No tariffs on Day 1, but Trump promises ‘dig, baby, dig’ | Donald Trump news

Donald Trump suspended tariffs on his first day as US president, betting big that his executive actions can lower energy prices and tame inflation. But it is unclear whether his orders will be enough to get the US economy moving as promised.

As a candidate, Trump promised to impose tariffs of 10-20 percent on all imports, and up to 60 percent on imports from China. He also threatened to impose 25 percent tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico if they failed to stem the flow of illegal drugs and migrants into the United States.

Those threats didn’t materialize on Monday, his first day in office, but that doesn’t mean they’re gone, experts warned.

Trump announced the creation of the Foreign Revenue Service “to collect all tariffs, fees and revenues. It will be a large amount of funds from foreign sources,” he said in his opening speech.

“He chose not to make a negotiable tariff move today, but the Trump administration and the Republican Party’s goals for tariff revenue suggest that the threat of tariffs is still there,” said Rachel Ziemba, an expert on economic and political risks. This was reported by Al-Jazeera.

As Trump prepares to sign an executive order to prioritize a review of trade relations, including triggering a review of the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, the absence of tariffs on Monday “suggests to me that some of his team (including Treasury Secretary Bessent) should pick Scott and congressional advisers managed to get him to phase in the tariffs and consider strategy rather than announcing them. keep them out of the conversation,” Ziemba said.

As for China, the Trump team is expected to focus on the 2020 deal from Trump’s previous presidency, which required Beijing to receive significant resources from the United States to close the trade deficit between the two countries, a promise it failed to keep. .

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

Not only does this arm Trump with more future negotiating leverage, Ziemba added, but concerns about market pressure and concerns that the rapid imposition of broad tariffs would stoke inflation, undermine U.S. economic interests and undermine long-term tariff revenues.

‘Dig, baby, dig’

Increasing U.S. oil and natural gas production was another big topic of Trump’s talk Monday intends to declare a national energy emergency.

“America is going to be a manufacturing nation again, and we have something that no other manufacturing nation has, we have the largest oil and gas reserves of any country on Earth, and we’re going to use it,” Trump said in his inauguration speech at the US Capitol. “We’re gonna dig, baby, we’re gonna dig.”

Former President Joe Biden came to the White House in 2021 promising to wean the U.S. away from fossil fuels, but U.S. oil and gas production hit record highs under his watch as drillers shrunk in 2022 following sanctions against Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. they chased the high prices. .

Trump also said the U.S. will “replenish our strategic reserves, upward” and export energy around the world. Biden sold a record 180 million barrels of crude oil from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). The sell-off helped keep gasoline prices in check after Russia launched a war against Ukraine but pushed the SPR to a 40-year low.

In his first administration, Trump promised to fill the SPR 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 he would end the US electric vehicle (EV) mandate, which would save the US auto industry.

While there is no mandate from Biden to force the purchase of electric cars, his policies have sought to encourage Americans to switch from gasoline-powered cars to electric vehicles, including EVs and car companies.

“The overall theme is to bring out really affordable and reliable American energy,” an unnamed Trump official said, according to Reuters news agency. “Because energy permeates every part of our economy, it is also key to restoring our national security and maintaining America’s energy dominance around the world.”

Trump said the United States is in an artificial intelligence arms race with China and other countries, and that the industry’s powerhouse is a national priority.

U.S. data center energy demand could nearly triple over the next three years and consume 12 percent of the nation’s electricity, driven by demand from artificial intelligence and other technologies, according to a Department of Energy forecast.

The first Trump administration considered using emergency powers under the Federal Powers Act to fulfill a promise to bail out 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 permits for transmission projects or open up federal lands for new data centers.

Trump is also expected to sign another executive order on the use of natural resources in Alaska. is a state a controversial region of the country when it comes to energy and the environment, Republicans have long seen the potential for oil and gas production there, while Democrats have tried to protect pristine lands.