Trump's Second Term: How Immigration Crackdowns and Alliance Reshaping Define America's New Normal

On January 20, 2025, the temperature in Washington plummeted to minus 3 degrees Celsius. The scheduled outdoor inauguration ceremony was forced to move into the Capitol Rotunda. Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and the outgoing Joe Biden were all present, while tech giants Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook, Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg were also in the audience. At 12:10 PM, Donald Trump began a half-hour inaugural address, painting a bleak picture of an America plagued by a crisis of trust in government, unsecured borders, and successive overseas disasters. He declared: I was saved by God to make America great again.

A year has passed, and this slogan has transformed into a series of highly controversial policy realities. From the national emergency at the southern border to public pressure on traditional allies, from the chain-saw-style streamlining of the federal government to a comprehensive shift in socio-cultural issues, Trump's second term has not only fulfilled campaign promises but also reshaped America's domestic order and international role with astonishing speed and intensity. What these 365 days have revealed is far more than policy adjustments—it is a profound experiment concerning American identity, the boundaries of power, and global leadership.

Border Battle: The Ultimate Test of Immigration Policy and Domestic Divides

Immigration is undoubtedly the most iconic and divisive battleground of Trump's second term. On his first day in office, he declared a national emergency at the southern border, marking the beginning of the largest deportation operation in modern American history.

Data shows that as of December 2025, over 622,000 people have been formally deported, with an additional 1.9 million self-deporting. Border Patrol encounters have plummeted to their lowest level since the 1970s. To achieve the largest deportation in history, the government significantly expanded the authority and detention capacity of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The number of detained immigrants once exceeded 73,000, with a target of reaching 100,000. The Department of Homeland Security has also signed agreements with multiple countries, including Eswatini, Uganda, Laos, and Myanmar, to receive deportees who are not their own citizens.

The radical nature of law enforcement methods has triggered nationwide upheaval. Federal law enforcement forces were deployed to sanctuary cities governed by Democrats, such as Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and New York, often disregarding opposition from local authorities. Alarming reports continuously emerged of ICE agents using excessive force, arresting U.S. citizens, and unmarked, masked personnel detaining people on the streets. In January 2026, during a large-scale operation in Minneapolis, Renee Goode, a mother and poet, was struck in the head and killed by an ICE officer. The federal government claimed it was an act of self-defense and labeled Goode a domestic terrorist; the mayor condemned the action as reckless and unnecessary. The incident sparked massive protests, and tensions escalated abruptly.

The Brookings Institution report indicates that in 2025, the United States experienced its first net outflow of immigrants in at least 50 years, primarily due to a significant decline in arrivals. The Trump administration also revoked over 100,000 visas, including 8,000 students and 2,500 professional workers. A Quinnipiac University poll shows that 57% of voters disapprove of ICE enforcement methods, with supporters accounting for only 40%, revealing clear partisan divisions.

Analysis shows that immigration is one of the few areas where Trump's approval rating is relatively high. Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, points out that if we look solely at the immigration issue, Trump's approval rating could be close to 50%. However, political commentator Kurt Bardella argues that polls repeatedly indicate that the American people disapprove of the way the Trump administration has implemented immigration policies, believing he has gone too far.

This border conflict is not only about the movement of people but also touches upon the age-old struggle between federal and state powers, the boundaries of law enforcement authority, and the identity of the United States as a nation of immigrants. Its impact has far exceeded the scope of policy, becoming a core force that tears society apart and reshapes political alliances.

Unilateral Action: The "Trump Doctrine" in Foreign Policy and Alliance Restructuring

My proud legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier. Trump declared in his inaugural address. However, the diplomatic practices of the first year of his second term present a more complex and confrontational picture.

The Dono Doctrine and Western Hemisphere Hegemony. The Trump administration proposed the so-called Dono Doctrine, reimagining the United States' role in the Western Hemisphere by advocating for reduced involvement in European affairs and strengthening influence in the Americas. The most dramatic manifestation of this concept was the military intervention in Venezuela in early 2026. After months of military buildup, U.S. forces bombed Venezuela and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro, announcing plans to take over the country's oil infrastructure. Following the operation, Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated bluntly: People need to understand that this is not a president who only talks, sends letters, and holds press conferences. If he says something, he means it.

