Trump promised a 'Golden Age'. What has he delivered at home?

Donald Trump promised Americans a “Golden Age” when he returned to the White House in January 2025. Since then, his administration has slashed government spending through DOGE, ramped up mass deportations, expanded ICE operations and pursued an aggressive crackdown on DEI programmes and transgender rights. But how much has he actually achieved, and at what cost? Vedika Bahl examines Trump's domestic agenda since returning to office. When Donald Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, he promised Americans a “Golden Age”, pledging to restore safety, sovereignty and law and order. Since then, his administration has pursued a sweeping domestic agenda, targeting government spending, immigration, diversity programmes and transgender rights. DOGE: A chainsaw through the federal government On his first day back in office, Trump signed a series of executive orders, including withdrawing the United States from the Paris climate agreement and reversing nearly 80 Biden-era policies. One of his biggest promises was to slash government spending. To lead the effort, he appointed billionaire Elon Musk to head the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which initially set an ambitious target of saving $2 trillion in federal spending. DOGE went on to oversee widespread cuts across federal agencies, including the closure of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and thousands of job losses. But Musk stepped away in May 2025, after around four months, and the initiative subsequently lost momentum. By November, a senior government official told Reuters that DOGE "no longer existed as a centralised entity". The department claimed to have saved $215 billion, but those figures have been challenged. In August, the US Government Accountability Office found that some entries on DOGE's publicly available “Wall of Receipts” were incorrect or lacked supporting evidence. The watchdog also criticised the lack of transparency surrounding DOGE's methodology, finding that the department had taken credit for some savings involving leases that were already being phased out before its creation. As a result, there is no reliable, independently verified total of how much DOGE actually saved. DOGE formally ended on July 4, 2026, with Trump hailing its goal of creating a smaller, more efficient government. Trump described the creation of a smaller, more efficient government as the perfect gift for America's 250th birthday. Whether DOGE delivered on its ambitious promises, however, remains a matter of debate. Immigration: A sweeping crackdown and mass deportations Immigration was another central pillar of Trump's election campaign, with the president promising an aggressive crackdown on undocumented migration. On his first day back, Trump declared a national emergency at the US-Mexico border and moved to reverse several Biden-era policies. His administration ramped up deportation flights, including to third countries such as El Salvador, which received millions of dollars to detain more than 200 Venezuelan men accused by Trump of gang membership. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) also expanded raids and arrests in cities including Los Angeles, Minneapolis and New Orleans. Its tactics sparked widespread protests, with agents criticised for carrying out arrests at traffic stops, schools, churches and other public places. Tensions escalated following fatal shootings involving immigration agents. Six people have been killed as of date in shooting incidents involving ICE agents since 2025, including three US citizens. Despite the scale of the crackdown, deportations have fallen short of the administration's targets. The Migration Policy Institute estimates that around 980,000 people were deported during the first 18 months of Trump's second term, including formal removals and returns. That is below the administration's target of one million deportations per year. The Department of Homeland Security has claimed that more than three million unauthorised immigrants have left the country since January 2025, including through self-deportations. However, that figure cannot be independently verified using publicly available data. The war on ‘wokeness’: Targeting DEI and transgender rights Trump has also made dismantling what he calls “wokeness” a priority, particularly through his crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes. His administration has moved to eliminate DEI policies across the federal government, arguing that they amount to illegal discrimination, and launched investigations into companies and institutions over their diversity initiatives. The campaign has extended to American history and culture, as Trump accused the Smithsonian Institution of focusing too much on "how bad slavery was" and also ordered the restoration of certain Confederate statues. Several federal agencies have been instructed to review or remove material relating to women, racial minorities and LGBTQ+ people. At NASA, images celebrating women's achievements were targeted, while the Pentagon flagged thousands of photographs for potential removal, including those depicting military firsts by women and minorities. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has also overseen a major shake-up of senior military leadership. Senator Jack Reed said nearly 60 per cent of those dismissed were Black or women. Reports that Hegseth intervened to block promotions for some Black and female officers have been denied by the Pentagon. Transgender rights have also come under attack. The administration has banned transgender people from serving in the military, restricted federal funding for gender-affirming care for minors and limited transgender women's participation in women's and girls' sports.