Victor Davis Hanson
American Greatness
The left wing and media rage hysterically from one Trump psychodrama to the next, while Trump trolls both on social media.
But all that is verbiage. What matters is the data and facts of Trump’s first nine months since January 20, 2025, in comparison to either Biden’s prior year or the averages of his four years in office.
Take the border. No one knows how many illegal aliens entered—or stayed in—the U.S. during Biden’s four years of open borders. What is clear is that he set a presidential record of well over seven million illegal entrants.
The border under Trump is now tightly closed. Prior to his administration, it was common for 10,000 people to cross illegally in a single day. In just nine months, approximately two million illegal aliens have been deported or self-deported. The rate of border crossings is now the lowest it’s ever been since 1970.
How about energy? For Trump’s first nine months, gas prices have averaged $3.19 versus Biden’s 2024 average of $3.30 a gallon. Over Biden’s four years, gas averaged $3.46 a gallon.
During the Biden years, oil production averaged 12.3 million barrels per day, compared to 13.5 million barrels during Trump’s first nine months. Biden removed 200 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, leaving office with only 394 million barrels in the SPR.
The reserve has already inched upward under Trump’s initial months to 406 million barrels. Releases have been cancelled. Purchases of replacement oil have been scheduled.
Regarding the economy, Biden’s four years averaged 2.9 percent GDP growth per annum.
Trump’s GDP rose 3.8 percent in the second quarter, with final estimates for 2025 ranging around 3 percent.
Inflation under Trump so far averages about 3 percent. Under Biden’s tenure, inflation increased by 21.4 percent over four years, or on average about 5.3 percent a year.
How about U.S. deterrence and defense?
Under Biden, the military fell short by approximately 15,000 recruits per year, crashing to a shortfall of 41,000 in 2023.
Following Trump’s election and throughout the first nine months of 2025, all branches of the military met or exceeded their recruitment goals.
The number of NATO nations meeting their promise to spend 2 percent of GDP on defense rose from 23 in 2024 to a likely total of 31 in 2025, with several pledging to spend as much as 5 percent.
Trump left office in 2021 with no major ongoing wars. His first administration had nearly bankrupted Iran, destroyed ISIS, decimated the Russian Wagner group in Syria, and birthed the Abraham Accords.
Under Biden, the Middle East exploded into a four-front war against Israel.
Iran boasted that it was within months of developing nuclear weapons after the Biden administration lifted prior Trump sanctions and courted Tehran to return to the so-called “Iran Deal.”
Over the last decade and a half, Vladimir Putin had only kept within his borders during Trump’s first term, invading neighboring countries during the Bush, Obama, and Biden presidencies.
In 2022, Putin attacked Kyiv during Biden’s second year in office—leading to a full-scale Ukrainian-Russian war, incurring the greatest combat losses in Europe since the Second World War.
In August 2021, in one of the greatest military humiliations in U.S. history, Biden ordered the abrupt flight of all U.S. personnel from Kabul, Afghanistan. The skedaddle resulted in utter chaos, the deaths of 13 Marines, and destroyed U.S. deterrence.
Thousands of U.S. contractors and employees were left behind, and the administration abandoned billions of dollars of new weapons and military equipment to the terrorist Taliban.
In contrast, there is now a tentative calm across the Middle East. After Trump’s bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities, the theocracy is not expected to be able to acquire a nuclear weapon for years.
Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis are decimated and increasingly impotent.
No wars broke out during Trump’s current year. Tentative Trump-inspired ceasefires helped stop violence between India and Pakistan, Cambodia and Thailand, Egypt and Ethiopia, Serbia and Kosovo, and Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Trump’s tariffs so far have not caused, as critics predicted, a recession or stock collapse. Instead, the stock market has reached all-time highs.
Trillions of dollars in promised foreign investments in the U.S. have set a record. And China, for the first time in 50 years, is facing an American-led global pushback against its exploitative, mercantilist trade policies.
The left is outraged about many of Trump’s executive orders.
