Recent shifts in U.S. trade policy—particularly the return of tariffs under President Trump—are more than a political issue. They’re a material business risk. Higher input costs, reduced demand, and overall macroeconomic uncertainty are forcing multinational companies to revisit financial projections and stress-test their assumptions. One area now under pressure: impairment testing for non-financial assets such as property, plant, and equipment (PP&E), intangible assets, and goodwill.

President Trump recently announced the Golden Dome project – his equivalent to his second term’s moonshot with a goal of completion by 2029. The $175 billion project is envisioned to be a multi-layered defense architecture to shield the U.S. from advanced threats, including hypersonic and space-launched missiles. While certain defense and aerospace contractors—the likes of SpaceX, Palantir, Lockheed Martin, Boeing—remain obvious winners, industrial and CPG companies should consider the ramifications for their sectors over this decade-long investment. With the rise of national security investment, what will be the financial opportunities and operational complexities?

With the reorientation of manufacturing to the U.S. in response to President Trump’s trade policy, multinationals focus on potential site evaluation and selection. Be it Hyundai in Indiana, Apple in Texas, or Toyota in North Carolina, global companies have made public commitments to bring back parts of their complex supply chains to the U.S. While a myriad of factors must be considered – talent pools, state incentives, land availability, access to first-tier supplies—an underrated question is that of physical climate risks. As manufacturing returns, management teams will have to ask their teams what climate-driven risks—water shortages, extreme heat, or flooding—will these new sites face? Where will climate-related hazards pose the greatest threat to business continuity and long-term profitability? Is it enough to reconsider our site location?

The roll-out of President Trump’s tariff regime has ignited an international response, with markets reeling, inflation risks escalating, and projections for a recession increasing. China’s tariff rate has been increased to 145%, while most other countries remain under a 90-day pause on most high tariffs. As the world waits and sees where the trade policy will land, management teams are working with their boards in identifying strategies to reduce their immediate economic losses. To do so, large multinationals with global supply chains are leveraging tariff engineering to modify products or their classification to reduce import duties.

As tensions between D.C. and Beijing escalate, management teams are looking to better understand and reduce their exposures to the U.S.-China trade war. As of mid-April 2025, we offer a review of China’s non-tariff countermeasures that target the U.S. With an unclear off-ramp for either side, management teams will have to further build scenarios that offer greater supplier optionality in the short-term while also re-evaluating long-term enterprise strategy. Overall, the cost of doing business in and with China will increase for U.S. business and will likely have lasting impact. How can businesses manage through China’s escalating retaliation?

With global trade tensions escalating, supplier diversification has been embraced as the leading antidote to mitigate short-term risks. Thus, rapid pushes for multi-sourcing, local-for-local, component substitution, stockpiling, and scenario planning have engulfed executive teams. CPG companies are accelerating years of work in nearshoring and onshoring suppliers and production. While the financial benefits of supplier diversification seem straightforward, the risks posed to an enterprise without a robust know your supplier program will expose new threats to reputation, operations, customer interfacing, and more. How should executive teams re-imagine due diligence during Trump 2.0 and global trade upheaval?

After a week of wild swings in markets and growing demands from investors, President Trump’s trade war may be coming into clearer focus with Wednesday’s (4/9) pause on most reciprocal tariffs for 90 days. With stocks surging on Wednesday, many are hoping that his goal is clearer – China containment. President Trump cited talks with foreign nations in explaining the reversal, but said China would not be included after Beijing announced further retaliations. While the China angle is feasible, we also offer a spectrum of scenarios to help decision-makers play-out risks and opportunities. How will executives assess their risks and re-conceptualize their strategies – supply chain, CapEx, de-valuation, and more?

Real estate companies are navigating RTO policies by balancing financial impacts, employee preferences, and market trends. The rise of remote and hybrid work has led to underutilized office spaces and changes in tenant demand, prompting management teams to explore repurposing, flexible leasing, and strategic property acquisitions. To retain talent, companies are adopting hybrid work models while carefully planning space utilization. Companies are also capitalizing on market downturns by acquiring discounted office properties to adapt to evolving business needs. As the landscape continues to shift, the question is whether management teams are being bold enough to rethink the traditional office model, or are they merely reacting to short-term trends?

