Donald Trump has put his mind to enforcing a list of executive orders and nobody can change his mind. The latest one comes in the form of pausing the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Loosening the reigns around the currently enforced law is sure to lead to bribing being normalized in the process of business deals.
The executive order that the President is reportedly planning to sign will allow American businesses to bribe foreign government officials. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act which was set in place in 1977, made it impossible for bribes to be used as an avenue to gain business.
According to the official Department of Justice website, the law bans a person or entity from making any type of payment to foreign government officials to “assist in obtaining or retaining business.”
The Department of Justice’s records show that 24 cases of violation of the law were reported in 2024 and 17 cases in 2023. “U.S. companies are harmed by FCPA overenforcement because they are prohibited from engaging in practices common among international competitors, creating an uneven playing field,” the legal documents state.
The change in the law is being made while factoring “economic interests” and “national security” according to a White House official. “A pause in enforcement to better understand how to streamline the FCPA to make sure it’s in line with economic interests and national security,” the official told CNBC.
Its safe to say that the move isn’t a hasty one of the President’s part. Trump previously called the law “horrible” during his first term in office. He was very vocal about wanting to get rid of the FCPA the first time around.
Many American businesses will benefit from the law being abolished. Legalizing bribes will play a major role in negotiations and sweetening the deals in turn. Criminal prosecutions under the law will automatically be paused once Trump signs the executive order.
The prosecutions will remain paused until Attorney General Pam Bondi has issued new guidelines related to the law. It hasn’t gone unnoticed that the President himself will benefit from the law being paused. The Trump Organization will be one of the many organizations that benefit from the order.
Trump’s decision to sign the law has left people in splits just like his executive order related to straws. The Republican recently made a post that showed just how much he dislikes paper straws. In the post, he criticized former President Joe Biden for banning plastic straws while calling the move “ridiculous.”
“We’re going back to plastic straws.” –President Donald J. Trump 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/GONNjP6UNn
— President Donald J. Trump (@POTUS) February 10, 2025
In another post, Trump complained about how paper straws disintegrate in the beverage when you are drinking it. “‘NO PLASTIC STRAWS, ONLY PAPER,’ IS DEAD!” he wrote in the post.
Many people found Trump’s struggles relatable and thanked the President for wanting to bring back plastic straws. Many others criticized him for ignoring the real problems one of them being the rising price of groceries. Netizens in the comments section questioned how lifting the ban on plastic straws will fix the more concerning matters at hand.
