Here are Trump's top accomplishments 50 days into his Oval Office return
President Donald Trump has been back in the Oval Office for 50 days, which has included a whirlwind of executive orders, a breakneck pace of gutting and rebuilding agencies within the federal government, and rolling out economic plans the president says will be a boon to U.S. workers and industry.
"To my fellow citizens, America is back," Trump declared in a joint speech before Congress March 4.
"Six weeks ago, I stood beneath the dome of this Capitol and proclaimed the dawn of the golden Age of America," he continued. "From that moment on, it has been nothing but swift and unrelenting action to usher in the greatest and most successful era in the history of our country. We have accomplished more in 43 days than most administrations accomplished in four years or eight years. And we are just getting started."
Trump has signed at least 89 executive orders in his 50 days in office. Trump signed more executive orders in his first 50 days than any other president signed in their first year going back to the Carter administration in 1977, data compiled by Fox News show.
Trump's executive orders have been expansive, addressing issues ranging from ending the practice of biological males playing on girls sports teams, renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, to establishing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Amid his executive order and action blitz, Trump and his administration have been hit with at least 102 lawsuits, including repeated lawsuits surrounding DOGE and its chair, Elon Musk.
Musk and his DOGE team have been poring through various federal agencies in the search of government overspending, mismanagement and fraud, as well as slimming down the agencies overall through thousands of federal layoffs, including probationary employees who have not secured full-time employment. DOGE's work has struck the ire of Democrats and federal employees who have staged repeated protests over the audits and firings in Washington, D.C., and across the U.S.
The president has meanwhile touted DOGE's findings in public remarks, including rattling off a series of examples during his speech before a joint session of Congress.
"Forty-five million dollars for diversity, equity and inclusion scholarships in Burma," Trump said as he provided examples of federal waste March 4 after thanking Musk for his work. "Forty million to improve the social and economic inclusion of sedentary migrants. Nobody knows what that is. Eight million to promote LGBTQI+ in the African nation of Lesotho, which nobody has ever heard of. Sixty million dollars for indigenous peoples and Afro-Colombian empowerment in Central America. Sixty million. Eight million for making mice transgender."
Trump's speech marked his first before both chambers of Congress since his return to the Oval Office. Trump spoke for about an hour and 40 minutes, notching the longest address a president has delivered before a joint session of Congress, according to the American Presidency Project at the University of California at Santa Barbara. The longest speech on record previously was held by former President Bill Clinton, when he spoke for one hour and 28 minutes during his State of the Union Address in 2000.
Immigration was a large focus of his address, as well as his first 50 days in office. His administration is touting in March that illegal border crossings have fallen to the lowest levels on record, cratering by 94% since February 2024 under the Biden administration, while massive deportation efforts between multiple law enforcement agencies have removed violent criminal illegal immigrants from the nation.
Trump has also honored the American lives lost to illegal immigrant murders, including remembering Laken Riley and Jocelyn Nungaray during his speech on Capitol Hill.
Trump signed the Laken Riley Act into law upon taking office in January, which directs Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain illegal immigrants arrested or charged with theft-related crimes, or those accused of assaulting a police officer. He also named a National Wildlife Refuge after Jocelyn Nungaray, a 12-year-old girl from Texas who was sexually assaulted and murdered by two illegal immigrants in June 2024.
Trump's economic policies have also been rolled out at a fast and furious pace, including 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, a 10% tariff on imports from China to help end the flow of deadly fentanyl into the U.S., as well as announcing a plan for reciprocal tariffs on foreign nations, which are set to take effect in April.
Trump has championed that reciprocal tariffs will open the doors to foreign industries setting up shop in America to avoid the tax on imports to the U.S.
"They can build a factory here, a plant or whatever it may be, here," Trump said of the reciprocal tariffs in February. "And that includes the medical, that includes cars, that includes chips and semiconductors. That includes everything. If you build here, you have no tariffs whatsoever. And I think that's what's going to happen. I think our country is going to be flooded with jobs."
A handful of businesses and manufacturers, both U.S.-based and those abroad, have announced billions of dollars in investments since Trump took office, including Apple announcing a $500 billion investment in February that will generate 20,000 jobs in the United States and Saudi Arabia, pledging $600 billion in the U.S. over the next four years.
