Trump touts record at 1-year mark of second term

President Donald Trump walked into Tuesday’s White House press briefing holding up a thick stack of papers he called his “book of accomplishments” on the one-year anniversary of his inauguration. 

“We took a country that was dead, and it’s the hottest country in the world right now, and that’s after one year,” he said near the beginning of the 90-minute briefing, the final third of which he took many questions from the media. 

Trump began with the recent “fray” in Minnesota over the enforcement of federal immigration laws, holding up posters of recently apprehended “murderers, drug dealers and illegal aliens” in the city. The president praised the work of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers who are battling protesters and “professional agitators,” and acknowledged ICE can sometimes be “rough” because “they deal with rough people.”  

Trump also referred to the death of Renee Good as a “tragedy.” Good was shot and killed after accelerating her car toward an ICE agent after being instructed to get out of her vehicle, which she was using to impede ICE operations. 

“We feel terribly. I felt horribly when I was told that the young woman who had the tragedy – it’s a tragedy. It’s a horrible thing. Everybody would say, ICE would say the same thing,” Trump said. “But when I learned her parents, and her father in particular, was a tremendous Trump fan. It’s terrible … I hope he still feels that way.” 

Trump said he attended the press briefing to better promote the work of his administration, which “inherited a mess” from the Biden administration, such as absurd gas and egg prices that angered so many Americans a year ago. 

“We’ve done more than any other administration has done, by far,” Trump said.  

Among his list of accomplishments, Trump celebrated ending eight wars, establishing the Board of Peace and decreasing illegal border crossings by 99.99%. He said he “restored common sense” by ending “woke lunacy,” such as diversity, equity and inclusion policies, transgender ideology and critical race theory from schools.  

Trump also highlighted the drop in drug prices by 300% or more as one of his greatest accomplishments. 

“We secured Most Favored Nations agreements to slash drug prices. To me, I think this might be the biggest thing of all,” he said. 

The stock market saw 52 record-highs, thanks to a 41% investment increase in American factories and more than $150 billion earned through American exports, Trump said. Inflation sits at a comfortable low of 1.6%, as compared to the more than 6% under Biden, he said.  

The president also defended tariffs as a method to boost both America’s economy and national security, as foreign countries “respect America more than ever.” 

“We have a perfect system right now. We’re making a fortune. We’ve never been stronger. And I hope the Supreme Court does the right thing for our country,” he said, referencing the looming decision from the U.S. Supreme Court on the president’s authority to set tariffs. 

Trump promised America’s economy and success is “going to get even better.”  

“We brought the prices down from when I came into office, and from what Biden had: way down. We’re going to bring them down further. But the job we did is a miracle.”