Washington DC, January 11, 2026 — What a difference a year makes. When Donald Trump took the oath of office for the second time, almost 12 months ago, his supporters and opponents alike were expecting a set of policies very different from what actually unfolded.
After the November 2024 election, the mood of the American business community began to shift. Some businesspeople had all along harbored doubts about Trump’s anti-globalization campaign. But overall confidence began to fall early in the new year when they came face to face with some of the possible consequences of cutting the US economy off from international trade and migration — the prospects of sharply increased prices of imported products and worker shortages in some sectors.
