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Corporate America is positioning for a world shaped by Trump
Apple, Citadel, JPMorgan and others are embracing the America-first agenda.
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Good morning! Today’s edition covers how the biggest companies in the world have recalibrated through the first month of Trump 2.0. First time reading? Join 190,000 self-directed investors gaining an edge every morning. Sign up here.
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Corporate USA embraces Trumpworld
Smart money follows incentives, not ideology.
Since President Donald Trump took office in January, some of America’s most powerful boardrooms have unwound progressive social policies and pandemic-era inclinations.
Consider the recent flurry of announcements across Wall Street and Silicon Valley:
Apple’s $500 billion investment in US manufacturing and jobs
Citadel Securities’ embrace of cryptocurrency
JPMorgan scrubbing diversity language
Individually, you could argue that each is a rational business decision. Taken together, they signal something bigger: Corporate America is positioning itself for Trump’s America — a landscape that looks likely to outlast Trump himself.
To be clear, none of these companies have endorsed the current administration. They are, however, giving the White House something far more valuable in recalibrating for an economic environment that’s increasingly aligned with the president’s vision — pro-digital assets and AI, domestic investment, a retreat from DEI.
Apple, for one, has spent decades building its supply chain and roots in China. But days after chief executive Tim Cook met with Trump, the world’s most valuable company announced its plan to pour $500 billion into the US and hire 20,000 people.
The move de-risks Apple from China while re-shoring business and manufacturing to America.
“We’re thrilled to expand our support for American manufacturing,” Cook said in a statement Monday (which followed Trump’s comment on Friday that Apple wants to avoid tariffs).
Hours later, Bloomberg reported Ken Griffin’s $64 billion firm Citadel Securities intends to push into market-making for cryptocurrency exchanges including Coinbase and Binance — reflecting a separate bet on Trump’s ambitions to make the US the “crypto capital of the planet.”
Citadel, like others on Wall Street, largely remained sidelined on digital assets under former president Joe Biden’s more restrictive regulatory regime.
To that point, Robinhood announced Monday, too, that the SEC’s investigation into its crypto-trading business ended this week.
While Trump has indeed embraced crypto, he hasn’t initiated any meaningful crypto-related policies. That hasn’t stopped Wall Street from pivoting as if new rules have already been written.
The final detail worth noting is that JPMorgan — in addition to Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America — scaled back its public support for diversity and equity this month. It’s a quiet acknowledgement that Wall Street is suddenly less keen on social activism.
Other corporations including Meta, Alphabet, Ford and McDonald’s have done the same in recent weeks.
The irony is that many of these decisions will last well beyond Trump’s four-year term limit. Whether you call it capitulation or pragmatism, companies like Apple and JPMorgan rarely pivot without believing in the long-run repercussions.
So, for better or worse, even if the president resigned tomorrow, his economic policies have already left their mark.
Comments or feedback? Reply directly to this email or let me know on X @philrosenn.
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Elsewhere:
📉US stocks dropped Monday, continuing Friday’s deep sell-off which was marked by weak consumer and business sentiment reports on inflation and and tariffs. The Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, the PCE Index, is due Friday, as well as reports on US GDP and housing.
🚢 Trump says he will move forward with tariffs. The president once again threatened to hit Mexico and Canada with 25% across-the-board duties after he announced they would be postponed a few weeks ago. The moves, he said Monday, are “on time.” “We’ve been mistreated very badly by many countries, not just Canada and Mexico.” (Yahoo Finance)
🤝The US moves forward on Ukraine-Russia peace talks. On the third anniversary of the war, the US sided with Russia and China to gain the UN’s backing for a resolution crafted in Washington that didn’t blame Moscow for the war, and called for an end to the conflict. (WSJ)
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Rapid-fire:
JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon called the US government inefficient and supported Elon Musk’s DOGE efforts (CNBC)
Microsoft reportedly cancelled some data center leases amid its $80 billion AI push (Yahoo Finance)
Nvidia stock tumbled Monday ahead of its critical earnings this week (Barron’s)
Starbucks is laying off more than 1,000 workers (WSJ)
Alibaba stock dropped Monday after Trump’s latest executive order stirred US-China trade fears (Yahoo Finance)
Chegg sued Alphabet, saying that Google’s AI search summaries have tanked its business (Bloomberg)
Trump appears to be initiating the Mar-a-Lago Accord, which includes tariffs, monetizing assets, and reducing debt (Pomp Letter)
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Last thing:
Robinhood says the SEC enforcement division has dropped the investigation into their crypto division.
The regulatory treatment of the industry has definitely shifted in the last 3 months.
— Anthony Pompliano 🌪 (@APompliano)
3:50 PM • Feb 24, 2025
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