• A Saskatchewan pub is eliminating all US products down to their takeout boxes in protest.
• Bartenders found creative ways to bypass American bourbon, and those drinks became a hit.
• They are looking to replace fresh produce from the US with ones from Mexico.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Dan Nolan, co-owner of Tommy's Speakeatery in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. He is navigating President Donald Trump's changing tariff policy.

Business Insider verified his identity. This essay has been edited for length and clarity.

My approach to dealing with the stress of tariffs is to look at what is within my power to take action on and what I can do about it.

Our imports of bourbon, American whiskey, lettuce, tomatoes, broccoli, and seasonal vegetables — we are now looking to have a non-American supplier for all of it.

I don't have anything against our neighbors, but some of the rhetoric has gone too far in disrespecting our nation, such as referring to our prime minister as the governor and threatening our sovereignty.

So we're doing our part in protest to make sure that our voices are heard and that we're supporting our own producers as much as possible during another absolutely unnecessary economic hardship that our nation is going to have to go through not so many years after dealing with COVID.

At this point, we've instructed our suppliers that we don't want to bring anything in from the States, period. We are looking for Canadian or Mexican alternatives, and when it comes to produce, there are Mexican alternatives for pretty much everything that comes out of the US.

A passion for locally sourced food made from scratch

The business itself has been around since 1974, but it was a steakhouse for probably 40 years. About 15 years ago, my business partners purchased it, and then I came on board about seven and a half years ago, recognizing that the business needed to be revitalized.

I have a passion for good, made-from-scratch food — just real food. I had been sick and tired of going out for a drink with my friends and not being able to get good food. Everything was out of a box, deep fried, or microwaved. Those were your options if you wanted to go for a beer, or you go someplace really high-end. So we decided to thread that needle and meet in the middle to create an elevated pub experience.

On our taps, we pour exclusively Saskatchewan-made craft beer. Similarly, we have exclusively Saskatchewan distilled spirits available, and unless someone specifies something different, that's the vodka, rum, or whiskey they're going to get.

This approach has allowed us to source about 30% of every product that we sell from Saskatchewan, whether that's Saskatchewan pork, Saskatchewan liquor, Canadian flour, Canadian cheese, or dairy products. This isn't something that we just started doing recently; it's something that we've always done.

Exploring new pathways and menus under tariff threats

I took a look at all of our sales and broke down where our products are coming from. Over 70% of everything we sell comes from Canada, but it's the seasonal produce and bourbon from the States that we need alternatives for.

We're very lucky to have a team of talented bartenders and a stock of Canadian options to play with. Over the last couple of weeks, we made cherry-smoked old-fashioned using Crown Royal Harvest Rye, which has some similar flavor profiles to bourbon. It sold so well that we sold out over the course of the last week.

Our lettuce quite often would be coming from California, and citrus from the Central Valley. Unfortunately, there was wasted citrus during the citrus harvest season over the past couple of months because ICE was showing up there and the workers weren't going to work, and we saw that raise our prices. So now we're hoping that supply from Mexico can pull through.

We also identified other areas that we can improve on. For example, for our takeout boxes, we might have a Canadian supplier, but they could be coming from the States. Thankfully, we've got a local chemical company and distributor that opened up in Regina over the last five years, and they've gotten into paper products and packaging, so we've opted to support them.

Of course, that's a protest to take it this far. If you know any local business people or independent entrepreneurs, they're probably already working 60 to 70 hours a week to make their business work. They're managing the social media, answering emails, looking after all the invoices — it's a 24/7 thing, and everyone's had enough difficulties as is. We don't need an absolutely unnecessary trade war that's being brought on under entirely false pretenses.

• Donald Trump has been sworn in as president once again.
• He signed a slew of executive orders on Monday.
• They included establishing DOGE and declaring a "national energy emergency."

A political comeback is complete: President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance were sworn into office in a ceremony beneath the Capitol Rotunda on Monday.

"The golden age of America begins right now," Trump said in his inaugural speech.

