A little over one year ago, Washington’s permanent class laughed at the idea that President Trump could return to office and impose order on a system built to resist him. They predicted chaos. They warned of collapse. What they got instead was something far more threatening to their power: results.
In just 12 months, President Trump didn’t merely reverse Joe Biden’s failures. He exposed how flimsy and partisan they always were. Inflation that averaged nearly 5 percent under Biden and spiked to a crushing 9.1 percent has been driven down to just over 2 percent – nearly in line with the Fed’s target. Americans have now seen the first overall price decline since 2020. Gas prices have fallen to their lowest levels since early 2021, with dozens of states below $3 and several under $2.50. Even eggs – a favorite and forgotten talking point of the Left early in the administration – are down more than 80 percent from their peak. This wasn’t luck. It was the predictable result of unleashing American energy, cutting regulations, and ending the spend-first, apologize-later economics that defined the Biden years.
Congress followed Trump’s lead. The Working Families Tax Cut delivered the largest tax cut in American history, boosting take-home pay by as much as $13,300 for working families while cutting off benefits for more than a million illegal aliens who were exploiting the system. That alone marked a clean break from the Biden era, when Americans were told there was endless money for them but no relief for taxpayers. Trump then went further, clawing back billions through rescissions that gutted wasteful foreign aid and defunded ideologically captured outlets like NPR and PBS. Washington never shrinks itself. It has to be forced.
The labor market tells the same story. Nearly 700,000 private-sector jobs have been added, with all net growth going to native-born Americans. Wages are rising faster than inflation, and blue-collar pay has seen its largest jump in nearly 60 years. Trump’s deregulatory push has already saved Americans more than $180 billion, with auto rule rollbacks alone projected to save consumers over $1 trillion in the years ahead. Markets responded accordingly. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq didn’t just climb. They repeatedly hit record highs because capital finally trusts the direction of the country again.
Nowhere is the contrast with Biden clearer than at the border. Illegal crossings collapsed to roughly 245 apprehensions per day, a 95 percent drop from Biden-era levels. Zero illegal aliens were released into the country on parole for seven consecutive months. More than 600,000 illegal aliens have been deported, while nearly two million more self-deported once the incentives disappeared. ICE arrests now overwhelmingly target criminal aliens. This wasn’t messaging. It was enforcement, and it worked exactly as advertised.
Foreign policy followed the same principle. Strength without apology. Trump forced NATO members to commit to spending 5 percent of GDP on defense, something Washington elites insisted for decades could never happen. Iran’s nuclear program was obliterated. Violent cartels like MS-13, Tren de Aragua, and the Sinaloa Cartel were formally designated as foreign terrorist groups and targeted accordingly. Ceasefires and peace agreements were secured across multiple global flashpoints, while Trump laid out a serious framework to end the war in Ukraine, with NATO carrying the financial burden instead of American taxpayers.
At home, Trump moved decisively where Biden deferred to activists. Men were removed from women’s sports. Hospitals halted irreversible medical procedures on minors. DEI programs were ripped out of the federal government, and universities that allowed discrimination and antisemitism to flourish were forced to pay massive fines and change course. Law and order returned, and the country is now on track for the lowest murder rate on record.
Even areas Washington had written off began to turn around. Housing costs eased as mortgage rates hit three-year lows and rents fell for four straight months. Every branch of the military met recruitment targets early. Major food producers began abandoning artificial dyes. Artificial intelligence investment surged, cementing America’s dominance in the next technological era. Farmers received relief, export markets reopened, and economic sentiment hit its highest levels in years.
Biden spent four years managing decline, apologizing abroad, subsidizing dysfunction at home, and calling it compassion. Trump spent one year restoring leverage, enforcing rules, and demanding results.
That may be the most important lesson of all. None of this required miracles. It required will. The policies were always available. What was missing was leadership willing to use power rather than fear it.
Year one didn’t just undo the damage. It re-established the mandate. Democrats already see it, which is why they are racing toward lawsuits, injunctions, and bureaucratic sabotage to slow what they can’t stop at the ballot box.
This isn’t a fluke. It’s proof of concept. And if this is what one year of governing looks like, the next three are exactly why the people who broke the country are panicking — because the best is yet to come.
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