We are taking a look at President Trump’s plans to consolidate control over many of the agencies that supervise business, including the SEC, the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Communications Commission and the National Labor Relations Board.
For years, the industry has complained about the agency alphabet soup, which often compete with each other. Some officials argue that it is a feature, not a problem, while others have called for a complete rethinking of the regulatory apparatus in the country. What do you think?
Meanwhile, President Trump is expected to speak Wednesday in Saudi host The Priority Conference of FII In Miami Beach, the event that is increasingly a gathering of power players, including Ken Griffin of Citadel, Uber’s Dara KhosroWHii and Mas Softbank’s son. Lauren Hirsch of Dealbook will report on the ground there and we will bring you Thursday’s last morning.
“Incredible options”
Frozen from possible peace talks with Russia-Ukraine, European leaders either feel upset or cheating. But investors are increasingly optimistic about the prospects for the end of the nearly three -year war, especially after President Trump shows that he can meet with President Vladimir Putin, Russia this month.
A big question is how corporate leaders feel about us and Russian officials who signal that Russia can be reopening in Western businesses. Concerns as the future of Western sanctions against Moscow remain unresolved, while companies may feel burned by their hasty and costly exodus.
Links are of course friedespecially after Putin essentially captured Russian companies’ operations, including Carlsberg and Danone. “Carlsberg Group has diverted his Russian business and has no plans to return,” Kenni Letni, a spokesman, told Dealbook’s Bernhard Warner.
Danone refused to comment.
This reluctance runs counter to Trump administration statements. Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke on Tuesday about rebuilding economic ties with Moscow, citing “tremendous opportunities that exist for the Russians”.
Another participant in the talks, Kirill Dmitriev, the head of the Russian sovereign fund, said he saw some American businesses returning until the next quarter. (A return of Western businesses can transform the Putin War economy.)
The markets look somewhat open to the idea. The Stoxx Europe 600 and Dax Index, a collection of German companies with blue chip, both hit another record on Tuesday. (A remark: These were partially prompted by the increase in protection shares, as investors plan to increase European military spending.) Last week without the highest weekly entry into European shares in over two years, according to Citigroup analysts.
Nor does the threat of deteriorating American-European relations-including possible tariffs of about 25 percent in automobiles and semiconductor-does not seem to be toothed.
But the risks can still be very high for most Western companies, Holger Schmieding, an economist in Berenberg, told DealBook. “Western firms will not be included on a large scale in Russia,” he predicted, beyond restarting exports to Russian consumers or trading the country’s raw materials.
There is also a very real concern that Trump can cut a bad deal that shifts the security of Ukraine and its neighbors. “This can tax EU cohesion even more than the 2010-12 euro crisis,” Schmieding said.
Trump remains a wild card in all this, he added: “US companies can be encouraged by Trump” to return, he said.
Here’s what’s going on
Elon Musk is reportedly looking to raise money for X with a $ 44 billion rating. The effort would value the social network at the same price that Musk paid for him in 2022, according to Bloomberg. This represents a win of the kinds for the billionaire, who saw the company sink in value as the advertisers left the site – only for his business fortunes to withdraw while gaining influence on the Trump administration.
Silver lake is said to weigh an offer for the Altera Intel unit. Shares in the company increased on Tuesday after Bloomberg reported that the private capital firm was approaching an offer for a majority of business shares that makes multi -used chips and which Intel earned in 2015 for $ 17 billion. Intel’s future remains unsafe as rivals consider buying other parts of the company, movements that can eventually see the chipmaker divided into pieces.
Blackrock is reported to cancel the company’s meetings after the new SEC instructions. The investment management giant prohibited its consultations following the new rules of the agency that expand the definition of investors seeking to influence corporate behavior. (The traffic light was first to report development.) The GUDI of the ASH was intended to stimulate the activism related to environmental, social and corporate governance issues, but it is increasingly seen to affect investors’ behavior beyond that.
New details appear about President Trump’s funding from health care leaders. The president has told collaborators that he gathered millions of drug manufacturers, health insurers, hospitals and more who paid to attend dinners before his inauguration, according to Wall Street Journal. Industry’s efforts to win Trump’s ear come while Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Secretary of Health, prepares potentially major changes in the regulation.
Trump goes after independent agencies
President Trump’s campaign to destroy and reshape the federal bureaucracy found a new focus on Tuesday: the behavior of independent agencies as the SEC more strongly under the White House command.
