Spanning merely a year, US President Donald Trump's second term has already been characterised by headlines on the international front with one-sided peace proposals, threats to allies, foreign invasions and coups. Meanwhile, the domestic front had witnessed sensational deportations along with an unprecedented level of funding for immigration enforcement, stripping away basic social services, and extreme deregulation for finance and healthcare.
In response to all of this, the United States has seen daily demonstrations in thousands of localities in protest of his actions, often intensified by extreme crackdowns by federal agents.
The following is a roundup of Trump's 'greatest hits' during this period.
'Ceasefire' in Gaza
What Trump sees as one of his hallmark achievements is the latest ceasefire deal he oversaw between Israel and Gaza in January, and he has suggested multiple times that it should qualify him for the Nobel Peace Prize.
The ceasefire deal led to the exchange of prisoners, captives and deceased individuals, limited entry to humanitarian aid, and the cessation of rockets from Gaza.
However, from the Israeli side, regular rocket fire has continued, along with further incursions into the enclave, leaving a much smaller portion habitable for Palestinians.
Threats to allies
Since before taking office for a second term, Trump has repeatedly threatened US allies and sovereign countries with whom the US has long had stable relations.
Prior to his inauguration, Trump threatened to take over the Panama Canal, invoking the "Monroe Doctrine" and claiming the US needed it for national security.
Completed in 1914 under the leadership of the US Army Corps of Engineers, the canal was originally under US control. After decades of protests by Panamanians, the US agreed in a 1977 treaty to transfer control of the canal to Panama, with the handover completed in 1999. Trump has called the agreement a rip-off.
Trump's latest fixation appears to be Greenland, a permanently frozen island with fewer than 60,000 inhabitants that has been a Danish territory for centuries. Though Greenlanders' relationship with Denmark has been fraught over the years, recent polls and demonstrations have made it clear that the majority of locals don't want to be taken over by the US.
Trump's growing threats to invade Greenland have led to a multi-nation European military deployment of US allies from the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. If Trump invades Greenland, this would be the first time in NATO’s 77-year history that one of its allies has invaded one of its own.
Invasions and coup
Just days into 2026, the invasion and coup that startled many around the world—and possibly gave Trump the confidence to more aggressively pursue Greenland—was the swift US overthrow of then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro.
The action was condemned by some for overthrowing a sovereign head of state. However, world leaders quickly came together to express their support for a peaceful transition of power.
Since the US coup in Venezuela, Trump has repeatedly suggested invading other countries, including Greenland, Columbia and Cuba.
A new world order?
These actions, along with many others, have led to sober responses from international and domestic elected officials.
At a recent speech in Davos, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, leader of one of the countries Trump has repeatedly threatened with an invasion, described these new developments from the US side as the "rupture in the world order, the end of a nice story, and the beginning of a brutal reality where geopolitics among the great powers is not subject to any constraints."
He went on to note new strategic agreements with other countries, such as China, as part of Canada’s growing multilateral approach to this new world order. He also urged people to honestly acknowledge this new era.
On the domestic side, a group of Congress members are currently under investigation by the US administration for releasing a video telling military service members that they can refuse illegal orders that go against the country’s constitution.
Mass deportations, record-high ICE funding
Trump began his first campaign, after descending to a press conference on a golden escalator in June 2015, by calling Mexicans (though implicitly referring to non-white immigrants in general) as "rapists" and "murderers".
"When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people," he said, as he was met by shock and dismissiveness by much of the country and the world.
Since then, he has expanded on these statements, using “Mass Deportation” as one of his main campaign slogans in the 2024 presidential race.
Immediately at the beginning of his second term, Trump has only increased anti-immigrant rhetoric and crackdowns.
One of his first targets was Los Angeles, where the National Guard was deployed in June and July 2025 to quell mass demonstrations against ICE raids. They were then sent to Washington, DC, in August 2025 and are expected to stay through the end of 2026.
The latest National Guard deployment order comes from the state of Minnesota after the Trump administration deployed around 2,000 ICE agents to crack down on immigrants, mainly from the Somali community, following a years-long fraud scandal in which members of the Somali community took part.
Tensions rose following the fatal shooting on 7 January by an ICE agent of a local mother who had just dropped her young son off at school. Anti-ICE demonstrations escalated even further following more reports of extreme measures taken by ICE agents. These include kneeling on detainees, using chemical spray that has sent children to the hospital, and breaking down the doors of homes without a warrant. One of the latest examples captured on video showed ICE agents pulling a barely dressed elderly man from his home and dragging him through the snow.
Critics of these tactics point to the fact that the majority of those detained by ICE do not have criminal records, and many of them are US citizens, green card holders or people in the process of doing their immigration paperwork.
Following the passage of Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" the ICE budget is expected to increase by around three times annually to approximately to $27.7 billion, and with $75 billion allocated over four years, making it one of the highest funded forces in the world.
Extreme deregulation
Though this has not made headlines in the same way that ICE raids have, extreme measures of deregulation could become big news if there is a major financial crisis without the traditional guardrails to steady the economy, or if there is an outbreak of a contagious disease that is difficult to manage due to a sharp drop in mandated vaccines.
Since before Trump took office, he has been pressuring Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to resign, complaining that interest rates are too high. Central banks have a long tradition of independence to make decisions that stabilise the economy. Powell has remained defiant amid growing pressure to resign, including amid a new fraud investigation.
So far, the effects of healthcare deregulation appear to be minimal, though this could change with the outbreak of another pandemic.
This overall push for deregulation, highlighted early in Trump's second term by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, cuts across all agency departments, including environment, education, and social security.
Big businesses appear eager to take the reins in this new era.