Trump 2.0 Deregulation Drive Sees Historic Low in New U.S. Rules in 2025

The current U.S. administration has intensified efforts to reduce regulatory burdens through Executive Order 14,192, which enforces a "one-in, ten-out" rule requiring that ten regulations be eliminated for every new one added, aiming for a net decrease in regulatory costs. In 2025, regulatory activity is at a historic low, with a significant emphasis on deregulatory "unrules" that roll back previous regulations.

Analysis from the 2025 Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions reveals a decline in economically significant rules added this year, with only 40 completions against a pipeline of over 240 such actions. Key deregulatory measures include rollbacks on appliance efficiency standards, reversal of flavored-tobacco bans, loosened biofuel mandates, relaxed truck speed limits, and reductions in data security requirements.

Despite these deregulatory efforts, certain regulations remain intact, including EPA environmental protections and Federal Trade Commission rules on pricing transparency. Additionally, changes in social program implementations continue as regulatory measures rather than deregulatory ones.

There are concerns about the net impact of deregulation efforts due to other federal interventions such as tariffs, subsidies, equity stakes in private businesses, and antitrust enforcement that do not fall under traditional regulatory counts but contribute to federal oversight. Such interventions may counterbalance or exceed the reductions achieved by formal deregulation.

The persistence of regulatory reductions hinges on transparent accounting of federal interventions beyond formal rules and on the ability of executive leadership and Congress to prioritize streamlining regulatory processes while addressing indirect expansions of government control. Ultimately, while formal rule eliminations progress, total federal regulatory influence may be increasing via non-traditional mechanisms.