President Donald Trump’s address to Congress last night confirmed the policy path and political tone we expect to see over the next year, which is a go-it-alone strategy to implement as much of his campaign agenda as possible, as quickly as possible. Typically, a lame-duck President with big policy goals would use this address to reach across the aisle and give the minority party a reason to at least consider working with the majority. That did not happen, nor did the Democratic members make any overtures of good will. In exchange for speed, this highly partisan approach shrinks the President’s agenda to only what he can accomplish through executive actions or Republican-only budget reconciliation. This likely means a continued trend of a weak Congress that will struggle to pass meaningful legislation, especially considering Republicans in the House have the smallest majority since 1931. Items like tax reform, funding the government, and making permanent any future savings from DOGE will all be difficult in this partisan environment.

It also gives President Trump room to move unchecked on his deregulatory agenda, and his ambitions to reframe the economic world order through tariffs. As we saw on Monday, and he reiterated yesterday, Trump believes in the value of tariffs beyond just a negotiating tool. I know this is a confusing policy environment and we are working to find clarity as we continue to advocate for free enterprise, free markets and to tell the story of how tariffs impact our industry.