Two Executive Orders Trump MUST Sign NOW
Two Executive Orders Trump MUST Sign NOW
Love him or hate him, there’s one undeniable good from the Trump inauguration — it’s totally upstaged the global power elite’s annual shindig in Davos, Switzerland.
Betcha didn’t even know the World Economic Forum was doing its thing this week, did you?
So far, the 2025 Davos headlines are a snooze. And in a way, they don’t matter. During last year’s gathering, we’d chronicled how the worldly wine-and-cheese set had already made their peace with a second Trump term.
Back home, as you’re no doubt aware, Trump signed a flurry of executive orders upon reassuming the presidency yesterday. You can read about them anywhere — although if you’re feeling as if you can’t keep up, Sean Ring had a succinct and pithy rundown in today’s Rude Awakening.
For our purposes today, we want to focus on two “EOs” that he hasn’t signed yet. We don’t know whether his aides are drafting them right now — but if they’re not, they should be.
First: An executive order impounding the Biden administration’s last-minute grant to Moderna Inc. (MRNA) for bird flu shots.
Buried on Page B3 of today’s Wall Street Journal is this nugget: “Moderna secured a $590 million package from the U.S. Health and Human Services Department to accelerate the development of its bird influenza vaccine as concerns grow about a bird flu pandemic in humans.”
Specifically, the money will fund “late-stage development and licensure of prepandemic mRNA-based vaccines.”
Right. Because mRNA-based “vaccines” did such a bang-up job of preventing infection and transmission of COVID-19. (Joe Biden got four “boosters” after his initial round and contracted COVID three times.)
Trump still seems to be enormously proud of “Operation Warp Speed,” but he needs to put a stop to this taxpayer boondoggle immediately. It was a nice gesture yesterday to reinstate the troops who refused the jabs under Biden… but if he’s serious about a “Make America Healthy Again” agenda, he needs to claw back this Moderna money immediately.
If Moderna executives want to blow their shareholders’ funds trying to find a way to make mRNA “vaccination” feasible, that’s their prerogative. But Trump needs to step up and say, “Not on our dime.”
Then: An executive order declassifying all the JFK files.
It’s passing strange that Trump didn’t sign such a document on Day 1.
Less than 24 hours before his inauguration, Trump spoke to supporters in Washington: “In the coming days, we are going to make public the remaining records related to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert Kennedy as well as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other topics of great public interest,” Trump said. “It’s all going to be released, Uncle Sam.”
The New York Times says that line got “one of the loudest applauses of the rally.”
Early in his inaugural address yesterday, Trump said, “Our government confronts a crisis of trust.”
As I wrote in 2023, that crisis has been building for six decades ever since JFK’s murder. Trump had a chance during his first term to throw open the files — indeed, the law commanded him to do so — but instead he caved to the wishes of his CIA chief Mike Pompeo.
Enough. If Trump is serious about restoring “trust,” it starts with releasing the JFK files. Oh, and the Jeffrey Epstein files, too.
TikTok Is Now Trump’s “Hostage”
Executive orders notwithstanding, the TikTok saga is nowhere near over.
When we last delivered a “live” edition of these 5 Bullets on Friday, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the law banning TikTok if its Chinese owners did not arrange a sale of TikTok’s U.S. assets by Sunday.
Despite murmurings from the Biden administration that they wouldn’t allow TikTok to actually go dark on Sunday, that’s exactly what happened — which put the United States in some not-so-distinguished company…
Later on Sunday, TikTok came back up in anticipation of an executive order by Trump.
That order came last night. But all it did was buy TikTok another 75 days before its Chinese owners have to sell TikTok’s U.S. operations, or face a ban again. Trump is simply choosing not to enforce the law at this time.
That’s ambiguous enough… but this is even more cryptic: As the BBC reports, Trump “floated the possibility of a joint venture running the company, saying he was seeking a 50-50 partnership between ‘the United States’ and its Chinese owner ByteDance. But he did not give any further details on how that might work.”
Given the total lack of clarity, TikTok still can’t be downloaded from Apple’s App Store or Google’s Play Store.
Apple and Google are the companies that are effectively charged with frontline enforcement of the law. No new downloads, no new users.
It seems both companies’ lawyers took to heart the following threat from neocon zealot Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas)...
Yesterday morning, the venture capitalist Mike Solana suggested TikTok is now “a hostage” to Trump’s agenda.
Trump seemed to confirm as much when signing the TikTok EO. Here’s the BBC again: “Trump also said he may impose new trade tariffs on China if a deal for the platform is not struck.”
Yeah, so if TikTok is your preferred medium to exercise your First Amendment rights, you’re now at the mercy of… trade talks.
