Newly reinstated President Donald Trump unleashed a historic wave of executive orders and actions Monday that included many areas of interest to investors and businesses.
Energy was an immediate focus. Trump invoked a national energy emergency that will open up new presidential powers designed to spur increased energy production across the country. He also approved a withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accords as well as penned a regulatory freeze.
“The inflation crisis was caused by massive overspending and escalating energy prices,” he said in his inaugural address. “We will drill baby drill.”
On tariffs, the new president outlined his trade vision and reiterated his feeling about tariff being “the most beautiful word in the dictionary” but did not immediately impose them — a development that investors initially welcomed.
But the new president also made clear that historic new duties are coming, saying Monday evening “we are thinking in terms of 25% on Mexico and Canada,” and adding he is likely to enact the duties on Feb. 1.
He declined to offer more details on when new tariffs would be coming on China, saying that meetings and negotiations are ongoing but made clear tariffs are on the table.
Trump also signed an array of other orders. One offered a formal structure for Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency.” Another presidential memorandum on inflation directed the “heads of all executive departments and agencies to deliver emergency price relief” to bring down costs.
Other orders take control of the federal workforce and rescind 78 executive orders and actions by the Biden administration.
TikTok was also in focus. Trump signed an attempt to give the company a reprieve from a law that requires the banning of the app, even as legal questions abound about whether he has such authority.
He reiterated his positive feelings towards the app but also offered caution about the final outcome saying “TikTok is worthless if I don’t approve it.”
While US stock markets were closed on Monday, S&P 500 futures were still open for trading and rose while the US dollar index dropped from a nearly two-year high amid signs tariffs would be delayed.
The stock market reopens on Tuesday after a break for Martin Luther King Jr. day.
Capital Economics in a Monday note pointed out “the only real certainty is that the path ahead in markets is likely to remain bumpy.”
The wave of signings began Monday afternoon even before Trump had left the US Capitol with some procedural signings before lawmakers, including the formal nomination of cabinet officials.
They are set to surpass by sheer number any wave of orders signed in recent history even as many of Trump’s most controversial efforts are expected to be challenged in court.
“So now the work begins,” he said before the signings began.
An array of actions on energy and regulations
Trump offered a heavy focus Monday on immigration — with orders that declared a national emergency at the southern border could quickly lead to new enforcement actions in the US and on the southern border, even as immigration through Mexico has slowed over the last year.
He also used his presidential power to shut down a government immigration app within moments of his swearing in.
Trump promised that his actions on Monday would be the beginning of his promised mass deportations and will also include the involvement of US troops. But with economic consequences that could be more gradual.
Not so much for another raft of orders teed up on energy where Trump aims to quickly empower energy companies.
Much of the early focus was on orders to cut red tape and regulations of the sector including a freeze on regulations.
Increasing access to natural resources was a key aspect of early energy plan for the Trump team.
One executive order focused specifically on natural resources in Alaska, where the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is located and offshore drilling was hotly debated during the Biden era.
“We are opening up ANWR,” Trump said as he signed.
According to the White House official, the logic behind declaring an emergency is that high energy prices are an undue burden on American consumers and that the coming race for artificial intelligence dominance will require huge increases in energy.
Trump also withdrew from the Paris Climate Accords, an international climate treaty that Trump withdrew from once before but Biden rejoined during his term.
“We will be a rich nation again, and it is that liquid gold under our feet that will help to do it,” Trump added in his inaugural address.
The tariffs X factor
In November, Trump promised specific day one tariff action against Canada and Mexico, saying that on Jan. 20, he would “sign all necessary documents to charge Mexico and Canada a 25% Tariff on ALL products coming into the United States” because of his concerns about drugs and crime.
But that didn’t happen, at least not in the immediate hours.
The new president stopped short of imposing new tariffs but made clear they were coming.
But Trump remains clear he is likely to go big on tariffs in the weeks ahead.
In his inaugural address, Trump promised “I will immediately begin the overhaul of our trade system to protect American workers and families” and also touted his plans to create a new “External Revenue Service” as a clearinghouse for the revenues he hopes to obtain.
At his confirmation hearing this week to be the new Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent also underlined the ambitious plans as he defended sweeping tariffs and said that a plank of Trump’s coming agenda will be “a more generalized tariff as a revenue raiser for the federal budget.”
TikTok and other issues
Trump and his team also unveiled early orders on other topics.
Amid a flurry of weekend drama over TikTok’s fate in the US, the president issued his order to give the tech company a reprieve.
But after TikTok came back Sunday following Trump’s early assurances, Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, the chair of the influential Senate intelligence committee, underlined that companies that help TikTok “could face hundreds of billions of dollars of ruinous liability under the law, not just from DOJ, but also under securities law, shareholder lawsuits, and state AGs.”
Much of the day one focus for Trump was also on the federal bureaucracy as he moved forward on long-promised plans to bring government workers — even traditionally nonpolitical ones — under his administration’s more direct control.
He said he would implement a hiring freeze on federal workers, including at the Internal Revenue Service.
Trump also signed a mix of pardons and commutations for his supporters who were convicted of their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol saying “we’re going to get them out.”
Trump also used his renewed presidential powers to send a raft of his long-ago-announced nominees to the Senate.
Some are likely to then receive quick approval, like Treasury nominee Bessent who had a confirmation hearing last week that touched on tariffs and the Federal Reserve.
He is set for a final Senate Finance Committee vote on Tuesday followed by an expected quick confirmation on the Senate floor soon after that.
