loss of any U.S. equipment.

“We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition. We don’t want to be involved with having somebody else get in, and we have the same situation that we had for the last long period of years,” Trump said in a press conference after the operation.

Trump’s efforts on the foreign policy front earned him the Inaugural FIFA Peace Prize in December during the World Cup draw at the Trump-Kennedy Center.

Trump shared that the peace prize is “truly one of the great honors of my life,” and “beyond awards … we saved millions and millions of lives.”

During his meeting with anti-socialist Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado last week, Machado presented him with her 2025 Nobel Peace Prize “In Gratitude for [his] Extraordinary Leadership in Promoting Peace through Strength, Advancing Diplomacy, and Defending Liberty and Prosperity.”

One Big Beautiful Bill Act

Another shining achievement of Trump’s — and hands down the biggest on the legislative front — was the passage and signing of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. To date, the bill serves as Trump’s legacy legislation, making permanent the 2017 Trump tax cuts and implementing significant tax deductions for tipped and overtime workers, as promised in his 2024 campaign policy proposal.

Waiters, bartenders, casino dealers, and other tipped workers can deduct up to $25,000 on their tipped income starting this tax season, while overtime workers can use up to a $12,500 deduction.

The House Ways and Means Committee projects that Americans could get $191 billion in net new tax relief this year, with filers potentially seeing an additional $1,000 on their tax refunds coming this spring.

“Millions of Americans will see the working families’ tax cuts put more money in their pockets when they file taxes this coming spring. In our tax relief bill, Republicans wasted no time and ensured that we cut taxes on income earned this year. Americans voted to have more money in their wallet, and that’s exactly what President Trump and Republicans delivered,” Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO) said in November.

“Tax refunds are a big deal for a lot of American families. It covers home repairs, health care, or summer vacations; all of which became completely unaffordable under Joe Biden. Thanks to the working families tax cuts, more Americans will have greater financial security and ability to provide for their future,” he added.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act allows a maximum annual tax deduction of $10,000 for interest paid on loans for vehicles that were assembled in the United States, as long as the filer has a modified adjusted gross income of less than $100,000 or less than $200,000 for joint filers.

Beyond tax cuts, the law delivers on border security by commissioning the completion of Trump’s border wall, funding mass deportation operations, and establishing the Trump investment accounts for America’s youth, with a $1,000 seed investment from the Treasury for U.S. citizens born from 2025 to 2028.

Protecting Youth and Women from Trans Ideology

Trump has taken substantial steps throughout his second term to protect women and children from radical left-wing transgender ideology.

In February 2025, he signed an executive order to protect women’s sports from male participants.

“With this executive order, the war on women’s sports is over,” he said at the signing.

As Breitbart News reported:

The order contains several measures, the first of which is to re-write federal Title IX education rules to withhold federal funds from schools that allow transgender athletes to play as females.

Another aspect of the order would charge the Department of Homeland Security with the task of denying visas to foreign trans athletes who want to enter the U.S. to compete among women.

After signing the order, Trump cited the importance of female athletes and their role in the 2028 Olympics, which are scheduled for Los Angeles. He also mentioned the World Cup.

“My administration will not stand by and watch men beat and batter female athletes. We’re just not going to let it happen,” the president said.

Several members of the Save Women’s Sports community, including former NCAA swimming champion Riley Gaines, witnessed the signing.

Just over a week after he took office in January 2025, Trump signed an executive order to ban “chemical or surgical mutilation” sex-change procedures for minors.

“Accordingly, it is the policy of the United States that it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures,” the order reads.

Instituting the Make America Healthy Again Agenda

The implementation of Trump and Kennedy’s MAHA agenda is well underway, with the latest moves including the new, inverted food pyramid and the return of whole and two percent milk to America’s schools.

The White House unveiled reformed dietary guidelines for Americans on January 7 at a White House press briefing with Kennedy, Food and Drug Administration chief Dr. Marty Makary, and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz.

The guidelines promote a diet rich in protein, healthy fats, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and dairy.

“Today marks a decisive change in federal nutrition policy made possible by President Trump’s leadership and the work of MAHA moms and public health advocates who demanded reform,” Kennedy said.

“These guidelines replace corporate-driven assumptions with common-sense goals and gold-standard scientific integrity. These new guidelines will revolutionize our nation’s food culture and make America healthy again,” he added.

Makary said that “a corrupt food pyramid” had been pushed on Americans for decades, focusing on “demonizing natural, healthy saturated fats, telling you not to eat eggs and steak, and ignoring a giant blind spot: refined carbohydrates, added sugars, ultra-processed food.”

He added that most children are consuming a diet including “ultra-processed food,” which he called an “epidemic.”

“We have 40 percent of our kids now with a chronic disease. It is not their fault. This is something that is the result of bad advice from the government and a medical establishment that for decades peddled research from a flawed 1960s model,” Makary added.

Days later, Trump signed the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act to once again make whole and two percent milk available in America’s schools, after they were virtually banned by the Obama-era Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act.

In early December, Trump ordered a review of the U.S. childhood vaccine schedule in concert with peer nations such as Japan, Denmark, and Germany, which recommend fewer vaccines for children than the U.S. schedule. He directed aligning the U.S. schedule with peer nations if their schedules were deemed superior in the review.

While the U.S. has recommended 18 vaccines for children, Denmark recommends ten, Japan 14, and Germany 15.

As HHS noted on January 5:

After consulting with health ministries of peer nations, considering the assessment’s findings, and reviewing the decision memo presented by National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, Food and Drug Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary, and CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz, Acting Director O’Neill formally accepted the recommendations and directed the CDC to move forward with implementation.

…

The assessment reviewed 20 peer, developed nations and found that the U.S. is a global outlier among developed nations in both the number of diseases addressed in its routine childhood vaccination schedule and the total number of recommended doses but does not have higher vaccination rates than such countries. In fact, many peer nations that recommend fewer routine vaccines achieve strong child health outcomes and maintain high vaccination rates through public trust and education rather than mandates. For example, in 2024, the U.S. recommended more childhood vaccines than any peer nation, and more than twice as many doses as some European nations.

The updated schedule “Recommends all vaccines for which there is consensus among peer nations.”

Trump’s bounty of accomplishments does not end there. As Leavitt noted, he has rooted out Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies from the federal government, and according to Axios, was on track to oversee “the largest one-year drop in murders the nation has ever recorded” as of late December.