Newly elected President Donald J. Trump’s historic return to the White House was immediately characterized by unprecedented executive fervor, demonstrated clearly through the plethora of Executive Orders issued by President Trump immediately following the inauguration. Each of these executive measures have been concerted efforts to reverse the substantial damage inflicted upon the United States by the radically incompetent Biden-Harris administration. Despite the current White House’s efforts to restore the economic dominance of the United States, the Biden administration’s “midnight rulemakings” threaten to slow and obstruct the nation’s financial comeback.
Offshore Drilling Memoranda
Following the 2024 presidential election, former President Joe Biden responded to now President Trump’s victory with a broad and far-reaching executive action regulating offshore drilling. The former president invoked his authority under Section 12(a) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, issuing two Presidential Memoranda to exclude all U.S. Outer Continental Shelf areas off the East and West coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and additional portions of the Northern Bering Sea in Alaska from future oil and natural gas leasing.
The exclusion of 625 million acres of United States waters from offshore drilling has no expiration date and extends to all future oil and gas leasing endeavors in the areas listed within the memoranda. These memoranda were clearly intended to halt President Trump’s efforts to reinvigorate the economy, as these executive measures sharply limit domestic oil and gas production, thereby creating a greater dependency on foreign oil and raising energy costs. President Trump’s mission to unleash American energy and reinstate the nation as a global hegemony of oil and gas production was attacked prior to his entrance into the Oval Office, as the last-ditch efforts of the Biden-Harris administration sought to establish permanent hurdles to economic revitalization.
USDA Indemnities for 100 million Chickens
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt recently stated that the Biden administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) directed the mass killing of over 100 million chickens, resulting directly in a chicken shortage and a subsequent egg shortage. According to the USDA, this mass culling is necessary to contain the spread of the highly contagious avian flu, commonly known as the “bird flu,” which has afflicted millions of birds since 2022. However, between 2014-2015, the United States experienced an enormous outbreak of bird flu, afflicting more than 50 million chickens and turkeys but costing the federal government a fraction of what the USDA paid to poultry corporations in recent years.
The Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service (APHIS), a subsidiary of the USDA, reimburses farmers for animals and materials that have been destroyed due to the spread of a disease through the APHIS Indemnity Program. From 2014-2015, farmers and producers received just over $200 million in indemnity payments. Under the Biden administration, the same viral threat resulted in indemnity payments of $1.46 billion, roughly seven times as costly as the culling between 2014-2015.
The federal government, under former President Biden’s direction, has supported multimillion dollar bailouts in the poultry industry, incentivizing poor biosecurity measures by ensuring that the costs of avian influenza outbreaks are fully reimbursed according to the fair market value of chicken. The past administration’s USDA failed to contain avian influenza outbreaks, contributing to the chicken and egg shortage and the increased costs for poultry products.
Critics of President Trump have already begun to accuse his administration of failing to live up to campaign promises of lowering the price of groceries, including eggs. However, the current price of poultry and poultry products is not the fault of President Trump nor his administration, but the fault of the Biden-Harris USDA for funneling over a billion dollars to poultry corporations after mandating the slaughter of a significant fraction of America’s chicken population.
EPA’s Waste Emissions Charge
Only one week after the election, former President Joe Biden launched yet another attack against the impending Trump administration’s economic plans by establishing a Waste Emissions Charge (WEC), pursuant to the provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. Under this rule, a fee will be levied against oil and gas facilities that report emissions of more than 25,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide, beginning with methane emissions reported in the calendar year 2024.
It is important to note that this executive action was one of over 100 regulatory measures taken by the Biden-Harris administration since 2023 to reduce methane emissions across the country. In December 2024, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Energy (DOE) announced that $850 million in federal government funds would be dedicated to reducing methane emissions. Former President Biden’s environmental policy agenda threatens to cripple American manufacturing across all industries, as methane is one of the most popular and most affordable fuel and energy sources and therefore integral to expedient and cost-effective production.
Under the Biden administration’s newest WEC rule, the charge is $1,200 for the calendar year 2025 and increases to $1,500 for the calendar year 2026 and beyond. Not only have the recent emissions rulemakings cost the United States hundreds of millions of dollars, but they are also likely to raise the costs of all products, as companies will be forced to increase prices to comply with the WEC and pass that cost on to consumers. Additionally, the WEC charge threatens to substantially harm economies in regions heavily reliant on fossil fuels. Significant regulation of one of the most widely used energy sources will directly injure industries dependent on abundant and affordable energy.
Conclusion
The initial attacks and criticisms of President Trump in the first few weeks of his presidency are designed to target and denigrate his approval ratings, as many Trump critics assert that this is the best way to undermine the success of his administration. However, each of the recent criticisms thrown at President Trump are merely reactions to President Biden's last-ditch efforts to further burden the new administration. The Biden-Harris administration instituted a litany of obstacles for the Trump administration to overcome, prioritizing the further stagnation and burgeoning collapse of the American economy over the potential economic renaissance championed by the Trump campaign.
