What Would Trump’s Report Card Show for His First Six Months in Office?

 The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday is a “report card” for the first six months of President Donald Trump’s second administration. According to Josh Hammer in an article published at The Daily Signal, Trump “intuited a key life lesson” from his various experiences over the past four years, including his “four years’ banishment to America’s political wilderness,” “would be assassin’s bullets,” and “humiliating and unprecedented spectacle of criminal prosecution by his political opponents.” 

Hammer compared Trump’s second administration to “a thoroughbred bursting out of the Kentucky Derby starting gate” and stated that Trump “has been racing full speed ahead” since the day of the inauguration of his second term.” He claimed that “this has surely been the fastest six months in modern presidential history.” Then Hammer gave the Trump administration a “report card” for their first six months in office.

Economy: B+

There has been much in the way of genuinely great news on the economy. The stock market is considerably up since Trump resumed office, Trump’s tariffs are bringing in substantial revenue to the Treasury, the president renewed his landmark 2017 tax cuts and cut taxes on tips and overtime pay, he has finalized historic trade deals with major powers, inflation has stayed relatively consistent, and blue-chip companies have announced massive domestic investments in the U.S. economy.

On the other hand, inflation stubbornly remains a bit high, the tariff rollout has been bumpy at best,  and the “One Big, Beautiful Bill,” while a net positive piece of legislation, only exacerbated America’s glaring debt problem….

Domestic policy: A

The administration’s broader domestic agenda has been, from a conservative perspective, extremely successful. Trump’s war against the higher education establishment is long overdue and is already paying huge tangible dividends. Trump … has taken meaningful steps to curtail the administrative state Leviathan and consolidate executive power where it properly belongs: with the president himself.

He has protected women’s sports and female federal inmates from intimate exposure to biological males, protected vulnerable and confused children from the irreversible depredation of transgender “medicine,” and crushed the modern racism that is “diversity, equity, and inclusion….

Immigration: A+

Trump has not disappointed on his longstanding signature political issue, immigration. Illegal border crossings and “gotaways” have impressively dropped to historic lows as Trump, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and “border czar” Tom Homan have overseen the most effective border security and mass deportation operation in American history. There are no signs of slowing down, either….

Law: A-

Lower-court judges have tried to nip the administration’s agenda in the bud with ludicrous “nationwide injunctions,” but most of those acts of judicial hubris will be

Brought to heel by Trump’s recent U.S. Supreme Court victory in the CASA case.

The administration has secured other crucial Supreme Court victories….

Finally, the Jeffrey Epstein saga, while not the monstrous scandal-in-the-making some even on the MAGA Right make it out to be, has clearly not been handled particularly well.

Foreign policy: A

The Trump administration has reversed the Joe Biden-era approach of rewarding geopolitical enemies and punishing geopolitical friends by returning to the more familiar approach he deployed during his first term: rewarding friends and punishing enemies.

Trump’s limited incursion in last month’s 12-day war between Israel and Iran achieved the decades-sought-after goal of severely hampering Iran’s nuclear program, while also not suffering a single American casualty or even a boot on the ground.

In Europe, NATO nations are already committing to spend more money on defense….

Trump has brought peace to India and Pakistan and Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A Russian-Ukraine peace deal remains elusive….

There is undoubtedly much work left to be done. Trump would probably be the first to say that himself. But his second administration is off to a very strong – and fast – start….