‘Restoring Confidence’: 5 Highlights of Trump’s First Month as CPAC Gathers to Celebrate

President Donald Trump’s enraptured supporters, gathering just outside Washington, D.C., for the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, have much to celebrate after Trump’s first month in office.

They summarize Trump’s accomplishments with one of his campaign mottos, “Promises Made, Promises Kept.” Trump has signed about 70 executive orders aimed at securing the border; cutting wasteful spending; eliminating radical gender ideology; establishing an “America First” foreign policy approach; challenging discriminatory diversity, equity, and inclusion practices; and much more.

Seventy percent of Americans think Trump is doing exactly what he campaigned on, according to a CBS News poll released Feb. 9.

“It’s restoring confidence that you can have leaders who really will make a commitment and stick to it and do the things that they share in a campaign that they’re going to do,” House Freedom Caucus member Rep. Mark Harris, R-N.C., told The Daily Signal.

Many of Trump’s accomplishments echo what the House Freedom Caucus has fought for since its inception, Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., told The Daily Signal.

“From rooting out the waste, fraud, and abuse in our government, to rolling back the woke Biden administration policies that allowed biological men to compete in women’s sports, to deporting violent criminal illegals from our streets,” the Maryland lawmaker said. “President Trump is delivering on his promises to the American people—and doing it in record speed.”

Securing the Border

Two days into his second term, Trump declared a national emergency at the southern border, enabling him to deploy additional personnel to the border, and directing the acting secretaries of the departments of Defense and Homeland Security to finish the border wall.

The White House has touted January’s 36% decline in border apprehensions—resulting in the lowest number of illegal aliens apprehended along the border in almost five years—as the “Trump effect.”

That total includes 29,116 apprehended at the border outside of official ports of entry, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. That’s the lowest since May 2020. And that compares with 47,316 apprehensions outside of official ports in December, before Trump took office.

The January total also includes 32,349 apprehensions at ports of entry, compared with 48,719 in December.

Hundreds of illegal immigrants from Venezuela were sent home on Venezuelan-owned planes. Panama and Costa Rica officials held a meeting to discuss how to handle the droves of migrants returning home after being turned away at the U.S. southern border.

The first piece of legislation the president signed into law was the Laken Riley Act, which prioritizes the arrest of some criminal illegal aliens. The bill is named after Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, who was murdered by an illegal alien in February 2024.

The Trump administration has tightened the southern border and obtained cooperation from Mexico to address drug cartels within the country, Heritage Foundation border expert Lora Ries told The Daily Signal.

“Joe Biden opened our borders and refused to pressure the government of Mexico to crack down on the cartels and fentanyl production that has been killing Americans,” Ries said. “After four years, approximately 11 million inadmissible aliens entered the U.S. and hundreds of thousands of Americans died from drugs.”

Slashing Government Inefficiency

Trump launched the Department of Government Efficiency, aimed at identifying and eliminating wasteful spending. DOGE, which Trump tapped Elon Musk to lead as a special adviser to the president, says it’s already saved $55 billion in federal spending.

On his first day in office, Trump placed a 90-day freeze on foreign assistance from the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Harris, the North Carolina lawmaker, told The Daily Signal everyone in the Freedom Caucus is “thrilled” with the work DOGE has done so far.

“Many of us feel is that we’ve got to catch up,” Harris said. “Congress needs to get to work on time. Many of these things that he’s been able to do by executive order, we’ve got to catch up with him.”

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said she “clawed back” tens of millions of dollars in funds “that FEMA deep state activists unilaterally gave to NYC migrant hotels.”

The federal Department of Education announced it had terminated more than $600 million in grants to institutions and nonprofits that were using taxpayer funds to train teachers in critical race theory and radical gender ideology.

That comes after investigative reporter Chris Rufo found millions in waste, including funds to “left-wing activists who push the idea that babies are racist, kids should do ‘sex work,’ and America is a ‘concentration camp.’”

DOGE uncovered $1.9 billion at the Department of Housing and Urban Development that was “misplaced during the Biden administration due to a broken process,” DOGE revealed on X.

Protecting Women, Children From Gender Ideology

On Inauguration Day, Trump issued an executive order clarifying the existence of only two sexes, male and female, ending the Biden-Harris administration’s war on biological reality.

Rep. Mary Miller, R-Ill., proposed the Defining Male and Female Act in the 118th Congress. She said federal legislation is necessary to codify the order into law.

