In just one year, much of the federal government
has been transformed under the vision of President Trump.
Hundreds of National Guard troops deployed Doge-like layoffs of federal
workers, laundry lists of reciprocal tariffs. Each of
these actions reflect a far more emboldened president in his
second term. As we close out 2025, the
Wall Street Journal will look across the government at the
dramatic transformations President Trump is making in the first year
of his second term in office. I covered President
Donald Trump's first term. Drain the swamp. What's
striking about Trump's second term is how much more audacious
he has been in using executive power and the sheer
number of policies he's pursued. I spoke to White
House Press secretary Caroline Levitt about the differences in the
first term versus the second term. One of the
things President Trump often says, and it's in a
joking manner, but I think he's also half serious
, is that in his first term he was fighting
to govern but also fighting for survival. Of course
he faced two impeachments. He had a lot more
opposition on Capitol Hill, and he also had some
staff turnover in the first term. None of that
is true of this second term. President Trump's first
term, he was entirely new to Washington. He
was surrounded by advisers who tried to curb many of
his impulses. This term he's surrounded by a different
group of advisers, many more loyalists and fewer people
who are trying to block him. Across the federal
government, President Trump has pushed the limits of executive
power, daring opponents to challenge him in court.
How did these ideas get formed for the second term
of what to take on and who to take on
and how the presidency would look? Well, there
was 4 years to think about the ideas, which
is really an unprecedented historical situation right where you had
a president who was waiting and watching and deeply involved
still in our political system. One of those ideas
focused on the Middle East. In his 2nd term
, Trump helped broker a peace agreement between Israel and
Hamas, which led to the release of hostages and
a ceasefire deal. On the domestic front, Trump
used emergency powers to deploy National Guard troops through the
streets of American cities to crack down on crime and
support his aggressive deportation agenda. They arcane law to
deport migrants and all but stop crossings at the southern
border entirely. The president has also targeted universities,
law firms, cultural and media institutions. In many
cases, he has been successful in securing agreements from
institutions to write the government large checks, provide free
legal work, or change many of their policies at
his demands. President Trump's first term, one of
his great frustrations was the Department of Justice. This
time he has brought the department to heel by appointing
leaders who are loyal to him, pushing the department
successfully to go after a number of his enemies,
and even leading to the ouster of officials at both
the FBI and DOJ who he said were disloyal to
him. In President Trump's first term, he faced
criticism from some Republican members of Congress. Do you
regret supporting him in the election? Let's just put
it this way, I would not do that again
. This time he has tried to suppress dissent from
Congress and has often been successful. He even got
Republicans on board to pass this one big, beautiful
bill. One of his advisers recently told May aides
in the White House joke about how they're dominating Congress
from this time. The one notable pushback in Congress
has been on the Epstein files. President Trump tried
to convince members of Congress not to vote to release
the files. I have nothing to do with Jeffrey
Epstein. I threw him out of my club many
years ago because I thought he was a sick pervert
. He was unsuccessful, and members defied him.
First time in his presidency, China, first row
. China, 67%. That's tariffs. In President
Trump's second term, he has sought to impose a
much more aggressive trade agenda, levying large tariffs on
countries across the globe and forcing their leaders to negotiate
with him for tariff relief. Everything the president has
done, of course, is within his Article II
powers. But he also has a real urgency this
time to get as much done as possible because he
watched how far to the left the previous administration took
our country. Some legal experts question if Trump has
overreached in his expansive use of Article 2 powers.
He's sparked legal questions and congressionalire for approving US military
strikes on alleged drug boats in the open ocean.
In President Trump's second term, he's played the role
of interior designer at the White House in a way
he never tried in the first term. He's turned
the entire Oval Office into gold with gold portraits,
gold frames, gold trinkets, and even gold on
the ceiling. He's turned the White House Rose Garden
into a patio, and in his most dramatic move
, he's building a large ballroom on the White House
compound where he's raised hundreds of millions of dollars from
private interests and is destroying the East Wing in the
process. Does anyone ever say to him like too
much gold, like, that's enough gold, we're
good on the gold. He does inquire about people's
varying opinions, and people do share their frank opinions
. Yes, they do. So when people say
too much gold, he says more gold. He
usually says more, yes.