Trump Declares ‘Golden Age' Amid Sweeping Policy Overhauls and Market Turmoil
Central to Trump's address was a commitment to restoring national sovereignty and security. He announced the declaration of a national emergency at the southern border, emphasizing the cessation of illegal immigration. This move aligns with his broader immigration strategy, which includes the suspension of refugee admissions and the initiation of efforts to end birthright citizenship.
In a significant restructuring of the federal government, Trump introduced the Department of Government Efficiency , led by Elon Musk. This new department is tasked with streamlining government operations and reducing bureaucratic inefficiencies. Early reports indicate that D.O.G.E. has already identified potential savings amounting to $150 billion.
Trump's economic policies focus on revitalizing American industry and addressing trade imbalances. He announced the implementation of steep tariffs, particularly targeting imports from China, Mexico, and Canada. Additionally, he introduced the concept of an 'External Revenue Service' to collect tariffs and taxes from foreign entities, aiming to bolster domestic revenue streams.
Environmental regulations underwent immediate revisions, with Trump revoking the electric vehicle mandate and withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement. He emphasized a return to fossil fuel production, including the reinstatement of coal mining operations, positioning these actions as measures to protect American jobs and energy independence.
On social policy, Trump declared that the U.S. government would officially recognize only two genders: male and female. He also announced the dismantling of the Department of Education and the repeal of diversity and inclusion measures, advocating for a merit-based, colorblind society.
See also Studio Ghibli-Inspired AI Imagery Sparks Surge in Meme Coins
Internationally, Trump signaled a shift in foreign policy by expressing intentions to reclaim the Panama Canal and by withdrawing from the World Health Organization. He also imposed sanctions on the International Criminal Court, reflecting a broader strategy of redefining U.S. engagement with global institutions.
Notably absent from Trump's speech was any mention of cryptocurrency or Bitcoin. This omission had immediate repercussions in the financial markets. Bitcoin's value dropped by 3.2%, and the $TRUMP memecoin experienced a 15% decline. The broader cryptocurrency market saw liquidations exceeding $1.2 billion, marking one of the most significant downturns in the sector's history.
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Things are growing tense in this small town of America
Paul Nolp, Agence France-Presse Visitors are still flocking to the quaint mountain town of Berkeley Springs in West Virginia to savour its hot springs, art galleries and gift stores. Residents, however, say they are navigating new tensions. They still smile and shake hands with neighbours at the bakery while getting their morning coffee, as long as they don't mention two words: Donald Trump. The 850 residents of Berkeley Springs are a mix of rural conservatives who have lived here for generations and people who arrived more recently in the town nestled in the Appalachian Mountains. The differences have existed for decades, but things are now growing tense. "A lot of people who quietly stand up for goodness are getting louder, and then that's making the people who are upset by that also become louder," says Kate Colby, 44, owner of Mineral Springs Trading Company. A large rainbow flag hangs on one wall of her gift store. Some locals told her to take it down, saying it made them feel unwelcome, she says. "They feel like they've got to be louder, and they're aggressive... It just sort of builds, until it combusts," she said with a bitter laugh. The small town dynamics are a portrait in miniature of events across the country: liberal Americans hear the president's frequent diatribes as attacks, while conservatives feel legitimized by his rhetoric. Society in general has grown less civil in the United States in Trump's second term, as he attacks the balance of powers and his political adversaries. "Trump does a really good job polarizing everything. He is like, you're on my side, or you can get out," says Nicole Harris, 47. Born in Oregon, Harris recently moved east to landlocked West Virginia, a rural and industrial state where almost 90 per cent of the population voted for Trump in the 2024 election. To avoid problems, she keeps quiet: no political discussions with neighbours or with guests at her bed and breakfast, the Grand Castalian Inn. "We're a business, so we accept everyone, and we accept everyone's opinions. I keep my own opinions for myself," she says. Beth Curtin has owned an antiques store in one of the beautiful brick homes in the center of town for 36 years. Many of her friends are Trump supporters. She is not. "It is a small community, and so we bump into one another. It's not like, you know, a bigger metropolitan area where you can just hang with people who share your same views.... it's more important that we try to get along and, you know, sometimes you have to bite your tongue," she says. Curtin says she avoids some stores in town because she does not want her money going "towards people who have those views." In the air-conditioned chill of the Lighthouse Latte cafe, Scott Wetzel, a wiry, bright-eyed 62-year-old, recalls his farm-based childhood and adult life in landscaping and construction. He views Democrats as "communists" who threaten his way of living. "If I speak of freedom, their idea of freedom is telling me how I could live. That's not freedom. They just don't get it so, but you can't fix that. That's something that's twisted up in their heads," the retiree says. He says people are still welcome to "spew that garbage" but "I'm just not gonna listen to it." In early July, some town residents held a march in Berkeley Springs against Trump's "big, beautiful bill." A truck nearby sold caps with his face on them. "There's gonna have to be some shift. We can't keep escalating like this," says Colby, the gift store owner. "We need to get back to a point where everybody can just sort of like, calmly live their own lives side by side, which I think was happening a lot more before Trump's first term," she says. Standing on the balcony of his elegant bed-and-breakfast, Mayor Greg Schene offers a more conciliatory view on town life. "This is certainly more of a melting pot," says the Baltimore native, adding that having a spectrum of political beliefs "makes us better." "Finding, you know, some solutions and coming to a middle ground is always better than having one dominant party," Schene said, smiling as he greeted people passing by.
