Comment: A busy year for Trump, with far more lows than highs
Published 1:30 am Friday, December 19, 2025
By Carl P. Leubsdorf / The Dallas Morning News
A standard journalistic practice at this time of year is to list the high points of the past 12 months. But a review of President Donald Trump’s year finds far more lows than highs.
Trump can justifiably take credit for brokering the end of the Israeli-Hamas war in Gaza that the Biden administration was unable to stop, though sporadic clashes still occur and a permanent peace still seems far off.
At home, Trump closed the Southern border and persuaded narrow Republican congressional majorities to enact the massive package of budget and tax cuts inaccurately labeled the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” Polls show it remains unpopular, and its damage on poorer Americans — largely by cutting SNAP beneifts and health care coverage — is just beginning to affect them.
Even where Trump pursued popular campaign promises, like deporting illegal immigrants, his administration was so heavy-handed — sending in troops and deporting longtime residents without criminal records — that more Americans now oppose it than support it.
The public’s view of his second term is seen in his job approval’s slow erosion into the low 40s or upper 30s in recent polls. Here, alphabetically, are a dozen reasons:
Abusing old allies: Eager to settle the wars he inherited, Trump consistently sided with the aggressor (Russia) over the attacked (Ukraine), despite efforts by longtime U.S. European allies to maintain Western support for the embattled Ukrainians.
Trump made clear he considers European democracies weak and sometimes even treated Canada as an enemy. He damaged the Western alliance by telling Europe to be responsible for its own defense and re-focusing the military on alleged domestic disorders and Latin America’s drug traffic.
Appeasing old adversaries: Trump rejected proposed trade crackdowns on China and Russia, undercutting his stated goals of curbing China’s semiconductor industry by allowing Nvidia to sell the Chinese key artificial intelligence chips and repeatedly blocking congressional efforts to increase sanctions on Russia.
Civil wrongs: Trump went beyond his vow to end government programs supporting increased diversity with a full-scale effort to roll back the civil rights revolution of the last 70 years.
He emasculated Justice and Education Department programs protecting the rights and opportunities of minorities and sought to end similar efforts throughout American life by suing law firms and fining universities.
Corruption: The entire Trump family took advantage of presidential access to enrich itself through international business deals with U.S. allies. He used the presidency to boost supporters’ business ventures from cryptocurrency to artificial intelligence.
Economic failures: Aside from encouraging increased oil drilling, Trump did little to fulfill his promise to cut inflation and drive down prices. He claimed the economy is strong, concerns about affordability are a “Democratic scam” and predicted an historic 2026 investment boom.
He unleashed a global trade war by capriciously raising and lowering tariffs on U.S. imports from many countries. But hopes for 90 new trade deals in 90 days proved elusive; Global Trade Alert, an independent trade tracker, says only 15 have been fully concluded.
Health: Trump signed the bill costing thousands their Medicaid and food stamp benefits but did nothing to extend the expiring tax credits that have helped millions of Obamacare participants pay for their health insurance.
He allowed anti-vaxxers to take over government policy on vaccinations. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s appointees eased requirements that have achieved widespread success in protecting children from measles, whooping cough and hepatitis, prompting experts to predict increases in those diseases.
News media: Trump went beyond condemning “fake news” to penalize mainstream news organizations and provide new White House and Pentagon privileges for pro-Trump groups. He banned The Associated Press from White House pools, derided female reporters by calling them “piggy” and “ugly” and interfered in corporate mergers, seeking to enhance political supporters and weaken independent media voices
Pardons: Trump pardoned a record number of convicted criminals; more than 1,500 compared with President Joe Biden’s 80. They included political allies convicted of assaulting police during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection, friendly business leaders and even the former president of Honduras, serving 25 years for drug trafficking.
Personal aggrandizement: Trump waged an open campaign for the Nobel Peace Prize, made himself chairman of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, placed his name in gilt letters on the U.S. Institute for Peace and made significant changes to the White House itself, paving over the Rose Garden and tearing down its East Wing to build a massive ballroom likely to bear his name. He ordered free admission to national parks on his birthday and ended it on Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday and Juneteenth.
Presidential powers: Trump flouted constitutional restraints on the presidency, withholding funds appropriated by Congress, overriding state and local authority, pressuring GOP-run states to redistrict, rejecting birthright citizenship and issuing dozens of executive orders, daring critics to challenge him in court. They did, and many judges sought to restrain him, creating landmark cases for the Supreme Court.
Racism and insults: Trump often used crude language and displayed overt racism, denouncing specific minorities and urging an end to all immigration except like-minded Europeans and white South Africans. An especial target was Minnesota’s large Somali population, whom he called “garbage” who should “go back to where they came from.”
Retribution: Trump fulfilled a campaign promise to make the Justice Department an arm of the administration, installing his personal attorneys in top jobs and ordering prosecutions of political opponents, including former FBI director James Comey; New York attorney general Leticia James; and California Sen. Adam Schiff. His administration fired Justice Department attorneys and FBI agents for helping to prosecute him during the Biden administration.
Sharing the blame for this dismal record was the acquiescence of Republicans who ought to know better.
Carl P. Leubsdorf is the former Washington bureau chief of the Dallas Morning News. Email him at carl.p.leubsdorf@gmail.com. ©2025 The Dallas Morning News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
