Despite almost three months of Donald Trump’s attempts to delegitimize the election results, as well as a violent riot by his supporters aimed at interrupting the certification of the final votes, this Wednesday the transition of power finally became a reality. With much poise and ceremony, the White House welcomed Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States, with Kamala Harris as his Vice President.
Biden inherits a deeply fractured country. The United States is in the midst of the worst health crisis in modern history, which is also causing an economic crisis as a result. In addition, Trump spent the last four years antagonizing the country’s allies and worsening the relationships between the US and its international partners. Lastly, the election results showed that more than 60 million Americans still want what Trump stands for, and that the divide across the political spectrum is deep.
Thus, Joe Biden took to the job of proving himself worthy to be a President “for all Americans,” as he promised in his speeches from day one. On Wednesday he issued a flood of new executive orders, some of which directly cancel decisions made by his predecessor.
In his first two days in office, President Biden has already signed off on close to 30 executive orders and directives to help implement his plans. Some of the most notable decisions in these documents include the US rejoining the WHO and the Paris Accord, as well as closing the Keystone XL pipeline. Biden also issues an order to cancel the 1776 Commission, which teaches falsehoods about slavery in the United States to schoolchildren. Other orders also dealt with immigration; Biden cancelled Trump’s Muslim country travel ban as well.
But the bulk of the orders were centered on the coronavirus pandemic, Biden’s biggest challenge as President. He made the wearing of masks mandatory on federal property and established a Covid-19 response committee. Other orders aim to equip states to deal with the pandemic better by getting additional funding to open more vaccination centers, as well as administer more tests and collect more coronavirus data.
Biden’s plan is to get at least 100 million vaccinations by the end of April, though even this number means barely a sixth of all Americans will be vaccinated. Dr. Fauci, to whom Biden gave the center stage when it comes to Covid briefings, stated that the country needs at least 70-80% of the population to be inoculated before the US reaches a comfortable state of herd immunity and the virus stops being a problem.
The President is also working on providing economic relief. He issued orders to delay the collection of rents and student loan payments at least until the end of March, helping the millions of Americans who are currently unemployed avoid eviction or worse. Over the next few weeks Biden will also be working on getting his $1.9 trillion stimulus bill through Congress in order to fund his ambitious plans for tackling the pandemic and the economic crisis.
It appears that investors have welcomed Biden’s presidency with open arms. US stock indices have been rallying for days now due to the transition of power and the prospect of Biden’s increased spending and proper fight against the coronavirus. If the President gets his way, expect risk appetite to increase and the US dollar to weaken.
