From the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detaining American citizens to the first female Japanese Prime Minister, here are the top moments of 2025 that shaped this year politically.

15. Japanese first female prime minister

Sanae Takaichi, the first female prime minister of Japan, was elected in October 2025. She is also the president of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). She is mainly known as a conservative, alongside her traditional views of gender and national security. She supports strengthening the U.S.-Japan alliance, and has a pro Taiwan foreign policy. Takaichi’s political career started in 1993, where she was first elected to the Japanese parliament’s lower house, the House of Representatives as an independent. 

14. China and Taiwan Tensions

2025 saw new heights of the China and Taiwan tensions, with the United States backing Taiwan through joint military drills. Taiwan faces millions of Chinese attempted cyber breaches which targeted important infrastructure such as energy, healthcare, and government. China also continued to spread disinformation targeted towards Taiwanese citizens through social media posts generated by artificial intelligence. The U.S. also agreed on arms trade with Taiwan, which pushes China to have stronger reactions.

13. Death of Pope Francis

One day after the U.S. Vice President JD Vance visited Pope Francis, he died at the age of 88 in Domus Sanctae Marthae in Vatican City. He passed after he spent five weeks in the hospital due to a respiratory tract infection and double pneumonia. He was buried at the Santa Maria Maggiore.

12. Vice President JD Vance and President Trump ambush Ukrainian President

On Feb. 2, 2025 President Trump and Vice President JD Vance engaged in a dramatic meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in which they humiliated him and attempted to make him change war plans. President Trump said to Zelenskyy that he wasn’t in a “good position”, with an ultimatum “You’re either going to make a deal or we’re out. And if we’re out, you’ll fight it out and I don’t think it’s going to be pretty.”

11. Trump reciprocal tariffs

In early 2025, President Donald Trump enacted a set of reciprocal tariffs in order to create fairness by charging the same rates other countries set on the U.S., although most of the time Trump’s tariffs were higher. This aimed to address trade deficits and to pull in income for the government. A baseline 10% tariff was established, with higher rates for Europe, China and India. 

10. Charlie Kirk assassinated

Founder of Turning Point USA, and conservative Charlie Kirk was assassinated at Utah Valley University while at a political campaigning event on Sept 10, 2025 with over 3000 people in attendance. Kirk was a close ally of President Trump and the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement. His assasination sparked debate all over the nation on gun control laws, which he was personally against.

9. Ukraine war rages on

The military conflict between Russia and Ukraine continued into 2025. The war has been the bloodiest in European History since World War 2. The United Nations confirmed over 2,514 civilian deaths in 2025, which is a 70% increase since 2023. Both sides have had enormous losses in the war, although there have been many ceasefire negotiations none have been successful.

8. Zohran Mamdani Winning New York City Elections

Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani marked a shift for the city’s political landscape. He campaigned on affordable housing for New Yorkers, free and expanding transportation, labor rights and more. Mamdani is the first muslim mayor of New York City. His victory showcased how using social media to promote yourself to young voters and what they care about helps political campaigns.

7. Donald Trump’s Deportation Policies

ICE has become an extremely controversial point of discussion within the United States in 2025 after President Trump ordered ICE to deport non U.S. citizens. In 2025 alone, the Trump administration reported 600,000 deportations. ICE has gone to the extreme extent of violating constitutional rights of people in order to deport them, such as illegally entering homes without warrants.

6. Formation and dismantlement of the United States Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)

2025 saw the friendship of Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk go from really good to really ugly. President Trump formed DOGE as an initiative to cut government spending, reorganize the U.S. Digital Service to modernize federal technology, and cut regulations. DOGE’s judgement on what wasn’t needed by the government was controversial. Many U.S. agencies such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which is the world’s biggest foreign aid agency, took major hits from DOGE, and now its remaining functions are transferred to the United States Department of State (DoS). After Musk departed DOGE, he got into a pretty heated argument with the president over social media platform X.

5. Epstein files

The United States Department of Justice (DoJ) started releasing all files related to Jeffery Epstein. The files total over 6 million pages of documents, images and videos related to the criminal activities of Epstein. During the 2024 presidential campaigns, Donald Trump and what came as his future cabinet made promises to the American public that they would “probably” release the files. On Nov 18th, 2025, the United States House of Representatives passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act in a 427–1 vote and the United States Senate unanimously approved it. President Trump signed the bill the next day.

4. Syria marks first year of being free

Syria marked its first year of being free in 2025, with huge celebrations across the nation. 2025 also marked the year the United States and the European Union lifted sanctions off of Syria, which was caused by the former Assad regime’s brutality toward protesters in 2011, including the use of chemical weapons. In late 2025, Syrian President Ahmad Al Sharaa revealed the new Syrian currency, replacing the face of ousted president Bashar al Assads’ with local agricultural products, including wheat, olives, and citrus.

3. Sudan civil war continues 

2025 marked the third brutal year of Sudan’s civil war. The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) gained significant territories within areas such as Darfur and Kordofan, pushing the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) out. The war caused a huge humanitarian disaster for millions of Sudanese people as they’ve been the target of starvation, diseases, gun violence, and more.

2. Israel violates ceasefire more than 1000 times in Gaza

After a ceasefire was reached on October 10, 2025 between Israel, Hamas and the Greater Gaza Strip, Israel violated the ceasefire more than 1000 times, even though they were supposed to withdraw from Gaza as stated in the agreement. This resulted in the deaths of 526 Palestinians and the injury of around 1447. These violations occurred through attacks by air, artillery and direct shootings.

1. President Donald Trump sends National Guard to the major cities in the United States

On June 7th, 2025 the National Guard was deployed to Los Angeles, aimed at reducing crime levels, and assisting the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), local police forces, and the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in deportation operations. The National Guard also assisted local government forces during protests against the deployments. The National Guard expanded to Washington D.C. in August 2025 and later expanded to Memphis, Tennessee and Portland, Oregon in Sept. 2025. Lots of controversies have surrounded ICE’s deportation operations, most recently when they detained a 5 year old boy in Minnesota.