A host of dignitaries — including lawmakers, foreign leaders, and members of Trump's coming cabinet — were on hand. Tech leaders in attendance included Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

In a series of speeches throughout the day — his inauguration speech at the Rotunda, a more freewheeling speech in Emancipation Hall at the Capitol, and a third at Capital One Arena — Trump previewed a flurry of forthcoming actions, including declaring a national emergency at the southern border and establishing an "External Revenue Service."

At Capitol One Arena, he signed several executive orders, including one that rescinded 78 Biden-era executive orders and actions. Later on Monday, in the Oval Office, he signed several more, including pardons for January 6 rioters.

Here's what Trump has pledged to do on day one — and what he's actually done.

Energy and environment

Trump has signed an executive order withdrawing the United States from the Paris climate accords, which he also did when he took office in 2017.

Increase fracking and oil drilling: Trump signed an executive order declaring a "national energy emergency" and another designed to ease permitting processes.

Trump's Interior Department will have the power to offer new leases for drilling and natural-gas extraction on federal lands. A last-minute Biden administration ban on deep offshore drilling is set to complicate those actions. While the White House can speed up approval and auction off more leases, it's ultimately up to the energy industry to expand production. Trump also wants to revive canceled projects such as the Keystone XL pipeline that companies have since dropped.

Government restructuring

Remove civil-service protections for federal workers: Trump has said he'll return to his sweeping first-term policy that would have made it easier to fire tens of thousands of federal workers.

On Monday, he signed an executive order instituting a temporary hiring freeze, saying it was "to ensure that we're only hiring competent people who are faithful to the American public." The order says the hiring freeze doesn't apply to the military or "to positions related to immigration enforcement, national security, or public safety."

Trump also signed a separate order requiring federal employees to return to in-person work immediately.

Create the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE): Trump signed an executive order establishing DOGE in the Oval Office on Monday, saying Elon Musk would be "getting an office for about 20 people" in the executive branch.

The order says DOGE will implement the president's push for government efficiency "by modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity."

As part of the order, the US Digital Service is set to be renamed to the US DOGE Service. The US Digital Service was created by then-President Barack Obama in 2014 and provided IT consulting services to federal agencies.

Trump's order also includes the formation of DOGE teams at each federal agency. The order says each team will have at least four members, which could consist of a team lead, an engineer, a human-resources specialist, and an attorney.

Shortly after noon on Monday, several organizations filed lawsuits in a bid to get DOGE to comply with a 1972 law. In the meantime, congressional Republicans eagerly welcomed Musk's efforts and have set up ways to coordinate with DOGE.

Trade

Trump didn't impose any tariffs on Monday, saying his planned tariffs on Canada and Mexico would be imposed in February. He didn't specify a date for his planned tariffs on China, saying he was "going to have meetings and calls" with the country's leader, Xi Jinping.

Trump said on Monday that he was considering imposing a universal tariff on all goods entering the US. He added that while the US was "not ready" for a universal tariff, it could be implemented rapidly.

"You put a universal tariff on anybody doing business in the United States, because they're coming in and they're stealing our wealth," Trump said.

Twenty-five percent tariffs on all Mexican and Canadian goods: Just before Thanksgiving, Trump said he'd levy significant tariffs on the US neighbors because of illegal immigration.

Thanks to Congress, presidents can impose tariffs without legislative action. In his first term, Trump used a law that allows the president to impose them because of national security emergencies. President Joe Biden even expanded some of those duties.

A 60% tariff on all Chinese goods: On the campaign trail, Trump discussed raising tariffs to as high as 60% on all Chinese goods. He's also mused about other wide-ranging tariffs.

Trump has long complained that the US trade deficit with China is too large. The influx of deadly fentanyl, of which the Drug Enforcement Administration has said China is a major source, has only exacerbated those tensions.

The creation of an external revenue service: In his inaugural speech, Trump said he'd establish a new agency to collect tariffs and other foreign fees. "It will be massive amounts of money pouring into our treasury coming from foreign sources," Trump said.

It's unclear exactly how this service will be set up. Customs and Border Protection is already responsible for collecting customs, and only Congress could set up a new agency.