“The American people gave Republicans an overwhelming mandate in November that the woke madness of the last four years must stop,” she told The Daily Signal. “I commend President Trump for following through on these campaign promises, and now it’s time for Congress to back up his executive orders by enshrining them in federal law.”

He signed an executive order in the Oval Office surrounded by female athletes of all ages protecting women’s and girls sports from male intrusion. The NCAA then changed its policy on transgender-identifying athletes.

The Department of Education announced an investigation into the Minnesota State High School League and the California Interscholastic Federation for failing to adhere to the order by continuing to allow males to compete in female sports.

Former Auburn University football coach and Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., introduced the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, which would solidify the sports executive order. He praised Trump for championing women’s and girls sports.

“When 79% of the population agrees that men competing in women’s sports is wrong, you listen,” Tuberville told The Daily Signal. “That’s exactly what President Trump did when he signed an executive order preserving Title IX and protecting women’s sports. This isn’t about Republican or Democrat, it’s about right and wrong.”

The president also prohibited radical gender ideology and critical race theory instruction in federally funded public schools.

On Tuesday, Trump’s Education Department gave schools two weeks to end all practices that factor in race “preferences and stereotypes.”

“President Trump’s focus has been on policies that encourage all students to succeed based on their abilities and aspirations, free from the grips of identity politics,” Nicki Neily, president of Parents Defending Education, told The Daily Signal. “This merits-based approach is setting the stage for a more accountable and results-driven education system that better serves every student.”

Another executive order ending federal support for irreversible child sex-change procedures inspired many children’s hospitals to cease so-called gender-affirming care for minors.

“We’ve seen far too many young kids damaged by the drugs and surgeries. We’ve just seen so many times where this erasing of what it means to be female and male has caused harm,” said Matt Sharp, senior counsel at religious liberty law firm Alliance Defending Freedom.

Sharp told The Daily Signal that ADF hopes to see legislation passed in Congress to codify executive orders protecting kids and athletes from gender ideology.

Confirming Cabinet Nominees

Trump said it was essential for his Cabinet nominees to get confirmed so they can start working as quickly as possible, and after a month, he has been able to swear in the majority of his Cabinet.

“We want fast confirmations, and the Democrats are doing everything they can to delay them,” Trump told The Daily Wire. “They’ve taken too long.”

Getting Trump’s nominees through the Senate confirmation process has not been an easy feat for Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., who told The Daily Signal that Democrats have been doing everything they can to slow him down.

“While Senate Republicans are confirming President Trump’s Cabinet faster than the previous three administrations, the only things Democrats are committed to are obstruction and delay,” Thune said. “We’re working as quickly as possible to get President Trump’s full team in place so we can secure our borders, bolster national security, and unleash American energy.”

The Senate has outpaced itself for the number of Cabinet confirmations completed by this point in time since the George W. Bush administration in 2001.

Instituting One-Voice Foreign Policy

Since the Constitution vests foreign policy authority in the president, Trump declared on Feb. 12 all foreign policy must be conducted under his direction.

He announced reciprocal tariffs on countries currently assessing tariffs on the U.S.

“On trade, I have decided for purposes of fairness that I will charge a reciprocal tariff—meaning, whatever countries charge the United States of America, we will charge them,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Feb. 13.

“No more, no less,” he said. “In other words, they charge us a tax or tariff, and we charge them the exact same tax or tariff. Very simple.”

Tariffs have both a diplomatic and economic purpose, Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, explained.

“It’s a good way to go about trying to reset the trading relationship around the world,” he said.

Trump restored a 25% tariff on steel imports and elevated the tariff to 25% on aluminum imports.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced Trump would assess 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada and 10% on China as punishment for allowing fentanyl to cross the border.

China responded by imposing levies on some U.S. imports on Tuesday, but Mexico ordered 10,000 Mexican troops to the border to help stop the flow of fentanyl into America.

Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about a peace deal to end their ongoing war.

Trump facilitated the return of an American citizen wrongfully detained in Russia and another American detained in Belarus—the 10th and 11th hostages freed since he took office.

Hamas announced it would release remaining hostages from its 2023 invasion of Israel after Trump declared “all hell is going to break out” if the terrorist group delayed.

Feb. 17 marked 500 days in captivity for the remaining 76 of the 250 hostages taken when Hamas terrorists struck southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and killed more than 1,200 people.

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