Businesses also have pledged to increase U.S.-based production efforts since Trump took office, including auto company Stellantis announcing it will make its latest version of the Dodge Durango in Michigan, and will also reopen an assembly plant in Illinois — while Mercedes-Benz pledged to grow its U.S.-based vehicle production.
On the international stage, Trump has secured the release of a handful of American hostages held abroad, including six who were held in Venezuela, two who were held in Afghanistan, one in Russia, one in Belarus and another American who was held in Hamas' captivity.
The administration also secured the arrest of the terrorist behind the 2021 Abbey Gate attack in Afghanistan, which killed 13 U.S. service members amid the U.S.' disastrous withdrawal from the country under the Biden admin.
Trump has met with world leaders at the White House since his return to the Oval Office, including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, UK PM Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Jordanian King Abdullah II bin al-Hussein and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Trump met with Zelenskyy in a fiery meeting Feb. 28 as the two leaders looked to continue negotiations to end the Russia–Ukraine war, and also ink a deal to recoup the cost of U.S. aid sent to the war-torn country by gaining access to rare-earth minerals like titanium, iron and uranium in Ukraine.
The deal was put on ice after Zelenskyy traded barbs with Vice President JD Vance and Trump during the meeting, culminating in Zelenskyy leaving the White House ahead of schedule as a planned press conference was canceled. U.S. leaders, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, recently arrived in Saudi Arabia to speak with the Ukraine delegation to discuss possible peace agreements.
War had also raged between Israel and Hamas ahead of Trump taking office, with his transition team earning credit for helping secure a ceasefire in the waning days of the Biden administration. Trump announced in February, when Netanyahu visited the White House, that he is looking into "long-term ownership position" over the Gaza Strip in order to level it, rebuild it and "create an economic development" that would prevent terrorists from gaining power in the area.
Just "50 days in office and he has already established himself as the most consequential President of our time," the White House said in a statement Monday celebrating Trump's 50 days of accomplishments. "The winning never stops — and President Trump is just getting started."
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Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up During their meeting at the White House, Trump praised his guest as 'one hell of a president.' He shook Bukele's hand, saying, 'We appreciate working with you because you want to stop crime and so do we.' Advertisement A long-running U.S. investigation of MS-13 has uncovered evidence at odds with Bukele's reputation as a crime fighter. The inquiry, which began as an effort to dismantle the gang's leadership, expanded to focus on whether the Bukele government cut a secret deal with MS-13 in the early years of his presidency. New reporting on that investigation by ProPublica shows that senior officials in Bukele's government repeatedly impeded the work of a U.S. task force as it pursued evidence of possible wrongdoing by the Salvadoran president and his inner circle. 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Advertisement In addition, U.S. officials helped at least eight of their counterparts in Salvadoran law enforcement flee the country and resettle in the United States or elsewhere because they feared retaliation by their own government, current and former U.S. officials said. It has been clear from the beginning what Trump wants from El Salvador: an ally who would accept, and even imprison, deportees. Less clear has been what Bukele might want from the United States. In striking the deal with the Salvadoran president, Trump has effectively undercut the Vulcan investigation and shielded Bukele from further scrutiny, current and former U.S. officials said. Veterans of the Vulcan team are 'concerned that all their work, the millions of dollars that were spent, going all over the United States, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, that it will be weakened for political reasons,' said a U.S. official familiar with the investigation. 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Advertisement 'Bukele's people were coming to the Supreme Court and saying under no circumstances are we extraditing the MS-13 leaders,' said the U.S. official familiar with the investigation. ''Delay, interfere, undermine, do what you have to do.'' Senior Bukele officials helped an MS-13 leader with a pending extradition order escape from prison, according to court records, U.S. officials and Salvadoran news reports. At least three other top gang leaders were released from Salvadoran custody after the U.S. filed extradition requests for them, according to Justice Department documents. The Justice Department declined to comment in response to questions sent by ProPublica. The State Department referred questions to the Justice Department. A White House spokesperson did not respond to detailed questions. 