On January 12, 2025, President Donald Trump returned to office for his second non-consecutive term. He is the second President to serve such a term after President Grover Cleveland.
After a victory in which he claimed 312 electoral votes compared to Harris’ 226, Trump returns to the White House in what he describes as a ‘massive’ mandate; he is set on implementing his new policy agenda.
It has been a busy first month.
During Trump’s first week in office, he signed a record-breaking thirty-five executive orders, more than any of the last fifteen presidents.
These orders included wide-reaching internal policy changes, including pulling the U.S. out of the World Health Organization and rescinding a Civil Rights Act-era rule that prohibited federal contractors from discriminating against job applicants and employees based on race, sex, and other protected characteristics. This move has come under much scrutiny from civil rights groups concerned about the implied legalization of racial discrimination in specific sectors of the economy dominated by federal contractors.
During a call with the prime minister of Denmark, Trump also renewed talks about plans to annex Greenland.
He also ordered government agencies to investigate and eliminate any parts of their operations corresponding to so-called “diversity, equity, and inclusion” programs, immediately forcing many agencies to change their hiring practices.
Trump also shut down the White House’s Spanish-language website.
Trump’s second week in office was also notably chaotic. There were reports that Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors, seized control of the U.S. Treasury’s payment system which handles all payments from the United States government.
This move came after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave Musk and employees of his new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) advisory office access to the department’s payment system, subsequently placing on leave and forcefully retiring a Treasury official who attempted to challenge Musk’s requests to access significant and classified systems.
The access that DOGE had to vital treasury payment systems was also temporarily suspended by a federal judge.
At the very end of Trump’s second week, in a joint presentation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu, he presented a post-war plan for the Gaza Strip which has drawn controversy.
Trump’s plan to annex the Gaza Strip to the United States and displace more than two million Palestinians has elicited international outrage, including from countries such as Germany and the People’s Republic of China. It has also earned internal scorn, with many Democratic politicians describing the plan as ethnic cleansing.
In his third and fourth weeks in office, Trump also took significant actions, including proposing then postponing proposed tariffs on Canada and Mexico.
Trump’s fourth week in office also came with upheaval, including the resignation of seven federal prosecutors from the Department of Justice.
Despite the controversy surrounding many of these actions, Trump’s supporters, including Vice-President JD Vance, have taken to X, formerly Twitter, to express support for the President and many of his policies.
“For three days a lot of the far left has actively rooted against American and argued we’d get nothing out of President Trunp’s [Trump’s] demands that Mexico secure its country,” Vice-President JD Vance said.
Community School of Davidson (CSD) students have shared varying thoughts on the first month of this administration. For example, when asked about their thoughts on Trump’s first two weeks, some shared anonymous thoughts while others answered critically.
“I don’t approve of anything right now, but it doesn’t mean he has done anything necessarily too terrible yet,” junior Pierce Pope (‘26) said.
And CSD teachers have also shared their analysis on the current outlook of Trump’s first month back in office.
“Trump is a disrupter,” history teacher Anthony Yodice said. “His supporters love it and his detractors fear it. But there is no denying that he shakes things up.”
Time will tell. Yodice, like others, believe the longer-term impacts of his first month likely will not be known for many years.
