President Donald Trump and his supporters celebrated his first year back in office, with Republicans pointing to his rapid results.
Critics, however, warned that the policies are reshaping the federal government and the economy in lasting ways.
The year has been defined by a sweeping tax rewrite, a sharp escalation of immigration enforcement, and Trump's broad use of executive authority in his quest to "make America great again."
"There's never been anything like [it]," Trump told reporters in Miami this weekend, where he was attending the NCAA football championships.
"The money being invested in our country is unparalleled," he added. "There's never been anything even close, like many times more than China or any other country."
Trump said that just over a year ago, while former President Joe Biden remained in office, "we were a dead country."
"Now we have the hottest country in the world," he said. "Some of you have 401(k)s. You don't have to tell me, your numbers are the best they've ever been. The stock market is at an all-time high."
And as the eyes of the world are on Trump as he heads to Davos for the World Economic Forum, "the message to Davos ... is how incredible our country is doing," he said.
He also pointed to construction and manufacturing activity as evidence of an accelerating economy.
"Our country is doing very well," he said. "We have more money being invested in our country than any country."
Republican National Committee Chair Joe Gruters marked the one-year anniversary of Trump's inauguration with a statement crediting the president with reversing "the damage of Biden's far-left agenda" and delivering what he called historic progress on costs, energy, border security, and defense.
"Just one year into his second term, President Trump has delivered more results for the American people than any president in history," Gruters said.
"Families are finally getting relief, our communities are safer, and America is respected again on the world stage," he added. "President Trump is putting America first every single day, and this is only the beginning. The best is still ahead."
Trump has also been praised by supporters for his efforts to end wars in several countries and for the arrest in Venezuela of strongman Nicolas Maduro.
The White House and GOP leaders, though, have pointed first to the administration's signature tax-and-spending package, promoted by allies as "Working Families Tax Cuts" and often tied in messaging to the broader One Big Beautiful Bill Act, as the central legislative achievement of the year.
Republicans have framed it as the largest tax cut in U.S. history and said it will boost take-home pay for some households. Independent analyses have disputed the "largest ever" label, with PolitiFact reporting it trails other major tax cuts in modern history.
Immigration has been the administration's most visible enforcement push, bolstered by new resources and expanded federal operations.
The Department of Homeland Security has promoted year-end figures it says demonstrate results, including millions of departures since Jan. 20, 2025, and hundreds of thousands of deportations, though outside analysts note the totals include multiple categories of departures.
The push has also met with protests in some of the nation's major cities, including Chicago and Portland, Oregon, with unrest continuing in Minneapolis, where residents are pushing back against a surge in Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests.
A major Trump-backed domestic policy bill also directed large new funding streams toward immigration enforcement and detention capacity, helping accelerate the administration's crackdown.
On prices, Trump officials and Republicans have credited the administration's approach with easing inflation and bringing down energy costs, and have highlighted tariffs and trade data as evidence of progress.
Republicans have also pointed to public-safety trends as part of the first-year case.
Analysts reviewing preliminary 2025 data have reported the nation is on pace for what could be the largest one-year drop in homicides on record, with federal data also showing a sharp decline in overdose fatalities through much of the year.
On healthcare costs, the administration has highlighted a "Most Favored Nation" prescription drug pricing push.
The White House has said the initiative is aimed at tying some U.S. drug prices to those paid in peer nations, but legal and industry questions have followed as officials move from executive action to implementation.
Abroad, Trump has cast his first year as restoring U.S. leverage, pointing to alliances and conflict diplomacy.
One of the clearest documented outcomes is NATO’s new commitment, made at the 2025 summit in The Hague, in which allies agreed to target 5% of GDP annually for defense and related security spending by 2035 — a major jump from the long-standing 2% benchmark — though some governments voiced reservations about feasibility.
"No single person, or President, has done more for NATO than President Donald J. Trump," he posted on his Truth Social page on Tuesday.
"If I didn’t come along, there would be no NATO right now!!! It would have been in the ash heap of History. Sad, but TRUE!!!" he added.
However, tensions with NATO have emerged in recent weeks after Trump threatened stiff tariffs against several European nations unless they back his push to acquire Greenland as a U.S. territory.
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