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During his first term, Trump also made MS-13 a high-profile foe, calling it 'probably the meanest, worst gang in the world.' In August 2019, Attorney General William P. Barr created the Vulcan task force, teaming federal prosecutors with agents of the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, Drug Enforcement Administration and other agencies. The goal: Eradicate MS-13. For decades, MS-13 has bedeviled law enforcement in the Americas with its vast reach, extreme violence and complex culture. The initials stand for 'Mara Salvatrucha.' 'Mara' means a swarm, while 'salvatrucha' has been said to refer to a clever Salvadoran, according to interviews and an MS-13 emerged in the 1980s in Los Angeles among Salvadoran youths whose families had fled a bloody civil war. The gang expanded throughout the diaspora and, as the U.S. deported planeloads of ex-convicts starting in the 1990s, took root in El Salvador. 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The Salvadoran Supreme Court designated the gang as a terrorist organization in 2015. The Vulcan task force had about 30 members, including prosecutors, agents and analysts. Its director, John J. Durham, was a federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of New York who had spent a decade pursuing MS-13 cliques on Long Island. Members of the task force worked from bases around the country and traveled to Mexico and Central America. One of the founding investigators, Newark FBI agent Daniel Brunner, spoke fluent Spanish and had worked gangs for seven years. He became a roving specialist providing expertise, communications intelligence and court transcripts, sometimes in person and sometimes from a distance. 'Our idea was that Vulcan was like a SEAL Team 6, going in to help the different districts build cases,' Brunner, who is now retired, said in an interview. 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Vulcan on the Hunt In conversations with American officials as president-elect, Bukele promised cooperation and welcomed their support against gangs and graft, even in his own Nuevas Ideas party, according to current and former U.S. officials. At a Already, though, there had been For more than a decade, MS-13's control of the streets had made it a political force. It could deliver votes, ignite mayhem or impose order. A series of politicians had held talks with gang leaders to seek electoral support and reductions in violence in return for improved prison conditions and perks such as prostitutes and big-screen televisions. The Bukele government adopted a more sophisticated bargaining strategy, according to current and former U.S. and Salvadoran officials. During secret meetings in prisons and other sites, the president's emissaries offered MS-13 leaders political power and financial incentives if they lowered the homicide rate and marshaled support for the Nuevas Ideas party, according to current and former U.S. and Salvadoran officials and court documents. The chief negotiator was Carlos Marroquín, a former rap artist and confidant of the president. Bukele had appointed him the director of a new Justice Ministry program known as 'Reconstruction of the Social Fabric' that operated in impoverished communities. Marroquín promised the Ranfla a central role in developing the program, control of neighborhood youth centers, power over urban turf and other financial and political benefits, according to current and former U.S. officials, court documents and Treasury Department sanctions. 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In April 2021, federal agents prepared a list of powerful Salvadorans for a financial review by the U.S. Treasury Department. Bukele was one of the 15 names. So were Marroquín; Osiris Luna, the director of the national prison system and another alleged organizer of the gang talks; Martha Carolina Recinos, the president's chief of staff; and other political figures and their relatives. The request asked the Treasury Department to search for possible illicit transactions in any bank accounts held in the United States by those on the list, according to documents seen by ProPublica. The Vulcan task force was seeking evidence in U.S. banks of money laundering tied to the diversion of USAID funding through the gang pact, the documents showed. Agents explained that the task force had 'uncovered information that MS-13 members are in close contact with politically exposed persons in El Salvador,' referring to prominent government figures. 