But the public largely supports destroying the cartels’ seaborne drug shipments bound for the U.S. Polls show majorities favor banning transgender males from female sports, ending DEI racialist fixations, and enacting long-overdue higher education reforms.
Yet the daily news is about politicians’ f-bombs, government shutdowns, Trump’s social media trolling, and street violence. But the facts tell a different story of national recovery from the self-inflicted disasters of the recent past.
Second, the less than great news,
B for energy production. Although the price of gasoline has dropped a bit, it is still high. I know that state taxes have a lot to do with that and to his credit, Trump is moving in the right direction. But the daily grind of paying well over $4/gallon where I live is hurting working Americans.
B- for the economy. While inflation has declined significantly the overall economic outlook remains tepid. The tariff strategy has so far worked, but the Supreme Court could rule that Trump’s extensive use of them unconstitutional. And then what? The trillions in pledged foreign investment is either moving too slow to have had much of an impact, or, as I suspect, a lot of this was grand talk to get Trump off their backs. If I was going to invest trillions of dollars I would wait til after the midterms.
Overall, Donald Trump is doing a fantastic job in his second term. But I would caution him to pay more attention to the economy. It is the glue that holds together his fickle coalition and the reason a guy such as Snoop Dogg has gone from making Trump Clown assassination videos to giving his full endorsement. If Trump wants to overcome trepidation from low information voters regarding issues such as ICE raids, indictments against former Biden officials, and capricious drug boat attacks he will need a Morning in America type of economic recovery. And he needs it now.
I give the Trump administration a mixed report card.
First, the good news.
A+ for securing the border and actively deporting illegal aliens. This was an easy fix as he just vigorously enforced existing immigration laws. But well done Donald for restoring sanity and the rule of law.
A+ for making DC safer and providing a blueprint for every other city in America.
A+ for foreign policy, and, in particular, destroying Iran’s nuclear threat. The world is sleeping at night a lot more soundly since Trump’s courageous move to send B-2 bombers to finally obliterate the mad Mullahs nuclear ambitions. Had they developed nukes they surely would’ve used them against Israel and us.
A+ for rebuilding our military and clearing out the last vestiges of DEI. He has increased recruitment, restored our lost prestige, and put the world on notice that we are still the greatest superpower in the world. FAFO!
A+ for using economic leverage to broker several peace agreements. We are finally flexing our economic muscles to restore our preeminence in the world.
A+ for gaining increased Nato commitments that will strengthen our alliance and deter Putin.
A+ for taking out drug boats and doing it in spectacular fashion. These hits may not have too much impact on the price of cocaine, but they do have great psychological value. The American people are finally hitting back at the Cartels instead of passively accepting the reality of illicit drug trafficking.
History will show that the current administration in history has been assembled. Just listen to the most brilliant, kind and articulate politician in history speaking at TPUSA at Ole Mis- JD Vance.
During the JB’s term, half the country was blind to common sense perpetrated by TDS/media. I think the facts are clearing the vision of many.
None of this matters to TDS sufferers. They could be living in a dumpster during the Biden years and still blame Donald Trump for their situation. TDS is a real phenomenon that makes people say & do crazy things. Nazism, a predecessor of TDS, afflicted people in Germany during the 1930s, & millions of people began hating Jews for no reason at all other than the fact that they were Jewish. Elie Wiesel had warned us that if we forget the atrocities of the past, there will be a recrudescence in the future. I am seeing that now in many forms (including the NY City mayor election).
None of this matters to a TDS sufferer. They could be living in a dumpster during the Biden years and still blame Donald Trump for their situation. TDS is a real phenomenon that makes people say & do crazy things. Nazism, a predecessor of TDS, afflicted people in Germany during the 1930s, & millions of people began hating Jews for no reason at all other than the fact that they were Jewish. Elie Wiesel had warned us that if we forget the atrocities of the past, there will be a recrudescence in the future. I am seeing that now in many forms (including the NY City mayor election).