Former President Donald Trump is promising a large-scale demolition of government regulations starting on Day One if he returns to the White House.
Trump spent his last administration rolling back Obama-era regulations, including climate, air pollution and water rules, some of which have since been overhauled by President Joe Biden’s team. As he eyes a return to the White House, Trump is signaling an even bigger strike against federal rules if he reclaims the presidency.
On the campaign trail in recent weeks, Trump has promised the “most aggressive regulatory reduction” in the country’s history if he’s reelected.
Those promises include an executive order on his first day in office that would broadly target regulations, putting Elon Musk in charge of a “government efficiency commission” aimed at cutting rules and ordering the government to eliminate at least 10 rules for every new one.
Expect a swift deregulatory push from Trump out of the gate if he wins Tuesday’s election.
“They certainly will focus on deregulation, and I think the first order of business will be to undo or substantially water down a lot of the Biden actions that have happened over the last four years,” said Jeff Holmstead, a partner at the law and lobbying firm Bracewell who led EPA’s air office during the George W. Bush administration.
Trump’s zeal for axing regulations is troubling to his critics, who are bracing for another four years of playing defense on rules — including environmental and public health regulations — that could soon be on the chopping block.
It’s unclear how some of Trump’s campaign promises would translate into presidential policy, but he could face hurdles following through on some of them.
Trump said last week, “On Day One, I will sign an executive order directing every federal agency to immediately remove every single burdensome regulation driving up the cost of goods.”
The president doesn’t have the power to wipe away federal regulations through an executive order, although he could direct federal agencies to reconsider existing rules or pause rules that haven’t been finalized.
“He can say anything he wants in an executive order, but people can’t break the law to try to implement it,” Holmstead said. “Whether it’s Trump’s executive order or whether it’s Elon Musk, it’s just not nearly as simple as they make it out.”
Trump has said he plans to install Musk in a new position to scour the government for inefficiencies.
Musk has embraced the idea of joining Trump as a government efficiency czar. The Tesla CEO and Trump ally said in October that “a bonfire of nonsense regulations would be epic.”
Trump has also said he would order the government to eliminate at least 10 regulations for every new one — an expansion of his first-term policy that promised to slash two regulations for every new one.
“The two out for every one was a complete fiasco,” said James Goodwin, a senior policy analyst at the Center for Progressive Reform. “Ten out is delusional. There’s no way he’s gonna do this.”
But deregulatory rhetoric plays well on the campaign trail, Goodwin said.
“If you’re flailing at the last minute trying to find any message that will resonate and not alienate — if you’re Republican — you’re not going to do much better than complaining about regulation. It’s kind of like playing ‘YMCA’ at a wedding reception,” he said.
Trump also said he plans to create a senior position for an official tasked with cutting costs.
“I will create a new Cabinet position for a senior member of my administration who will be tasked exclusively with doing everything in the federal government’s power to reduce the cost of living,” Trump said last week.
Federal agencies will be “judged daily” on their progress toward slashing costs of household items, Trump said. “It’s going to be the largest regulatory reduction in the history of our country, and it’s going to happen very fast.”
Trump didn’t offer specifics about a new Cabinet post, although he’d face a tough time creating a Cabinet-level department. Doing so would require getting a law through Congress; the Department of Homeland Security was the most recent Cabinet department created in 2002 in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
