Is Trump improving government? I'll gather recent performance data and differing assessments for a balanced answer.
Whether Donald Trump is improving the US government depends on how "improving" is measured, and evaluations differ sharply by party and metric.
What the Administration Points To As Improvements
The White House says in less than two years President Trump has driven "the most consequential stretch of governing in modern American history", citing:
•Border and immigration: The administration says it ended "catch-and-release", recorded negative net migration in 2025 for the first time in at least half a century, and that more than three million migrants have left the country.
•Government efficiency and deregulation: The administration's government efficiency reforms have already saved an estimated $215 billion — about $1,335 per taxpayer — and shrunk the federal workforce to its lowest level since 1966. The administration also claims a government-wide deregulatory mandate projected to save the U.S. economy $1.5 trillion in FY2026 alone, including revoking the Obama-era Endangerment Finding — described as the single-largest deregulatory action in American history, worth $1.3 trillion.
•Other government operations: The White House points to:
•The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) created on the first day to modernize federal technology and improve efficiency
•GSA reporting more than $60 billion in federal contract savings since January 2025
•Improving service delivery, including a new policy enforcing the use of Login.gov for most public-facing services toward a universal sign-on
•Veterans reforms, including eliminating the backlog for CHAMPVA after inheriting more than 70,000 unprocessed applications and dropping the VA benefits backlog below 70,000 for the first time since 2020
A White House fact sheet also credits the administration with uncovering hundreds of billions in fraud and stopping tens of billions in fraudulent payments.
What Polling and Critics Show
Independent polling shows a majority of Americans do not see the changes as an improvement to how government works:
•In a Pew Research Center survey Aug. 4-10, 2025 of 3,554 adults, a 53% majority say Trump is making the federal government work worse, while only about half as many (27%) say he is making the government work better. Two-in-ten say he is making things about equally better and worse.
•The same survey found Trump's job approval at 38% (60% disapprove) six months into his second term. By Aug. 6, 2026, Pew reported Trump's job approval sits at 34%, lower than most recent presidents at comparable points.
•Far more say Trump is making the way the federal government works worse than making it better.
Partisan expectations have also shifted:
•55% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents now say Trump is improving the way the federal government works, down from 76% who expected he would make government work better in the weeks after he took office.
•87% of Democrats and Democratic leaners say Trump is worsening the way government functions, up from 78% at the beginning of his term.
Legal and fiscal critiques include:
•The New York Times reported more than 200 lawsuits have been filed challenging the firings of federal workers and the freezing of grants and elimination of programs.
•The Government Accountability Office estimated the administration spent $9.5 billion on paid administrative leave for federal workers in 2025 as part of its plan to shrink government, a sixfold increase compared to 2023.
•Some analysts questioned DOGE's savings claims; one report noted that despite Musk's promise of $2 trillion in savings, DOGE claimed to have saved $215 billion, and experts questioned those savings with some concluding DOGE actually cost the government money.
How to Interpret
•Supporters tend to define improvement as smaller federal workforce, deregulation, lower federal spending, stronger border enforcement, and faster re-shoring/investment.
•Critics tend to define improvement as stable government services, protection of civil service, and avoidance of litigation and disruption, and cite polls showing majority disapproval of government's direction and disruption from mass layoffs and reorganization plans.
In short, the administration cites measurable reductions in federal workforce size, contract spending, and regulatory costs as improvements, while national polling shows a majority of Americans currently say the changes are making government work worse rather than better.