This Monday, President Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 47th President of the United States, and as promised, he did not waste any time affecting policy. President Trump has spoken of enacting over 100 executive orders, directives, actions, and memoranda, so it can be a little hard to keep up. Today, we want to take this opportunity to report on some of the major orders President Trump has issued already, and how they might affect your business.

Since there are so many, we’ve broken them down into themes.

Energy Policy

For the second time (since President Biden reversed Trump’s action during his tenure), President Trump has removed the United States from the Paris Climate Accords, which would have placed limits on U.S. carbon emissions, among other things. Leaving the Paris Agreement also reportedly frees up the Trump administration to undo a lot of the Biden-era green-energy tax breaks, subsidies, and policy.

“We will drill, baby, drill,” the president said in a speech Monday. He seems to mean it. Trump has already taken steps to open up large swaths of public land in Alaska to oil drilling, and he also declared a national energy emergency, which will make it easier to finish pipelines, refineries, and to give permission to oil companies to extract from new sites. “We aren’t going to do the wind thing,” Trump said. In his comments, the president also mentioned changing federal policy toward electric vehicles (perhaps that means ending the EV tax credit) and revoking the “green new deal,” likely referring to Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act.

Oil prices have been up lately, and while some traders are optimistic about Trump’s current and forthcoming energy policies, others have mentioned that “contradictory changes” will likely come from his actions. For example, domestic oil production will likely increase, but new projects take time to bring online, and those effects may not be seen in the near future, while uncertain tariff policy and other geopolitical goals may contribute to greater volatility in the international oil market.

Immigration

Trump designated Mexican drug cartels “foreign terrorist organizations,” restored 2017 deportation rules, declared a national emergency at the U.S. Mexico border, directed the military to send troops and possibly to erect barriers, and he may even be ending federal grants to states, cities, and localities that designate themselves “sanctuaries” and do not properly cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

In other words, the border is about to get locked down, the military will be involved, and we will likely see actual ICE raids in major cities very soon. This could have sweeping effects on numerous industries, as we will likely not only see a tremendous reduction in illegal immigrant workers in the economy, but also the removal of currently-residing illegal residents. This will likely result in higher wages, but it may also result in labor shortages and higher prices, at least in the short term.

Also, according to the Heritage Foundation, these actions could have a positive effect on crime rates, making our cities safer.

Federal Regulations and Workers

President Trump ordered a freeze on new and pending federal regulations from going into place until his administration is able to review and approve them. Trump has also ordered a federal hiring freeze for new government employees, excepting the military and some other unspecified areas of government. He has also ordered federal employees back to the office for full, five-day work weeks.

This could potentially have downstream effects on how common remote work is in private industry, and this may mean that federal workers who hold multiple jobs may have to drop their other gigs, as they are now needed in person for their government positions.

Trump has also promised to slash the size of government and will likely be laying off government workers, which will include reclassifying numerous roles as “political appointees” as opposed to “merit positions” to make it easier for the president to remove them. He has also signed orders removing DEI funding and hiring practices from federal positions.

President Trump has signed executive orders putting a number of his important appointees into acting roles in the government before they are actually confirmed. Additionally, the government, as per Trump’s executive order, will only recognize two sexes as valid: male and female, as biologically determined.

Undoing Biden

Finally, one major theme of Trump’s executive orders has been reversing Biden’s executive orders and actions. He has already rescinded over 70 Biden-era directives, memos, and orders, including keeping Cuba designated as a state sponsor of terrorism (Biden had put plans into motion that would have removed that classification). Trump says he will give TikTok 90 more days to find a buyer before getting banned in the U.S. (See farther down in the newsletter for more on that).

Trump has also withdrawn the United States from the World Health Organization, and he pardoned some 1,500 individuals who had been convicted for crimes surrounding the January 6th riot at the capitol in 2021.

TL;DR

Trump is moving quickly. He seems very focused on tightening up the border, improving the U.S.’s position in negotiating international treaties and trade agreements, increasing domestic energy production, and transforming the make-up of the executive agencies, often referred to as the “deep state.” If the markets are any indication, these moves could improve the U.S. economic environment as a whole, but they could still cause some volatility in the meantime, as any big changes do.

There are plenty of reasons for optimism, but it’s no time to fall asleep at the wheel. We could very well have a dynamic, fast-changing business environment in the very near future.

Quick Hits

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• Wall Street appears unimpressed with early holiday retail numbers.
• Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta will lay off 5% of its staff in a performance-based layoff, alongside a statement that 2025 will be an “intense year” for the company.
• The New York Times gives a helpful overview of the current global trade imbalance, particularly between the U.S. and China.
• Christian-branded tech company Gloo acquired an AI chatbot called “Faith Assistant” for its church and ministry clients to use to connect with visitors online.
• Will Phoenix, Arizona become the next Silicon Valley?
• President Trump released a memecoin, which exploded in value last week. Some have raised ethical concerns over the cryptocurrency project.

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