Name: Is Trump fulfilling his economic and foreign policy promises? DW News
Uploaded: 2026-01-20T17:31:52.000Z
Duration: 8 min 25 s
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Well, he promised a new golden age for America.

Now, one year into Donald Trump's second term, the numbers tell a more complicated story.

Growth has stalled, jobs are lagging, and import tariffs are reshaping the U.S. economy.

Our report looks at how far reality matches the promise of prosperity.

He promised the US unprecedented growth and a new era of prosperity.

The golden age of America begins right now, a year into Trump's second term.

The question is just how is the country doing economically?

Where are things at in terms of growth, unemployment and new jobs?

US exports are up 2.5% compared to 2024, hitting US$302 billion in October 2025 alone, higher than for a long time.

Nonetheless, in 2025, the economy grew by only around 2%, no more than under Trump's predecessor, Joe Biden.

So if you take the entire year, one year of Donald Trump, the growth forecasts have been very much disappointing.

Meanwhile, imports into the US fell sharply in 2025 by well over 3%, which was the President's intention.

Unlike his predecessors, Trump slapped import tariffs of 15% plus on almost all foreign partners.

This has brought the US government around $300 billion in revenue cash that the White House says will be used to cut national debt and ease the burden on citizens by lowering taxes.

But with imports now declining, so is customs revenue.

Another problem is access to specialised import products, which, thanks to the tariffs, are either too expensive or unavailable.

This affects everything from electrical and metal industries to chocolate producers.

If the tariffs really drastically strangle my business, in my affordability of running this business, then I will have to look at ending this.

And when it comes to tackling the labor market too, there are precious few signs of a golden age.

Unemployment has remained at around 4% since the Trump administration took office.

In 2025, only around 600,000 new jobs were created, fewer than in 2024.

However, it's a different story when it comes to the stock market.

Prices have seen a strong upward trend for a year, and

the S and P index is well above 6,000 points.

Good stock prices are important for many US citizens, as over 60% of the population invests in the market for extra income or to prepare for retirement.

The how much of the money earned remains in the pockets of those people?

As with previous President Joe Biden, the inflation rate is just under 3%, more than the 2% recommended by the US Federal Reserve.

Finally, President Trump announced a wave of investment by foreign companies in the us.

It won't be possible to assess the volume of this investment in new production lines until early 2026.

Experts, however, forecast it will go up well.

For more on the first year of Donald Trump's second term, let's bring in Boris Forman here.

He's a professor of political science at Bard College in Berlin.

What's the reality on the ground in your perspective?

I mean, as we just saw, it's a little bit more complicated than that, especially when it comes to inflation.

I mean, the gubernatorial elections we've seen, also the mayoral elections in New York City have shown that affordability really seems to be a major problem for Trump.

And so I think this is really one of his weak points.

The overall picture goes beyond the economy, though.

I think when it comes to deportations or when it comes to cutting down on central state bureaucracy, he has certainly delivered some of his promises.

It's obvious that Donald Trump is keen on breaking conventions and maximizing executive power.

His decision making is impulsive, at times, erratic.

Do you see Donald Trump displaying autocratic or authoritarian tendencies?

But I don't think he sees himself as a dictator or as an autocrat.

And I think this whole debate is not so much about how he thinks of himself.

The basic idea of democracy is that politics, political power, shouldn't be too concentrated.

I mean, this is what the US Used to be all about.

Checks and balances, federalism, local government, counterbalancing the federal state, the market, counterbalancing the state.

I mean, it's all about deconcentrating power.

And what Trump is certainly doing is he's overcoming some of these roadblocks.

He's governed without Congress, basically, except for one major piece of legislation.

He's used the justice system against his opponents.

So all the things that have been built into and hardwired into the political system of the US he's eroding.

And I think this is obviously also a problem for American democracy.

Donald Trump likes to see himself as a peacemaker, and

how he thinks of himself matters, at least to him.

He's clearly resentful about not being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Do you see this president as advancing the cause of peace?

It's a complicated question and a complicated answer, I guess.

I mean, when it comes to Gaza, I think he did have an important role to play in order to end the war there, even though, of course, a lot of hard questions are still being asked and don't have any answers yet.

But at the same time, he's also destabilizing the global order.

Globalization, post1945 institutions, the UN also are institutions that were carried by the US and he's turned away from that.

I think there are very strong arguments why the US was becoming hesitant after 2008, after the financial crisis, about globalization.

And he's taken that turn, but I think he's taken it somewhere else.

And the world is splitting up into different spheres of influence and geopolitical powers, and

that ultimately cannot be in the interest of the US the midterm elections are coming up that for the House of Representatives, many governorships, Senate seats will be decided.

Do you think this election could go against Donald Trump?

I mean, that's the general tendency when we look at all the midterm elections, is where the pendulum swings back and where the opposing party normally wins seats in the House of Representatives and in the Senate.

And when we look at the and also when we look at some of the elections that have happened in between or since the presidential elections, that's certainly a tendency we're seeing, but

I mean, this is just one year since the inauguration of Trump.

The midterm elections are still far away, so let's see what happens until then.

Boris, thank you very much for your assessment.

That was Boris Forman, professor of political science at Bard College here in Berlin.

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Is Trump fulfilling his economic and foreign policy promises? DW News

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