On January16, 2025, Bessent appeared before the Senate Committee on Finance and defended Trump's tariff strategy and said he favored extensions on tax cuts and harsher economic policies against China and Russia.[30] The U.S. Senate voted 68–29 to confirm Bessent as treasury secretary on January27.[31][32] The Senate Committee on the Budget approved Vought's nomination on January30 in an 11–0 vote that was boycotted by all nine Democratic Party members and the one independent on the committee.[33] The full Senate voted 53–47 on February6 to confirm him as the OMB director.[34] On February18, the Senate voted 51–45 to confirm Lutnick as the commerce secretary,[35] and he was sworn in to the role three days later, on February21.[36]
Trump and DOGE have attempted to dismantle the vast majority of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).[50] USAID, which employed around 10,000 people, was originally tasked to carry out and monitor worldwide humanitarian projects,[51] though some have criticized it for contributing to projects that are not humanitarian in nature and for mismanaging its funding.[52] Vought was also made the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) upon becoming OMB director, and he worked to shut down much of the CFPB's operations.[53] In February 2025, Trump directed the treasury secretary to end production of the U.S. penny.[54]
On January27, 2025, the OMB issued a temporary pause to all grants and loans from the federal government to 2,600 programs, in order to "determine the best uses of the funding" that was "consistent with the law and [Trump's] priorities".[60][61][62] The OMB later said that the pause would exclude "any program that provides direct benefits to Americans", such as Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Pell Grants, and funding for small businesses and farmers.[63][64] The pause created uncertainty among government employees, lawmakers, and other organizations,[65] and the OMB rescinded the memo authorizing it on January29.[60] The federal grant pause was blocked by a federal judge in February following lawsuits against it.[66][67][68] A judge ordered the Trump administration to "immediately restore frozen funding" on February10, finding that the government had "improperly" frozen them.[69]
Trump sought an unprecedented amount of control over US business, publicly attacked companies and their executives, demanded firings of corporate leaders who criticized or contradicted him, and demanded cuts of business profits by the federal government.[70] His administration confirmed that it maintained a loyalty scorecard of 553 American companies based on their "support of present and future administration initiatives".[71]
Trump abandoned traditional Republican orthodoxy about protecting and promoting the free market,[72][73][74] and sought greater and direct government control over private business which was widely described by academics, economists, commentators, and former corporate CEOs as an embrace of Maoist or Marxiststate capitalism.[75][76][77][78][79] His demand and agreement with NVIDIA and AMD to provide the government with 15% of all overseas chip sales to China were described by critics as a "shakedown" and as potentially illegal and unconstitutional.[72][78] In an unprecedented move, the Pentagon became the largest shareholder of MP Materials, bypassing US procurement and contracting laws in the process.[80] As part of an agreement to allow Japan-based Nippon Steel buy US Steel, Trump was granted a personal, not governmental, golden share in US Steel, allowing him to influence board decisions and maintain veto power over certain decisions set to expire at the end of his presidential term, after which the Treasury and Commerce Departments would exercise control under all future presidents.[81]Intel agreed to grant the government a 10% equity stake in its company with no power to influence board decisions "with limited exceptions" in what NBC News described as "the president's latest extraordinary move to exert federal government control over private business".[73]
Writing for TIME magazine in 2024, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld described Trump's moves against capitalism from his first term as sharing "more in common with far-left progressive positions than with traditional GOP views, and are often far more progressive than the Biden Administration" and wrote that he expected such attacks to continue into his second term.[82]
In order to extend Trump's 2017 tax cuts, Republican Party members in Congress began considering cuts to various social programs, including Medicare.[83][84] In January 2025, the Congressional Budget Office estimated than a 10-year extension of the tax cuts would increase the U.S. federal government deficit by over $4 trillion if not offset by spending cuts, and the elimination of federal taxes on Social Security benefits, tips, and overtime income would further increase the national debt.[85][86][87] Trump's proposal of enacting much of his legislative agenda with a single bill has led to resistance in Congress, with fiscally conservative Republicans objecting to the tax cuts without corresponding spending cuts,[88] and moderate Republicans opposing any bill with significant cuts to Medicare and Medicaid.[89] In February 2025, Trump signed an executive order directing the creation of a U.S. sovereign wealth fund before 2026, though such funds are typically funded by budgetary surpluses, which the U.S. does not have.[90]
Trump also imposed a universal 10 percent tariff on China in February 2025,[101] which were raised to 20 percent in March, escalating the China–United States trade war.[102][103] On March12, he imposed 25 percent tariffs on all steel and aluminum entering the United States,[104][105] and later that month the announced universal 25 percent tariffs on automobiles and automobile parts, which came into effect on April3.[106]
On April2, 2025, Trump announced universal 10 percent tariffs on nearly every country, with higher rates on 57 other countries.[107] The 10 percent tariffs took effect on April5,[108][109] and the variable tariffs on other countries took effect on April9, but were delayed for 90 days shortly after they entered force for all countries except for China, which Trump further raised tariffs on.[91] China responded with retaliatory tariffs of 84 percent on American goods.[110] By April11, U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods reached 145 percent,[110] while Chinese tariffs on American goods reached 125 percent.[111] That day, Trump announced that U.S. tariffs on all countries would exclude consumer electronics, though electronics from China would retain a 20 percent tariff.[112]
