With transformative bill passed, what’s next on Trump’s agenda?

Editor’s note: “Behind the News” is the product of Sun staff assisted by the Sun’s AI lab, which includes a variety of tools such as Anthropic’s Claude, Perplexity AI, Google Gemini and ChatGPT.

With his signature legislative package now passed by Congress, President Donald Trump is positioned to launch the most aggressive second-term agenda of any modern president, using the $150 billion in new funding to accelerate mass deportations while wielding unprecedented executive power to reshape federal agencies and impose sweeping tariffs.
The House narrowly approved Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” in a dramatic early-morning vote Thursday[1], allowing the president to sign it Friday, giving him both the resources and political momentum to advance priorities that stretch far beyond traditional legislative boundaries. What comes next represents a fundamental test of presidential power and constitutional limits.

Mass deportation machine funded and ready
The massive Senate budget bill gives Trump’s administration the money to rapidly ramp up mass deportation to unprecedented levels[5]. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will have a budget for more officers than the FBI. The nation’s immigration detention centers will have more funding than the federal Bureau of Prisons.
ICE said last month that it wants to increase its current detention capacity from about 41,000 people to 100,000[17]. It’s part of what ICE’s acting director, Todd Lyons, has suggested is a deportation system that could function “like Amazon, trying to get your product delivered in 24 hours.”
The funding package includes $46.5 billion for what the House Homeland Security Committee calls an “integrated border barrier system”[17] and massive increases in deportation officers. ICE currently has about 6,000 deportation officers, a number that’s been stagnant for years. While expanding staff and detention centers would make it easier for the administration to increase deportations, even the tens of billions of dollars the bill requests may not be enough to meet Trump’s goals. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller has said ICE should be making 3,000 arrests per day of people in the country illegally. That’s a vast increase over the average of roughly 650 arrested per day in the first five months of Trump’s second term[18].
Trump has already dramatically expanded immigration enforcement beyond previous boundaries. His use of an obscure 18th-century war powers act to expand and expedite deportations raises concerns about potential violations of the constitutional right to due process as outlined in the Fifth Amendment[20]. On March 15, he invoked the Alien Enemies Act to target alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua[16], claiming the gang, which the U.S. State Department has designated as a foreign terrorist organization, poses a national security threat. However, a federal judge since ruled that Trump acted unlawfully in invoking the act.

Tariff wars escalate despite court challenges
Trump has imposed some of the highest tariffs in modern American history, fundamentally altering U.S. trade relationships. From January to April, the average effective U.S. tariff rate rose from 2.5% to an estimated 27%, the highest level in over a century[22].
The tariff strategy faces significant legal challenges. The U.S. Court of International Trade ruled in May that the IEEPA tariffs are illegal[23]. However, the administration continues implementing the policy while appeals proceed.
The tariffs amount to an average tax increase of nearly $1,200 per U.S. household[23]. International retaliation has already begun, with China, Canada and the European Union announcing or imposing retaliatory tariffs altogether affecting $330 billion of U.S. exports[23].

Federal government overhaul accelerates
Trump is implementing what amounts to a wholesale restructuring of the federal government, targeting agencies Democrats have long supported. The Trump administration continues to work to downsize the federal government, eliminating thousands of jobs at agencies including the Department of Health and Human Services, USAID, the IRS, the Social Security Administration, the Education Department, the Defense Department, the National Weather Service and the National Park Service[8].
The administration is withholding more than $6 billion in federal grants for after-school and summer programs, English language instruction, adult literacy and more as part of a review to ensure grants align with Trump’s priorities[15].
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk before his public break with Trump over the spending bill[13], has been instrumental in identifying agencies for downsizing. One White House official told Reuters the administration was moving immediately to go back to the lower level courts to seek changes, citing layoffs at federal agencies driven by DOGE as one example of a top priority that an injunction had blocked[8].
Supreme Court provides crucial cover for president’s plans
Recent Supreme Court victories have significantly strengthened Trump’s ability to implement controversial policies without facing immediate nationwide judicial blocks. The court on the last day of rulings for its current term gave Trump his latest in a series of victories at the nation’s top judicial body, one that may make it easier for him to implement contentious elements of his sweeping agenda as he tests the limits of presidential power[6].
The court’s conservative supermajority on Friday limited the ability of plaintiffs to obtain nationwide relief. But the court left intact the ability of plaintiffs to get broad relief through class-action lawsuits[7].
Trump, for now at least, has succeeded in changing the very nature of the court’s work. The justices produced just 56 opinions this term in cases that had been briefed and argued. That’s the lowest number since the 1930s. But in the five months since Trump took office, the court, with only the rarest exception, has repeatedly granted his wishes to accrue power to the presidency[10].

