Is the Trump administration improving government? I'll survey current reforms, efficiency metrics, and competing assessments to give you a balanced answer.
Whether Donald Trump is improving the U.S. government is subjective and depends on how "improvement" is measured. Views are sharply divided along partisan lines, and different metrics point in different directions.
1. How the administration assesses itself
President Trump has said he would give his second-term performance an A+ "In government work, in economic terms, in all aspects".
The White House points to:
•Labor market and investment: The economy added 115,000 jobs in April — with 76,000 new jobs per month on average in 2026, a big leap from the 10,000 monthly average in 2025. The administration also cited 12,600 factory construction jobs added in April alone, propelled by trillions in new investments flooding into advanced manufacturing and data centers.
•Smaller federal workforce: His efforts have already slashed the federal workforce by 345,000 workers, making the federal government the smallest it has been since May 1966 — and the smallest it has ever been as a share of the total workforce. Other estimates say more than 260,000 workers left federal service due to Trump administration initiatives in 2025, according to the Office of Management and Budget, while a separate summary said the federal workforce has shrunk 12 percent under President Trump.
•Deregulation and efficiency push: The White House released its 2026 Regulatory Plan on July 4th, targeting 702 federal rules for elimination in what officials are calling the most aggressive deregulatory push in American history. This would be in addition to the 752 regulatory cuts already finalized since October 1, 2025.
•Border and national security: The Trump administration released its National Security Strategy in November 2025, presenting a blueprint that reorients American foreign policy around a doctrine of "America First". The fiscal 2026 skinny budget would reduce overall spending while increasing funding for border security and the military, including $70 billion for ICE and Border Patrol over three years under the Secure America Act.
2. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) - Central to the "improvement" claim
•Established on January 20, 2025, through an executive order, DOGE emerged as a rebranded and restructured version of the United States Digital Service (USDS).
•After Trump returned to office in 2025, Elon Musk became a special government employee and helped lead DOGE, an initiative intended to reduce federal spending and streamline government operations.
•DOGE sought to shrink the federal workforce, review agency spending, and eliminate programs that Musk and the administration viewed as inefficient.
Claimed savings:
•The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) terminated or scaled back 108 federal contracts, saving taxpayers $397 million immediately and eliminating $5.8 billion in future liabilities.
•Since January 2025, the administration has said it slashed $214 billion in wasteful spending.
•The DOGE website says it has saved about $215 billion through job cuts, contract and lease cancellations and asset sales, as well as grant rescissions. Musk initially promised cuts of up to $2 trillion but later softened the target before leaving the administration in May.
Documented costs and criticism:
•The Trump administration allocated $9.5 billion for paid administrative leave for federal employees in 2025, marking a sixfold increase from 2023 due to the DOGE buyout initiative. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said administrative leave expenses rose by 435% between 2023 and 2025, and in another report that the use of paid administrative leave increased by 435% from 2023 to 2025.
•They calculate that $6.7 billion of this was due to employees who opted into the Deferred Resignation Program, a voluntary buyout.
•While in 2023 and 2024 just 600 federal workers across the whole of government took more than three months of paid leave, in 2025 that number jumped to almost 100,000.
•The GAO report found considerable costs associated with the exit push even as the workforce shrank.
•Plans to cut spending and reduce the federal workforce quickly drew criticism from government employees, and the initiative soon faced lawsuits questioning whether it exceeded executive authority.
•New polling data from the Partnership for Public Service shows that nearly double the number of surveyed respondents thought Trump's federal workforce overhauls would have negative impacts compared with those who supported the policies.
•The federal government shutdown that took effect Oct. 1, 2025, will likely include mass layoffs and program cuts, according to reporting at the time.
By October 2025, reporting noted DOGE is no longer a "centralized entity" after Musk's departure, having transitioned into a more decentralized force embedded within agencies.
3. Economic indicators - Mixed
•A comprehensive review one year into Trump's second term said the economy showed notable strengths — including record stock market performance and projected GDP growth of 2.5–3% in 2026 — while middle-class families face higher costs from tariffs and uneven tax relief.
•Trump often said his economic agenda would lead to a GDP of 4% to 6% per year, but real GDP growth measured between the first quarter of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026 has so far seen a slower rate, around 2.5%.
•Trade and economy approval were cited as weaknesses in polling aggregates.
4. Public approval as a proxy for "improvement"
Polling suggests most Americans do not currently rate the administration positively on overall government performance:
•As of October 15, 2026, Donald Trump hit an all-time approval rating low of net -23.9, bouncing back slightly to -22.4.
•Net approval of how he's handled trade (-28.7) and the economy (-29.9) are both near their all time lows, with inflation approval at net -47.5.
•Pew Research found the decrease in Trump's approval during his second term has primarily come from Republicans and Republican-leaning independents: 69% approve today, down from 84% in February 2025.
Supporters argue polls lag policy effects and underestimate longer-term benefits from deregulation, energy policy, tax cuts made permanent, and border enforcement. Critics argue low approval, high administrative leave costs, legal challenges, and the shutdown show the reforms are disruptive and not net beneficial.
Bottom line
•If "improving" means reducing the size and regulatory scope of the federal government, shrinking the federal workforce to its smallest size since 1966, and prioritizing border security and deregulation, the administration has made measurable changes in that direction.
•If "improving" means delivering lower costs, higher approval, and efficient savings without added transition costs or service disruptions, critics point to the $9.5 billion in paid leave, the gap between $2 trillion promised and ~$215 billion claimed saved, GDP growth below 4-6% promises, and historically low net approval as evidence that improvement has not been achieved.
Whether these trade-offs constitute improvement often depends on partisan affiliation and which outcomes - smaller government vs. government stability and public satisfaction - a person prioritizes.