The First 100 Days of a Josh Hawley Presidency: What the Record Suggests

Hero image: 2019 Missouri State Capitol — via Wikimedia Commons.

01 The scenario: the anti-establishment Republican with an executive-branch agenda

This is a scenario analysis, not a prediction that the person will become president and not an endorsement or criticism of the person. This article does not predict that Josh Hawley will become president. It examines how the Missouri Republican's documented positions and record could translate into executive priorities if placed in presidential office.

The premise rests on a specific record: a second-term senator who leads a $15 minimum-wage bill with a Democrat, a congressional stock-trading ban that advanced over a public attack from President Trump, the most prominent bipartisan AI-regulation framework of the 119th Congress, two No votes on crypto bills, and a WTO-withdrawal resolution. A reasonable inference from these positions is a first 100 days unusually heavy on unilateral action — FDA rule changes, trade actions, antitrust — because so much of his agenda is designed for the levers a president holds alone.

The record below draws on congress.gov, govinfo, his official releases, and AP and Reuters reporting. Where the evidence runs out, this article says so.

02 The record: who Josh Hawley is

Hawley has represented Missouri in the Senate since January 2019 and is in his second term. He is an attorney who served as Missouri Attorney General from 2017 to 2019, and before that was a law professor at Notre Dame and a litigator. He sits on HELP; Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, chairing the Subcommittee on Disaster Management, District of Columbia, and Census; Small Business; and Judiciary, chairing the Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism (119th Congress roster, senate.gov).

His documented 2025-2026 record: S.2013 with Welch (June 2025), the HONEST Act advancing through committee in 2026, S.2937 with Durbin (Sept. 2025), No votes on the GENIUS Act and the September 2026 crypto bill, the FDA mifepristone letters (April and December 2025), and the Venezuela war-powers sequence in January 2026. Whether he intends to seek the presidency in 2028 is speculative — there is no official statement, and this article does not assert it.

03 Wages and the economy: the $15 bill

Hawley is lead sponsor of the Higher Wages for American Workers Act of 2025 (S.2013), introduced June 10, 2025 with Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT), raising the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 an hour, indexed to inflation, referred to HELP. An earlier version, the Blue Collar Bonus Act (S.536, 117th), proposed a refundable wage credit for workers below the median wage.

His campaign/office explicitly calls for a doubled minimum wage — a striking statutory item for a Republican president. This would require congressional approval rather than unilateral presidential action; no minimum-wage lever exists in the executive alone. A reasonable inference from these positions is a first 100 days that pairs wage legislation sent to Congress with the trade and enforcement actions he could take alone the same week.

04 Tech and AI: the licensing framework

On Sept. 29, 2025 Hawley, with Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), introduced the framework bill to establish legal standards for advanced artificial intelligence products (S.2937), including licensing and enforcement provisions for frontier AI. In September 2026 he and Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz successfully opposed a bipartisan bill (Schiff-Banks) that would have given AI labs an antitrust exemption for safety coordination.

The digest is explicit about the split: an AI licensing regime requires Congress, but DOJ and FTC enforcement against big tech requires no new statute. A reasonable inference from these positions is a first 100 days of antitrust directives signed day one while the licensing framework goes to Congress — the same play he has already run as a senator.

05 China and trade: tariffs, land and the WTO

Hawley sponsors the Protecting Our Farms and Homes from China Act (S.2258, introduced July 10, 2025), barring CCP-affiliated entities from owning U.S. agricultural land or residential property. He earlier sponsored S.J.Res.71 (116th) to withdraw U.S. approval of the WTO agreement. His crypto record runs in the same economic-nationalist direction: he was one of only two Senate Republicans (with Rand Paul) to vote against final passage of the GENIUS Act stablecoin bill in July 2025, and voted No again on the crypto market-structure bill in September 2026, which fell ten votes short of 60.

Section 301 and 232 investigations and tariff actions are unilateral presidential levers consistent with his China positions, and the digest notes WTO withdrawal notification is largely a presidential action. The land-ownership ban would require congressional approval rather than unilateral presidential action.

06 Abortion and the FDA: the mifepristone letters

On April 28, 2025 Hawley sent a letter to FDA Commissioner Marty Makary urging reinstatement of mifepristone safety regulations, with a follow-up letter on Dec. 10, 2025 pressing FDA on its mifepristone review commitment. No Senate bill number for his mifepristone legislation this Congress was located — his position is documented via the official letters.

The digest marks this as pure agency action: an FDA commissioner reinstating REMS and dispensing restrictions could do it day one without Congress. This is the clearest unilateral item in his domestic record — a president's own FDA could act in the first week.

07 Congressional stock trading and war powers

Hawley reintroduced the PELOSI Act / Halting Ownership and Non-Ethical Stock Transactions (HONEST) Act (S.1498, with Sen. Moreno), prohibiting Members of Congress from trading stocks. The bill advanced in 2026 and drew a public attack from President Trump, who called Hawley a “second tier” senator over it.

On Jan. 8, 2026 he was one of five Republicans who voted to advance the Venezuela war-powers resolution (S.J.Res.98, Kaine), 52-47; he later voted with GOP leadership to strip the resolution of privileged status after receiving White House assurances, effectively killing it. Both files are congressional — the stock-trading ban binds Congress itself, and war-powers resolutions are Senate work. A reasonable inference is a president who arrives having already used the Senate's own machinery against his party's White House.

08 What the record cannot tell us

The evidence runs out on the farm flank. There is not enough public evidence to determine his position on agriculture policy specifics beyond the S.2258 land-ownership bill — his posture toward the 2026 Farm Bill 2.0 is not documented in the sources reviewed, and none should be assumed.

His immigration positions in the 119th Congress are diffuse: the digest found no marquee immigration bill despite his Judiciary Crime subcommittee chairmanship — mark as thin. Whether he intends to seek the presidency in 2028 is speculative; there is no official statement.

What the record suggests is a presidency of unilateral action by design: FDA rule changes, tariff actions and antitrust enforcement in the first 100 days, with the $15 wage, the stock-trading ban and the AI licensing framework sent to a Congress he has repeatedly defied. Where the record runs out — agriculture specifics, immigration — this article says so rather than filling in.