Trump and GOP Majorities: Key Actions Since January 2025

Opinion

A note on what the Republican majority and Trump accomplished in less than two years, should people question it. This is not to say far more could and should have been done but let’s reflect on some positive accomplishments at the same time.

Since taking unified control in January 2025, President Trump and Republican majorities in the House and Senate advanced targeted tax, border, defense, and regulatory measures. Majorities were narrow and overall bill volume remained modest.

In the end, I believe the midterm loss was largely driven by the hardships the Iran war imposed on already struggling families and the GOP’s failure to recognize and address those hardships. Helping Americans make ends meet should have been the party’s top priority. One may argue more could have been done by the GOP, that is clear, but one can’t argue that nothing was done.

Let’s face it: when the average American is paying over $100 to fill a tank of gas and watching grocery bills climb every month, party loyalty goes out the window. People are voting on what’s left in their wallets at the end of the week. The GOP lost touch with working families who are just trying to make a living, and voters noticed. They gave their sound opinion on Nov 3 on how they felt.

What is that old saying – it’s the economy. A quick, AI-assisted look at what President Trump and the Republican Party have accomplished in just under two years.

Congressional actions under GOP majorities

Passed the Laken Riley Act requiring detainers for certain noncitizens charged with specified crimes.
Enacted the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (July 2025). It made the 2017 tax cuts permanent; created temporary 2025–2028 deductions for qualified tips (up to $25,000), overtime premium pay (up to $12,500/$25,000 joint), and an extra $6,000 for seniors 65+ (all subject to income limits); provided more than $170 billion for immigration enforcement and boosted Pentagon spending; and, per CBO, cut direct spending by about $1.1 trillion while cutting revenue by about $4.5 trillion, producing a projected $3.4 trillion net deficit increase over 2025–2034. CBO also projects lower Medicaid and other coverage enrollment from the law.
Signed the TAKE IT DOWN Act (nonconsensual intimate images), HALT Fentanyl Act, GENIUS Act (crypto framework), and Secure America Act (additional immigration enforcement funding).
Approved roughly two dozen CRA resolutions repealing late Biden-era rules and about $9 billion in spending rescissions.
Confirmed hundreds of nominees, including Cabinet and judicial positions, at a rapid pace.
Combined funding with later executive steps that ended catch-and-release, expanded removals, and sharply reduced border encounters.
Advanced elevated defense authorizations supporting budgets over $1 trillion and codified some actions through regular-order appropriations work. Administration-cited data showed declines in certain violent crime categories; the White House highlighted large private investment announcements tied to the policy environment.

Executive actions by the Trump administration

Trump issued a high volume of executive orders, memoranda, and proclamations—far exceeding his first-term total in the early months alone. Major categories included:

Ending or restricting federal DEI programs and related mandates across agencies and the military.
Establishing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) effort, initially associated with Elon Musk, aimed at workforce reductions, agency restructuring, and spending cuts.
Trade actions, including tariffs on various countries and goods (steel, aluminum, and others tied to border/fentanyl or reciprocity goals).
Immigration-related orders declaring a southern border emergency, expanding enforcement authorities, and attempting changes to birthright citizenship interpretation (subject to legal challenges).
Rollbacks of prior administration rules on energy, environment, gender policies in federal contexts, and other areas.
Additional steps on tariffs, sanctions, military readiness, and domestic energy production.

Additional fraud enforcement notes

USAID and foreign-aid programs continued to yield prosecutions and debarments for global fraud schemes, including large-scale bribery, kickbacks, payroll fraud, and diversion of U.S. funds by contractors and nonprofits overseas.
Domestic cases included multiple “ghost” daycare and adult-daycare schemes that billed government programs for nonexistent children or services (one $10 million case alone charged 12 people), alongside ongoing COVID-era relief fraud prosecutions that have charged thousands of defendants and recovered substantial sums through the administration’s fraud task force.

In summary, the period focused on permanent tax-cut extension with targeted temporary deductions, major border and defense funding, regulatory rollbacks via CRA, rapid nominations, and separate executive directives on efficiency, trade, immigration, and DEI. Implementation continues amid legal and practical challenges. Overall output was high on reconciliation, CRA repeals, and nominations but lower on total distinct bills.

Source List

Legislative record and major bills
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/119th_United_States_Congress
https://www.republicanleader.senate.gov/leader-board/research/the-senate-republican-majority-delivers-historic-year-of-accomplishments/
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2025-12-15/what-did-the-gop-accomplish-in-2025-tariffs-tax-cuts-and-ice-raids
https://apnews.com/article/what-is-republican-trump-tax-bill-f65be44e1050431a601320197322551b
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/four-big-things-congress-2025-rcna249338

Tax provisions, CBO estimates, and funding details
https://www.cbo.gov (Congressional Budget Office baseline and reconciliation estimates referenced in reporting)
https://www.irs.gov (guidance on tip, overtime, and senior deductions)
https://ballotpedia.org/Uses_of_budget_reconciliation_in_Congress

Executive actions and DOGE
https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2025-trump-executive-orders-actions/
https://ballotpedia.org/Donald_Trump%27s_executive_orders_and_actions,_2025

https://www.whitehouse.gov/releases/2026/09/president-trump-delivers-historic-results-for-the-american-people-in-under-two-years/

USAID and foreign-aid fraud investigations
https://oig.usaid.gov/our-work/investigations
https://justthenews.com/government/federal-agencies/long-after-musk-and-doge-left-trump-admin-still-cleaning-usaid-fraud
https://justthenews.com/government/federal-agencies/usaid-watchdogs-debarments-expose-two-schemes-diverting-american
http://oig.usaid.gov/node/7877 (bribery scheme summary)

COVID-era and broader fraud enforcement
https://www.justice.gov/fraud/media/1465016/dl?inline (2025 COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force Report)
https://thepostmillennial.com/news/22-defendants-charged-63-million-oregon-pandemic-fraud-crackdown
https://thenationaltelegraph.com/news/vance-fraud-task-force-58-9-billion-fraud-ledger-minnesota/

Internal allegations and oversight reports
https://www.foreign.senate.gov/press/dem/release/ranking-member-shaheen-senate-foreign-relations-committee-democrats-release-report-on-trump-administrations-abuse-of-taxpayer-funds-and-private-deal-making-through-foreign-policy
https://congressionalintegrity.org/congressional-integrity-project-launches-the-fraud-ledger-a-public-record-of-the-corruption-self-dealing-and-pay-to-play-defining-trumps-second-term/
https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/21/politics/trump-corruption-midterms

facebook