'The USAID funding is believed to have been laundered by the individuals submitted in this request,' who were suspected of 'facilitating, supporting and promoting MS-13 through their official positions,' said the request, which was viewed by ProPublica. Made under section 314A of the USA Patriot Act, the request for a canvass of U.S. banks requires that investigators show reasonable suspicion rather than probable cause, which is a higher standard. The outcome of the request is unknown. The Treasury Department declined to comment. U.S. prosecutors have not publicly accused Bukele and the others of crimes related to USAID funds. As U.S. investigators advanced in this political direction, they gained valuable information from the Salvadoran prosecutors who were pressing their own investigation of the gangs and the Bukele administration. Known in English as April 2021 was also when a delegation led by Attorney General Melara came to Washington to meet with leaders of Vulcan and other senior U.S. officials. The prosecutors laid out their case against prominent figures in the Bukele government. The 'impressive' presentation, a former U.S. federal law enforcement official said, cited videos, phone intercepts and other evidence showing that Marroquín, prisons director Luna and others had clandestinely arranged for government negotiators and gang leaders to enter and leave prisons, smuggled in phones and destroyed logs of prison visits. 'Melara was very nervous because of the very high level of the people he was investigating,' a former U.S. federal law enforcement official said. Melara declined to comment, saying he does not discuss his work as attorney general. Interference On May 1, 2021 — soon after Melara and his team met with U.S. investigators — the Salvadoran Legislature, controlled by Bukele, voted to expel the attorney general and five justices on the Supreme Court. The purge was a decisive step by Bukele to centralize power. It drew international condemnation. In El Salvador, critics denounced the president's actions as a 'self-coup.' On his Twitter page, Bukele began calling himself 'the world's coolest dictator.' For Vulcan, the expulsions marked a dramatic shift in its investigation. The Supreme Court justices had signaled their willingness to sign off on some extraditions. Melara had been a helpful ally who reportedly pledged to do ' 'The next prosecutors were not willing to work with us,' said Musto, the former HSI official. 'We were not closed out, but all these things that we had in place that we were moving to getting people back here slowed down to a snail's pace.' The first clash came over Armando Melgar Diaz, an alleged MS-13 leader who acted as a middleman between gangs in the United States and senior leaders in El Salvador. Melgar, known as 'Blue,' had ordered the The newly constituted Supreme Court The rationale made no sense to Vulcan prosecutors. The Justice Department had already promised that it would not pursue such punishments against Melgar, according to records and interviews. U.S. and Salvadoran officials attributed the sudden reversal to fear that Melgar could link Bukele and his government to the pact with MS-13. 'Melgar Diaz was going to be the test case,' Musto said. 'It was going to be an easy win for Vulcan.' Information obtained by U.S. agents included allegations that Bukele's judicial adviser, Conan Castro-Ramírez, had called one of the new Supreme Court justices and told him to find ways to stop the extradition of Melgar, according to interviews. When the justice objected, saying that the extradition had already been approved, Castro allegedly ordered him to reverse it. 'That's why we put you there,' he said, according to the interviews. The State Department A Salvadoran court 'Bukele and his government are using the entire state apparatus to prevent these people from being extradited,' a person with knowledge of the Salvadoran judicial system said in a recent interview. Miguel Ángel Flores Durel, a newly appointed Supreme Court justice who In July 2022, El Salvador agreed to extradite two lower-ranking MS-13 members charged with the murders of Salvadoran immigrants in Long Island in This was a deliberate strategy, the person said. Flores said that El Salvador needed to continue some extraditions in order to 'calm' U.S. officials, who were complaining about the lack of cooperation with Vulcan, the person said. ( It didn't work. The extradition of other criminals by the Bukele-aligned Supreme Court only emphasized the lack of cooperation on requests for the senior MS-13 leaders. 'We were never told officially that it wouldn't happen, but it became impossible,' said Brunner, the former FBI agent. In October 2022, Bukele's new attorney general announced that criminals would first have to serve their sentence in El Salvador before being sent to the U.S. — an interpretation of the country's extradition treaty that differed from the previous Supreme Court. 'We aren't going to be sending Salvadorans without them first paying for the crimes they have committed' in El Salvador, Rodolfo Delgado Threats and Roadblocks The Bukele government's interference with the U.S. investigation went beyond blocking extraditions, U.S. officials said. Senior Bukele allies also waged a campaign of harassment and intimidation against the Salvadoran officials who had investigated corruption and assisted the Vulcan task force, according to interviews with current and former U.S. and Salvadoran officials. The government threatened officials with arrest and sent police patrols to their homes, according to current and former U.S. and Salvadoran officials. At least eight senior Salvadoran law enforcement and judicial officials fled El Salvador for the United States and elsewhere. Vulcan provided them with travel money, language classes, housing and help gaining legal immigration status and