On Jan. 20, we marked the one-year anniversary of Donald J. Trump’s second inauguration, and it is clear that our country stands at an inflection point. An Economist/YouGov poll from October 2025 found that 61% of Americans believe that the country is on the wrong track; this includes 54% of men and 68% of women. This came less than a year after a majority of American voters gave Trump his first popular vote win in the 2024 election. Trump’s successor and predecessor, Joseph Biden, himself left office with a historically low job approval rating. The American people are rejecting the governance that both major parties are offering.
In fact, I believe that the throughline of at least the last five election cycles is the American people desperately trying to orient their government toward a kind of sensible, practical centrism that is focused on solving real-world problems, and the only way that our system has on offer from them to do that is to continually punish the party in power. We are consistently swinging from one pole to the other in election after election. Yet the American dream continues to feel further from reach for most Americans, particularly the younger generation.
In 2024, Trump was reelected largely on three issues: economic stagnation, immigration chaos at the southern border, and the perception (if not reality) that Democrats and the media colluded to deceive the public about the mental fitness of President Biden. The American people, particularly swing voters, resonated with the Trump campaign message hammering cost-of-living issues and border chaos. Trump also promised a new era of radical governmental transparency on issues like the revealing of criminal conduct for the friends and clients of sex trafficker and abuser Jeffrey Epstein. On the latter point, while there have been some disclosures, supporters and critics of the president alike have been disappointed at the administration’s handling of the Epstein files.
To the president’s credit, in very short order, his administration secured the southern border and virtually halted the inflow of undocumented immigrants. This is very clearly a campaign promise delivered, and something that overwhelming majorities of Americans support. And yet, despite the majority of Americans who support border security, the president is still underwater in the approval ratings for his handling of immigration-related issues. I think this is because of the heavy-handed approach that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is taking, which has seen surges of border patrol agents to American cities across the country–often masked. Another area where I think the president deserves credit is pardoning a group of pro-life Americans who were jailed under Biden’s administration. Nobody should be jailed for peaceful political activism in a democratic society.
On another controversial topic, the Trump administration has delivered on its promise to supporters of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement by elevating Kennedy to Secretary of Health and Human Services. Kennedy’s movement rightly calls out the sickness and obesity epidemic plaguing America, and in encouraging people to exercise more and avoid sugary and processed foods, all Americans should applaud. But at the same time, Kennedy has broken promises from his Senate confirmation to not harm vaccination programs and research, and many medical experts warn his decisions are doing grave damage to public health.
On foreign policy, the record of Trump 2.0 starts to become even more mixed. Since World War Ⅱ, the United States has sought to guard and oversee a world order based on strong alliances, increasingly free trade, and governance by international norms. The U.S. has certainly made mistakes, but a concern for democracy and global connectedness has been a fairly consistent through line of American policy across administrations of both parties. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has been an indispensable part of American foreign policy since its inception in 1949.
In 2025, we saw the Trump administration begin to reorder the international economy. The administration's implementation of tariff policy and restriction of normal trading relationships has created a lot of uncertainty in the economy. As I write this, we are still awaiting a Supreme Court decision on the constitutionality of many of the administration’s tariffs—which were not set by Congress, which usually has jurisdiction over economic policy.
2026 began with a bang with the Trump administration launching an operation on Jan. 3 to arrest Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Florez, to stand trial for narcoterrorism and arms charges. While controversial, the War Powers Act of 1973 gives the president 48 hours from committing U.S. troops to military action to inform Congress, and if Congress doesn’t put a stop to the action, he has 60 days to wrap up military operations. Many have noted that Maduro was a brutal socialist dictator who killed hundreds. A majority of the millions of Venezuelans who have fled the Maduro regime support the U.S. government’s intervention, while many inside the country are more cautiously optimistic—expressing open support could cost them their lives or freedom. The situation in Venezuela is ongoing, and its success should be judged in relation to the well-being of the Venezuelan people.
In regard to a potential U.S. invasion of Greenland, the president risks blowing up the entire NATO alliance and ending the post-war order entirely. Trump’s increasing insistence on American ownership of Greenland is causing alarm among America’s European partners. Greenland, a territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, has been a staunch ally of America and open to increased partnerships with the U.S. military on issues of shared national security; they simply want to retain their sovereignty. As a member of NATO, Greenland is protected by Article 5 of the NATO charter, which declares that an attack on one member is an attack on all. For the founding member of NATO to aggress against one of the members would, according to the statute, require all other signatories to militarily repel the invasion permanently, ending the alliance. America’s European allies have already begun moving to send military assets to the island.
Overall, Trump’s foreign policy has been characterized by a desire to exercise American power for perceived American interests and skepticism toward international treaties and organizations. When channelled against regimes that are hostile to America and internally oppressive, it can have some good results, but when it aims to disrupt decades-old alliances and partnerships, it threatens to destabilize the global order. As we look forward to three more years of the Trump presidency, it is unclear what the world order and America’s place in it will be.
There are very mixed feelings about the first year of the Trump administration on the Andrews campus that range from very supportive to deeply critical. I talked to several students to get a feel of the varied perspectives.
Carlos Portanova Jr. (junior, political science) emphasized his view of confidence in Trump’s economic achievements and strength. “Trump’s second term has started off with a show of strength. With our economy seeming like it’s becoming better with good GDP growth, wages starting to go up, inflation starting to level out, and manufacturing is coming back to the U.S. due to several issues, including tariffs. The border situation is better, too, with illegal crossings way down, deportations actually happening, cartels being treated like terrorists, and illegal fentanyl numbers finally dropping. On the world stage, he’s projecting strength by taking on the Venezuelan dictator, making it clear the U.S. isn’t backing down. As a junior who is going to be graduating next year, it’s refreshing to see promises actually being followed through.”
Julianna Tkachuck (junior, global studies) emphasized how feelings of fear in fellow Americans and lack of character override any accomplishments or achievements. “Personally, I judge leaders by the content of their character and not just by what they accomplish. Trump is not a good person. Period. I don’t care how much he has accomplished or what ‘good things' - if any - he has done.” Tkachuck added, “I see the fear American citizens have because they cannot trust their own country, their own government…The loudest speakers in this nation are shouting hate.”
Americans, like the Andrews campus, are very divided right now. But what most Americans are not divided on is that from administration to administration, people increasingly feel like our country is headed in the wrong direction. No matter where you sit politically, let our current turbulent political moment spur you to become more civically engaged. Show up to vote, even in off-year elections, and know who is running and what they stand for. Write or call your congressional representative and senators and let them know how you feel about things that our government is doing both domestically and internationally. Representative democracy requires citizens to stay engaged in the process. It may not feel like much, but the combined efforts of thousands or millions of citizens just speaking up can make a real difference.
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.