Trump’s State of the Union, by the numbers

WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump had been back in office for only six weeks in 2025 when he told a joint session of Congress that Democrats had left the country in a mess and that he was cleaning it up.

As Mr Trump prepared to deliver

his State of the Union address

on the evening of Feb 24, the effects of his policies and actions have come into focus. He has had a polarising, whirlwind year, enacting fundamental changes to US politics and society.

At the same time, the country is also seeing changes tied to longer-term, national trends.

Here is a by-the-numbers look at where the country was in 2025 versus now.

Approval numbers are down

Forty-one per cent of Americans approve of Mr Trump’s performance, according to a daily average of polling data compiled by The New York Times. That is a significant decline from a year ago, near the start of his presidency, when he recorded a 49 per cent approval rating.

Polling has shown voters being disappointed with Mr Trump over two areas once thought to be winning issues for him: the economy and immigration.

Inflation has eased

Overall inflation eased to 2.4 per cent at the start of 2026, down from 3 per cent when Mr Trump took office. Inflation reached a four-decade high of 9.1 per cent in the summer of 2022.

The overall inflation number is particularly important to Mr Trump, who has tried to dismiss voters’ concerns over affordability. But core inflation, which filters out volatile food and energy prices, remains high.

Deportations are up

The Trump administration has

deported about 540,000 immigrants in the past year,

according to a New York Times analysis of government data – well shy of its goal of one million. But the deportation of 230,000 people who were arrested in the country, rather than at the US-Mexico border, largely exceeds the 50,000 interior deportations recorded during the last year of the Biden administration.

Illegal crossings are down

Border Patrol recorded just over 6,000 illegal crossings at the US-Mexico border in January, according to Customs and Border Protection data. That is a substantial drop from the roughly 29,000 illegal crossings during the same time in 2025.

Crossings began to decline during the tail end of the Biden administration. But after a flurry of executive actions and collaboration with Mexican authorities, illegal crossings remain at record lows.

The labour force is holding steady

Mr Trump has said “we have the most people working in history”, which is true. But most presidents not in office during periods of economic downturns or recessions could make the same claim because of population growth.

More people are employed now – about 159 million people in January – than at any other point in US history. But the population of the United States is also the biggest in history.

Labour force participation – those who were employed or actively looking for a job – has held steady under Mr Trump, changing little from 62.6 per cent in January 2025, to 62.5 per cent in January 2026.

Homicides are down

The murder rate has been falling since a surge in 2020, and the numbers for 2025 – which are still being calculated – are on track to be the lowest in 125 years. The Council on Criminal Justice, a non-partisan think-tank, estimated that the national homicide rate was likely to fall to 4.0 per 100,000 residents for 2025.

While 2025 had the largest single-year decline in the murder rate, it followed two consecutive years of record-breaking declines.

The rate for 2024 was 5.0 per 100,000 residents, according to official Federal Bureau of Investigation data.

Executive orders are way up

As at Feb 20, Mr Trump has issued at least 243 executive orders during his second term, as he muscles past Congress and erodes independent checks on the White House. President Joe Biden signed 162 executive orders during his time in office, according to the Pew Research Center. In December, Mr Trump eclipsed his total of 220 executive orders during his first term. NYTIMES