Trump's First Week: Inauguration Recap, Executive Actions, TikTok, Stargate + Sacks is Back!

During Trump's new term, the administration will maintain an open, non-retaliatory posture toward major business leaders and companies (including prior political adversaries like Meta/Mark Zuckerberg and OpenAI/Sam Altman), avoiding targeted ostracism or exclusion of specific firms from White House engagement on political grounds.

“So it's just business. People from the entire world were there. And so I think what it says is America is going to basically turn a totally new page. We're not going to ostracize people. We're not going to play favorites.” View on YouTube

Any eventual disposition of TikTok’s U.S. operations under Trump (including a sale or restructuring that satisfies U.S. national security concerns and allows it to continue operating) will occur at a transaction price that is far below Thomas Lafont’s ~$100 billion standalone valuation estimate for the U.S. asset, with an effective valuation deeply discounted by U.S. government leverage, rather than near its modeled economic value.

“at the end of the day, the president was very clear that it is completely and entirely worthless without his permit, and he wants to own 50% of this asset. Now, if you're a buyer of something, you're not going to pay $100 billion. If you control whether it can exist or not, you're basically going to pay today's equivalent of one franc, which would be $1... my point is, I find it very hard to see how it gets to the actual value that it is today.” View on YouTube

Over the next several years of Trump’s new administration, the U.S. federal government will increasingly structure major industrial-policy and technology initiatives so that, in exchange for special incentives (e.g., expedited permitting, access to federal land, grants, or regulatory waivers), the government secures an explicit ongoing economic participation in private projects—such as equity stakes or royalty-like revenue shares—rather than solely providing support via traditional grants, loans, or tax credits.

“So my prediction is that this becomes more of a template for the future. It'll be less about permitting. It'll be more about creating incentives and allocating those incentives for a share of the upside. And I think that there is a really strong economic argument for America to do that.” View on YouTube

Members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers who were involved in January 6th and later pardoned or released will commit future acts of violence that are worse than their prior conduct on January 6th, in the coming years.

“These are some seriously bad hombres, the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, and so don't be surprised if they do something worse.” View on YouTube

Following Trump's birthright citizenship executive order, related lawsuits will rapidly send the issue back to the U.S. Supreme Court, which will take up the question of how to interpret the 14th Amendment’s 'subject to the jurisdiction' clause, and will do so in the near term (within the next few years).

“This is going to the Supreme Court... I think what this EO did and the lawsuits that happened almost instantaneously as a result, will now send this back to the Supreme Court very quickly, and people will opine on what that means.” View on YouTube

Large-scale expansion of AI data center and chip infrastructure in the United States will proceed regardless of whether the U.S. federal government is formally involved or supportive, over the next several years.

“this data center and chip infrastructure effort, which is obviously going to happen with or without government involvement,” View on YouTube

If the United States does not, within a few months of January 2025, stand up the industrial and regulatory 'engine' needed to start deploying advanced nuclear (e.g., pebble-bed) reactors at scale, then over the coming decade the U.S. will be severely disadvantaged relative to China in electricity costs and in its ability to competitively deploy AI technology.

“these new systems, which we highlighted on the show a couple of months ago, like the pebble bed reactor that's been in production, making electricity in China are incredible new technology architectures. And they're here and they're running and China's rolling out dozens or hundreds of these. And the United States is rolling out zero. And that needs to change. And I think we only have a couple of months to get the engine stood up that will allow us to make the material that will allow us to make the production technology needed to actually deploy these stations, to try and have a shot at catching up. And if we don't, we're going to be hugely disadvantaged on an energy cost basis. We're going to be hugely disadvantaged on an ability to actually deploy AI technology competitively.” View on YouTube

If the U.S. successfully implements a set of stablecoin payment rails that make payments instantaneous and near-costless, this will significantly accelerate U.S. GDP growth and reduce payment-related fraud, and David Sacks will be one of the key figures who designs/figures out this system.

“I think a set of stablecoin rails that makes payments instantaneous and costless is an enormous acceleration to GDP. It would cut fraud, and I think that David's going to go and figure that out.” View on YouTube

Once implemented at scale, United States stablecoin payment rails will be highly disruptive to the existing financial/payment system and will create substantial net economic value.

“But I do think that the United States stablecoin rails will be hugely disruptive and value added.” View on YouTube

At some unspecified future date after this January 25, 2025 episode, David Sacks will return as an on-air participant on the All-In Podcast.

“Look, I'll be back. Don't worry. At some point.” View on YouTube

Within a few weeks of January 25, 2025, David Sacks will complete the government ethics/onboarding process for his White House role and will transition from primarily listening to actively shaping policy related to his assigned responsibilities (e.g., crypto and AI).

“So we've signed these EOS. It's given me certain responsibilities and authorized me to do certain things. And that process is going to begin as soon as I complete this. I guess you could call it onboarding. So just to be clear about that, there's things I can do. There's things I can't do. I can kind of be in listening mode. I can't be necessarily shaping policy yet, so that's all going to be worked through over the next couple of weeks.” View on YouTube