President Donald Trump began his second term 43 days ago and has signed 76 executive orders with actions on issues affecting immigration, DEI, foreign policy, government efficiency, economic policy, presidential power and more. 

Opinion of Trump before reelection

Before Trump was reelected, Brandon Simmons, a junior in industrial design and president of the College Republicans club, said he “saw him as a necessary force to shake up a corrupt system.”

“He was not afraid to take on the media or the state or any of the elites,” Simmons said.

The College Republicans at Iowa State “upholds and defends the principles set forth in the Constitution of the United States of America, and endeavors to make known American doctrines and virtues,” according to the organization’s website. 

Carolyn Klaus, Ames resident and president of the League of Women Voters of Ames and Story County, Klaus said she was “very wary” of the current president before he was reelected.

“We campaigned very much with the League to make sure that people were aware of the candidates,” Klaus said. “I think the lack of news [coverage] and campaign events really showed up in the campaign.”

The League of Women Voters is a non-partisan organization that “neither supports nor opposes candidates for office at any level of government,” according to its website. 

When asked about his past opinion on the current U.S. president, Cole Lindaman, a senior in civil engineering and president of the College Democrats club, said he had seen Trump as “more of a personality type guy.”

“A lot of the things he’s doing isn’t necessarily for the outcome,” Lindaman said. “It ultimately comes down to whether it gets the people around him excited and it personally benefits him.”

According to the College Democrats website, the organization “[instills] values of environmental, racial and economic justice, encourage young people to participate in the American political process and provide opportunities to work on Democratic campaigns.”

How has that opinion changed

As Trump entered his second term, Simmons said he “still [supported] what Trump represented in 2016,” but that the current president was “compromised by the system.”

“He didn’t go far enough in fighting the real problems in this country,” Simmons said.

Since Trump became president, Klaus said she is “more fearful for democracy than ever.”

“[Trump} was prepared to do the things that were in Project 2025, and they’re being implemented,” Klaus said. “I cannot believe that an unelected person like Elon Musk is making all the calls with a Donald Trump Sharpie.”

Lindaman said his opinion had remained the same as he “[hadn’t] seen a lot of change in [Trump’s] behavior.”

“In fact, it’s almost exemplified when he doesn’t care about procedures like he did in his 2016 to 2020 presidency,” Lindaman said. “He’s essentially just doing whatever he thinks he can do.”

Opinion on Trump’s “Shock and Awe” governing

“Shock and awe” refers to a military strategy that involves using overwhelming force to subdue an enemy. During the last month of Trump’s presidency, some have said he has practiced shock and awe governing in the form of executive orders, mass firings of federal workers and rapid policy changes.

Simmons said he felt this was “completely necessary” for Trump to implement his agenda.“The media, the deep state and the political class were all against him from day one,” Simmons said. “If he played by their rules, they would have completely steamrolled him.”

Klaus said she does not see this form of governing as “democracy.”

“It’s not the way our Constitution and our government was formed,” Klaus said. “This is what a king would do.”

When asked if a king belongs in the U.S. government, Klaus replied with “absolutely not.”

“Our constitution was written to make damn sure we don’t have a king,” Klaus added.

Lindaman said he felt Trump’s rapid signing of executive orders is “extremely effective” for the president to pass his agenda with limited opposition. 

“He’s not really able to experience any specific pushback, which makes organizing against any one specific issue hard,” Lindaman said. “[Protesting] against certain actions becomes almost impossible because you’re trying to protest against a wall of stuff versus a single issue.”

Specific policy changes and actions that have stood out

Simmons said he found Trump’s immigration policies to be the most impactful to him.

“He made it mainstream to say that we need a wall, we need to reduce immigration and that we need to put America first,” Simmons said. “Even though he didn’t fully deliver [in his first term], what matters is that he changed the conversation and that itself has a lasting effect.”

Klaus said, locally, she has seen the biggest impact from Trump’s decisions through his firings of federal employees at USDA sites in Ames and on Iowa State’s campus. 

“Who’s taking care of all the animals,” Klaus asked. “The people who were trained to take care of all the different types of animals are the ones who got walked out the door. It’s sad.” 

Out of the policies that Trump has instituted and changed, Lindaman said the changes to border policy and “attacks on DEI” were ones that stood out to him the most. 

“There’s been kind of this mental shift that eliminating due process is OK as long as you’re going after a certain group of people where there’s a perceived threat,” Lindaman said. “I feel [this] is really dangerous because you can slide down this slope of, ‘OK, who’s defining who’s dangerous and what is that sort of line where due process is completely like dropped?’”

How will things change in a month?

When predicting the next month in the Trump presidency, Simmons said the president needs to “take action” to change things for the country.

“The question is whether people are willing to take the next step and challenge the system, or are we going to keep getting angry promises from Trump?” Simmons said.

Klaus said she doesn’t see things changing, except for people “waking up” and realizing the impacts the president’s actions have on them.

“It’s going to hit home for so many people,” Klaus said. “Your neighbor, your friend, your relative, everybody is going to be affected by the cuts that are coming from this government workforces slicing.”

After a month of a second Trump presidency, Lindaman said he is concerned with the volatility of policy changes in the future. He said he is also concerned with possible “deregulation” occuring in the federal government. 

“There’s efficient governing where you’re not being wasteful with tax money,” Lindaman said. “Then there’s running government like a business, and I think more and more they’re trying to deregulate to privatize essential government functions in a way that will end up serving people in the U.S. a lot worse.”