President Donald Trump. Fox News/Getty.
President Donald Trump is celebrating six months in office. Fox News. Trump said that the country was "dead" under President Biden and bragged that the first six months of his 2nd term has been among the most consequential for any US President. In foreign policy, Trump has had major successes with ending wars, including the conflict between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the India-Pakistan conflict and the Israel-Iran war, which ended after successful airstrikes. A Russia-Ukraine peace deal has been elusive though. Domestically, Trump and Congress passed the Big Beautiful Bill, which funded large numbers of Trump's priorities. Trump also cited polling that shows Republicans almost exclusively approve of what he is doing, with a 90% approval rate.
My Comment:
Love the man or hate him, he is absolutely right about one thing, the past six months have been momentous. Indeed, it seems a lot longer than six months. It's hard to believe that Joe Biden was president at any point in 2025, but it was just six months go.
I do agree that Trump's foreign policy has been mostly masterful. His gamble with Iran, which I still think was a bad idea, worked out perfectly, to the point that the Israel-Iran conflict is over and probably will be for awhile. And he deserves a lot of credit for helping to end that war, and the wars between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (a war that most people didn't even know was happening, let alone that Trump helped to end it) and the conflict between India and Pakistan. Given that two of those three conflicts involved countries with nuclear weapons, it's an accomplishment that he was able to end any of them without getting nuked. That alone justifies my vote for him.
But the article is right, not all peace deals are in reach. The Russia-Ukraine war is continuing and will likely do so until Ukraine's ultimate defeat. Neither side really wants to end the war but Trump doesn't seem like he can impose his will to end it. And the Israel-Hamas war? Forget about it. Again, neither side seems likely to want peace, though there have at least been more progress there than in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Domestically, things are also going well, at least in terms of what Trump has accomplished. It's very clear that things have changed in terms of immigration. Border crossings are essentially done, proving that Democrats could have ended it at anytime they wanted. And illegal aliens are getting deported, though it would take a very long time to remove all of them.
The Big Beautiful Bill passed and it's obviously a huge win for Trump. He was able to herd the cats in Congress to at least pass one keystone piece of legislation. It was no sure thing and there are universes where Trump was simply not able to pull it off. Getting it done was a huge victory for him and proof that he has pretty strong control over the Republican Party.
There have been a few missteps as well. Losing Elon Musk was a problem, and one that might be a longer term issue, though it was probably worth it to get the BBB passed. And the Epstein story, which is probably close to done now, was a total self-inflicted wound. The messaging there was not great, even when given the context that the Wall Street Journal was working on the ridiculous Trump-Epstein love letter story.
I do think that Trump is having a better time of it than his first term. Polling indicates that his approval rating among Republicans is really good, around 90% in even anti-Trump polls. General approval is mixed, with only conservative outlets having him as approved, but that's a far cry from what it was in his 1st term, with even pro-Republican outlets having him exclusively in the negative. And, given that the Democrats in Congress are rocking an approval rate in the 20%-30% range, with one Quinnipiac poll recently released at 19% with Democrats being under water with their own party, he's sitting pretty.
As for me, I would say that I generally approve of what Trump has done in his 2nd term so far. At least some of that is due to just how bad Joe Biden was. Not only did I not agree with a single one of his policies, I thought the man was both personally loathsome, and totally unqualified for office. Almost anyone would have done better, except Kamala Harris.
But I do agree with the vast majority of what Trump has done. There are a few problems of course, he could have been stronger on gun rights, I'd prefer we either cut off Ukraine entirely or join the war on Russia's side, and the Epstein messaging was a classic blunder, and, forgotten by everyone, I absolutely hated the "Take it Down Act" due to free speech implications. But you are never going to get a President that's 100% on the same page as you and the bad absolutely does not outweigh the good.
I'd also say that the "sky is falling" chicken littles (or as Trump designates them "panicans" have been proven wrong again and again. Tariff's didn't hurt the economy, and inflation basically stopped. The Iran conflict didn't devolve into World War III. Trump isn't going to be brought down because of Jeffrey Epstein. If there is one thing that Trump is really good at it's making his critics look ridiculous in the end, and that has continued into the first six months of his 2nd term.
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