Trump: in Musk a commission on efficiency. And discounted rates for US-made companies

The former president has also promised to rescind any funding that has not yet been spent under Joe Biden's ambitious Inflation Reduction Act plan, dedicated to energy transition to healthcare and manufacturing, potentially wiping hundreds of billions of dollars from federal spending projects.

Rather, Trump has aggressively pledged on fossil fuels to remove 'every bureaucratic obstacle to the speedy approval of permits for new drilling, pipelines, refineries, power plants, and nuclear reactors'. He promised to halve energy prices in this way, even though in reality the US already produces record amounts of crude oil and gas.

Among Trump's other ideas, already surfaced and now reiterated: drastic deregulation everywhere, including on building and land to lower costs and stimulate the construction of large structures. Facilitations will come to digital currencies, which have become a passion of his. And there will be generalised trade duties, on all imports, perhaps 10% or 20%, and higher against China, perhaps 60%. The outcome of his 'doctrine', he insisted, will ultimately be positive.

'Smart tariffs do not cause inflation,' he argued, 'they fight it. A response to the many economists who claim that his plans would, on the contrary, exacerbate the cost of living and wipe out any gains from tax cuts for the middle classes. 'A combination of fair trade, tax cuts, energy abundance, will allow for better and cheaper production in the US,' he said,

Harris, however, by no means cedes arms to Trump on the economy. He is fresh from a proposal to tax capital gains more, but without taxing them. She has thus opened up to business by showing a more moderate face, and plan, than Joe Biden on the sensitive tax front. She has distanced herself from 'her' president and downwardly adjusted proposals that in fact call for a doubling of taxes on capital gains. Harris lifted the curtain on a more modest plan to raise the overall rate to 33% from the current 23.8%, halfway to the 44.6% assumed by Biden. The tax includes a surcharge from 3.8% today and would rise to 5% in Biden and Harris' formulas.

Tax plans, even when wanted by the White House, have to go through Congress, and the road to both increases, now and in the future, appears uphill. But the message is beyond doubt: Harris is extending his hand to business. The move on capital gains represents a significant turning point for Harris herself: until now, the Democratic nominee had fully supported Biden's budget plans. In response, the business community has stepped up its pressure for flexibility from Harris on fiscal strategies.

Harris's advisors believe that the change in his position now reflects a commitment to make businesses and wealthy groups pay more, but without the risk of unduly penalising investment. The game is not over. At stake is still a levy, currently on the Democratic drawing board, that targets the wealth of Americans with large fortunes: it prescribes the taxation of unrealised gains over five million at the time of death and over one hundred million during life.

Calls from major party backers to rethink the measure have recently intensified. However, Harris has also kept the spotlight on measures with a more popular and progressive appeal. He has offered relief to small start-ups in the form of increases in tax deductions for expenses incurred, increased tenfold to $50,000 from $5,000.

'My plan will make the tax system fairer while prioritising investment and innovation,' he told a rally that mobilised three thousand people under the slogan 'The Opportunity Economy'. Harris, on the other hand, accuses Trump of only benefiting the wealthiest and big corporations.