finding jobs. In one instance, a U.S. Embassy official escorted a Salvadoran prosecutor out of the country because American officials believed his life was in danger, according to an official familiar with the incident. The Salvadoran government also weakened special 'vetted units' of the police that had worked with the FBI and other U.S. agencies, according to current and former U.S. officials. Bukele's allies didn't stop there. They allegedly helped the escape or release from prison of at least four members of the MS-13 leadership council sought by Vulcan for alleged crimes in the U.S., according to interviews, court documents and press reports. Elmer Canales-Rivera, alias 'Crook de Hollywood,' was one of the most wanted of the Ranfla members. He had been imprisoned for several murders in El Salvador, including a case in which he In November 2021, Canales escaped from prison. El Faro, a prominent investigative news outlet, and other Salvadoran media published stories that Canales was caught in Mexico and turned over to U.S. authorities. Currently in prison awaiting trial, he has pleaded not guilty. Over the next several months, three other MS-13 leaders disappeared from Salvadoran prisons, causing Durham, the head of the task force, to express his concern in The purge of the Supreme Court and prosecutors, the blocked extraditions and the disappearance of the MS-13 gang members marked a significant deterioration in relations between Bukele and the administration of President Joe Biden. Agencies across the government began looking for ways to push El Salvador to cooperate. Acting U.S. Ambassador Jean Manes announced a ' 'What are we seeing now? It is a decline in democracy,' In December 2021, the Treasury Department Nonetheless, former members of the task force said they felt that the Biden administration treated Vulcan as a lower priority and cut its resources. They said Biden officials saw the task force as a Trump initiative and wanted to focus on other law enforcement targets, such as human trafficking. 'As soon as the Biden administration came in, we were slowed down,' Brunner said. 'There was a lot more red tape we had to go through.' Former Biden officials denied this was the case. Whatever truce had existed between the Salvadoran government and MS-13 collapsed in March 2022. The country descended into chaos. Over one three-day period, some 80 people were killed in gang-related violence. Bukele reacted forcefully. He declared a nationwide 'state of exception' that suspended constitutional protections. Police began rounding up thousands of accused gang members and others. He announced the construction of the megaprison known as CECOT. The policies proved tremendously popular. Murder rates dropped dramatically, though human rights advocates criticized the loss of civil liberties. Bukele dismissed their complaints. 'Some say we have put thousands in prison, but the reality is that we have set millions free,' he has said, an assertion he repeated to Trump in the Oval Office. The Turnaround Despite the harsh treatment of gang members — an estimated 14,500 people are now held in CECOT — one thing did not change: The Bukele government continued to refuse to extradite senior MS-13 leaders to the United States. The reasons for Bukele's alleged protection of the gang leadership versus his relentless pursuit of the rank and file are the subject of speculation in both the United States and El Salvador. One possible explanation, according to current and former U.S. and Salvadoran officials: Bukele is aware that Vulcan was gathering evidence that could lead to criminal charges and political damage. The imprisoned leaders are potential witnesses to his alleged deal with MS-13, while El Salvador's street-level gangsters are not. In February 2023, the Justice Department unsealed an indictment for another group of leaders, most of whom operated a tier below the Ranfla, relaying its directives to gangsters on the streets. The 13 defendants were accused of terrorism and drug smuggling, among other charges. The U.S. announced it would 'explore options for their extradition with the government of El Salvador.' The Justice Department declined to say whether any such requests had been made. In filing the charges, prosecutors made their strongest public accusations yet about deals between the Bukele government and the gangs. Without naming the president or his allies, The gang bosses also 'agreed to reduce the number of public murders in El Salvador, which politically benefited the government of El Salvador, by creating the perception that the government was reducing the murder rate,' the indictment said. As part of the arrangement, the senior MS-13 leaders demanded that the Bukele government refuse to extradite them, the indictment said. The alleged condition appears to be in effect. To date, none of the extradition requests for more than a dozen high-ranking gang members has been approved. In the face of obstacles, Vulcan relied increasingly on the Mexican government for help. During the past four years, Mexican authorities have captured nine of the 27 MS-13 leaders named in the indictments and deported them to the United States, where they were arrested. This year, prosecutors obtained