In the past, political risk has been a specific category of risks that management teams and their boards reviewed quarterly and managed through insurance policies. Acute issues were handled by task forces or crisis management teams. Now, under President Trump’s second administration, political risks are blurring and broadening to include: protectionist trade policy, sanctions, tariff retaliation, export/import bans, cyber-attacks, regional strife and conflict, border security, human rights, international terrorism, failed multilateral cooperation, increasing influence of populist governments, and more. With many of these themes presenting themselves weekly and daily, how do companies recast their political risk management under Trump 2.0?

As President Trump ramps up his tariff policies in an effort to protect U.S. industries, key trading partners—including Canada, Mexico, the European Union (EU), and China—have announced retaliatory measures. These responses range from reciprocal tariffs to export restrictions on critical raw materials and industrial goods, posing significant risks to U.S. businesses. Understanding these developments and their implications is crucial for corporate executives navigating supply chain disruptions, pricing volatility, and international trade negotiations.

In 2024 alone, over 3,000 trade restrictions were implemented globally. This global trend is reflected predominantly in President Trump's protectionist trade agenda. With their complex international footprint, global companies like Caterpillar, Komatsu, Unilever, Nestlé, BMW, Mercedes, Toyota will either face the impact of tariffs or retaliatory measures. While President Trump's policies create cost and uncertainty, they also call for adaptation, domestic investment, restructuring, joint ventures, automation, and process innovation. Finally, new climate-related compliance requirements add more complexity to global trade flows with China and Europe.

Headlines have proliferated on corporate rollbacks of promises, goals, and investment in ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) and Sustainability—in the U.S. and globally. This can be a range of topics – be it emissions reduction goals, waste reduction goals, and, most dramatically, Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DEI). We are seeing an intensifying pressure on U.S. corporate leaders to limit their legal exposure to concepts that were only recently championed as critical to their success.

With the EU’s deforestation laws coming online this month, business leaders will need to ensure that commodities in their supply chains do not contribute to deforestation. The broad range of commodities scoped into the regulation include wood, rubber, palm oil, soy, beef, cattle, and/or cacao. In advancing this regulation, the EU aims to minimize its contributions to global deforestation and, in turn, reduce its impact on climate change, greenhouse gas emissions, and biodiversity loss. Companies will have to quickly adapt their commercial operations to ensure compliance and think strategically to gain a competitive edge in doing so.

With an “America First” philosophy, President Trump will bring structural shifts to U.S. domestic economy and America’s approach to trade, foreign policy, and investment flows. As Trump takes office today, he and his team will push aggressively. Business will feel immediate pressure and have to navigate peripheral clatter . This will be especially true for businesses that are resource- and knowledge-intensive with global operations. Expect greater deregulation, sweeping tax reform, enhanced competition with China, and a reconfiguration of global supply chains due to broad tariffs, levies, duties, and import/export bans. Business leaders will have to ensure readiness to absorb major policy shocks and redirects in Q1 and well beyond.

Uncontrolled wildfires continue to menace and destroy communities in Los Angeles under a rare red flag warning. Even with the deadly fires still raging across a large swath of Southern California, the estimated damages have made the fires the region’s worst natural disaster in decades. The issues mount – lack of water, cascading electrical outages, un-insurability, privatization of first responder support, finger pointing between local, state, and federal levels. With all of this in mind, the LA fires demonstrate a new vulnerability for Americans. Residents and business leaders alike must call into question closely held assumptions on normalcy in one of the biggest and most prosperous U.S. cities

As President-elect Donald Trump prepares for his second term, industrial and materials companies will face significant challenges and opportunities stemming from his aggressive trade policies. Corporate executives must anticipate potential changes to tariffs and trade strategies and plan accordingly to navigate these shifts.