6 Months Into Second Term, Trump Savors Legislative Wins

Just over six months into his second four-year term, President Donald Trump has racked up an impressive list of legislative wins working with the Republican-led Congress.

First there was the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a capstone to the MAGA priorities that Trump began campaigning on back in 2015. First and foremost, the bill provides an unprecedented amount of funding to secure the U.S. border. The total amount is about $150 billion over about four years.

Much of that funding will go toward finishing the wall along the southern border and the construction and maintenance of Customs and Border Protection facilities, such as detention centers for illegal aliens. The law also spends billions on border-security technology; border processing, including for unaccompanied children; the hiring of thousands of new Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, and the prosecution of illegal aliens. 

The law also boosts defense spending at a time when the U.S. faces increased great power competition from China and Russia, especially in the Arctic. The legislation hikes defense spending by about $150 billion, which will go toward, among other things, expanding our shipbuilding capacity, enhancing missile defense, and improving Coast Guard mission readiness. 

Trump and the Republican-led Congress have also cracked down on the plethora of drugs killing Americans every day. In June, Congress passed and Trump signed into law the HALT Fentanyl Act, which permanently reclassifies fentanyl and related substances as Schedule I controlled substances. That makes illegal possession of the drug carry a much more severe penalty. The bill combats a real problem: A 2023 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found fentanyl was the No. 1 cause of death for people between the ages of 18 to 45.

The Trump administration and Congress have also sought to provide a standardized group of regulations for the emerging market of stablecoins, a form of cryptocurrency that is tied to another commodity, such as the U.S. dollar. In July, they made the GENIUS Act (Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins) the law of the land. The legislation was billed as a consumer protection measure that would require stablecoins to be backed by the U.S. dollar or a low-risk substitute. 

Congress has also sought to combat crimes committed by illegal aliens. Early in Trump’s second term, the House and Senate passed the Laken Riley Act, which requires U.S. Customs and Border Patrol to detain illegal aliens charged with assaulting a police officer, theft, and other serious crimes. Both the Laken Riley Act and the Jocelyn Nungaray National Wildlife Refuge Act, which codified the renaming of the Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge in Texas, were passed to memorialize young Americans slain by illegal aliens.

Republicans have also sought to unbridle American energy production and consumption. Congress overruled California’s electric car mandate, which would have set an embargo in the Golden State on the selling of new gasoline-powered cars and trucks after 2035. More than 30% of the automobile market is reliant on California’s regulations, which means the state’s onerous regulations would have likely distorted the entire U.S. car market.

The 119th Congress, with Trump’s approval, has more broadly sought to boost energy production by repealing a Biden-era Environmental Protection Agency rule targeting the oil and gas sector with an annual charge for methane emissions exceeding certain thresholds.

Congress and the Trump administration have also focused on quality-of-life issues. In May, Trump and Congress eliminated Biden administration limits on energy usage by walk-in coolers. That same month Trump also signed a congressional veto of a Department of Energy rule that would have increased the cost of gas-powered water heaters.

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