guilty pleas to terrorism charges from two lower-ranking bosses, including one who prosecutors said had helped implement the deal between the Bukele administration and the gang. Sentencing for the men is pending. Since Trump took office this year, his administration has redirected Vulcan's mission to also target Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang that the president has put in the spotlight. There has been a remarkable recent development related to MS-13, however. After more than five years leading the Vulcan task force, Durham wrote letters asking the judge overseeing the cases to dismiss charges against two gang leaders in U.S. custody, allowing them to be deported to El Salvador. The letters were dated César Humberto López Larios, a member of the Ranfla known as 'Greñas,' had his charges dismissed and was returned to El Salvador with Then, in April, Durham asked for the dismissal of terrorism charges against a lower-ranking MS-13 prisoner, Vladimir Antonio Arevalo-Chavez, alias 'Vampiro,' according to recently unsealed court records. His defense lawyers are seeking to stall the request to give them time to fight his deportation to El Salvador. He has pleaded not guilty. Durham acknowledged in his letters to the judge that the evidence against the two men is 'strong.' After millions spent on an operation involving investigators and prosecutors from the U.S., El Salvador and other countries, Vulcan had amassed a trove of evidence aimed at incarcerating the MS-13 leaders who had overseen the killings, rapes and beatings of Americans. Prosecutors Durham said prosecutors were dropping their pursuit of the cases 'due to geopolitical and national security concerns.' 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People protest Trump on 'No Kings' day at Oregon State Capitol in Salem: Live updates
Demonstrators were set to gather at the Oregon State Capitol June 14 as part of nationwide "No Kings" protests countering President Donald Trump's 79th birthday and a military parade celebrating the U.S. Army's 250th anniversary in Washington, D.C. About 2,000 protests were planned across the country, including 20 around Oregon. The protests come as Trump sent the National Guard and U.S. Marines to Los Angeles amid protests and immigration raids earlier this week. Thousands have gathered at the Oregon State Capitol to protest the Trump administration in February, March, April and May. Follow along for live updates, photos and videos from the protest at the Oregon State Capitol. The "No Kings" theme was coordinated by The 50501 Movement — 50 states, 50 protests, one day. Locally, Rise and Resist - Salem Activists and Indivisible Region of Salem have led many of the protests. The "No Kings" group is using the slogan "In America, we don't do kings" and has said on its website the Trump administration "defied our courts, deported Americans, disappeared people off the streets, attacked our civil rights, and slashed our services." An event post for Salem's protest described the event as a rally and resource fair. It is scheduled to last from noon to 3 p.m. A Facebook post from Salem Region Indivisible said the protest will include speakers, including state Rep. Tom Andersen, D-Salem, and a parade. "We, the People, will peacefully assemble for an afternoon of free speech, fellowship and conversation, song and education in support of: our Constitutional Rights, the rule of law, rejection of autocracy and dictatorship," the event post said. The military parade in Washington, D.C., will celebrate the United States Army's 250th anniversary. "We are honoring the 250th anniversary of the greatest fighting force in history, the United States Army," Trump said in a video posted to Truth Social. "This parade salutes our soldiers' remarkable strength and unbeatable spirit." While the event happens to coincide with Trump's 79th birthday, no mention of the president's birthday has come up in statements about the event. Army officials said the parade has long been planned to celebrate the Army's milestone anniversary. Up to 7,500 troops, 120 vehicles and 50 aircraft will take to the streets and skies of D.C. Trump warned that any protests interrupting the military parade would be "met with very big force." No protests were planned for D.C., with the "No Kings" website saying the goal was to make action "everywhere else" the focus of the day to draw a contrast. Gov. Tina Kotek said in a statement ahead of the protests planned statewide she supported Oregonians' rights to peacefully protest, but said violence and property destruction "will not be tolerated." Oregon State Police Superintendent Casey Codding said the agency will work with its partners across the to "protect your rights and safety throughout the weekend." Other recent protests in Salem include a march and rally for International Workers Day, a rally against potential cuts to Medicaid, and a protest organized by Rise & Resist - Salem calling for "hands off education." Isabel Funk covers breaking news and public safety for the Statesman Journal. Funk can be reached at ifunk@ or on X at @isabeldfunk This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: People protest Trump on 'No Kings' day at Oregon State Capitol