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Vietnam aims to become the next Asian tiger economy
Beneath red banners and a gold bust of revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi's central party school, Communist Party chief To Lam declared the arrival of "a new era of development" late last year. The speech was more than symbolic- it signaled the launch of what could be Vietnam's most ambitious economic overhaul in decades. Vietnam aims to get rich by 2045 and become Asia's next "tiger economy" — a term used to describe the earlier ascent of countries like South Korea and Taiwan. The challenge ahead is steep: Reconciling growth with overdue reforms, an aging population, climate risks and creaking institutions. There's added pressure from President Donald Trump over Vietnam's trade surplus with the US, a reflection of its astounding economic trajectory. In 1990, the average Vietnamese could afford about $1,200 worth of goods and services a year, adjusted for local prices. Today, that figure has risen by more than 13 times to $16,385. Vietnam's transformation into a global manufacturing hub with shiny new highways, high-rise skylines and a booming middle class has lifted millions of its people from poverty, similar to China. But its low-cost, export-led boom is slowing, while the proposed reforms — expanding private industries, strengthening social protections, and investing in tech, green energy. It faces a growing obstacle in climate change. "It's all hands on can't waste time anymore," said Mimi Vu of the consultancy Raise Partners. Investment has soared, driven partly by US-China trade tensions, and the US is now Vietnam's biggest export market. Once-quiet suburbs have been replaced with industrial parks where trucks rumble through sprawling logistics hubs that serve global brands. Vietnam ran a $123.5 billion trade surplus with the US trade in 2024, angering Trump, who threatened a 46% US import tax on Vietnamese goods. The two sides appear to have settled on a 20% levy, and twice that for goods suspected of being transshipped, or routed through Vietnam to avoid US trade restrictions. During negotiations with the Trump administration, Vietnam's focus was on its tariffs compared to those of its neighbors and competitors, said Daniel Kritenbrink, a former US ambassador to Vietnam. "As long as they're in the same zone, in the same ballpark, I think Vietnam can live with that outcome," he said. But he added questions remain over how much Chinese content in those exports might be too much and how such goods will be taxed. Vietnam was preparing to shift its economic policies even before Trump's tariffs threatened its model of churning out low-cost exports for the world, aware of what economists call the "middle-income trap," when economies tend to plateau without major reforms. To move beyond that, South Korea bet on electronics, Taiwan on semiconductors, and Singapore on finance, said Richard McClellan, founder of the consultancy RMAC Advisory. But Vietnam's economy today is more diverse and complex than those countries were at the time and it can't rely on just one winning sector to drive long-term growth and stay competitive as wages rise and cheap labor is no longer its main advantage. It needs to make "multiple big bets," McClellan said. Following China's lead, Vietnam is counting on high-tech sectors like computer chips, artificial intelligence and renewable energy, providing strategic tax breaks and research support in cities like Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and Danang. It's also investing heavily in infrastructure, including civilian nuclear plants and a $67 billion North-South high-speed railway, that will cut travel time from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City to eight hours. Vietnam also aspires to become a global financial center. The government plans two special financial centers, in bustling Ho Chi Minh City and in the seaside resort city of Danang, with simplified rules to attract foreign investors, tax breaks, support for financial tech startups, and easier ways to settle business disputes. Underpinning all of this is institutional reform. Ministries are being merged, low-level bureaucracies have been eliminated and Vietnam's 63 provinces will be consolidated into 34 to build regional centers with deeper talent pools. Vietnam is counting on private businesses to lead its new economic push — a seismic shift from the past. In May, the Communist Party passed Resolution 68. It calls private businesses the "most important force" in the economy, pledging to break away from domination by state-owned and foreign companies. So far, large multinationals have powered Vietnam's exports, using imported materials and parts and low cost local labor. Local companies are stuck at the low-end of supply chains, struggling to access loans and markets that favored the 700-odd state-owned giants, from colonial-era beer factories with arched windows to unfashionable state-run shops that few customers bother to enter. "The private sector remains heavily constrained," said Nguyen Khac Giang of Singapore's ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. Again emulating China, Vietnam wants "national champions" to drive innovation and compete globally, not by picking winners, but by letting markets decide. The policy includes easier loans for companies investing in new technology, priority in government contracts for those meeting innovation goals, and help for firms looking to expand overseas. Even mega-projects like the North-South High-Speed Rail, once reserved for state-run giants, are now open to private bidding. By 2030, Vietnam hopes to elevate at least 20 private firms to a global scale. 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Manufacturers turn to artificial intelligence to weather tariff storm
