Year One Report Card · Updated May 2026
One year in.
The receipts are filed.
Two Aussie cousins locked a fixed scorecard in November 2024, eleven measurable metrics plus the loudest promises on the record, set after the election was called but before he touched a thing. No moving the goalposts. Here is how the bloke is tracking, scored and sourced.
01 The verdict
Two wins, a pile of broken shit, and a trillion-dollar bar tab.
He smashed two numbers we will concede through gritted teeth: border crossings and the China trade deficit. Almost everything transformational, ending Ukraine on day one, a trillion in DOGE savings, cheaper drugs, 500 miles of new wall, is buried in a drawer or flat broken. We grade it a D+, and we are being generous.
02 Kept vs broken
What he said. What actually happened.
We picked the loudest promises and counted them, no spin. He delivered on a handful, pardoning January 6, killing the tip tax, gutting the federal workforce. The rest either failed, got quietly dropped, or blew the deadline while he was on a buggy.
A couple of the kept ones are genuinely bad for the world. We said we would be objective. Credit where it is earned.
Source: Trump Scorecard promise tracker, each item sourced on the page.Headline promises, year one
03 The eleven metrics
The scorecard we locked before he was sworn in.
Each metric is one specific promise with a number attached and a baseline agreed in 2024. Ordered worst to best by grade. The bar shows progress to target; the coloured chip is our grade. Notice the pattern: most of the green hit target on a trend that was already running before he showed up.
Open any metric on the tracker pages for the full breakdown, sources, and the editorial that makes Steve's eye twitch.
Sources: BEA, Federal Reserve, EIA, CDC, BLS, CBP, Treasury. Per-metric citations in methodology.Progress to the 2024 target, by metric
04 Approval underwater
47% to the high thirties in twelve months.
He started above water. By week three the disapproval line had crossed over and it never came back. The honeymoon ended about the time the tariffs hit everyone's grocery bill, and the gap has sat near twenty points ever since.
Source: monthly polling average across Gallup, Quinnipiac, Marist, Reuters/Ipsos, Pew, AP-NORC, NBC, Fox and YouGov, via Wikipedia.Approve vs disapprove, monthly average
Saved source observation on 4 September 2026: 38% approve, 59% disapprove. The current chart loads with JavaScript. Monthly entries retain the latest observed reading, not a monthly mean.
05 No recovery
Everyone's unpopular eventually. He got there faster and never climbed out.
Job approval at the same stage of the term. Obama had a global financial meltdown. Reagan had a recession with near-10% unemployment. Biden had the worst inflation in forty years. Every one of them had an alibi, hit a rough patch, and clawed back. Trump 2.0 went underwater in week three - no recession he did not start himself - and has never resurfaced.
Source: Gallup Presidential Job Approval Center, at the same stage of the term. Higher is better.Job approval at the same stage of the term (%)
06 The trillion-dollar tab
He campaigned on slashing it. Here's the live tab instead.
National debt from the U.S. Treasury. Up $3.9 trillion since he took the oath, despite the DOGE "savings" fantasy.
Saved Treasury observation: 3 September 2026. The latest dated observation loads with JavaScript.
Source: U.S. Treasury, Debt to the Penny.Debt at inauguration, plus what he's added
Saved Treasury observation, 3 September 2026: national debt $40.10 trillion, up about $3.9 trillion from the $36.21 trillion inauguration baseline.
07 The tariff tax
The tariff isn't paid by China. Funny, that.
Extra cost per US household per year from the 2025 tariffs, the highest effective rate since the 1930s. In February 2026 the Supreme Court ruled them unlawful, 6 to 3.
Sources: Yale Budget Lab; SCOTUSblog.SCOTUS on the IEEPA tariffs
08 DOGE's vanishing savings
A trillion in savings. Verified: a rounding error.
of the headline "savings" did not survive scrutiny. The big claims were contract ceiling values, not real money. POLITICO verified about $1.4B of the $30 to $50B claimed from terminated contracts.
Source: POLITICO.Terminated-contract savings: claimed vs verified
DOGE claimed $30 to $50 billion in terminated-contract savings. POLITICO verified about $1.4 billion, roughly 95% lower.
09 The golf habit
The golf habit has its own data feed.
133 confirmed golf days across 592 source-recorded days in office. That is a lot of golf. It is not a verified taxpayer bill, a count of rounds, or proof of where he played on any particular date.
Saved source day-count: 4 September 2026. A current travel-cost estimate and course breakdown are not verified.
Source: TrumpGolfTrack.Share of days in office with a golf visit
10 It hasn't stopped
Year one is locked. The bullshit isn't.
The scorecard above is frozen at the one-year mark. Polling, debt and golf observations refresh automatically. Court, cabinet and event coverage need editorial review. These counters date specific sourced events; they do not claim nothing similar happened afterwards.
Counters for named, sourced events load here. The dates and receipts are on the Right Now page.
· Methodology
How we keep score.
The framework was locked in November 2024, after the election was called but well before he put his hand on the bible. The baselines, the targets, the scoring legend, all agreed before he was sworn in. Mike writes the copy and calls Trump what he is. Steve fact-checks it and tells Mike when he has gone too far, which is rarely. Every claim links to a credible source.
Full methodology and both bios live on the about page.