On March9, 2025, Trump declined to say whether his policies could lead to a recession in the United States.[113] He said in an interview with Fox News that it would take time to see the payoff from his policies, but that they would ultimately be worthwhile, saying "If you look at China, they have a 100-year perspective. We have a quarter. We go by quarters, and you can't go by that. You have to do what's right."[114] In the following days, the S&P 500, Nasdaq-100, and Russell 2000 indices entered corrections, which are defined as a fall in a stock market index of over 10 percent from its peak.[115][113] After Trump's April2 tariffs, the S&P 500 fell over 10 percent in two days, in its worst week since the COVID-19 recession of 2020.[116][117]Markets worldwide dropped substantially at the same time in response to Trump's tariffs,[118][119][120] causing the Russell 2000 to enter a bear market[121] and the U.S. bond market suffered a sell-off resulting from a loss in investor confidence in the stability of the U.S. stock markets.[122]
Trump promised to deregulate cryptocurrency in the United States, and turn the U.S. into the "crypto capital of the planet".[123][124][125] After his 2024 election victory, the price of Bitcoin reached an all-time high.[126] In March 2025, at a "crypto summit" hosted by Trump, David O. Sacks—who Trump named his administration's "crypto czar", said that the cryptocurrency industry had been "subjected to prosecution and persecution".[127] Trump named Paul S. Atkins as chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).[128] Under Trump, the SEC filed to dismiss its lawsuit against Coinbase that charged it with operating as an "unregistered securities exchange, broker, and clearing agency",[129] requested a 60-day pause in its lawsuit against Binance for violating securities laws,[130] and asked that its case against Chinese cryptocurrency billionaire Justin Sun, a Trump associate, be put on hold.[131][132] The SEC also said it would not exercise any regulatory authority over memecoins, or cryptocurrency originating from internet memes.[133]
On January17, 2025, three days before his inauguration, Trump had launched and promoted $TRUMP, a memecoin that soared to a market valuation of $5billion in a few hours,[134] becoming the 19th most valuable cryptocurrency in the world by January19.[135] Trump personally benefitted from the trade of $TRUMP,[136] potentially increasing his net worth by over $50 billion[137] and drawing criticism from ethics experts and government watchdogs.[135]
In March 2025, Trump established the United States strategic Bitcoin reserve, funded by Bitcoin already owned by the U.S. federal government and U.S. treasury.[138] The U.S. is the largest known state holder of Bitcoin in the world, largely due to seized assets.[139] Trump also created a U.S. government stockpile of non-Bitcoin digital assets.[140][141][142][143]
↑ Horsley, Scott; Simon, Scott (January 25, 2025). "Trump inherits a strong economy by the numbers. What's his plan to lower prices?". National Public Radio. Mark Zandi: The numbers speak for themselves. Growth is strong. Lots of jobs. Unemployment is low. If you take the economy on the whole, it really is about as good as it gets. So President Trump is inheriting a fantastic economy.
↑ Charalambous, Peter (February 17, 2025). "Contradictory statements about Musk make it unclear who runs DOGE". ABC News. In his role as senior advisor to the President, Mr. Musk has no greater authority than other senior White House advisors. Like other senior White House advisors, Mr. Musk has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions.
↑ Tanis, Fatma (2025-03-18). "A federal judge says the USAID shutdown likely violated the Constitution". NPR. Retrieved 2025-04-28. In a 68-page opinion Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Theodore Chuang, an Obama appointee, wrote that "the Court finds that Defendants' actions taken to shut down USAID on an accelerated basis, including its apparent decision to permanently close USAID headquarters without the approval of a duly appointed USAID Officer, likely violated the United States Constitution in multiple ways, and that these actions harmed not only Plaintiffs, but also the public interest, because they deprived the public's elected representatives in Congress of their constitutional authority to decide whether, when, and how to close down an agency created by Congress."
↑ Stein, Jeff; Arnsdorf, Isaac; Alemany, Jacqueline (January 31, 2025). "Senior U.S. official exits after rift with Musk allies over payment system". The Washington Post. ISSN0190-8286. Archived from the original on 2025-02-09. Retrieved February 2, 2025. Musk has sought to exert sweeping control over the inner workings of the U.S. government, installing longtime surrogates at several agencies, including the OPM, and the General Services Administration (GSA), which manages real estate.
1 2 Wile, Rob (August 22, 2025). "U.S. takes 10% stake in Intel as Trump flexes more power over big business". NBC News. Retrieved August 24, 2025. Trump continues to bulldoze through long-held norms regarding government and business, departing from the free-market ethos that has long prevailed in both major U.S. political parties.
↑ Sutton, Sam; Guida, Victoria (August 22, 2025). "Trump is turning the government into an investment firm". Politico. Retrieved August 24, 2025. From tariff carveouts to pro bono legal work from white-shoe law firms, Trump is exerting power over U.S. businesses in ways that go beyond even Sen. Bernie Sanders's (I-Vt.) aspirations. His ability to inject his agenda into private enterprises and dealmaking has shaken the guardrails that protect businesses from sudden political shifts and defied the free-market orthodoxy that was a hallmark of Republican economic policymaking.
1 2 "Trump wants to command bosses like Xi does. He is failing". The Economist. August 13, 2025. Retrieved August 24, 2025. Ignore for a moment Donald Trump's shakedown of Nvidia, in which he has allowed the world's most valuable firm to resume limited exports of its artificial-intelligence (AI) chips to China in return for giving a 15% cut of the proceeds to Uncle Sam.
↑ Morrow, Allison (August 13, 2025). "Trump is tightening his grip on the economy, taking a page from China". CNN. Retrieved August 24, 2025. Trump's realignment of American business also bears similarities to China's model of "state capitalism" — a mix between socialism and classic free-market capitalism in which the state is involved in, but doesn't directly own, private businesses.
↑ Northey, Hannah (August 18, 2025). "Trump's mineral megadeal is bypassing US laws". E&E News. Retrieved August 24, 2025. It's an unprecedented, though legally defensible, strategy that invites both risk and reward, said Joel Dodge, director of Industrial Policy & Economic Security at the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator.
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