An I Vote My Vote End-of-Year Donald Trump Report Card

Though President Trump has been in office for less than a year, we here at I Vote My Vote offer our own assessment of his first eleven months’ performance. We approach this report card using the standard of his three major campaign promises. Candidate Trump promised to:

Secure the border. A+. President Trump has shut down the flood of illegal immigrants that included criminals and terrorists that invaded the US during the Obama and Biden administrations. Since January 20 when he came into office, Trump has deported over 605,000 and 1.9 million people voluntarily self-deported since that time.¹ He has done this with a largely recalcitrant Congress, an oppositional press and Federal judges who have resisted his Executive Orders. This is nothing short of amazing.

The restore the economy and reduce inflation. B. The latest economic news is excellent. Items among the excellent economic news:

• GDP for the third quarter came in stronger at 4.3% than had been expected and an increase from the 3.8% in the prior quarter.²
• The latest data shows the rate of inflation down about 70% from its Biden-era peak. In fact, if the pace of the past two months were to continue, inflation would be running at only 1.2% — far below the Fed’s 2% target.
• Over the last two months, prices for groceries, dairy, fruits and vegetables, toys, prescription drugs, clothing, airfares, natural gas, car and truck rentals, and hotels all declined as average gas prices plummet to multi-year lows.
• Private sector workers are on track to see their real wages rise by $1,300 in President Trump’s first full year in office as they earn back the purchasing power lost under Biden.³

The only reasons that this grade is an A- is because the economy will take much more time than 11 months to rebound from the last four years of inflation and malaise of a Democratic Party controlled government. Also, President Trump has been hampered in many economic efforts he has made by a Congress which is nominally controlled by Republicans but which has not been 100% supportive of his policies. President Trump must continue his good work in 2026.

Administer a Peace Through Strength Foreign Policy. B. If this assessment only concerned his promises concerning peace through strength then this grade would be an unequivocal A+. President Trump has brokered peace deals in:

• Armenia and Azerbaijan.
• Serbia and Kosovo
• Egypt and Ethiopia
• Thailand and Cambodia
• Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo
• Israel and Iran
• India and Pakistan
• Has normalized relations between several Arab nations and Israel, facilitated the return of the hostages from Hamas to Israel and his work with Ukraine and Russia shows promise after the latest round of talks.⁴

While a couple of these efforts are shaky at this time, President Trump’s record at peace-making has been nothing short of phenomenal. But this assessment must also include his tariff policies and how they have affected our foreign relations. Here the record is not ‘B’ work across the board. From an economic standpoint the tariffs have been a mixed bag. While on the whole they seem to have slightly benefited the US economy, for foreign relations they have also caused some damage.⁵ It is also true that while Trump’s efforts at securing the US’ border have greatly increased our security, they have also ruffled the feathers of some of our allies.⁶ We here at I Vote My Vote understand it is not President Trump’s ‘strong suit’, but wiser, less bombastic and non-belligerent rhetoric could only help his work in these areas. It also remains to be seen whether or not the intervention in Venezuela to arrest Maduro, his ‘saber-rattling’ with Cuba and Iran turn out to be positives in the foreign policy arena.

For the economic future, we here at I Vote My Vote hope that in 2026 he will make a strong beginning to stop the approaching disaster of our exploding national debt which has been foisted on us by decades of Presidential and Congressional overspending. His leadership is urgently needed to save Social Security from a looming bankruptcy, as well. We applaud the President’s administration’s efforts to root out the rampant fraud in many bloated and mismanaged government programs like the Minnesota “Feeding Our Future” scandal. But, the Minnesota example of corruption is just the ‘tip of the iceberg.’ There is much more waste and deceit to be found.

Our I Vote My Vote Trump report card for his first eleven months in office is certainly positive but there is room to improve in these and many more areas in 2026. We support his efforts to turn around the country from the destruction it was headed for under President Autopen…er, Biden.