Trump's first 100 days rattle markets, mark deregulatory push

Over the first 100 days of President Donald Trump’s second administration, he and his team have rapidly reshaped the federal government by reducing employee headcounts and pushing deregulatory efforts, while his economic policies have rattled global financial markets.

Spearheaded by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, the Trump administration has laid off thousands of workers across the federal government and offered buyouts to thousands more, including staffers at the Securities and Exchange Commission and Department of Labor.

In February, Trump also signed an executive order directing agency heads to review existing regulations and suggest rules to rescind. The president followed that order in April with a presidential memorandum covering similar ground, instructing agencies to repeal rules determined to be in conflict with recent Supreme Court decisions.

It remains to be seen what the lasting impacts will be of fewer federal workers and regulations. However, it’s clear that Trump’s first 100 days in office have been busy and consequential.

Here’s a look at some of the key developments from Trump’s first 100 days:

Tariffs have been the president’s prominent economic tool of choice thus far in his second term. His April 2 “Liberation Day” — in which he implemented a minimum baseline of 10% tariffs on all countries and “reciprocal” tariffs on dozens of others — has led to major volatility in the stock and bond markets.

Since the April 2 announcement, the president in recent weeks has delayed the reciprocal tariffs, raised tariffs on China to 145% and sent mixed signals about what his plans are moving forward.

The uncertainty is causing headaches for investors as well as Federal Reserve officials.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell in an April 16 speech said that although the long-term effects from Trump’s tariff policies remain to be seen, the short-term effects will be negative.

“The level of the tariff increases announced so far is significantly larger than anticipated,” Powell said in a speech at the Economic Club of Chicago. “The same is likely to be true of the economic effects, which will include higher inflation and slower growth.”

Higher inflation and slower growth will likely hamper the Fed’s ability to cut rates, despite Trump’s public calls for the central bank to do so.

In a social media post this month, Trump gave the Fed chair the nickname “Too Late” and mused about his termination. “Too Late should have lowered Interest Rates, like the (European Central Bank), long ago, but he should certainly lower them now. Powell’s termination cannot come fast enough!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on April 17.

Trump on April 22 then claimed he had “no intention” of firing Powell, whose term ends in 2026. Powell has maintained that the president cannot remove the Fed chair without cause and has frequently reiterated the importance of Fed independence.

At the Labor Department, the Employee Benefits Security Administration, which oversees ERISA retirement plans, is still without a clear leader.

Though President Donald Trump nominated Daniel Aronowitz to lead EBSA in February, the Senate has yet to schedule his confirmation hearing.

Former politically appointed EBSA officials in the Biden administration — Lisa Gomez, former assistant secretary of labor, and Ali Khawar, former principal deputy assistant secretary — told Pensions & Investments that they worry their spots are not filled yet, as it leaves the agency at a standstill and without needed representation, they said.

EBSA has also been impacted by retirement and resignation offers, with Gomez hearing that more than 120 employees have left the small agency — which had less than 800 employees when she left in January, she said — adding that 120 is likely “an understated number.” In March, EBSA reinstated probationary employees previously laid off, though both Gomez and Khawar said that the move would not help with employee retention.

Though the rule was upheld in court, the DOL is now considering rescinding a Biden-era rule that permits retirement plan fiduciaries to consider environmental, social and governance factors when selecting investments, according to an April 21 filing in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.

Gomez contended that “if you take away all the noise, (the rule) is something that is very basic and should be retained.”

Separately, the 5th Circuit recently granted a request for more time to review a consolidated lawsuit against the department’s Retirement Security Rule, commonly called the fiduciary rule. The rule, which two U.S. district judges halted in court, alters the definition of a fiduciary, changing it so one-time advice, such as rollovers to IRAs or annuity purchases, must be in an investor’s best interest, among other things.

“I think there’s every indication that they’re (the DOL’s) considering walking away from the rule,” according to Khawar, who contended that “the problem isn’t … going to disappear” from undoing the rule.

Khawar noted that the fiduciary rule has a long history with a repeated pattern of each administration overhauling the last version of the rule.

After an Obama-era rule was overturned in court, the DOL issued another rule under the first Trump administration, which the Biden rule then overturned.

“This kind of back and forth is not really helpful” to regulators or the regulated community, Khawar said, contending it creates more burdens on those trying to comply. He added that he worries about "regulatory certainty" if the rule is left behind.

Gomez was cautiously optimistic, stating that it’s “a good sign, at least in my mind,” that the DOL is asking for more time to review the lawsuit.

Separately, in February, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, along with four affiliated unions and the Economic Policy Institute, filed a lawsuit to stop DOGE from accessing Labor Department data.

Both Khawar and Gomez said they’re concerned about protecting the data, which includes sensitive information such as Social Security numbers and personal health information.

On April 17, a federal judge ruled the groups can move forward with their lawsuit, denying the government's attempt to dismiss the case.

