Trump’s Presidency and How He’s Doing

RIG. Trump’s official 2nd term photo. See what’s wrong with Trump’s presidency. Photo courtesy of The White House.

During Trump’s second term as president, more and more info about his past has surfaced. Most infamously, his relations with Jeffery Epstein. Epstein is a notorious figure, known for his sex trafficking operation. Epstein kept a list of all the people that had gone to his island. In my opinion, this is where Trump’s first failure as president happened. Throughout his campaign, he promised that he’d release the list as his first day as president. According to NBC News, only up until recently has he signed a bill to release the list.

Along with the unreliable promises, his old age is personally becoming concerning to me. There have been signs of aging starting to affect him, as seen during his speeches and interviews. Similar to his aging, there’s also his sleeping problem, which we can see in a video the Washington Post made. During this video, he’s seen dozing on and off during a White House event. In my opinion, these recent years where presidents are in their 70s have generally been concerning. I believe there should be an age limit, similar to how there’s an age minimum for running for presidency. Older people like Biden and Trump have had health issues while their presidency is active, causing multiple political issues.

Another big issue I have with his presidency are his policies. Often, his policies are geared towards helping the top 1%, which damages the economy and makes it harder to make a living for the average U.S. citizen. Some of these policies include the Big Beautiful Bill, which is expected to do more harm than good long term by decreasing taxes for the top 1% up to $65,000 and only up to $110 for the bottom 20% as seen in a Maine Center for Economic Policy article. Along with this, the national debt is expected to increase by $3 trillion in the next 10 years due to the Big Beautiful Bill. Liberation Day Tariffs is another policy which made the S&P 500 stock fall sharply for investors. The S&P 500 is a stock tracking the index for 500 leading companies including Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft. In the beginning of April when the Liberation Day Tariffs were first introduced, the stock market dropped from a little over 100 down to almost 80, according to The Economist. Obama’s 2nd term, Biden’s 1st term, and even Trump’s 1st term never saw a drop like that, and stayed in between 110 and 130 stock market points for the S&P 500, keeping it at a more stable level.

ICE’s actions and how they’re handling situations has also been a concerning issue to me. ICE’s main purpose was to target illegal immigrants who had committed crimes and deport them. Instead ICE has focused on any immigrant, whether they’re illegal, legal, have a criminal record, or are clean. Along with this, they’ve been detaining people without due process, breaking policies and laws. After people are detained, they’re kept in detention centers with no real way out except deportation. While it is possible to get out by filing a habeas corpus petition to a federal judge, according to the National Immigration Law Center, they mention how 80% of immigrants in these detention centers don’t have access to lawyers, which renders filing a habeas corpus petition useless. The article also mentions that if someone were able to file, ICE purposely moves these immigrants to different locations to lengthen the process. ICE has also targeted innocents and people who need to be medically taken care of. U.S. citizens, Green Card holders, people with disabilities given no basic accommodations, medically vulnerable people, and more. It disgusts me how ICE agents are able to break the law and ruin people’s lives with no repercussions.

Of course, Trump’s presidency hasn’t been all bad and it’s important to look at both the good and the bad to compare. Trump’s administration has been actively trying to ban food dyes, which is a good step forward towards making food natural and without unhealthy ingredients, especially one so popularly used. Trump has also passed an executive order to help kids in foster care with their future. If a kid is kicked out due to their age, the government will support them both academically and financially.

Overall, I personally think that Trump’s presidency hasn’t been a success so far. The bad outweighs the good by a large margin in my opinion. With rising issues varying to lying, the economy, and ICE, his actions and words personally show to me that he’s unlikely to improve on any of these issues in the near future.