A year ago this week, Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the United States, defeating Kamala Harris by securing both the popular and electoral college votes, the first time a Republican presidential candidate has done that since George W. Bush in the 2004 presidential election. Trump made no hesitation in making drastic changes to the country the moment he was inaugurated January 20.
From gutting key agencies through DOGE, to deploying ICE to cities in blue states, to throwing a Gatsby themed Halloween party at Mar a Lago during the longest government shutdown in history while nearly 42 million Americans are losing access to their SNAP benefits, he has kept the country in constant turmoil. This is just the first year of his term, which makes the next three years even more concerning when there is already a barrage of controversies.
With all these moments, it is easy to believe the United States is heading toward an authoritarian or fascist future. I would beg to differ. I want to offer a more optimistic outlook for the future. In a wave of vitriolic headlines there are ripples of positives as well, such as the No Kings protests and the blue wave that has swept several states this week. These events, I believe, are what is holding the U.S. back from heading toward that future.
Trump’s Tumultuous First Year
Donald Trump did not hold back his plans and was not going to wait once he was inaugurated January 20. One of the first things he did was establish the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in collaboration with Elon Musk. The primary goal of DOGE is to eliminate what the Trump administration calls excessive waste in federal agencies by gutting them.
DOGE carried out a series of layoffs of thousands of federal workers at the State Department, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the FDA, the IRS, the National Weather Service and more. DOGE even laid off at least a dozen workers from the Technology Transformation Service, a department within the General Services Administration (GSA) whose goal is to help the U.S. government adapt to modern IT technologies and methodologies. Several months later, numerous laid off workers were rehired, since a significant portion of them were critical to their departments’ operations.
Another component of Trump’s first year is the resurgence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an agency that is part of the Department of Homeland Security. According to Merriam Webster, ICE’s responsibilities are to enforce “laws relating to border patrol, customs, trade, and immigration.” ICE has gained notoriety for its unethical treatment of undocumented immigrants. According to Gibson of the American Immigration Council, ICE’s mass deportations and detentions have resulted in overcrowded detention centers and poor conditions for detainees. These conditions range from people sleeping on concrete floors and officers providing rotten food, to detainees being denied medical care.
ICE has become more powerful and prominent after receiving 75 billion dollars in funding from the Big Beautiful Bill Act signed by Donald Trump this year. Trump has deliberately deployed ICE to cities in blue states, such as Chicago. Many of these cities are pushing back, claiming the deployments are politically motivated.
Recently, because of the ongoing government shutdown, nearly 42 million Americans have lost access to their SNAP benefits. How does Trump respond to this situation? By throwing a Great Gatsby themed Halloween party at Mar a Lago hours before tens of millions of Americans lose their benefits. I find a stroke of irony in this, because Trump clearly missed the point of The Great Gatsby, which is a critique of the wealthy and their empty excess.
A New Hope
While America has been engulfed in uncertainty, there have been flickers of hope peeking through, briefly illuminating the star spangled banner our nation is supposed to stand for. One flicker is the recent No Kings protests across the U.S., organized in response to Trump’s authoritarian esque approach to his presidency.
Two No Kings protests have occurred so far. The first happened June 14, Trump’s seventy ninth birthday and the U.S. Army’s two hundred fiftieth anniversary. The second protests were October 18 and drew even bigger crowds. The No Kings protests have become the biggest protests in U.S. history, totaling an estimated 12 million participants, according to Encyclopedia Britannica.
Another flicker is the set of recent victories the Democratic Party has earned as it tries to recover from its losses in the 2024 election. Three of the most important wins have been in New York, Virginia and California. In New York, progressive Democrat Zohran Mamdani has just been elected mayor of New York City, which saw its highest voter turnout rate since 1969. In Virginia, all the seats in the House of Delegates were flipped blue, and Democrat Abigail Spanberger became the first woman in Virginia history to be elected governor. Finally, in California, voters passed Proposition 50, a plan to temporarily redraw congressional districts to include Democratic adjacent ones in anticipation of the 2026 midterm elections.
Overall, the biggest point I am trying to make is to assure you there is still hope out there, even when we are living through a scary time. Do not let others beat you down because you do not align with their dogmatic outlook on the world. Make a difference. Use your voice. You might be surprised by how powerful your voice can be.
Most importantly, cast your vote. Your vote actually matters, no matter what others say to you. Your vote affects the future of the country, so cast it whenever an election, whether local, state or federal, comes up.
Remember: in a dark tunnel, you are bound to see an illuminating light at the other end.
SOURCES
Deng, Rae. “Here’s How Much the ICE Budget Would Increase under Trump’s Megabill.” Snopes, 2 July 2025.
“Department of Homeland Security.” Merriam Webster.com Legal Dictionary.
Fowler, Stephen. “Democrats’ 2025 Election Wins Go beyond Big Races to Places like Georgia, Pennsylvania.” NPR, 5 Nov. 2025.
Gibson, Molly. “Trump Administration Deadlier for ICE Detainees Than COVID 19 Pandemic.” American Immigration Council, 17 Oct. 2025.
Hanson, Hilary. “Trump Throws Lavish Halloween ‘Great Gatsby’ Party On Eve Of SNAP Running Dry.” HuffPost, 1 Nov. 2025.
Kelly, Makena. “DOGE Has Started Gutting a Key US Technology Agency.” WIRED, 12 Feb. 2025.
Lutz, Ashley. “What Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ Means for Tax Cuts, Medicaid, National Debt, and More.” Fortune, 2 July 2025.
Montgomery, Mimi. “Agencies Scramble to Rehire Federal Workers after DOGE Layoffs.” Axios, 10 June 2025.
Ramanathan, Tara, et al. “‘No Kings’ Protests.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 24 June 2025.
Schlitz, Heather. “‘We’re Not a Violent City’: Chicago Locals Take on ICE Block by Block.” Reuters, 3 Nov. 2025.
Yarrow, Grace, and Marcia Brown. “Nearly 42 Million Americans Lose Their Food Stamp Benefits.” Politico, 1 Nov. 2025.
