Jan. 20 marked exactly one year since President Donald Trump was inaugurated into his second term. It has been a long, overwhelming, and unpredictable 365 days.
“I truly believe Donald Trump has accomplished many things so far,” University of Iowa communications student Alex Radcliff said. “Those things include shutting down our government for the second time, destroying families with no remorse or accountability, pardoning evil people, and violating international law.”
Radcliff is right.
In just one year, the Trump administration has completely disgraced democratic and humanitarian values, while jeopardizing the institutional integrity of the government. The only thing left to do is to stand up, protest, and vote against Trump’s wielding of
unsolicited power.
Haven White, a second-year UI student, knew once Trump got elected, things would go bad quickly, but she never expected this degree of tension.
“It’s honestly appalling how many things the administration has been able to get away with,” White said.
Nowhere is this more visible than in the expansion of immigration enforcement. Under the guise of criminal reform and national security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, has gotten away with an absurd amount of brutality and dehumanization.
Data shows that the majority of ICE detainees have no criminal record, and among those with convictions, many committed only minor offenses. Agents continue to aggressively arrest people off the street, no matter their legal status.
The brutal, unjustified murder of U.S. citizen Renee Good in Minnesota by ICE agent Jonathan Ross is the latest tragedy. It is also the latest example of the government lying directly to citizens. Even with videos clearly showing an unprovoked shooting, government officials are blatantly denying any guilt by ICE.
“You have a woman who aimed her car at a law enforcement officer and pressed on the accelerator. Nobody debates that,” Vice President J.D. Vance said in response to Good’s murder.
Within 24 hours of Good’s murder, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem ordered limitations on congressional oversight over ICE facilities.
Government officials and ICE agents are on a power trip, and it is our president who is allowing it to happen.
Instead of offering pathways to citizenship, Trump has subjected over 30 African states and many other Middle Eastern countries to a travel or visa ban. In his most recent act, Trump froze visa processing for 75 countries, including Iran, Russia, and Pakistan.
“America has been a country of immigrants and refugees since the Declaration of Independence. This kind of action goes against the foundation of what we stand for,” White said.
Anti-immigration is only one piece of this administration’s agenda.
Just days after the new year, Trump escalated U.S. involvement in Venezuela by authorizing bombs and kidnapping the Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Abandoning diplomatic norms, Trump revived an aggressively expansionist foreign policy that has alarmed both allies and international watchdogs.
UI professor of American foreign policy Brian Lai noted this change in foreign policy under the Trump administration.
“Past U.S. presidents may have, similar to Trump, disagreed with the policies of allies, particularly NATO allies, but they did not bring it into the open and did not challenge our allies the way that Trump has,” Lai said.
With three years ahead of him, it is hard to know how these tensions will fare.
“The question that will need to be answered is what are the long-term implications of policies that have upset allies, such as extensive use of tariffs, how we have addressed the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and what ultimately happens in Venezuela and Latin America,” Lai said.
This is only the most recent damage. Domestically, Trump repeatedly tested the limits of executive power and blurred the line between the presidency andpersonal authority.
Throughout 2025, Trump’s efforts to “Make America Great Again” included appointing officials for their loyalty rather than competence and experience. This has weakened federal agencies by sidelining professionals.
With U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s rhetoric, Trump is set to cut millions from the National Institutes of Health, including cancer research. Similar loyalty-driven decisions have reshaped agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA. The EPA launched its biggest deregulatory bill in early 2025 and has recently weakened its air pollution regulations.
It is irrefutable, or at least it should be, that the Trump administration has made a staggering change to American domestic, foreign, and economic policy in the last year.
But this change wouldn’t be possible without Trump’s efforts to change societal boundaries.
This slow normalization of the unthinkable is not a sudden democratic backslide. And it didn’t start a year ago.
It is the natural continuation of an extreme movement that started five years ago, on Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump incited violence at the nation’s capitol building, stepping over the boundary for the first time. The Jan. 6 riot never really ended; the mob just moved into the White House.
White has tried raising awareness of current events by reposting stories on Instagram. She has called her representatives in Missouri and Iowa and has attended every protest she could.
“There is only so much I can do. Past these actions, others and I feel completely powerless. It just feels so out of our control,” she said.
With some of the most corrupt men in charge of one of the world’s most powerful governments, it is easy to believe resistance has become trivial. This feeling is not accidental. Exhaustion and hopelessness, combined with a non-stop news cycle, are great political tools. For the Trump administration, disengagement is the goal.
It is a midterm year, and governmental change seems possible. Trump himself has admitted losing control of Congress would put his presidency at risk.
“You’ve got to win the midterms,” he said. “Because if we don’t win the midterms, it’s just going to be — I mean, they’ll find a reason to impeach me.”
That statement alone should show that inaction comes at a cost.
If it doesn’t, take a look at the last year of Trump’s America. Because democracy doesn’t just disappear. We just stop trying to fight for it.