Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord — a landmark 2015 deal on global warming targets — was a major blow to the global response to the climate crisis. The decision sent a message to the rest of the world that the US – which can legally leave the agreement as early as 2020 – would not be leading the global fight against climate change. Trump’s EPA chief has said that while he believes in climate change, it is not a top priority. The administration shrunk two of Utah’s national monuments. It has also pushed to open Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas exploration, as well as waters along the East and Pacific coasts. Under the Trump administration, the EPA announced it would no longer require oil and gas companies to install monitors to detect methane leaks from new wells, tanks and pipelines.

Trump’s major economic policy achievement in office was the 2017 tax cut, which drastically reduced rates for individuals and businesses – but led to a rise in the federal budget deficit to nearly $1 trillion in fiscal year 2019, undermining a campaign promise to not just shrink deficits but eliminate the national debt altogether by the end of a second term. The tax cuts also contributed to a record-breaking rise in the stock market, one of Trump’s favorite economic indicators, as corporate executives plowed tax savings into stock buybacks that buoyed share prices, rewarding investors. Trump has presided over a strong labor market, with unemployment hovering at a 50-year low.

While the economic outlook in the US remains stable, Trump has contributed to a global slowdown through a series of unpredictable moves on trade, including the imposition of tariffs against allies like the European Union. Trump has also engaged in a two-year trade war with China, imposing an escalating series of retaliatory tariffs that have hit American farmers, importers and manufacturers.

He announced plans to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership Negotiations and Agreement, an Obama-era trade deal among a number of countries, soon after taking office in 2017. Preferring bilateral deals, he signed a new trade pact with Japan in 2019 – but it was no better for American ranchers and farmers than the Trans-Pacific Partnership would have been.

His administration also renegotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement, the trade pact with Canada and Mexico. The countries have since agreed to the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, but it is pending ratification by the US Congress.

Trump, as President, has vowed to fix student loan debt. As directed by an executive order, the Department of Education published new data in November 2019 about graduates’ income and debt levels aimed at helping students make more informed borrowing decisions before choosing colleges. The White House has also made loan forgiveness automatic for veterans with disabilities and urged Congress to include place a cap on student loan borrowing.

By contrast, it has repeatedly proposed ending a student loan forgiveness program for public workers, but Congress has rejected those efforts. The administration has pushed for a school choice tax credit known as “Education Freedom Scholarships,” which students could use to attend public or private schools, including charters, outside of their districts.

It has rescinded a number of Obama-era policies, including those that promoted racial diversity in schools and protections for transgender students in public schools that let them use bathrooms and other facilities corresponding to their gender identities. It has also rolled back two rules that were intended to hold for-profit colleges accountable.

In the wake of mass shootings throughout his presidency, Trump has vowed action on gun violence, including expanding background checks.

But he has been vague on the details, and has repeatedly pointed to mental health and hate as the underlying issues. After the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, Trump order the Department of Justice to ban bump stocks, attachments that effectively make semi-automatic rifles fire continuously. The ban became effective in March 2019.

The President has backed “red flag” gun laws on the state level, which enable those who have seen warning signs to seek court orders to intervene and prevent someone who is in crisis from temporarily having access to firearms.