Mark Bendeich, Reuters Manufacturers like US lawnmower maker The Toro Company are not panicking at the prospect of US President Donald Trump's global trade tariffs. Despite five years of dramatic supply disruptions, from the COVID pandemic to today's trade wars, Toro is resisting any temptation to stack its warehouses to the rafters. "We are at probably pre-pandemic inventory levels," says its chief supply-chain manager, Kevin Carpenter, looking relaxed in front of a whiteboard at his office in Minneapolis. "I mean 2019. I think everybody will be at a 2019 level." Among US manufacturers, inventories have roller-coasted this year as they rushed to beat Trump's deadlines for tariff hikes, only to see them repeatedly delayed. But since their post-pandemic expansion, inventories have mostly contracted, according to US Institute for Supply Management data. Instead, "just in time" inventory management - which aims to increase efficiency and reduce waste by ordering goods only as they are needed - is back. But how can firms run lean inventories even as tariffs fluctuate, export bans come out of the blue, and conflict rages? One of the answers, they say, is artificial intelligence. Carpenter says he uses AI to digest the daily stream of news that could impact Toro's business, from Trump's latest social media posts to steel prices, into a custom-made podcast that he listens to each morning. His team also uses generative AI to sieve an ocean of data and to suggest when and how many components to buy from whom. It is a boom industry. Spending on software that includes generative AI for supply chains, capable of learning and even performing tasks on its own, could hit $55 billion by 2029, up from $2.7 billion now, according to U.S. research firm Gartner, driven in part by global uncertainties. "The tool just puts up in front of you: 'I think you can take 100 tonnes of this product from this plant to transfer it to that plant. And you just hit accept if that makes sense (to you)," McKinsey supply chain consultant Matt Jochim said. The biggest providers of overall supply chain software by revenue are Germany's SAP, US firms Oracle, Coupa and Microsoft and Blue Yonder, a unit of Panasonic, according to Gartner. Generative AI is in its infancy, with most firms still piloting it spending modest amounts, industry experts say. Those investments can climb to tens of millions of dollars when deployed at scale, including the use of tools known as AI agents, which make their own decisions and often need costly upgrades to data management and other IT systems, they said. In commenting for this article, SAP, Oracle, Coupa, Microsoft and Blue Yonder described strong growth for generative AI solutions for supply chains without giving numbers. At US supply chain consultancy GEP, which sells AI tools like this, Trump's tariffs are helping to drive demand. "The tariff volatility has been big," says GEP consultant Mukund Acharya, an expert in retail industry supply chains. SAP said the uncertainty was driving technology take-up. "That's how it was during the financial crisis, Brexit and COVID. And it's what we're seeing now," Richard Howells, SAP vice president and supply chain specialist, said in a statement. An AI agent can sift real-time news feeds on changing tariff scenarios, assess contract renewal dates and a myriad of other data points and come up with a suggested plan of action. But supply chain experts warn of AI hype, saying a lot of money will be wasted on a vain hope that AI can work miracles. "AI is really a powerful enabler for supply chain resilience, but it's not a silver bullet," says Minna Aila, communications chief at Finnish crane-maker Konecranes and member of a business board that advises the OECD on issues including supply chain resilience. "I'm still looking forward to the day when AI can predict terrorist attacks that are at sea, for instance." Konecranes' logistics partners are deploying AI on more mundane data, like weather forecasts. The company makes port cranes that are up to 106 metres (348 ft) high when assembled. When shipping them, AI marries weather forecasts with data like bridge heights to optimise the route. "To ship those across oceans, you do have to take into consideration weather," Aila says. By keeping inventories low, firms can bolster profit margins that are under pressure from rising costs. Every component or finished product sitting on a shelf is capital tied up, incurring finance and storage costs and at risk of obsolescence. McKinsey has been surveying supply-chain executives since the pandemic. Its most recent survey showed that respondents relying on bigger inventory to cushion disruptions fell to 34% last year from 60% in 2022. Early responses from its upcoming 2025 survey suggest a similar picture, Jochim said. Gartner supply chain analyst Noha Tohamy says that without AI, companies would be slower to react and be more likely to be drawn into building up inventories. "When supply chain organisations don't have that visibility and don't really understand the uncertainty, we go for inventory buffering," Tohamy says. But AI agents won't put supply chain managers out of work, not yet, consultants say. Humans still need to make strategic and big tactical decisions, leaving AI agents to do more routine tasks like ordering and scheduling production maintenance. Toro supply chain chief Carpenter says that without AI, supply chain managers might need to run bigger teams as well. Is he worried that AI is coming for his job one day? "I hope it doesn't take it until my kids get through college!"