However this pitiful drama ends, it ends with the rule of law becoming a much more squishy thing — and with American business owners turning much more gun-shy about whatever damn fool thing the government might do next.
Also, we can’t say it often enough: The law that bans TikTok allows the president — any president — to ban an app or website if he deems it to be under “foreign influence.” Even if it’s 100% American owned.
The law’s scope is breathtaking, as former Rep. Justin Amash (R-Michigan) reminds us…
Word. Sen. Rand Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) is introducing a repeal bill. He’s almost surely tilting at windmills, but we wish him well regardless.
Knuckman’s Law, Revisited
Today is as good a time as any for a reminder about Knuckman’s law.
Coined by Alan Knuckman, Paradigm’s eyes and ears at the Chicago options exchanges, it’s a simple principle: When it comes to markets and investing, don’t react to anything Trump says for 48 hours. Give events that much time to shake out.
Trump hardly said anything about tariffs at the inauguration! Oh, but now he wants to impose 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada as of Feb. 1! Oh, but that might just be a negotiating ploy!
There you have a handy summary of all the noise in the financial media the last 24 hours.
Is there anything about it that’s concrete or actionable? No, there is not — unless you’re doing very short-term trades in the Canadian dollar or Mexican peso, maybe.
Anyway, the S&P 500 begins the Trump 47 era up a half percent on the day at 6,026. For the record, the S&P sat at 3,850 at the start of the Biden administration… and around 2,270 at the start of the Trump 45 years.
Gold is rallying strong, up $31 to $2,739. If you’re curious, gold was $1,875 at this time four years ago and $1,218 eight years ago.
Silver is rallying alongside gold, up a quarter to $30.69. The HUI index of gold stocks has powered back above 300 for the first time since mid-December.
Crude is backing down from its recent run toward $80 a barrel — down nearly 2% on the day at $76.45. As with everything else, it will take time to see exactly what Trump’s executive orders on energy will mean for actual production and prices. (Ironically, the industry might be more reluctant to “drill, baby, drill” than the president would like. But that’s a story for another day…)
A Special-Issue Inaugural (Meme)Coin
Bitcoin has been gyrating around all-time highs in recent days — volatility driven in part by the unexpected launch of a Trump memecoin.
As a reminder, memecoins are a variety of crypto that have no “use case.” They’re not a medium of exchange, nor a unit of account nor a store of value. They’re pure speculations — “digital lottery tickets,” as Paradigm’s crypto evangelist James Altucher puts it.
TRUMP launched on Friday night, with The Donald’s blessing — its market cap soaring from zero to nearly $15 billion by Sunday.
The president had better hope for his own sake it doesn’t turn into a “rug pull” — in which a memecoin is quickly bid up, only to crash and leave its “investors” holding the bag. As it was, TRUMP crashed 50% on Sunday when the incoming first lady launched a MELANIA coin.
Best case scenario: Trump was led astray by… someone. Ryan Selkis, a Trump supporter and former CEO of the crypto research firm Messari, warned Trump on X that whoever it was “cost you a lot of $ and goodwill.”
Worst case scenario: Trump got the big head, seeing what the Hawk Tuah Girl did, and said, “Hold my beer.”
At least a few corners of Trump-adjacent media are apoplectic. Jim Quinn at The Burning Platform spares no prisoners…
When you bilk your acolytes by issuing a worthless bull**** coin the weekend before becoming president, enriching yourself by $12 billion, how are we supposed to take you seriously when you declare you are here to serve the American people? Donate the $12 billion to the freezing, hungry Americans in NC and Georgia and the J6ers who have been abused by your government. What a scam.
Mailbag: Wildfires, Transcripts
It seems the California wildfires are no longer “the current thing,” but a longtime reader from the Golden State still wishes to weigh in.
“I am selling all of my California municipal bonds, selling my house and moving to Arizona,” he says — “as soon as possible.”
Dave responds: Every new day seems to bring a horrible new wrinkle to the story.
“Building codes and zoning have changed substantially since homes destroyed by California fires were originally built,” tweets legal writer Margot Cleveland from The Federalist.
Not only does that translate to higher rebuilding costs, but setback requirements will prevent many homes from being rebuilt at all…
“I wanted to provide some feedback, specifically related to emails and upsell opportunities,” a reader writes.
“Many of your subscribers may be interested, however, due to the length of the videos (too long). Folks that are employed and may be watching on their lunch break, etc., often do not have the time to watch every video. I love to see transcripts included along with the videos.”
Dave: Most of our promotional presentations come with a transcript option now.
Sometimes you might have to wait a few moments for a pop-up inviting you to read the transcript, but we added that choice last year after feedback exactly like yours!
Best regards,
Dave Gonigam
Managing editor, Paradigm Pressroom's 5 Bullets
