• Trump said on Sunday that he'd ordered the Treasury to stop producing new pennies.
• Trump, in his post on Truth Social, called the production of pennies "wasteful."
• In 2023, pennies cost taxpayers $86 million, per the US Mint.

President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he ordered Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to halt the production of new pennies.

"For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents. This is so wasteful!" Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.

"Let's rip the waste out of our great nations budget, even if it's a penny at a time," he added.

Trump's announcement comes weeks after Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, criticized the costs of making pennies.

DOGE said in an X post on January 22 that producing pennies "cost US taxpayers over $179 million" in fiscal year 2023. Per the US Mint's 2023 report, pennies cost taxpayers $86 million — pennies and nickels combined cost nearly $179 million.

In 2024, the unit cost of producing and distributing a penny was 3.7 cents — far outweighing its face value, per the Mint.

From 2023 to 2024, the unit cost of pennies jumped by 20.2%, largely due to a rise in raw material prices. While pennies used to be made of pure copper, they are now 97.5% zinc, the Mint said.

Global zinc prices have risen by about 33% over the past five years, while copper prices have risen by about 47%.

For decades, Washington has sporadically talked about axing the penny.

In 2013, then-President Barack Obama said the coin was "a good metaphor for some of the larger problems" of the government.

"Anytime we're spending more money on something that people don't actually use, that's an example of something we should probably change," Obama said at the time.

In 2017, Sen. Mike Enzi of Wyoming and Sen. John McCain of Arizona introduced a bill that would have suspended the production of new pennies for a decade. The bill did not move forward.

• China retaliated with its own tariffs minutes after the US's tariffs went into effect on Tuesday.
• The quick but measured response suggests that China has been strategic.
• Tariffs on Mexico and Canada were delayed by a month after both countries struck a deal with Trump.

Beijing's announcement of retaliatory tariffs on US goods arrived on Tuesday. The news came fast, but with less punch than expected.

"China's tariffs are relatively measured and not symmetrical in scale, touching only an estimated $20 billion in US exports, compared with the more than $500 billion in Chinese exports that will be affected by US across-the-board tariffs," said Jeremy Chan, a consultant for Eurasia Group.

But analysts told Business Insider that the targeted and calibrated nature of the response doesn't mean Beijing is backing down.

"Clearly this is premeditated," Louise Loo, the lead economist for Greater China at Oxford Economics, told Business Insider.

The "carefully curated lists on specific goods simply imply, in our view, that China is prepared to retaliate as and when, rather than back down on aggressive tariffs from the US," she said.

A calculated and strategic move from Beijing

Trump is dealing with a China that's showing restraint. Beijing has been calculated, strategic, and measured in its response, economists and foreign policy analysts told BI.

"China normally waits until measures are implemented, not when they are announced, to retaliate," said Eurasia Group's Chan. "In this instance, Beijing announced its response within minutes of the 10% tariff hike going into effect, showing that it was prepared."

Trump kicked off his trade war with China back in 2018, imposing tariffs on imports from China, like steel and aluminum. That resulted in a series of tit-for-tat responses between the US and China.

Austin Strange, an associate professor at the University of Hong Kong's department of politics and public administration, told BI that China's quick reaction shouldn't come as a surprise. Leaders have "hindsight from dealing with highly unpredictable policies during Trump's first term," he said.

The specific categories on China's tariff list were no accident.

"The restrictions on China exports of key minerals — iridium, molybdenum, etc. — is meant to retard development of a few strategic industries in the US, including solar panels, sophisticated weapons, and batteries," said Thierry Wizman, a global foreign exchange and rates strategist at Macquarie Group.

China's measured response doesn't mean heavier hits won't come

China's response to Trump's opening move was relatively measured, the analysts who spoke to BI agreed.

Chris Fasciano, the chief market strategist at Commonwealth Financial Network, said China's response seemed "designed to send a message" while not causing "too much damage."

"Through this lens their tariff response seems to be moderate in nature compared to the blanket 10% tariffs implemented by the Trump administration," Fasciano said.

China's tariffs included agricultural machinery, but not agricultural products.