Meanwhile, Trump's obsession with Greenland has triggered the most severe transatlantic trust crisis since World War II. He refused to rule out the possibility of using force to acquire this Danish autonomous territory, threatened to impose tariffs on European countries opposing his efforts, and even stated that because he did not receive the Nobel Peace Prize, he no longer felt obligated to consider only peace. European leaders stayed up late in their offices discussing how to respond to a U.S. president whose behavior was markedly different, with collective policy wavering between flattery and appeasement.

Conflict Management and Peacemaker Narrative. Trump claims to have resolved eight wars, including a fragile Gaza peace plan. In the Middle East, with the assistance of partners, the United States facilitated a hard-to-achieve ceasefire and hostage exchange agreement between Israel and Hamas in October 2025. However, regarding the Ukraine issue, despite holding a high-level summit with Russian President Putin in Alaska, peace efforts remain stalled, and the war continues to rage. Trump has repeatedly sided with Russia on the Ukraine issue and acknowledged that ending the conflict is more complex than he anticipated.

Use of Force and Strategic Ambiguity. Contrary to his campaign rhetoric criticizing his predecessor's overseas adventures, Trump ordered military strikes against ISIS in Iraq, Nigeria, Somalia, and Syria, as well as against the Houthis in Yemen and Iran's nuclear facilities. In June 2025, the United States launched a major strike codenamed Midnight Hammer against three nuclear sites in Iran. Analysts believe these actions demonstrated a "there's nothing I can't do" operational style more than they reflected a coherent grand strategy. White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles once described the non-drinking Trump as having a "drunkard's personality," meaning he operates from a perspective that there is nothing he cannot do.

The core of Trump's foreign policy lies in its transactional and personalized nature. He is keen on striking deals with individual countries or companies, as evidenced by setting different tariff rates for various nations during trade negotiations. This approach breaks with the tradition of rules-based multilateralism, simplifying international relations into bilateral games and calculations of immediate gains. As a result, relations between the United States and its traditional allies have plummeted to a freezing point, and the uncertainty of the global order has sharply increased. As Larry Jacobs, director of the Center for Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota, stated: "Trump clearly has a very different understanding of being 'respected by the world.' He may mean being feared and deterred; that might be true. In terms of the bipartisan consensus on America as a leader of the rules-based international order, he is destroying it."

Power Reshaping: Administrative Expansion, Institutional Weakening, and Domestic Agenda

During his second term, Trump's impact on the domestic power structure was equally profound, characterized by an unprecedented expansion of executive power and a systematic weakening of established institutions.

Government Efficiency Department and Federal Downsizing. Donald Trump appointed billionaire Elon Musk as the head of the newly established Government Efficiency Department, with his image wielding a chainsaw becoming a symbol of large-scale federal government streamlining. According to data from the Office of Personnel Management, federal employees were reduced by over 317,000 through buyouts, attrition, and office closures. The United States Agency for International Development was shut down, while agencies such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Department of Education faced targeted cuts or restructuring. However, an analysis of federal data by the Peterson Foundation showed that spending in December 2025 was $5 billion higher than in December 2024, with the national debt continuing to rise, indicating that overall expenditures did not decrease.

Weaponization of Justice and Political Purges. The Department of Justice has become a tool for targeting political opponents. Former FBI Director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James, former National Security Advisor John Bolton, and Democratic lawmakers Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell, who led the impeachment efforts against him, have all become subjects of investigation. Trump has publicly encouraged the Department of Justice to investigate political rivals, while using his pardon power to clear charges for allies such as those involved in the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot and former Republican Congressman George Santos. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell also faces investigative pressure due to disagreements with the President over interest rate policies.

Culture War. The government swiftly took action to eliminate radical gender ideology and critical race theory from American schools, officially stipulating that there are only two genders, male and female, and removing the non-binary option X from passports. All federal diversity, equity, and inclusion programs were ordered to be terminated. Trump also pressured universities, cutting off funding to some schools, forcing prestigious institutions like Columbia University to reach settlements with the government to avoid further investigation.

Testing the Limits of Presidential Power. Despite Republican control of both houses of Congress, Trump heavily relied on executive actions to achieve his goals. In 2025 and early 2026, he signed 228 executive orders, far exceeding the first-year records of any previous president. He invoked emergency powers such as the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose tariffs and deploy the National Guard to U.S. cities, actions whose constitutionality were challenged and brought before the Supreme Court. After a congressional deadlock led to the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, the White House tested the limits of its power to unilaterally allocate funds.

