President Donald Trump has been back in the Oval Office for 50 days, which has included a whirlwind of executive orders, a breakneck pace of gutting and rebuilding agencies within the federal government, and rolling out economic plans the president says will be a boon to U.S. workers and industry.
‘To my fellow citizens, America is back,’ Trump declared in a joint speech before Congress March 4.
‘Six weeks ago, I stood beneath the dome of this Capitol and proclaimed the dawn of the golden Age of America,’ he continued. ‘From that moment on, it has been nothing but swift and unrelenting action to usher in the greatest and most successful era in the history of our country. We have accomplished more in 43 days than most administrations accomplished in four years or eight years. And we are just getting started.’
Trump has signed at least 89 executive orders in his 50 days in office. Trump signed more executive orders in his first 50 days than any other president signed in their first year going back to the Carter administration in 1977, data compiled by Fox News show.
Trump’s executive orders have been expansive, addressing issues ranging from ending the practice of biological males playing on girls sports teams, renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, to establishing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Amid his executive order and action blitz, Trump and his administration have been hit with at least 102 lawsuits, including repeated lawsuits surrounding DOGE and its chair, Elon Musk.
Musk and his DOGE team have been poring through various federal agencies in the search of government overspending, mismanagement and fraud, as well as slimming down the agencies overall through thousands of federal layoffs, including probationary employees who have not secured full-time employment. DOGE’s work has struck the ire of Democrats and federal employees who have staged repeated protests over the audits and firings in Washington, D.C., and across the U.S.
The president has meanwhile touted DOGE’s findings in public remarks, including rattling off a series of examples during his speech before a joint session of Congress.
‘Forty-five million dollars for diversity, equity and inclusion scholarships in Burma,’ Trump said as he provided examples of federal waste March 4 after thanking Musk for his work. ‘Forty million to improve the social and economic inclusion of sedentary migrants. Nobody knows what that is. Eight million to promote LGBTQI+ in the African nation of Lesotho, which nobody has ever heard of. Sixty million dollars for indigenous peoples and Afro-Colombian empowerment in Central America. Sixty million. Eight million for making mice transgender.’
Trump’s speech marked his first before both chambers of Congress since his return to the Oval Office. Trump spoke for about an hour and 40 minutes, notching the longest address a president has delivered before a joint session of Congress, according to the American Presidency Project at the University of California at Santa Barbara. The longest speech on record previously was held by former President Bill Clinton, when he spoke for one hour and 28 minutes during his State of the Union Address in 2000.
Immigration was a large focus of his address, as well as his first 50 days in office. His administration is touting in March that illegal border crossings have fallen to the lowest levels on record, cratering by 94% since February 2024 under the Biden administration, while massive deportation efforts between multiple law enforcement agencies have removed violent criminal illegal immigrants from the nation.
Trump has also honored the American lives lost to illegal immigrant murders, including remembering Laken Riley and Jocelyn Nungaray during his speech on Capitol Hill.
Trump signed the Laken Riley Act into law upon taking office in January, which directs Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain illegal immigrants arrested or charged with theft-related crimes, or those accused of assaulting a police officer. He also named a National Wildlife Refuge after Jocelyn Nungaray, a 12-year-old girl from Texas who was sexually assaulted and murdered by two illegal immigrants in June 2024.
Trump’s economic policies have also been rolled out at a fast and furious pace, including 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, a 10% tariff on imports from China to help end the flow of deadly fentanyl into the U.S., as well as announcing a plan for reciprocal tariffs on foreign nations, which are set to take effect in April.
Trump has championed that reciprocal tariffs will open the doors to foreign industries setting up shop in America to avoid the tax on imports to the U.S.
‘They can build a factory here, a plant or whatever it may be, here,’ Trump said of the reciprocal tariffs in February. ‘And that includes the medical, that includes cars, that includes chips and semiconductors. That includes everything. If you build here, you have no tariffs whatsoever. And I think that’s what’s going to happen. I think our country is going to be flooded with jobs.’
A handful of businesses and manufacturers, both U.S.-based and those abroad, have announced billions of dollars in investments since Trump took office, including Apple announcing a $500 billion investment in February that will generate 20,000 jobs in the United States and Saudi Arabia, pledging $600 billion in the U.S. over the next four years.
Businesses also have pledged to increase U.S.-based production efforts since Trump took office, including auto company Stellantis announcing it will make its latest version of the Dodge Durango in Michigan, and will also reopen an assembly plant in Illinois — while Mercedes-Benz pledged to grow its U.S.-based vehicle production.
On the international stage, Trump has secured the release of a handful of American hostages held abroad, including six who were held in Venezuela, two who were held in Afghanistan, one in Russia, one in Belarus and another American who was held in Hamas’ captivity.
The administration also secured the arrest of the terrorist behind the 2021 Abbey Gate attack in Afghanistan, which killed 13 U.S. service members amid the U.S.’ disastrous withdrawal from the country under the Biden admin.
Trump has met with world leaders at the White House since his return to the Oval Office, including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, UK PM Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Jordanian King Abdullah II bin al-Hussein and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Trump met with Zelenskyy in a fiery meeting Feb. 28 as the two leaders looked to continue negotiations to end the Russia–Ukraine war, and also ink a deal to recoup the cost of U.S. aid sent to the war-torn country by gaining access to rare-earth minerals like titanium, iron and uranium in Ukraine.
The deal was put on ice after Zelenskyy traded barbs with Vice President JD Vance and Trump during the meeting, culminating in Zelenskyy leaving the White House ahead of schedule as a planned press conference was canceled. U.S. leaders, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, recently arrived in Saudi Arabia to speak with the Ukraine delegation to discuss possible peace agreements.
War had also raged between Israel and Hamas ahead of Trump taking office, with his transition team earning credit for helping secure a ceasefire in the waning days of the Biden administration. Trump announced in February, when Netanyahu visited the White House, that he is looking into ‘long-term ownership position’ over the Gaza Strip in order to level it, rebuild it and ‘create an economic development’ that would prevent terrorists from gaining power in the area.
Just ’50 days in office and he has already established himself as the most consequential President of our time,’ the White House said in a statement Monday celebrating Trump’s 50 days of accomplishments. ‘The winning never stops — and President Trump is just getting started.’
