Rolling Back Regulations in the U.S.
Peter Zeihan
5 min
Donald Trump's second term creates a dangerous situation where outdated regulations remain on the books while the administration refuses to enforce them. The solution is for the government to be the government, but the government can't be the government without people.
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Donald Trump
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Barack Obama
Chapters
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0:00
Trump's Regulatory Promise vs. Reality
Donald Trump promises to remove ten regulations for every one added, a shift from his previous five-to-one ratio.
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0:20
The Obama and Biden Regulatory Legacy
The Obama administration created excessive rules by appointing ideologues without real-world experience, while the Biden administration added fewer but still significant regulations.
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1:06
Trump's First Term Approach
During his first term, Trump tapped corporate experts who removed or modified regulations they knew were stupid. In his second term, Trump purged knowledgeable Republicans to ensure no one knew more than him, leaving the bureaucracy understaffed. The current situation freezes new regulations but leaves outdated, unenforced rules on the books that businesses must still follow.
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3:22
The Rule of Law Problem
Businesses face legal liability for violating old codes while the government refuses to enforce them, creating a dangerous uncertainty. Companies are left in the middle trying to decide which specific legal risk they want to deal with.
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4:29
The Necessary Solution
The only solution requires the government to be staffed by people who can actually manage and enforce regulations.
Key points
- 0:00
Donald Trump promises to strip out ten words of regulation for every word that gets put in.
- 0:20
The two most regulatory heavy administrations that we have had in modern history are the Biden administration and the Obama administration.
- 0:20
Most of them came from academia and ideologues and think tanks and people who had never actually participated in the real economy.
- 1:06
When he became president, he tapped the Republican brain trust very heavily in order to build out his cabinet and all the senior positions in the bureaucracy.
- 1:06
As a rule, the business community was broadly pro-Trump throughout the bulk of his first administration.
- 1:06
President Trump spent his time out of power during the Biden administration purging the Republican Party of anyone who might ever come across as knowing anything.
- 1:06
We now have this weird dichotomy. And yes, the regulatory frameworks, the system that builds out new regulations, that has been frozen.
- 3:22
They're legally liable if they violate the corporate codes, but this federal government is saying that they won't enforce the corporate codes.
- 3:22
Corporate America is left in the middle trying to decide which specific legal risk they want to deal with.
- 4:29
The solution is for the government to be the government, but the government can't be the government without people.
Who and where
People · 2
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Donald Trump 8
President of the United States (2017–2021; since 2025)
Photo 1
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Barack Obama 1
44th President of the United States (2009–2017)
Photo 2
1. Photo: Daniel Torok, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons · Wikidata · redrawn in our house style (Donald Trump)
2. Photo: Official White House Photo by Pete Souza, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons · Wikidata · redrawn in our house style (Barack Obama)
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