Amid a wave of economic and financial chaos, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent – three key figures in American economic policy – each made an announcement on Tuesday, April 22, signaling a slight return to economic orthodoxy that could potentially lead to a rebound in financial markets.

The president announced that he did not intend to dismiss Jerome Powell, the chair of the American central bank, the Federal Reserve, before the end of his term in 2026, despite having recently threatened to fire him. "No, I have no intention of firing him," he said, after ceremony to appoint Paul Atkins as chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission. "I would like to see him be a bit more active in terms of his idea to lower interest rates. This is a perfect time to lower interest rates. If he doesn't, is it the end? No. It's not."

Next, Musk, the Tesla CEO who has been tasked with cutting government spending, explained, during Tesla's quarterly earnings presentation late in the afternoon, that he would reduce his involvement in the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), starting in May. "The large slug of work necessary (...) to get the financial house in order is mostly done, and I think starting probably next month, May, my time allocation to DOGE will drop significantly," Musk said, adding that he planned to only spend "a day or two per week" on it. "Starting next month, I'll be allocating far more of my time to Tesla," he said.

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