In the last year or so, the current presidential administration has been very active with reaching its goals of acquiring more land for the United States and maintaining heavy-handed control over the state of international affairs. Although President Trump has certainly not been lazy, the legality of these actions have been questioned by Congress and debated by the American people.
Greenland Acquisition
Throughout the first year of President Donald Trump’s Administration, the United States’ attention has been set on the territory of Greenland. As it stands today, Greenland is an autonomous territory of Denmark, a nation belonging to NATO (National Atlantic Treaty Association), which means that if the territory is attacked, all other NATO countries are required to act in response.
The Trump administration has stated that Greenland is an essential piece to national security and crucial to the construction of the Golden Dome, a missile defense system theorized by President Trump to be “very close to 100 percent effective.” The Golden Dome is a part of the Trump administration’s struggle for dominance against countries like China and Russia over the Arctic Ocean, a key component to supremacy over the Northern Hemisphere.
The natural resources Greenland possesses are also a large factor in the recent efforts of the Trump administration. The territory ranks 8th in the world for its confirmed REEs (Rare Earth Elements) such as iron ore, oil and uranium, with about 1.5 million tons of them. President Trump plans to acquire these materials to decrease the US’s reliance on China when it comes to the creation of technology. This is essential to one of President Trump’s largest goals of his presidency: building the entirety of American used machinery on its home soil.
While Greenland holds a potential for growth of America’s standing in the north and its abundance of natural resources, President Trump also claims that acquiring Greenland will cement him as a historical figure, stating that this would be the one of the “best real estate deals.”
ICE
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was originally created in 2002 to counter potential terrorism in a post 9/11 America. Since then, the organization has had a resurgence of activity in its service under the Trump administration. ICE is a key component in President Trump’s plan to commit mass deportations of illegal immigrants. President Trump stated that this operation by ICE is part of his larger plan to “fight the war within” and that illegal immigrants “make our Hells Angels look like the sweetest people on Earth.”
Throughout the course of 2025, ICE has made about 64,000 arrests in its operation on US soil, and about 27 percent of those arrested have resulted in criminal convictions. Many of those convictions are minor offences, such as traffic violations, and about five to eight percent of those convictions have been for violent offences.
ICE operations have led to notable civil unrest since its launch of nationwide deportations in 2025, causing a slew of protests stemming from its treatment of American citizens throughout the course of their operation.
On Jan 7, 2026, American citizen Renee Good was shot three times and killed by ICE federal agent Jonothan Ross while passing through an arrest they were making in Minneapolis.
On January 13, 2026, ICE officers arrested two Target employees who were also confirmed American citizens. While patrolling the area around the Target, ICE agents were met with 17-year-old Jonathan Aguilar Garcia, who began to record the federal officer and started to scream profanity at him. In response, a group of officers pinned down Garcia and another unidentified Target worker, bringing them both into a vehicle for processing. Hours later, Garcia was released with no charges against him, having multiple injuries from the encounter.
On Jan 14, 2026, ICE officers deployed tear gas on a group of protesters in Minneapolis. This resulted in the hospitalization of four children belonging to Destiny Jackson, one of them being a six-month-old baby who had to be brought back to life because his heart stopped during the panic.
On January 24, 2026, an ICU nurse named Alex Jeffery Pretti was shot 10 times in less than 5 seconds by a group of ICE officers while attending a protest in Minneapolis. Videos by onlookers of the shooting reveal that Pretti started the conflict by peacefully confronting Border Patrols officers by recording them and speaking to them from a distance. The Border Patrol operatives responded by pinning him to the ground and beginning the process to arrest him. As they were arresting him, one of the officers unholstered Pretti’s firearm and yelled “Gun”. This prompted officers to fire 10 shots into the back of Pretti’s, killing him.
ICE officers are also confirmed to have less training than the average US police officer, being provided with a minimum of eight weeks of training compared to a police officer’s 20 weeks.
Board of Peace
In an effort to combat the ever-growing death toll in Gaza, President Trump has created a congregation of world leaders called the Board of Peace. President Trump states that the board will consist of “leaders of global structure.”
The main objective of this board under the Trump administration is to govern and reconstruct the West Bank following the devastation from the years of 2021 to late 2025.
To qualify as a member of the Board of Peace, President Trump stated that a country must be invited to become a member for three years. Once that three-year membership is over, a country must pay a one billion dollar fee to guarantee a lifetime membership to the board.
The founding members of the Board of Peace appointed by President Trump upon announcement are U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, former British prime minister Tony Blair, President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and World Bank president Ajay Banga.
The Trump administration also sent invites to other world leaders, such as the President of Russia Vladimir Putin, President of China Xi Jinping and President of France Emmanuel Macron. Russia and China have not made a decision on whether to join yet, but France has declined the offer.
When asked at a press conference whether the Board of Peace would replace the United Nations, President Trump stated that “it might.”
US on the Verge of Leaving NATO
Since the first term of the Trump administration, tensions with the North Atlantic Treaty Association (NATO) have risen to a palpable degree. President Trump has kept up rhetoric for the last eight years that other countries belonging to NATO have not “been paying their fair share” when it comes to allocating their defense budgets to aid other countries.
The standards for NATO outline that countries belonging to the association must give at least two percent of their GDP to the shared defense budget. This figure can rise to about five percent in cases such as the United States and Poland.
The Trump administration argues that America is paying too high a percentage of its own defense funds to guarantee the safety of other countries, so every country belonging to NATO should be giving the same percentage as the United States.
The Trump administration has threatened consequences against this lack of action, such as the Pentagon stopping their participation in NATO advisory groups and the United States cutting off their contributions to the wider defense budget.
US-Iran conflict
On June 22, 2025, the United States conducted a mission deemed Operation Midnight Hammer, sending out a rally of missile strikes targeting nuclear power plants in Iran. This action sparked a long-lasting conflict between America and Iran that has been in flux since the 1980s.
In retaliation to this action, Iran attempted to launch a missile strike at Qatar on June 23, 2025, which resulted in the missiles being intercepted.
Ever since this quick relay of attacks between the United States and Iran, citizens in Tehran have been marching in wide protests. These protests from within Iran resulted in an estimated 12,000 people being killed by the Iranian military since June of 2025.