Obstacles and opposition mount
Despite his victories, Trump faces significant obstacles from multiple directions. Republican defections nearly derailed his legislative package, signaling future challenges. Two Republicans voted against advancing the package: Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who opposes a provision to raise the debt limit by $5 trillion, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who says more than 600,000 in his state could lose access to health care from defunding Medicaid[11].
Musk has taken aim at Trump’s signature piece of legislation. He opposes the multitrillion-dollar debt increase the bill is expected to bring. Trump fired back, claiming Musk gets “more subsidy than any human being in history” from the U.S. government[13].
Democratic-led states are mounting coordinated resistance. The California Legislature passed $50 million in a special session that Gov. Gavin Newsom called to help “Trump-proof” the state — $25 million for the state Department of Justice to sue the federal administration on a variety of matters including immigration, and $25 million toward legal aid to represent immigrants in deportation proceedings[21].

Executive orders on multiple fronts
Trump has signed 166 executive orders[3], far exceeding the pace of his first term. Key areas of focus include:

• Immigration enforcement: This order ensures that the federal government protects the American people by executing the immigration laws of the U.S.[19].
• Social issues: The president will establish male and female as biological reality and protect women from “radical gender ideology”[4].
  International implications

Trump’s agenda extends far beyond domestic policy, fundamentally altering America’s international relationships. Trump signed an executive order terminating a U.S. sanctions program on Syria, allowing an end to the country’s isolation from the international financial system and building on Washington’s pledge to help it rebuild after a devastating civil war[2].

Legal challenges multiply
A Bloomberg analysis of more than 325 court cases involving challenges to Trump’s executive actions reveals the stress test on the balance of power taking shape[5].
Major pending battles include challenges to birthright citizenship restrictions, federal workforce reductions and the scope of presidential power under emergency authorities. Pending fights before the justices include Trump’s effort to restrict birthright citizenship and DOGE’s access to Americans’ personal information at the Social Security Administration[9].

Project 2025 accelerates
Despite Trump’s campaign denials, his administration is implementing key elements of the conservative Project 2025 blueprint. Trump-Musk are already implementing a variety of Project 2025 proposals, from cuts to the Social Security workforce so it won’t work for beneficiaries, to setting the groundwork for cuts in Medicaid, Medicare and SNAP, to the elimination of expertise at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration so weather forecasting can be privatized and at the Environmental Protection Agency while exempting polluters from the Clean Air Act[12].

Looking ahead: Unprecedented scope
Trump’s postlegislative agenda represents an unprecedented expansion of presidential power that goes far beyond traditional executive authority. The combination of massive new funding, favorable court rulings and a willingness to test constitutional limits positions him to reshape American government in ways that could outlast his presidency.
The bill is significant for its own sake, both ideologically and symbolically. This bill is the most tangible way for Trump to implement his 2024 campaign promises. Presidents always face intense pressure to enshrine their attempts at political transformation into law[14].
The coming months will test whether American institutions can accommodate Trump’s expansive vision of executive power or whether they will impose meaningful constraints on presidential authority. The outcome will likely define not just the remainder of Trump’s presidency, but the nature of American governance for years to come.