The country barely noticed when it began. A quiet order, a new fund, a single app in the crosshairs. Then came the shock: ten regulations killed for every new rule written. Environmental safeguards, consumer protections, decades of policy—suddenly on the chopping block. And when the Paris Agreement was abandoned, and plastic bans rolled back, even his allies whisper…
He ordered the Treasury and Commerce Departments to build something the United States had never truly wielded before: a sovereign wealth fund designed to let the government buy power instead of merely regulating it. TikTok was floated as a target, but the signal went far beyond one platform—Washington would now play the markets like a global investor, blurring the line between state and shareholder.
Then, in January 2025, he pushed a deregulation crusade that stunned even seasoned bureaucrats: for every new federal rule, ten existing regulations had to die. Agencies scrambled to slash protections, from workplace safety to financial oversight. Almost in tandem, his administration walked away from the Paris Climate Agreement and tore down limits on single-use plastics, prioritizing short-term economic gain over long-term environmental survival. To his supporters, it was liberation. To his critics, it was a generational gamble with consequences no one can fully predict.
