2025 was a transitional period in many ways. The year brought a lot of good and bad changes for everyone. A prime example of this is President Trump entering his second presidential term in January. On his first day in office, Trump signed 26 executive orders. That’s the most executive orders a president has signed on his first day in office. Since his inauguration, Trump has done a number on the economy, not fulfilling his promises of an affordable life for Americans. Trump also brought in Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to become a government employee tasked with minimizing government spending after Musk supported and donated much to Trump’s campaign. Many American people were upset that Musk was appointed to this role because he had access to confidential government information with absolutely no qualifications to do so. At a celebration for Trump’s second inauguration, Musk is seen giving what appears to be a Nazi salute at the end of his speech, which made a lot of Americans lose whatever faith they had in Trump’s administration.
In January, Los Angeles experienced record-breaking wildfires that destroyed many homes and businesses and took many lives. In total, 37,000 acres were burned. The fires lasted 24 days. The parts of Los Angeles that were affected are still rebuilding a year later.
On April 21st, 2025, Pope Francis passed away in Vatican City. He had been the head of the Catholic Church for 12 years. His successor, named Pope Leo XIV, is the first ever pope to originate from the United States. He was born in Chicago. Pope Leo XVI was elected as pope through the papal conclave on May 8, 2025.
Taking a turn to pop culture news, in August, Taylor Swift became engaged to Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. The couple took to Instagram to announce their engagement, captioning the post, “Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married.” Another significant pop culture moment of the summer was the final season of The Summer I Turned Pretty being released. This re-ignited the “Team Conrad” and “Team Jeremiah” argument as fans were anticipating how the series would end in comparison to the book.
On September 10, 2025, right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated during a debate at Utah Valley University. His death shocked the nation and was seen as an act of political violence. People all around the United States honored his life and legacy in many different ways after the attack.
In October, the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire came into effect. This war has been raging since the end of 2023. Since the ceasefire has been intact, Hamas has released all hostages, and Israel has released Palestinians from jails where they were held. Israeli forces were to withdraw from Gaza. Hopefully, this ceasefire will finally bring peace to Gaza and end this war.
Another very notable moment from the past year was the discontinuation of the penny. In late 2025, the Department of the Treasury placed the order to discontinue the coin in order to reduce costs. Production of pennies costs way more than they are worth in the long run. Pennies are expected to run out sometime in 2026.
To conclude this list of events, the most trending topic right now is the finale of the hit Netflix show Stranger Things. The show had been running for almost ten years, premiering in 2016. The final episodes were released at the end of the year, and left some fans upset about how the show ended. Many expressed that they had thought there were loose ends in the writing and that they were disappointed to watch the show they had followed for almost ten years end on such a bad note.
All in all, the year 2025 may not have been the best year in history, but it had its moments.
