Trump Prepares to Bypass Congress
02:42 Share

This episode is brought to you by Shopify. Upgrade your business with Shopify, home of the number one checkout on the planet. ShopPay boosts conversions up to 50%, meaning fewer carts going abandoned and more sales going cha-ching. So if you're into growing your business, get a commerce platform that's ready to sell wherever your customers are. Visit Shopify.com to upgrade your selling today. Here's your morning brief for Friday, January 17th. I'm Kate Bullivant for The Wall Street Journal.

Donald Trump has told Senate Republicans that he won't wait on them to begin implementing tariffs and overhauling the immigration system, his two biggest policy pledges. That's according to people present at a meeting earlier this month in which Trump told lawmakers that he has already drafted roughly 100 executive orders and that he's prepared to push the limits of his authority to tackle those issues. A spokeswoman for the Trump transition didn't respond to a request for comment.

Meanwhile, we report that the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, led by Trump confidant Elon Musk, has already started to look for ways to cut spending, shrink the federal workforce and restructure agencies. According to people familiar with the matter, Doge officials have focused on how those goals can be met through executive action rather than legislation. A representative for the Trump transition team didn't respond to requests for comment.

And a SpaceX spacecraft has exploded during a test flight, temporarily disrupting air travel in the Caribbean as pieces of debris were seen streaking across the sky. The uncrewed Starship rocket that launched yesterday evening in Texas was SpaceX's seventh mission of a powerful but still experimental vehicle. SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk said initial data pointed to a leak in part of the ship.

Asian stocks have ended the day mixed, European stocks are higher in midday trading, and in the US, stock futures are up ahead of earnings from State Street due out before the opening bell. We have a lot more coverage of the day's news on the WSJ's What's News podcast. You can add it to your playlist on your smart speaker or listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.