President-elect Trump is setting the stage for an explosive first day in office: pardons for Jan. 6 rioters, a vacuum-sealing of the Southwest border, and a massive regulatory rollback affecting vast swaths of the American economy, Axios' Zachary Basu and Erin Davis write.

• Why it matters: The tone of the next four years will be set on Day 1. Trump and his transition — armed with a barrage of executive orders — are preparing an early shock-and-awe campaign to lay the foundation for his ambitious second term.

🖼️ The big picture: Trump's Day 1 promises fit three big themes, according to an Axios analysis of his speeches, press conferences and interviews.

1. Immigration: No issue has defined Trump's political identity more than his crusade against illegal immigration, particularly after border crossings surged to record highs under President Biden.

• A brain trust of West Wing border hawks — led by Stephen Miller and incoming border czar Tom Homan — will help unleash executive orders ending Biden's temporary "parole" programs, restarting construction of the border wall and suspending refugee admissions.
• Trump is hellbent on immediately launching the largest deportation operation in U.S. history, despite the logistical challenges. Watch for a Day 1 flex of the new administration's deportation muscle.
• The president-elect has also vowed to issue an executive order ending birthright citizenship, setting up a constitutional clash over the 14th Amendment that could wind up at the Supreme Court.

2. Red meat for MAGA: The second bucket of executive orders will seek to institutionalize the views of the GOP's culture warriors.

• Priorities for Day 1 include a ban on DEI programs and requirements across the federal government — and pardons for supporters convicted for breaking into the Capitol on Jan. 6.
• Trump, whose campaign spent millions of dollars on anti-trans ads, also wants to use executive action to ban trans women from women's sports. The exact mechanism for doing so is not yet clear.

3. Big business: CEO and investor confidence has soared since the election, as Corporate America revels in Trump's promise to slash "10 old regulations for every new one," as he put it at his press conference last week.

• Trump has vowed to expedite permits for drilling and fracking, even if it means acting like a "dictator" for one day. Inauguration will start the clock on his one-year goal of reducing energy prices by 50%.
• Trump plans to aggressively target Biden's climate policies by killing tax credits for electric vehicles and rolling back emissions standards, as well as any "job-killing" regulations affecting automakers.
• Wall Street is working feverishly to persuade Trump not to impose sweeping tariffs on U.S. trading partners. But he seems intent on ushering in a new era of MAGA protectionism as quickly as possible.

🔎 Between the lines: Many of Trump's sweeping promises will require the support of Congress. Others have proven to be hyperbole.

• "It's hard to bring [prices] down once they're up. You know, it's very hard," the president-elect told NBC's "Meet the Press," despite constantly pledging on the campaign trail to crush inflation.
• Trump also tamped down his talk of settling the Russia-Ukraine war within 24 hours of taking office, telling reporters this month that peace may even be "more difficult" than in the Middle East.

Share this story.

• 🚢 P.S. Trump on Christmas named Kevin Marino Cabrera — a Miami-Dade County commissioner, and Florida state director of Trump's 2020 campaign — as ambassador to Panama, which he called, "a Country that is ripping us off on the Panama Canal." Go deeper.

Big Tech is spending at a rate that's never been seen, sparking boom times for companies scrambling to fuel the AI build-out, Axios' Michael Flaherty writes.

• Why it matters: AI is changing the economy — but not in the way most people assume.

AI needs facilities, machines and power. All of that has driven a spending spree involving real estate, building materials, semiconductors and energy.

• Energy providers have seen a huge boost, since data centers require as much power as a small city.

💡 The key growth ingredient in the AI arms race so far is capital expenditure, or "capex."

• The capex bonanza for data center growth is separate from the research and development that companies spend on chips and new AI technology.

🔬 Between the lines: The fortunes being spent today on data centers for AI are jaw-dropping. But tech leaders are worrying about spending too little.

• "When you go through a curve like this, the risk of underinvesting is dramatically greater than the risk of overinvesting for us here," Google CEO Sundar Pichai told analysts in August.

The bottom line: Tech CEOs view their investments in data centers as all-purpose bets on the future.

• If the AI bubble pops, a data center can easily be put to work fueling whatever the next big wave in tech turns out to be.

Share this story.

Russian companies are using bitcoin to evade Western sanctions thanks to a new law, the country's finance minister said in a television interview.

• Why it matters: That could be a complication for President-elect Trump, who's both a crypto convert and an advocate for U.S. dollar dominance, Axios' Dan Primack writes.

Russia's economy has been hampered by difficulties in making and receiving international payments, even with countries like China that don't use the U.S. dollar as their reserve currency.

• The Kremlin created an experimental legal framework for cryptocurrency miners last month, including a provision letting some entities use crypto for international trade.

Share this story ... Get Axios Pro Rata.

Above: Frank Robleto Jr., who's Catholic, and Sarah Robleto, who's Jewish, celebrated both Christmas and Hanukkah with their children Madelyne, 13, and Jacob, 19, yesterday at their home in Cutler Bay, Fla.

• Why it matters: Faith leaders see the overlapping holidays as a chance to "foster interfaith relationships through the holidays' shared themes of hope and light," the Miami Herald notes.

Small business owners are feeling more optimistic about the economy following the election, the National Federation of Independent Businesses found.

• The group's Small Business Optimism Index hit its highest level since June 2021, AP reports.

The percentage of small business owners believing it's a good time to expand their business rose eight points to 14%.

• Explore the data ... Keep reading.

Apple is closing in on a historic $4 trillion stock market valuation, powered by investors cheering progress in the company's long-awaited AI enhancements to rejuvenate sluggish iPhone sales, Reuters reports.

• Why it matters: The company has pulled ahead of Nvidia and Microsoft in the race to the monumental milestone, thanks to an about 16% jump in shares since early November that has added about $500 billion to its market capitalization.

Go deeper.

The Mega Millions jackpot surged to an estimated $1.15 billion yesterday — the fifth largest in the game's history.

• Why it matters: Lottery tickets are classic last-minute stocking stuffer purchases.

"We know that many people will likely receive tickets to Friday's drawing as holiday gifts, and what a gift that would turn out to be," said Joshua Johnston, lead director for the Mega Millions Consortium.

• Go deeper.

Two blowout games made Beyoncé's halftime show the star of Netflix's NFL debut on Christmas Day.

• The singer, who rode in on a white horse, performed an almost 13-minute medley of hits from her record-breaking album "Cowboy Carter" in Houston, her hometown.

Gabe Spitzer, Netflix's VP of sports, told The Wall Street Journal: "It's a Super Bowl-level halftime performance for a regular season game." (Gift link)

• Mariah Carey opened Netflix's football double-header with a prerecorded performance of "All I Want for Christmas Is You."

🔮 What's next: Netflix will make the halftime show — which the streamer's calling the "Beyoncé Bowl" — available as a standalone special later this week.

Above: Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce eats a football cake after a 29-10 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers.

• Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens trounced the Houston Texans 31-2.