No tariffs on day one, but Trump promises ‘drill, baby, drill’ donald trump news

Donald Trump has barred tariffs during his first day as President of the United States and is making a big bet that his executive actions can cut energy prices and tame inflation. . But it’s not clear that his orders will be enough to jump-start the US economy as he has promised.

As a candidate, Trump promised to impose tariffs of 10 to 20 percent on all imports and up to 60 percent on imports from China. He also threatened to impose a 25 percent penalty on imports from Canada and Mexico if they failed to stem the flow of illegal drugs and immigrants entering the US illegally.

Experts warned that those threats were not implemented on Monday, his first day in office, but that does not mean they went away.

Trump announced the creation of an External Revenue Service to collect all tariffs, fees and revenues. This will be a huge amount of money received from foreign sources,” he said in his inaugural address.

“They made the decision today not to take any action without tariffs, which could then be negotiated, but to address the Trump administration’s and Republican Party’s goals for tariff revenue,” said economic and political risk expert Rachel Ziemba. “It turns out the threat of tariffs still remains.” Told Al Jazeera.

While Trump is set to sign an executive order to prioritize a review of trade relations — including speeding up a review of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement — the lack of tariffs on Monday “suggests to me that his Some people on the team (including Treasury Secretary Scott Besant) and congressional advisers may be successful in phasing in the tariffs and announcing them and considering strategies to address them,” Ziemba said.

On China, the Trump team is expected to focus on the 2020 deal from Trump’s previous term as president, under which Beijing had to buy significant amounts of US resources to bridge the trade deficit between the two countries, a It was a promise which he failed to fulfill. ,

“Focusing on such purchases now buys time before more aggressive tariffs and shows that the U.S. may be open to such purchases and investment targets,” Ziemba said.

This not only gives Trump more leverage for future negotiations, Ziemba said, but also speaks to market pressure and concerns that imposing sweeping tariffs would increase inflation, harm U.S. economic interests and the long-term. There will be loss in tariff revenue.

‘Drill, baby, drill’

Trump said increasing US oil and natural gas production was another big topic on Monday Intends to declare a national energy emergency.

Trump said at his inauguration, “America will once again become a manufacturing nation, and we have something that no other manufacturing nation will ever have, more oil and gas than any nation on Earth.” Big quantity, and we’re going to use it.” Speech at the US Capitol. “We’ll drill, baby, drill.”

Former President Joe Biden came to the White House in 2021 promising to transition the US away from fossil fuels, but under his watch US oil and gas production reached record levels as sanctions on Russia following its 2022 invasion of Ukraine eased. Drillers chased higher prices in the wake. ,

Trump also said the US would “replenish our strategic reserves, to the top” and export energy all over the world. Biden had sold a record amount of more than 180 million barrels of crude oil from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). The sales helped keep gasoline prices under control but dropped the SPR to its lowest level in 40 years after Russia launched a war on Ukraine.

Trump in his first administration had promised to replenish the SPR in an effort to help domestic oil companies suffering from low demand during the height of the pandemic. The promise was not fulfilled.

Trump also said on Monday that the US would rescind the electric vehicle (EV) mandate, saying it would save the US auto industry.

While there is no mandate from Biden to compel the purchase of electric vehicles, his policies have sought to encourage Americans to buy EVs and auto companies to shift from gasoline-powered vehicles to electric cars.

“The common theme is really to highlight affordable and reliable American energy,” Reuters news agency quoted an unnamed Trump official as saying. “As energy permeates every single part of our economy, it is also critical to restoring our national security and enhancing U.S. energy dominance around the world.”

Trump has said the US is in an artificial-intelligence arms race with China and other countries, making harnessing the industry’s enormous power a national priority.

The Energy Department has estimated that US data center electricity demand could nearly triple over the next three years and that demand from artificial intelligence and other technologies could account for 12 percent of the nation’s electricity consumption.

The Trump administration previously considered using emergency powers under the Federal Power Act to fulfill a pledge to save the coal industry, but never followed through.

This time, Trump could use emergency powers to ease environmental restrictions on power plants, speed up construction of new plants, ease permitting for transmission projects or open up federal lands for new data centers.

Trump is also expected to sign another order aimed at exploiting natural resources in Alaska. the state is A contentious area of ​​the country when it comes to energy and the environment, Republicans have long seen opportunities for oil and gas production there, while Democrats have sought to preserve the pristine lands.