What major policies did Donald Trump enact or influence in 2025?
Executive summary
In 2025 President Donald J. Trump pursued an aggressive mix of executive actions, deregulatory decrees and major legislation that reshaped trade, regulation, labor of the federal workforce and the budget — including 217 executive orders reported for the year and a national‑emergency tariff that imposed a 10% baseline duty on imports beginning April 5, 2025 [1] [2]. His White House also announced a “10‑for‑1” deregulation executive order and advanced Project 2025 ideas about reshaping the federal civil service — initiatives tracked and criticized across think tanks, party offices and legal monitors [3] [4].
1. A torrent of executive orders — quantity and scope
The Federal Register lists 217 executive orders signed by President Trump in 2025 (EO 14147 through EO 14363), a volume that by itself signals a presidency relying heavily on unilateral executive action to set policy across immigration, trade, energy and the federal workforce [1]. Legal trackers and law firms are cataloguing these moves because many rework agency rule‑making and can be implemented immediately by administration officials [1] [5].
2. Trade by emergency declaration: a 10% tariff baseline
In April the White House declared a national emergency “to increase our competitive edge” and used IEEPA authority to impose a 10% tariff on all countries, with higher reciprocal rates against nations with large deficits; the baseline was set to take effect April 5, 2025 [2]. The administration framed the step as protecting manufacturing and national security; critics warn such broad tariff use raises legal and economic questions [2].
3. Deregulation as doctrine: the 10‑for‑1 executive order
Trump issued an executive order requiring agencies to eliminate ten existing regulations for every new one they issue and to drive net regulatory costs “significantly less than zero” for FY2025, formalizing a sweeping deregulatory mandate that mirrors and intensifies his first‑term priorities [3]. Administration officials present this as pro‑growth; opponents argue it risks undermining public health, safety and environmental protections [3].
4. Project 2025’s imprint on personnel and policy
Project 2025 — a Heritage Foundation‑linked initiative and personnel plan — proposed reclassifying tens of thousands of civil‑service roles as political appointments to replace career staff with loyalists, and the project’s personnel database and modules were cited as influential infrastructure for the second Trump term [4] [6]. Democrats and civil‑liberties groups see Project 2025 as a roadmap for concentrating executive power; defenders say it prepares a conservative governing agenda [4] [7].
5. Major legislation and budget fights: One Big Beautiful Bill and shutdown fallout
Congress and the White House enacted large, controversial packages in 2025. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) included permanent extensions of Trump-era individual tax rates and new measures such as creating “Trump Accounts” with $1,000 federal contributions for certain children — provisions described as adding trillions to the debt and sparking partisan fights that contributed to a 43‑day government shutdown before funding was restored [8] [9] [10]. The bill’s proponents framed it as tax relief and restructuring; opponents point to long‑term fiscal cost estimates [8] [9].
6. Regulatory tracking and contested rule‑making
Think tanks and policy trackers documented an array of deregulatory or replacement rules across energy, immigration, health and other sectors; Brookings maintains a regulatory tracker to follow rollbacks and new rules through 2025 [11]. Legal challenges and state‑federal coordination were recurring themes as both sides prepared court fights over the administration’s broad use of executive authority [11].
7. Immigration and national security moves under litigation shadow
The administration prioritized hardline immigration steps (e.g., pledges to reinstate “Remain in Mexico”‑style policies), and agencies expanded vetting measures for visas and social media checks — steps tracked by sector groups and sometimes enjoined in court [12] [13]. NAFSA and other monitoring organizations recorded specific visa‑related changes and temporary restraining orders tied to proclamations invoking older statutes [12] [13].
8. Areas where available reporting is limited or contested
Available sources document the orders, the emergency tariff, deregulatory executive orders and Project 2025 influence [1] [2] [3] [4]. Available sources do not mention comprehensive outcomes for every EO, nor do they provide a unified, independent economic accounting of the tariff’s long‑term effects — those impacts are the subject of ongoing analysis and dispute in the reporting [2] [3] [11].
Context and competing views are central: the administration frames 2025 actions as restoring sovereignty, cutting red tape and prioritizing American workers; opponents warn of concentrated executive power, weakened safeguards and fiscal cost. The documentation cited here comes from government publications (White House and Federal Register), policy trackers and watchdog summaries that show both the scale of actions — 217 EOs and a 10% national tariff among them — and the intense political and legal frictions those moves provoked [1] [2] [3] [4].