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 Trump was selected from a shortlist of 10 global and domestic leaders who dominated the news this year.

President Donald Trump was voted the Global Newsmaker of the Year in a survey of 8,245 Epoch Times readers.

Ninety-five percent of respondents ranked the 47th president as their top choice from a list of 10 global newsmakers. The survey was conducted between Dec. 18 and Dec. 21.

“No one is even close to Trump as top newsmaker,” one reader wrote.

On Jan. 20, Trump was sworn in as the 47th president, becoming the second U.S. president to serve nonconsecutive terms.

He immediately resumed his America First agenda with greater speed and determination. He took actions to secure the border, reversed energy policies, and signed a landmark tax-cut bill into law.

After a series of domestic wins, Trump turned his focus to international affairs, determined to broker trade and peace deals across the globe. He has approached diplomacy through a transactional lens, using tariffs and economic pressure as tools to push warring nations toward peace talks.

Trump’s intervention has resulted in the end of multiple armed conflicts.

The cease-fire agreement between Israel and the Hamas terrorist group, which led to the return of every Israeli hostage except Staff Sgt. Ran Gvili, stands out as one of Trump’s most significant achievements this year. Hamas terrorists attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The terrorists killed, raped, and kidnapped civilians, and Israel responded by invading Gaza.

Even Trump’s critics have acknowledged the effectiveness of his diplomatic efforts. When the hostage exchange took place, millions worldwide watched the emotional reunions of families in Israel and the Gaza Strip. Some world leaders described Trump as the most deserving candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize, calling him “a man of peace.”

Trump also achieved other victories on the world stage, from getting NATO allies to agree to a larger defense budget at this year’s Hague summit to ordering precision strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites.

Since taking office, he has actively sought a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia to help end Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II. His team has conducted extensive negotiations and developed a 20-point peace plan for Ukraine, following the model applied in Gaza. According to Trump, the two sides are inching closer to an agreement. He has said he thinks that peace in Europe would bring many benefits to the United States.

Trump’s foreign policy emphasizes prosperity through commerce and peace through strength. Upon taking office, he closed the U.S. Agency for International Development. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called this a significant shift from a charity-based approach to one that prioritizes “trade over aid” and “investment over assistance.”

On Dec. 4, the president also announced a new National Security Strategy that reflects a clear break from previous approaches. The new plan shifts U.S. attention and resources from the Middle East and Europe to the Western Hemisphere. The recent military buildup near Venezuela is part of this new strategy.

Trump’s objective is to ensure the hemisphere “remains reasonably stable and well-governed,” according to the new strategy document.

“In other words, we will assert and enforce a ‘Trump Corollary’ to the Monroe Doctrine,” it reads.

            

Since January, Trump has increased pressure on China by substantially raising tariff rates on its goods. Although some tariffs were reduced in the November

truce, current tariffs on Chinese goods remain at 47.5 percent. These high levies are expected to accelerate “economic decoupling” from China. As part of the recent truce, Beijing has agreed to suspend rare earth export controls and purchase U.S. soybeans in exchange for a one-year pause on restrictions on technology exports to Chinese firms.

In the meantime, Trump bolstered ties with key allies such as Japan and South Korea, agreed to support the Philippines militarily against Chinese maritime aggression, and signed trade and critical minerals supply agreements with numerous Southeast Asian and Central Asian countries. Trump also influenced international policy discussions by encouraging governments to shift away from progressive agendas such as environmental, social, and governance criteria; diversity, equity, and inclusion programs; and the climate change agenda. At the 2025 G7 summit, for example, these issues were excluded from the formal agenda of the leaders’ meeting, a move many attributed to Trump’s influence.

He also spoke publicly against what he described as genocide targeting white farmers in South Africa and Christians in various countries, including Nigeria. Additionally, he addressed discrimination against conservatives in European countries.   

2. Musk’s DOGE Stint, Continued Innovation

Elon Musk, tech entrepreneur and former head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), earned the second spot in the Epoch Times survey.

