The first year of President Donald Trump’s second term has been, in a word, tumultuous. The flurry of activity emanating from Washington has left some readers straining to keep up with his dizzying pace, and others simply uncertain about the effect of some of his actions.  

We asked you what you wanted to know about the Trump administration, and today’s newsletter brings answers from Reuters correspondents who cover national politics, Congress, foreign affairs, immigration and the economy. Some questions have been revised for clarity.   

The regular newsletter will return next week, but we’ll continue throughout the year to ask for your queries.  

Trump has repeatedly broken with presidential precedent in ways that have alarmed critics across parties. He has publicly targeted political opponents, urging investigations or prosecutions of rivals and former officials, despite a long-standing norm that presidents keep their distance from law enforcement to avoid politicization. He also used the pardon power expansively to benefit allies and associates, often bypassing Justice Department review, reinforcing perceptions that clemency is being used as a political tool.  

Supporters have largely cheered his actions as disrupting a system they view as corrupt; critics see them as erosions of democratic and diplomatic norms. Either way, his actions will make it easier for a future president to do the same.  – National political correspondent James Oliphant 

Trump's Republicans control both chambers of Congress, and for much of last year they showed an extraordinary amount of deference. Under the U.S. Constitution, Congress has authority over spending and tariffs, but Republicans did not object when Trump unilaterally slashed billions of dollars from the budget and invoked emergency powers to hike import duties on allies and foes alike.  

However, Congress has shown glimmers of independence of late. Republicans and Democrats passed legislation forcing Trump's Justice Department to release documents related to the investigation of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and 17 Republicans voted with Democrats earlier this month in the House of Representatives to extend Obamacare subsidies - a sign that they are more worried about voters' pocketbooks than they are about sticking to the party line. The Senate voted to rein in Trump's authority on Venezuela following the capture of President Nicolas Maduro, though that effort eventually fell short. If Democrats win control of the House in November’s midterm elections, the game changes as they will have the power to investigate Trump's administration and hold up legislation. – Washington correspondent Andy Sullivan 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said a peace plan is 90% ready and that Ukraine wants the war to end, but not at any cost, and that he will not sign a "weak" deal that only prolongs the war. The main stumbling block is which country will control contested parts of Ukraine's territory. Russia holds about 19% in the south and east, but Russian President Vladimir Putin wants Ukraine to withdraw from parts of the Donbas region that Moscow's forces have failed to capture. Kyiv wants the map frozen at the current battle lines. Trump told Reuters last week that Ukraine is holding up a potential peace deal, a contrast to statements from European allies, who have consistently argued that Moscow has little interest in ending the war.  

The prospect of Ukraine joining NATO has always appeared distant, and under Trump has looked even more of a non-starter. Zelenskiy has said agreeing to security guarantees rather than admission into NATO amounted to a concession on Ukraine's part. – Foreign Policy correspondent David Brunnstrom 

Trump has been accused of disrupting the unity of NATO with repeated verbal attacks on the alliance, but pressure from him has prompted member states to agree to significantly boost their military spending. 

Trump has shaken confidence in transatlantic security and NATO by repeatedly stating his desire to acquire Greenland, which has been administered by European NATO member Denmark for centuries. Trump argues Greenland is important for national security and that there would be nothing Denmark could do if Russia or China wanted to occupy the island. The European commissioner for defense has said it would be the end of NATO if the U.S. took Greenland by force, while Trump says the alliance would become more formidable with Greenland in the hands of the U.S. 

A Reuters/Ipsos poll released last week found that just 17% of Americans approve of Trump's efforts to acquire Greenland, with substantial majorities of Democrats and Republicans opposing using military force to annex the island. – David Brunnstrom 

The Trump administration has certainly focused significant attention on China, the world's second largest economy and Washington's main geopolitical rival, but its relationship with Russia has been largely conditioned by the war in Ukraine and Trump's efforts to stop that, something that has required significant focus, too, on relations with European members of NATO and the European Union. 

North Korea was a major focus for Trump in his first administration, when he held a series of unprecedented meetings with its leader Kim Jong Un in a failed attempt to persuade him to give up his nuclear weapons. While Trump has said he is interested in resuming the dialogue and North Korea has appeared open to the idea - if the U.S. drops demands for denuclearization - no plans for meetings have so far emerged. – David Brunnstrom 

Presidents have been pushing the limits of separation of powers for decades through the increasingly expansive use of tools such as executive orders. For example, President Barack Obama’s use of an order to grant so-called “Dreamers” protection from deportation was viewed at the time as a radical step as such an action was long considered to be Congress’ prerogative.  

Presidents have also frequently bypassed Congress, which has the power to declare war, to engage the military in aggressive ways, most recently in Venezuela when Trump ordered the capture of Maduro. The bottom line is that the separation of powers is only effective if each branch of government asserts its authority, whether it’s the Supreme Court declaring some presidential actions unconstitutional or Congress passing legislation rather than deferring to the executive branch. If they aren’t willing to do that, the president has a freer hand. – James Oliphant 

UNAIDS, the UN body fighting AIDS, said in November that an uncounted number of extra people had died from AIDS and 2.5 million had lost access to medicine to block the spread of HIV, because of cuts to global programs since Trump returned to the presidency, and Washington, which accounted for 75% of international HIV funding, temporarily halted its contributions. Other donor countries also dramatically scaled back foreign aid programs last year, including European countries pressed by Trump to ramp up spending on defense instead. The White House dismissed the UNAIDS findings as "totally false" but said the Trump administration was ensuring that “all programs funded by American taxpayers align with American interests.”   

UNAIDS said that although some HIV programs had resumed with funds from a U.S. program known as PEPFAR, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, overall funding continued to decline, jeopardizing 2030 targets to end AIDS as a public health threat. – David Brunnstrom 

Trump has pushed the limits of immigration enforcement by sending masked officers into cities across the country in a bid to ramp up deportations to record levels. Trump’s first year in office fell short of the administration’s goal of 1 million deportations per year, with 622,000 as of late December, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. But armed with unprecedented levels of funding, Trump’s ICE and Border Patrol are poised to go even further this year. 

The deportation figure was comparable with levels under President Joe Biden during his final two years in office. However, many more immigrants under Biden were illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border and quickly deported. Trump’s approach does appear to have deterred migrants from illegally crossing the border. In the months after he took office, the number of migrants caught trying to cross illegally dropped to the lowest levels in decades. – Immigration Correspondent Ted Hesson