President Donald Trump ran on a platform that included downsizing the bloated federal administrative state. He has more than delivered.
In January 2025, Trump promised “to promote prudent financial management and alleviate unnecessary regulatory burdens.” He vowed that “for each new regulation issued, at least 10 prior regulations be identified for elimination.” And in just the first year of his second term, Trump has reversed his predecessor’s relentless effort to expand the size of the federal government through heavy-handed regulation hampering virtually every sector of the economy.
It was a herculean task, given President Joe Biden’s slavish devotion to a hulking public sector. “Four years of expansive whole-of-government regulatory initiatives from the Biden administration on climate, equity, social policy, infrastructure and technology culminated in the fattest Federal Register ever seen,” notes Clyde Wayne Crews of the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
Not anymore. Crews reports that the Federal Register — which contains agency rules, proposed rules and public notices — ended 2025 at 61,461 pages, down 42% from 2024. That’s the thinnest edition since Trump’s first term and a level last reached in 1993.
The number of final rules published also dropped, by 25% last year to 2,441. That’s “the lowest total since record-keeping began in the mid-1970s,” according to Crews.
But the headway is even more impressive given that nearly 10% of those final rules were rushed through by the Biden White House in the first month of 2025.
Trump’s regulatory reforms — with his tax cuts — have helped offset the economic disruptions caused by his affinity for tariffs as a blunt foreign policy instrument.
Short-term success, however, does not guarantee long-term advancement. The vast majority of Trump’s deregulation agenda has been achieved through executive order. “But regulatory restraint that relies on presidential discretion is fragile,” Crews observes, because “executive orders can usually (though not always) be rescinded as easily as they are issued.”
The Republican Congress did approve a handful of rescission bills in 2025, clawing back funds from various agencies, but the votes were controversial and tight. True and lasting regulatory reform demands that the House and Senate reclaim the lawmaking authority they have over decades ceded to the executive branch, allowing unelected bureaucrats in scores of federal agencies to issue edicts and make rules with little accountability.
Regardless, Trump has made significant progress. It’s an accomplishment Republicans should loudly emphasize as they face political headwinds in their effort to retain their congressional majorities in November’s midterms.
Las Vegas Review-Journal/Tribune News Service