Under Musk’s leadership, DOGE says it worked to slash $105 billion in federal government spending. The department worked with agencies to cancel contracts, cut staff, and identify fraud and waste. Musk’s 130-day tenure in the Trump administration officially came to an end on May 30.

Midyear, Trump and Musk suffered a rift in their relationship; Musk criticized Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act” for failing to cut the national debt. The two appear to have mended fences and were seen together in September at the memorial service for conservative influencer Charlie Kirk.

Earlier in the year, Musk’s company, SpaceX, earned accolades for retrieving stranded astronauts from the International Space Station.

In September, Musk unveiled his fourth master plan for Tesla, which is working on advanced uses of artificial intelligence (AI), including in self-driving vehicles and humanoid robots.

In October, Musk launched Grokipedia, an AI-generated online encyclopedia powered by Grok, a chatbot and large language model from xAI, to compete with Wikipedia.

Musk—who also owns social media platform X—recently became the first person to reach a net worth of $700 billion.

        

3. Rubio Prominent on World Stage

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who ran for president against Trump in 2016, took third place as a global newsmaker in 2025.

The United States’ 72nd secretary of state is the first Hispanic American elevated to that role, and Rubio also serves as national security adviser.

The 54-year-old former U.S. senator was heavily involved with the multi-phase cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas.

Rubio has also played a key role in advancing negotiations to end the Russia–Ukraine War. That bloody conflict has persisted for nearly four years, beginning in early 2022 when Russian forces invaded Ukraine. At least a million Russians have been killed or wounded, and Ukraine has estimated casualties at more than 45,000 deaths and 390,000 injured, according to reports earlier this year.

The secretary of state has also been involved in the fight against narco-terrorism, including airstrikes on Venezuelan drug boats, and has fostered cooperation with nations such as Mexico, Panama, and Costa Rica.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks during an end-of-year press conference in the State Department in Washington, on Dec. 19, 2025

4. Netanyahu Fortified Israel’s Role as US Ally

Close behind Rubio in readers’ rankings, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, 76, helped further U.S. strategic objectives throughout 2025.

In a June military operation, Israel struck about 100 targets in Iran, destroying military facilities and killing top military leaders and nuclear scientists. Independent U.S. strikes followed at three major Iranian nuclear facilities after Israeli strikes weakened defenses.

Netanyahu worked with Trump and the U.S. president’s emissaries on the peace deal with Hamas and to bring an end to the conflict in Lebanon.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House on April 7, 2025. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

5. Meloni, Machado Champion Western Democracy

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni tied for fifth in readers’ ranking of global newsmakers. Both have been outspoken proponents of democratic values and joined forces earlier this year to oppose Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.

A longtime politician and critic of Maduro, Machado was arrested and then forced into hiding amid threats from the Maduro regime. She nonetheless garnered international attention and received the Nobel Peace Prize in October. Despite a travel ban imposed by the Maduro regime, Machado arrived in Oslo in December, albeit after the awards ceremony.

Meloni, meanwhile, condemned Machado’s arrest in January while describing it as an “unacceptable act of repression.” She has also become something of a conservative hero, and she spoke at CPAC 2025. In translated remarks, she described Western civilization as “built and defended over centuries through the genius energy and sacrifices of many.” She added that she would never apologize for the West’s heritage.

 

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni arrives at the G7 Summit in Kananaskis, canada.

Top Global News Events of 2025

This year saw significant domestic policy changes, major developments in foreign policy, and the most prominent political assassination in decades. Because there were so many consequential events this year, several readers of The Epoch Times remarked that it was “hard to choose” their top five.

However, among 17 news events of 2025, the following five ranked highest among readers.

1. Border Security and Immigration

After years of crisis at the southern border, Trump started his second term by turning his top campaign issue into action to curtail illegal immigration. At the outset, Trump declared an emergency at the border and rolled out a series of policies, including expedited deportations and restricting birthright citizenship.