Trump's second term presents a paradox: on one hand, he significantly cut specific agencies and programs, advocating for small government; on the other hand, executive power, particularly the personal authority of the president, has become unprecedentedly concentrated and expanded. Institutional checks and balances have been weakened, professional bodies politicized, and the long-term impact may be a fundamental transformation of the U.S. governance system.

Attention Politics: Social Media Governance and the Sustainability Dilemma

A distinctive feature of Trump's second term is the deep integration of the attention economy with state governance. He is not only a policymaker but also the lead actor in an ongoing political drama.

Social Media as the Core Weapon. Unlike the first term when he was banned by mainstream platforms, this time Trump's relationship with tech giants has eased. Musk's X platform and Zuckerberg's Meta have become his allies. His team uses artificial intelligence to quickly generate memes and videos, keeping him at the center of online discussions. These contents often involve vulgar attacks, such as an image showing him wearing a crown, piloting an airplane, and dumping feces on his opponents. According to statistics, during his second term, he ended 242 social media posts with "Thank you for your attention to this matter."

Continuous Shock Strategy. From intervening in the New York Giants' coaching hire, to threatening military action against Iran, Denmark, and Colombia, to flaunting others' Nobel medals, Trump dominates the news cycle by generating a constant stream of events. Republican strategist Ron Bonjean commented: He says good morning to you and good night to you. You can't avoid hearing about him. This strategy successfully achieves the disruptive effect he seeks, but it also shifts focus away from issues concerning people's livelihoods.

Polling Contrasts and Political Reality. Despite generating significant noise, Trump's approval ratings on most issues are not high. A Reuters/Ipsos poll from January 2026 shows that only 36% of Americans approve of his economic handling. An AP-NORC poll indicates that only about 30% of adults approve of his healthcare policies. Even on immigration, once a strong suit, his approval rating has dropped from about half at the beginning of his first term to around 40%. The latest CNN poll finds that 61% disapprove of Trump's job as president, and 67% of respondents believe the economic situation is somewhat/very bad.

This phenomenon of high volume but low recognition reveals the core challenge of Trump's governance: his hardcore style can solidify his base, yet struggles to expand his support base. Against the backdrop of persistently high living costs, voters' anxiety over affordability continues. Trump once dismissed affordability challenges as a Democratic hoax but failed to propose convincing solutions to the public. Democrats are learning to counterattack under the new media paradigm, with figures like California Governor Gavin Newsom using podcasts and social media mockery to push back.

Historian Jon Meacham posed a sharp question: 49% of those who voted in November 2024 decided: Yes, try again. But did they vote for all of this? At what point would those voters indicate they do not want a king? Do not want a monarch? Does the Constitution still matter to them? How would this happen?

Conclusion: An Unfinished Revolution and an Uncertain Legacy

The first year of Trump's second term was a comprehensive, high-intensity political practice. On immigration, he implemented stringent policies akin to stress tests, temporarily altering population flow trends at the cost of social division and legal controversy. In foreign affairs, he abandoned multilateral traditions, reshaping alliances through unilateralism and transactional diplomacy, forcing the world to adapt to a more aggressive and unpredictable America in astonishment. Domestically, he continued to expand executive power, weakened institutional constraints, and deeply imprinted the federal government with his personal brand.

However, this revolution is far from stable. The Supreme Court will issue key rulings on the constitutionality of tariffs and executive powers; conflicts between states and the federal government over immigration enforcement continue; economic data is mixed, and livelihood pressures remain a political vulnerability; the international community is gradually formulating countermeasures after initial shock. Trump's attention-driven approach, while altering the rhythm of political communication, still faces severe scrutiny regarding the sustainability and effectiveness of his policies themselves.

From a deeper perspective, Trump's second term highlights the convergence of populism, executive power expansion, and identity politics in American politics. It is both a rebellion against the existing system and an exposure of the system's own rigidity and inadequate responsiveness. Whether its ultimate legacy becomes a prelude to making America great again or a stress test for the resilience of democratic institutions, this year has profoundly altered America's domestic and international trajectory. The world no longer speculates about whether Trump will fulfill his promises but strives to cope with a new normal where promises have become reality and continue to evolve. The question moving forward is no longer what he will do, but what all this will bring about, and who will respond, in what manner. The answers will determine the shape of the next American era.