President Donald Trump has had such a consequential start to his second term that my normal list of 10 could not capture the full scope of what he accomplished. So, here is my list of the 20 best things Trump did in 2025. (In my previous column, I discussed the 10 worst.)
20. He delivered justice for the Abbey Gate bombing.
After terrorists killed 13 U.S. service members during President Joe Biden’s catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan, Biden promised, “We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay.” He left office three years later having made no one pay. It took Trump less than six weeks to capture what he described as a “top terrorist” responsible for the attack.
19. He created “Trump Accounts” to give every American child a trust fund.
The federal government will put $1,000 into a tax-advantaged investment account for every American child born between Jan. 1, 2025, and Dec. 31, 2028, to be locked until they turn 18. The Treasury Department estimates the accounts could grow to between $3,000 and $13,800 in 18 years, and to as much as $1.9 million by age 28 if fully funded with additional contributions and left untouched, giving every American child a financial foundation as they begin adulthood.
18. He drove illegal migration to a virtual halt.
Biden claimed he needed legislation from Congress to secure the border; Trump shut down the border in weeks with no new congressional authority. Encounters at the border are at record lows, apprehensions are 95% lower than the daily average under Joe Biden, and no illegal migrants have been released into the United States for seven months.
17. He used tariff threats to strike new trade deals.
In his first term, Trump offered the European Union a zero-for-zero trade deal, but the E.U. failed to take him up on the offer. Seven years later, Trump struck a deal that includes a 15 percent baseline tariff on most European exports to the U.S., while most U.S. exports to the E.U. will be duty-free. What changed? Trump’s trade war. He also used tariffs as leverage to reach deals with Britain, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines and Cambodia.
16. He brought many of the nation’s elite universities to heel.
He forced Columbia University to sign a $220 million settlement over diversity, equity and inclusion and over antisemitic civil rights violations on campus, and reached similar settlements with Brown, Cornell, Northwestern, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Virginia, with more potentially on the way.
15. He took on radical gender ideology and protected women’s sports.
He signed an executive order and issued new regulations to stop U.S. hospitals from engaging in the chemical and surgical mutilation of children and ordered that federal funds be rescinded from any educational institutions that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities. As a result, the NCAA and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic committees changed their policies to ban men from competing in women’s sports, and the University of Pennsylvania agreed to restore women’s school records, post the definition of a woman on its website, and apologize to female athletes it harmed with past Title IX violations.
14. He ended collective bargaining for a million federal workers.
His executive orders gutting public worker unions mean many federal departments can terminate union contracts and hire and fire based on merit.
13. He scrapped Biden-era policies intended to force people into electric cars, and unleashed oil and gas production.
Trump is rolling back Biden’s fuel efficiency and tailpipe emissions standards, and signed legislation ending California’s electric vehicle mandate, policies intended to coerce Americans into buying electric vehicles. Trump also lifted Biden’s pause on natural gas exports, dramatically increasing U.S. exports, opening up millions of acres in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling and mining, approving record numbers of drilling permits, rolling back climate regulations and revoking Biden-era orders that blocked oil and gas drilling in most U.S. coastal waters.
12. He made our nation’s capital safer by sending in the National Guard.
After Trump took federal control of the D.C. police and deployed the Guard, crime in the District dropped by double-digits in virtually every category.
11. He dramatically cut taxes on tips, overtime and Social Security.
His One Big Beautiful Bill also made his 2017 pro-growth tax cuts permanent.