By November, the administration said that millions of illegal immigrants had been removed or had self-deported, and the United States saw a historic decline in its foreign-born population. Law enforcement has also pursued a series of operations that yielded thousands of arrests of illegal immigrants with criminal backgrounds.

Things could change depending on how courts, including the Supreme Court, rule on the flood of lawsuits challenging Trump’s actions, such as his invocation of the Alien Enemies Act to speed deportations of suspected members of a Venezuelan gang.

Illegal immigrants from Mexico and Guatemala are apprehended by Border Patrol agents after crossing a section of border wall into Ruby, Ariz., on Jan. 4, 2025.

2. Tariffs and Global Trade Reset

Although recent presidents have applied pressure through trade, Trump ushered in a paradigm shift in the country’s economic policy when he announced a sweeping set of tariffs earlier this year.

So far, the country has seen record tariff revenues and trade renegotiations that have affected billions of dollars in commerce.

As 2025 comes to an end, the Supreme Court has yet to release its highly anticipated ruling on whether Trump’s tariffs encroached on Congress’s authority.

Its eventual decision could disrupt foreign affairs and alter the country’s economic landscape. Although Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said the administration could work around a negative ruling, he said the potential fix wouldn’t be as efficient.

 

An aerial view of shipping containers at the Port of Baltimore in Baltimore on Aug. 7, 2025.

3. Charlie Kirk Assassination

Tragedy shook the nation in early September when one of the nation’s leading conservatives and free speech advocates, Charlie Kirk, was assassinated on a college campus. Horrific footage of the event deeply affected many, and Americans wrestled with the implications of Kirk’s assassination for democracy and civility in politics.

Kirk was shot while answering a question about mass shootings, and his death followed various attacks that amplified social and political tensions. Authorities said the alleged shooter had a “leftist ideology” and that the shooter suggested Kirk was promoting hatred.

Kirk’s slaying inspired many readers to add comments to their survey responses.

“The end of cancel culture and greater ability to express all views was sadly offset by the brutal and senseless murder of Charlie Kirk,” one reader said.

The response to Kirk’s death has reinvigorated interest in free speech and faith, as seen in countless social media posts.

A makeshift memorial outside the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria, South Africa, on Sept. 11, 2025, following the Sept. 10 fatal shooting of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk at an event at Utah Valley University in Orem,

4. Strikes on Iran

The Pentagon carried out Operation Midnight Hammer overnight on June 21–22, a coordinated strike against Iran’s three most fortified nuclear facilities—Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan.

The targets were selected for their central role in uranium enrichment and weapons research.

According to Pentagon officials, the mission inflicted “extremely severe damage” on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure and significantly delayed Tehran’s ability to build a nuclear weapon.

The U.S. strikes were made a week after Israel carried out a series of surprise airstrikes across Iran and were based on an intricate plan that entailed more than 125 U.S. aircraft and warships.

Seven B-2 Spirit stealth bombers launched from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, flying an 18-hour mission to deliver 14 bunker-busting bombs, the U.S. military’s largest non-nuclear bombs, deep into hardened underground sites.

Trump described the operation as a “spectacular military success” and warned Tehran that if it did not choose peace, future attacks would be “far greater and a lot easier.”

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force Gen. Dan Caine discusses the mission details of a strike on Iran during a news conference at the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., on June 22, 2025.

5. Government Efficiency via DOGE

When Trump entered his second term, the national debt was more than $30 trillion, and the federal bureaucracy had amassed millions of employees after decades of expansion. Reducing its heft was a priority for the White House, but it remained to be seen whether DOGE could enact meaningful cuts.

DOGE began recommending to agencies which grants to slash across the executive branch and where to make reductions to the federal workforce. Savings have reached $214 billion, according to DOGE’s reporting. Some of the estimates have come under scrutiny.

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) website is displayed on a phone, in this photo illustration.

Other news events rated in the top 10 news events by Epoch Times readers include significant Supreme Court rulings in 2025, the peace deal between Israel and Hamas, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the designation of drug cartels and extremist groups such as Antifa as terror groups, and the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence.