How Donald Trump's Regime Has Transformed the American Businesses?

November 8, 2016, came as a surprise, and shock, for many Americans as well as people around the world after news declared Donald J. Trump as the 45th President of the United States of America.

Critics of the newly-elected President voiced their concerns and exasperations over the result and smelled foul play behind his landslide victory in the elections, as ironic as it seems after he lost the popular vote.

Many regarded Trump as a successful businessman with sharp business acumen and a no-nonsense approach towards making deals, but not-so-much as a President material.

Unlike his predecessors, Trump has never cared to be a politically-correct person. His zero-tolerance stance on illegal immigration, focus on to “Make America Great Again”, the crackdown on outsourcing of jobs, various protectionist policies, and trade wars have fueled the debate that “Is he the right person to run the largest economy in the world?”

His transition from Trump Towers to the White House was made possible by millions of his supporters who saw promise in his agendas and called for a revolution in the very areas that America is known for – business and economy.

It’s been 578 days that Trump has been the President of the U.S. So let’s take a look how his regime has impacted the American business and the economy, the two areas that won him the 2016 elections in the first place.

Tax reform

On December 22, 2017, President Trump inked the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 into law. A main feature of the Act entailed a deduction of 20 percent for pass-through income, i.e. the business income taxed at an individual tax rate rather than at the corporate tax. A survey based on the reform found that sixty-five percent of respondents stated that it is the best thing that the administration did for businesses that year.

However, the tax reform has its share of controversies after a Treasury Department study found out that the top one percent of households get as much as 69 percent of pass-through income, implying that the tax reform is not always favorable for small companies and businesses at large.

Deregulation

In a bid to ease regulatory loads on businesses, Trump rolled back several regulations on financial services, environmental protection, and healthcare in 2017. The changes are believed to benefit small and big businesses as the previous regulatory hurdles demotivated a large number of small businesses.

In December, the Federal Communications Commission voted to rollback net neutrality regulations, which prevented broadband service providers such as AT&T and Comcast from charging for premium service or blocking websites.

On May 24, Trump inked the rollback of bank regulations into law, making it the largest rollback since the 2008 global economic meltdown.

Bill against outsourcing jobs

In 2017, the administration reintroduced a bipartisan Bill in the US Congress that aimed to make firms outsourcing jobs ineligible for guaranteed loans and grants from the government. The move was in line with the administration’s commitment to create and protect American jobs.

Immigration reform

Right from the start of his Presidential journey, Trump has shown his zero-tolerance policy on illegal immigration from neighboring Mexico as well as a travel ban on the people belonging to certain Muslim countries. His administration has also taken steps to make it tough for US firms to employ skilled foreign workers through the H-1B visa program.

Now, here comes the question what it does mean for the businesses in the US?

As per industry experts and business leaders, the immigration reform movement is bad for business as the restriction will affect the influx of the talent pool into the country.

Trump’s tariffs on goods from EU, China, Mexico, and Canada

This year, President Trump imposed tariffs on billions of dollars’ worth of goods from the European Union, China, Mexico, and Canada citing huge trade deficits of the US and his attempt to curb the huge trade deficits.

In a tweet dated June 4, he stated that US trade deficit stood at over $64 billion in April.

The US has a huge trade deficit with China and it stood at nearly $375 billion in 2017. Trump intends to curb the deficit and he is relying on tariffs to do it.

In just 578 days of his administration, Trump has brought about many changes in the American business and economic landscape and it remains to be seen if his business and economic policies are as effective as it was expected from his administration.

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