“The American people deserve to know what is happening behind closed doors as Elon Musk and his DOGE staff hide in the shadows, create chaos and make decisions that dramatically affect the lives of millions of families,” said Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, a national legal organization representing the groups in the lawsuit, in an April 17 news release.

The Securities and Exchange Commission under the Trump administration has taken a much different approach to regulating and overseeing the nation’s capital markets than it did during the Biden administration.

The changes include delaying several compliance deadlines for Biden-era rules, abandoning the legal defense of a consequential climate disclosure rule, reducing the enforcement director’s ability to launch investigations and establishing a crypto task force.

And the person now tasked with running the agency, Paul Atkins, was officially sworn in April 22.

Atkins — a former SEC commissioner from 2002 to 2008 — was most recently CEO of Patomak Global Partners, a financial consulting firm advising institutional investors, asset managers, broker-dealers, cryptocurrency firms and more. Trump nominated him to replace Biden-era Chair Gary Gensler, and the Senate confirmed Atkins April 9 in a 52-44 vote.

Atkins is expected to take a more friendly approach to regulating the financial industry, and particularly cryptocurrency firms, than his predecessor, who many Republicans and crypto advocates said was hostile toward the digital asset industry.

Under Mark Uyeda — a Republican SEC commissioner who led the agency as acting chair from the start of Trump’s second term until Atkins was sworn in — the agency made a series of changes to its crypto approach. Notably, that included launching a new crypto task force and dismissing its lawsuits against crypto exchanges Coinbase and Ripple, among other things.

Commissioner Hester Peirce has been tasked with leading the crypto task force, which has, to date, held three roundtable discussions comprising dozens of stakeholders sharing thoughts on the proper ways to regulate and oversee the industry.

When it comes to enforcement, the SEC in March issued a rule amendment removing the enforcement director’s authority to issue formal orders of investigation.

That authority is now in the hands of the agency's politically appointed commissioners. There are currently four members on the SEC's five member commission: three Republicans — Atkins, Uyeda and Peirce — and one Democrat, Caroline Crenshaw. SEC rules dictate that no more than three commissioners may belong to the same political party, so the next commissioner Trump nominates must be a Democrat.

“The amendment is intended to increase effectiveness by more closely aligning the Commission’s use of its investigative resources with Commission priorities,” according to the rule amendment, but outside experts have different ideas on the motive.

Separately, the SEC has delayed multiple compliance deadlines, including for rules concerning short-sale disclosures and expanded reporting requirements for private fund managers.

But on the most discussed rule promulgated under Gensler, the SEC has taken a different approach.

In March, the agency halted the legal defense of its public company climate risk disclosure rule in a consolidated lawsuit before the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis.

The rule was finalized in March 2024, requiring public companies to divulge a host of climate-related information in their periodic reports and registration statements. Facing the consolidated legal challenge, the SEC in April 2024 halted implementation of the rule, and on March 27, Uyeda announced that it would stop defending the rule in court.

However, the case is still before the court as 19 Democratic attorneys general were previously granted the ability to intervene in the rule’s defense.

The Democratic attorneys general subsequently asked the court to pause the case, and on April 24, the 8th Circuit granted that request.

While the president has repeatedly promised to protect Social Security, congressional Democrats and advocacy groups say the host of changes taking place at the agency will hinder Americans from accessing their benefits.

As part of DOGE’s efforts to cut costs throughout the federal government, the Social Security Administration announced plans in February to reduce staff to 50,000 employees, down from 57,000, and reduce its number of regional offices to four, down from 10.

The SSA clarified in a March 27 news release that it’s not permanently closing any local field offices, which differ from regional offices.

While field offices are where Social Security recipients go to address their needs in person, regional offices serve as a local headquarters "responsible for oversight and support of the administration of all Social Security programs in field offices, teleservice and processing centers, and state disability determination services" in their region, according to the SSA website.

One of the more controversial changes the SSA planned to make was rolling out new identity proofing procedures, which would have required beneficiaries to verify their identity in person if they could not use the agency’s online “my Social Security” service for certain services.

After updating those procedures at the end of March, the agency then announced April 12 that it would partly walk back the in-person requirement, instead implementing fraud prevention tools for claims filed over the phone, which may lead to a request for an in-person visit.

“The enhanced technology enables SSA to identify suspicious activity in telephone claims by analyzing patterns and anomalies within a person’s account,” the agency wrote in an April 12 news release. “If irregularities are detected, the individual will be asked to complete in-person identity proofing to continue processing their claim.”

These changes have all taken place under the leadership of Lee Dudek, a former manager at SSA’s anti-fraud office, who’s currently serving as acting commissioner of the agency; he took over after Michelle King stepped down from her position as acting head of SSA on Feb. 16.

King left after refusing to grant DOGE access to sensitive data at the agency, according to multiple reports, and a federal judge in Maryland blocked such access in a preliminary injunction issued April 17.

The Senate Finance Committee advanced the nomination of Frank Bisignano, Trump’s pick for Social Security commissioner, on April 2, but the full Senate has yet to schedule a vote.