The measure can meet a long goal of the conservatives. But further centralization of power could turn Washington into a less predictable and politicized country than the Corporate America had expected.
Independent agencies now need to run possible regulations in the White House, According to an executive order Trump signed on Tuesday. The order also reiterated the president’s assertion that the management and budget office has the power to block their expenses on initiatives with which it disagrees, opposing the 1974 obstruction law.
He also determined that they should respect his interpretation and the Department of Justice for the law, even in the lower courts, further removing their ability to act independently.
Affected agencies include SEC, Federal Commission of Trade, Federal Communication Commission and National Board of Labor Relations.
Especially about some is that it also applies partly to the FED – albeit only to the supervision of the Central Bank of financial institutions, not for monetary policy. But Trump has previously explained before that he feels free to weigh heavily on the institution’s interest rate decisions.
Some constitutional experts say this goes further a legal line. Trump has already shot the leaders of several independent agencies, contrary to the Congress Statute. And he has already declared the act of controlling unconstitutional obstruction, saying he does not have to follow it.
Doing these agencies looked at the President makes it more predisposed for the regulation to be more politicized and inclined to swing from administration to administration.
Does what does this mean for business? At least, agencies like FTC and FCC – already determined to be controlled by the appointees ideologically with Trump – will further related to the president’s wishes.
It also introduces additional unpredictability for an already unpredictable administration. Consider that the FTC and the Department of Justice Antitrust Division said they would maintain the instructions for revising Biden’s union that business leaders have expressed.
But the measure is in accordance with the executive order in one aspect: Trump is holding a strong hand at the wheel when it comes to corporate supervision.
-
In other government news: A federal court did not accept a request from 14 state -law lawyers to temporarily stop the initiative to reduce Elon Musk’s cost to gain access to some federal agencies. The Musk team claimed to have saved $ 8 billion in a contract – a figure that was far away. And Trump suggested that federal agencies should negotiate bills than to pay them off.
“The calendar simply went from the tank completely to being open within a period of three weeks.”
– Phil Haslett. Equityzen founder, a site that helps private companies and their employees sell their shares, says that The absence of IPOs It can be partially attributed to companies in reception and viewing mode in President Trump’s economic policies.
A Golf ceasefire with Trump mediators?
The Saudi -backed Liv League Liv League moved to the sports world in 2022 with large contracts for determined stars and a shorter, more vibrant format that the PGA Tour challenged. But she also effectively divided golf stars into two circles, breaking the audience and weakening business prospects for both leagues.
Now President Trump is seeking to play peace as both sides are exploring an agreement under potentially more friendly conditions that would most likely be a nonstart under a Biden Justice Department, Lauren Hirsch of Dealbook and Alan Blinder of Times are of the money reporting.
A summary: Both sides began secret talks in April 2023 to create a partnership, but could not overcome a major obstacle: Biden administration regulators. Shortly after Trump returned to the White House, he held an oval office meeting that ethics experts said they tested the limits of correctness, but this also went through a possible deal.
The terms of the agreement are still in the influx, including the fate of Livi. Both sides are now looking beyond a simple cash transaction, and PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan has said they are looking at a “reunion”. There are still many complicating factors, including how both ventures are evaluated.
And there is also the issue of how to handle any agreement alongside a special $ 1.5 billion investment in PGA Tour by John Henry, Arthur Blank and other American sports magnas that the tournament was raised while faced with pressure from the Saudis.
Talks offer an allusion to what may seem to make deals under Trump. The president’s antitrust leadership has shown that it may not take the free free access to the expected Wall Street.
This means that those who seek regulatory approval can soon see a divergence: an agreement that supports Trump and what he does not do. The latter may be on a Bumpier journey than expected.
One more thing: The PGA Tour has not held a tour of his flag circuit on a Trump property since 2016, but that may change. Monahan said last week that he “can surely see a day where we are adding Trump’s places to our schedule.”
Speed read
deal
-
Niantic, Pokémon Go creator, is reported to be in talks to sell his Saudi -owned video game business for about $ 3.5 billion. (Bloomberg)
-
BP is said to be weighing its lubricant business for about $ 10 billion while faces pressure from Elliott Investment Management. (Bloomberg)
Politics, politics and regulation
The best of the rest
We would like your feedback! Please email thoughts and suggestions to dealBook@nytimes.com.