Trump's Executive Orders 'Three Times Biden's'... S&P 500 Drops 8.5%, Nasdaq 12%

Reduction of 75,000 Government Employees in Restructuring

Illegal Immigrant Numbers at 60-Year Low

It has been calculated that U.S. President Donald Trump signed executive orders at a rate of 1.4 per day after taking office. Significant executive orders like 'reciprocal tariffs' shook the global stock market, causing the stock market to drop more than 8% in the early days of Trump's presidency.

According to the Wall Street Journal on the 26th (local time), President Trump, who will mark his 100th day in office on the 29th, signed a total of 137 executive orders by the 24th (95th day). He issued 26 executive orders on his first day alone. This is more than three times the number of executive orders (42) signed by former President Joe Biden in 100 days. It is also more than 100 orders compared to the 33 signed in the first three months of Trump's first term. While there are key economic policies like the imposition of reciprocal tariffs, there are also 'trivial directives' such as banning the use of paper straws in federal buildings.

Over 80 lawsuits have been filed in relation to Trump's executive orders. This is due to allegations that the Trump administration abused its power to enforce illegal laws on various issues such as immigration, diversity, and climate change.

The stock market performance in the early days of Trump's second term is poor. Since President Trump took office, the S&P 500 index fell by 8.5% and the Nasdaq index by 12.5% by the 24th. This is because the strong tariff policy created uncertainty in the market and raised concerns about an economic recession. In the early days of the Biden administration, expectations for economic recovery revived with the development of the COVID-19 vaccine, causing the S&P 500 index to surge by 8.6% during the same period.

The reduction of federal employees is also a notable point. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, conducted a strong restructuring of federal agencies, leading approximately 75,000 federal government employees to choose voluntary retirement. The number of illegal immigrants has fallen to the lowest level in 60 years. According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), there were only 36,785 arrests at the southwestern border by March since President Trump took office. The reduction in illegal immigration is attributed to President Trump's emphasis on the southern border closure policy.

Reporter Han Economy hankyung@hankyung.com