Eerie testimony 1 year of Trump in 5 points
There's one thing you can't deny Donald Trump: He changes things. Anyone looking back on his current first year in office will notice big differences to his first term between 2017 and 2021: the New Yorker no longer makes compromises.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- Looking back on Donald Trump's first year in office: 4 points stand out - and a look into the future.
- Targeted restructuring of the state: Trump relies on obedience, uses the institutions for himself and no longer compromises.
- Economy as a weapon: How Trump uses DOGE and the tariff hammer for his own purposes - but can't get a problem under control.
- The world after Donroe: JD Vance's speech in Munich, the Selensky meeting in the White House and the New Security Strategy 2025: Western Hemisphere? There's a new sheriff in town.
- Expanding the combat zone: How Trump accumulates power, breaks down borders, harasses the media and pardons wildly, while his family makes billions and the cult of personality around him degenerates.
- What next? Does America have a choice? Here's how Trump could thwart the midterm elections this fall.
Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th US president on January 20, 2025. In one year, hardly a stone has been left unturned. A look back at a fast-paced year in 4 points - and an outlook for the future.
Rapid, targeted restructuring of the state
In his first term of office, Donald Trump still made certain compromises in terms of policy and personnel.
Just take his vice president: Mike Pence is a concession to the conservative Christians among the Republicans. A mistake from Trump's point of view: Pence confirms the choice of Joe Biden against the wishes of his boss. "You will go down in history as a weakling", Trump is said to have told his vice president at the time, according to the British Guardian.
In his second term, the 79-year-old no longer has to take his party into consideration: It no longer has any wings to clip his government. He obviously does not select his ministers solely on the basis of suitability, but rather on obedience. Everything is in line - this can be seen most clearly in the Department of Justice, which is fighting out Trump's private feuds.
The administration is continuing Trump's restructuring at the lower levels - for example when "Secretary of War" Pete Hegseth swears in the assembled admirals and generals in September that "woke" is now a thing of the past in the armed forces. Or in the form of Stephen Miller, a hardliner and influential advisor who is driving forward the nationalist culture war.
Russell Vought, who has already been involved in Project 2025 - and is now implementing this ultra-conservative government roadmap in the Office of Management and Budget - guarantees that Trump's people will also have their say in the administration. The office coordinates the federal authorities - and is now also ensuring the appropriate mindset for non-political posts such as the weather service.
Economy as a weapon
Tesla boss Elon Musk is electrifying political Washington with great fanfare after Trump's inauguration - and is initially shaving those parts of the authorities that are already a thorn in his boss's side. The Department of Government Efficiency, aka DOGE, aims to combat fraud and waste, but fails spectacularly.
When the department is dissolved in November, the mountain of debt is higher than ever. The USA is in debt to the tune of 38.6 trillion dollars, which corresponds to a good 124 percent of gross domestic product. The process is being accelerated by Trump's so-called Big Beautiful Bill.
It relies on an economic upturn and rising figures, although it is questionable whether they will materialize. In any case, the economic measures are having no effect on consumers' wallets, as the ongoing debate about affordable prices shows. It's the economy, stupid: The issue is one of the president's Achilles' heels.
Of course, Trump's tariff hammer has caused the biggest shocks in the economy. The president claims to have flushed trillions into the state coffers, which cannot prevent a temporary government shutdown. Nobody knows where this money is, while everyone can see that Trump sees his tariffs as a means of exerting foreign policy pressure.
And a few hours after writing these lines, Donald Trump imposes punitive tariffs on those European countries that side with Denmark and Greenland.
The world after Donroe
The storm unleashed by Vice President JD Vance's speech on February 14 makes it clear that a new wind is also blowing in international relations. At the Munich Security Conference, he told the stunned Europeans that their biggest problem was not Russia or China, but the suppression of populists.
It is also Vance who, exactly two weeks later in the White House, helps to ensure that the Ukrainian president's visit escalates in a media-effective manner: Together with Trump, he made a snail of Volodymyr Zelensky in front of the cameras to send a signal. Look: There's a new sheriff in town.
«This is going to be great television.»
Foreign policy seems to make no sense after Trump takes office: he threatens Nato allies such as Canada and Greenland with annexation by Denmark, flirts with a takeover of the Panama Canal and demands that Brazil release convicted ex-president Jair Bolsonaro.
At the beginning of December, however, the White House presented the world in black and white with the current situation: The National Security Strategy 2025 cements what Vance had already hinted at in January. It divides the world into three spheres of influence. The western hemisphere is American - and Washington doesn't want anyone interfering in it.
From the Monroe Doctrine to the Donroe Doctrine: no sooner had Trump landed his coup in Venezuela after the turn of the year than he was threatening Mexico, Cuba and Colombia with consequences. This policy creates uncertainty worldwide, promotes armament, damages nuclear non-proliferation and encourages others to ignore international law as well.
Expanding the combat zone
What is striking: Donald Trump's power culminates in his office. Tariffs and budget? The President makes the announcement here - the House of Representatives, under the leadership of Speaker Mike Johnson, nods off what the executive branch dictates to the legislative branch. And the judiciary? There are still judges who disagree. Stephen Miller doesn't like that.
Trump doesn't give a damn about political boundaries and norms, as can be seen in his attack on the head of the US Federal Reserve or his intervention in the media: the White House is using the FCC media regulator to put pressure on broadcasters to change their reporting on the government.
And then there are the many pardons issued by the 79-year-old - from people who attacked police officers during the storming of the Capitol to Honduras' ex-president, who smuggled 400 tons of cocaine into the USA, to rich care service fraudsters. At the same time, he and his family earn billions from merchandise and crypto investments.
He uses the immigration authority ICE like a personal paramilitary. Is there any limit to Trump's power at all? "It's limited by my morals," he says himself, "and I have very high morals, so it's limited." The CBS reporter follows up: And what about the Constitution or courts? "Well, [that] goes without saying."
Fitting: the cult of personality. Trump wants to burn himself into the national memory. His people are demanding his picture on Mount Rushmore, coins and banknotes. He is planning an enormous ballroom at the White House, an arch of triumph and a huge presidential library. The latest advance: Trump's birthday is to become a national holiday.
What next? Does America have a choice?
Trump's second year in office promises to be exciting. The year 2026 is already starting with a bang: Epstein scandal, Venezuela deployment, renewed Greenland rumblings and the ICE operation in Minnesota and other states are keeping the country on tenterhooks.
Trump's problem: his poll ratings are plummeting, while the Democrats are doing better everywhere in the by-elections so far than they did at the polls in November 2024. If this does not change, the Republicans will not only lose the House of Representatives in the midterm elections, but possibly also the Senate.
The president is now apparently opting for confrontation. Firstly in terms of language, when he demonizes his opponents. He writes about sanctuary cities, i.e. immigrant-friendly cities: "All they do is breed crime and violence." And complains: "The fake news simply won't report the truth." And he threatens.
If the "corrupt politicians" in Minnesota do not ensure that ICE agents in the state continue to be attacked, he will see this as an uprising - and respond with the military. He is fueling the situation by continuing to deploy members of the National Guard there.
Is this a recipe for the fall? What if the White House itself lights the fuse with such actions before the mid-term elections - and uses the exploding powder keg as an excuse to postpone the vote? According to New York Magazine, these elections are actually unnecessary anyway because his government is so successful.