Effectively pulling the US out of the global tax deal: On Monday, Trump signed an executive order declaring that the "Global Tax Deal has no force or effect in the United States."

This move withdraws US support for the international tax agreement, which aims to establish a 15% global corporate minimum tax. Congress never passed measures to comply with the deal, leaving participating countries able to impose top-up levies on some US multinationals.

The order also calls on officials to look into "options for protection from extraterritorial tax measures."

Crackdown on illegal immigration

Trump signed several executive orders related to immigration on Monday, including declaring a "national emergency" at the southern border.

He also signed an executive order that aims to revoke birthright citizenship, setting up a legal challenge over the meaning of the 14th Amendment.

Trump and his allies have argued that the amendment shouldn't be interpreted to apply to the children of people living in the country illegally. Multiple groups have said they'd challenge any such executive action in court.

He also signed an executive order designating drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.

Trump said numerous times during the campaign that starting on his first day, he'd take action to begin "the largest deportation operation" in the nation's history.

In his inaugural speech, he said he'd "begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came."

Later, in the Oval Office, Trump said Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids would start soon, though he didn't specify a time.

Crime and justice

Pardons for January 6 rioters: Trump signed an executive order pardoning roughly 1,500 people who were involved in the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

The order Trump signed also commuted the sentences of 14 other individuals, who included members of far-right extremist groups such as the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys.

Culture war

Trump said in his inaugural address that it would "henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female."

The president signed an executive order in the Oval Office that an aide described as "protecting women from radical gender ideologies," which included preventing federal funds from being used to "promote gender ideology" and changes in federal policy to rigidly define terms such as "sex," "man," and "woman" as binary phrases.

Trump also took broad aim at diversity, equity, and inclusion policies and pro-LGTBQ+ policies put in place by the Biden administration. In another order, he ended all federal DEI initiatives and terminated all DEI-related and "environmental justice" offices and positions, such as "chief diversity officer" positions, and all "equity" actions, initiatives, or programs and "equity-related" grants or contracts.

Another executive order renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, a change that Senate Democrats earlier this month indicated they'd be willing to support if the president worked with them on an economic plan to reduce the cost of living for average Americans.

TikTok ban

Trump signed an executive order halting the ban on TikTok for 75 days. While signing the order, Trump told reporters that TikTok could be worth $1 trillion and that the US should own half of it.

According to the divest-or-ban law passed by the Senate in April, TikTok had to cease its US operations on January 19 unless its China-based owner, ByteDance, divested itself from its US holdings.

Correction: January 20, 2025 — An earlier version of this story misstated Jeff Bezos' current position at Amazon. He is the founder and executive chairman, not the CEO.

• The industry's biggest names were up despite choppy markets following Donald Trump's victory.
• Balyasny led the way among multistrategy firms, posting a 3.9% monthly gain.
• Firms like Citadel and Schonfeld continue to build on a strong year of returns.

The biggest names in hedge funds ended an up-and-down month in markets in the black.

Multistrategy managers overcame the volatility surrounding Donald Trump's electoral victory — when markets initially skyrocketed but then sold off briefly before rebounding — with firms like Balyasny, Schonfeld, and Citadel posting strong returns for the month.

Balyasny led the way among its peers with a 3.9% gain in November to bring the Chicago-based manager's 2024 returns to 11.6%, a person close to the manager confirmed.

Schonfeld meanwhile continued its strong streak for the year, returning 1.8% in its flagship fund. The New York-based manager is up 17.2% for the year, a person close to the firm said. Ken Griffin's Citadel was also up 1.8% last month in its Wellington fund, while Izzy Englander's Millennium made 2.2%.

The billionaires' firms are up 13.2% and 12.5%, respectively, on the year. Bloomberg previously reported on the firms' November returns.

While multistrategy managers' returns were dwarfed by those of macro managers like Rokos and Discovery Capital that took big swings on Trump's victory, their biggest selling point — steadiness in turbulent markets — was proven true in November.

See below for more performance data. Additional firms will be added as their numbers are learned. The managers declined to comment or did not immediately respond to requests for comment.