In 2018, China slapped 25% tariffs on US soybeans, beef, pork, wheat, corn, and sorghum imports to retaliate against Trump's tariffs. China imported around $34 billion worth of US agriculture goods in fiscal year 2023.

Ian Ja Chong, an associate professor at the National University of Singapore, told BI that China's "more calibrated" opening move leaves room for "heavier measures later on."

"It suggests that Beijing may be ready to negotiate. Whether what each side offers the other is good enough is another matter altogether," Chong said.

These Trump-term tariffs are also hitting the Chinese economy in the midst of a prolonged downturn, which leaves Beijing with less wiggle room for retaliation.

To be sure, US tariffs on China did not go away when Trump completed his first term in 2021.

Then-President Joe Biden maintained Trump's tariffs and even expanded them. In May, Biden announced tariffs on $18 billion of Chinese goods. Besides targeting steel, aluminum, and medical products, Biden also raised tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles from 25% to 100%.

Against the combative backdrop of strategic geopolitical rivalry, Beijing has to show that it, too, can play the game.

"China has no choice but to be aggressive. The measures can always be reversed anyway, so it makes sense to be aggressive," Macquarie's Wizman said.

• Saudi Arabia said it will invest at least $600 billion in the US over the next four years.
• President Donald Trump has long enjoyed a good relationship with Saudi Arabia's crown prince.
• Trump has moved quickly since taking office, signing executive orders and announcing investments.

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has told newly inaugurated President Donald Trump that his oil-rich nation will invest at least $600 billion in the US over the next four years.

The crown prince told Trump about the investment during a congratulatory phone call on Wednesday evening, per a report from the state-run Saudi Press Agency published on Thursday.

According to the report, the two leaders discussed how the US and Saudi Arabia can work together to promote peace and security in the Middle East.

Representatives for Trump and Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

Trump has long enjoyed a good relationship with the crown prince. Saudi Arabia was the first foreign nation he visited during his first term.

When Trump met the crown prince in June 2019, he described him as a "friend of mine " and lauded him for "opening up Saudi Arabia."

Deal after deal

Shortly after being sworn in on Monday, Trump moved quickly, issuing a wave of executive orders covering areas including trade, immigration, and energy.

He's also been working on making deals, both domestically and abroad.

On Monday, Trump signed an executive order that would pause the ban on TikTok for 75 days. Trump said while signing the order that the US should own half of TikTok if he's able to halt the ban.

"I may not do the deal, or I may do the deal. TikTok is worthless, worthless, if I don't approve it," Trump said, adding that the social media platform could be worth $1 trillion.

And on Tuesday, Trump announced Stargate, a new joint venture between OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank. The president said Stargate plans to invest up to $500 billion in AI infrastructure across the US.

"Before the end of my first full business day in Washington and the White House, we have already secured nearly $3 trillion of new investments in the United States and probably that's going to be six or seven by the end of the week," Trump said while announcing Stargate on Tuesday, though he did not elaborate on the sources of the new investments.

Later, on Wednesday, Trump made an overture to Russian President Vladimir Putin about the Ukraine war. Trump said in a Truth Social post that he was doing Russia a big favor by offering to end the conflict.

"If we don't make a 'deal,' and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries," Trump wrote.

"We can do it the easy way, or the hard way - and the easy way is always better," Trump added.

Saudi Arabia has its own priorities

It is unclear how Saudi Arabia's new investment in the US aligns with its economic priorities.

In 2016, Saudi Arabia launched its Vision 2030 plan to transform its oil-dependent economy into a more diversified one boosted by tourism and sports. The kingdom has already pumped billions into its economic pivot, with some investments going to the US.

But Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, said last year that it would focus more on its domestic economy. The PIF is the world's sixth-largest sovereign wealth fund, per the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute.

The PIF's governor, Yasir Al Rumayyan, told delegates at Saudi Arabia's Future Investment Initiative business conference in October that the fund was planning to cut the proportion of foreign investments from 30% to between 18% and 20%.

"A lot of people would come looking for our money to be invested abroad. But that thing shifted over the years," Al Rumayyan said.

"So now, we're more focused on the domestic economy and we've been achieving and doing so many big things," he added.