Trump Is Coming, And Here Are Some Key Dates to Watch With The New Government
3min read As Trump's new government officially takes office and the new members of Congress are sworn in next month, these are some key dates everyone should mark on their political calendar throughout the whole of January.
January 3rd
The 119th U.S. Congress will officially begin, with new members being sworn in.
In the November elections, although the Republicans held their majority in the House of Representatives, the overall result was a Democratic comeback, further narrowing the already slim gap with the Republicans. Currently, the Republicans hold a majority in the House with only a 219-215 vote advantage, which is also the smallest control advantage in modern U.S. House history.
In the Senate, the Republicans and Democrats have 53 and 47 seats, respectively. Although the Republicans successfully reclaimed the Senate this time, their majority is also far below the 60 votes needed to advance most legislation.
While theoretically, most bills only need a simple majority—51 votes to pass—opposing senators can use the filibuster tactic, i.e., making lengthy speeches to block the passage of bills, and ending debate and calling for a vote requires the support of three-fifths of the votes, so the actual threshold to ensure the passage of a bill through the Senate is often 60 votes.
Currently, Republican Senator John Thune has been elected as the Senate Majority Leader. It can be anticipated that one of the biggest vocal points in the market at the beginning of January is whether House Speaker Johnson can be re-elected smoothly...
Although Johnson has already received the support of the elected President Trump on Monday. But as long as two Republicans vote against Johnson, his position as Speaker could be in danger—because he needs to obtain a majority of more than half of the House votes to be re-elected smoothly. There has been a history of internal strife within the Republican Party that has led to the difficult birth of the Speaker.
The Democrats will nominate Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to challenge Johnson for the position of Speaker, but it is expected that the hope of success is also not great—the majority party in the parliament, no matter how slim the advantage, is always more hopeful of winning the position of Speaker.
January 6th
Four years after the 2021 Trump supporters' attack on the U.S. Capitol, U.S. Congress members will officially count the electoral votes from the November election and announce Trump and Vance as the next President and Vice President, respectively, in a joint session on January 6, 2025.
It is quite worth mentioning that the current Vice President Harris will preside over the counting of the electoral votes in her dual role as President of the Senate.
It is expected that this time, there will be no hostile actions like the 2021 Capitol riot. The U.S. Congress has also passed certification procedure reforms after that incident to prevent external interference. Trump has vowed to pardon some of the defendants of that attack after taking office.
January 7th-9th
Biden announced on Monday that January 9th will be a National Day of Mourning and a formal state funeral will be held for the former President Jimmy Carter, who passed away on December 29th at the age of 100.
Congressional leaders announced that Carter's coffin would be placed in the Capitol's rotunda from January 7th to January 9th in preparation for the state funeral.
The NASDAQ stock exchange, the New York Stock Exchange, and the Chicago Options Exchange (CBOE) also issued a market closure announcement on Monday, declaring that they would suspend trading all day on January 9th next year to mourn Carter.
January 14th-23rd
Last Friday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen wrote to Congress that the U.S. Treasury expects the U.S. to reach the statutory debt limit between January 14th and January 23rd, at which time the Treasury will need to start taking "extraordinary measures" to prevent the federal government from defaulting on its debt.
"Extraordinary measures" are a temporary accounting operation by the Treasury to ensure the government continues to operate when Congress fails to raise or suspend the debt limit in a timely manner. Once the extraordinary measures are exhausted, if Congress still does not take action (raise or suspend the debt limit), the U.S. Treasury will be unable to repay the debt, and the government will eventually fall into a debt default, ushering in the so-called X-day.
Although the extraordinary measures provide a safety net, Yellen's estimated date of reaching the debt limit currently only has a symbolic warning significance. However, it can be anticipated that the debt limit issue will likely become a major battleground for political maneuvering between the two parties after the change of Congress.
January 20th
On January 20th, the elected President of the United States, Republican Trump, will officially take the oath of office as the 47th President of the United States at the inauguration ceremony held on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. Trump will thus become the second president in U.S. history to run for office three times and be elected again after failing to be re-elected, following Democratic Stephen Grover Cleveland in 1892.
After the swearing-in ceremony, Trump will also deliver his inaugural address. Following that, he is scheduled to participate in the inaugural parade and the inaugural ball held that evening.
On that day, Trump will also be able to officially nominate cabinet members, and the Senate may quickly hold some confirmation votes for the nominations.
And perhaps the highlight of the day and January will be what executive orders Trump will issue on his first day in office. According to media reports earlier this month citing sources, Trump plans to issue more than 25 executive orders on his first day in office, attempting to significantly reshape U.S. government policy on a range of issues from immigration to energy.
In contrast, Trump issued only a few executive orders on his first day in office during his first term. The current President Biden issued 17 executive orders on his first day in office, many of which aimed to overturn Trump's policies.