Good morning, and Happy Monday.

Allow me an observation on the cusp of the second Trump Presidency

It’s Inauguration Day and DC is full of two kinds of Trump supporters. Billionaires spent the weekend celebrating at black-tie events, anticipating a freer, free market, looser regulation, and a more mercantile approach to everything from lawmaking to foreign policy. Meanwhile, Trump voters who couldn’t stump up millions of dollars in support are tramping around a wet, snowy DC, unable to attend the (now indoors) inauguration.

Just to emphasize the gulf between the two kinds of supporters, the Trump family, their advisors and prominent supporters spent the weekend pumping — and in many cases apparently dumping — the $Trump and $Melania memecoins*. No prizes for guessing which group will be left holding the bag when the coins are worth nothing. As Marie Antoinette put it, “Qu'ils mangent de la crypto.” (*And exactly the kind of thing the crypto community doesn’t want to see happen. Wah wuh.)

But here’s the thing: this illustrates four rules for working with Washington for the next four years.

1. You pay for access (which you only retain while you keep paying).

2. Any deal has to disproportionately favor America and must be a clear win for President Trump

3. There are no partnerships: only transactions.

4. Everyone else is saddled with the losses.

This approach is similar to the first Trump presidency and you can point to his success on things like NATO spending. But while NATO was strengthened as allies started spending more, the alliance was also weakened because of the ‘will he won’t he’ dance around Trump’s support for Article Five.

But, like them or not, these are the rules for Trump 2.0.

Things kick off just after lunch when President Trump will reenter the Oval Office and start signing executive orders’. [More - BBC]

Back to your normal programming: here are the numbers.

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Metrics via AlphaVantage updated Jan 19 2025 21:16 UTC

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