President Donald Trump had an extraordinary first year in his second term in office. The question is whether he can turn the economy around in time to keep control of Congress.

It has not been an easy year. As the president himself noted in the White House briefing room on Tuesday, he came to office just days after the Los Angeles fires — and he rushed in to help.

Trump forced local officials to open up burned lots to residents, and pushed a faster schedule for clearing debris than anyone thought possible. But his relationship with California Gov. Gavin Newsom “went astray,” he said, which has held back rebuilding and federal funding. 

That risks becoming the story of Trump’s second term: Incredible energy, stifled by opposition.

Trump’s most significant achievement has been to seal the border to illegal migration. He showed that it was lack of will, not lack of “immigration reform,” that held back enforcement.

There is no doubt that the aggressive tactics of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have been controversial. Sometimes ICE has swept up non-violent migrants or even people trying to correct their immigration status. That has alienated some of the president’s Latino supporters, and it has given Democrats something to rally around — though, as usual, they have overplayed their hand by mobilizing mobs against law enforcement and even churches.

ICE is doing an essential job — and, arguably, helping local law enforcement clamp down on crime, which is falling everywhere. Fentanyl deaths are also plummeting, thanks in part........

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