The year the red tape died? Trump’s 2025 rule count hits historic lows

At the halfway point of 2025, the federal regulatory machinery is running at an unprecedented crawl. That’s good news.

As tracked annually in my Ten Thousand Commandments report, indicators like rule counts, Federal Register page totals, and executive orders are crucial metrics of Washington’s regulatory pulse. This year, that pulse is slower than ever before—and that’s by design.

The Federal Register on July 1, 2025 stands at just 28,799 pages with 1,255 rules issued so far.

By comparison, President Biden’s final year saw the Register hit a record-shattering 106,109 pages, with 3,248 rules. The current pace suggests 2025 may close with only 2,510 rules and around 57,598 pages (by simple linear projection). Register levels have not been that low since the early 1990s. Rule counts have never been so low.

Of those 1,255 rules so far this year, 243 are attributable to Biden’s last days, meaning President Trump’s net is 1,012 rules, many of them deregulatory pauses, revisions, or withdrawals. Likewise, the number of significant rules—those with $100 million-plus in economic effects—are down dramatically: just 68 have been recorded in 2025 so far, compared to 342 under Biden in 2023—and a hefty number of them are deregulatory.

The shift is visible in executive actions as well. Trump has already signed 164 executive orders in 2025—more than most presidents by this point—but rather than expanding federal reach, these orders largely (we do stress that there are plenty ‘swampy’ exceptions) aim to dismantle Biden-era regulatory architectures. Among the most consequential is Executive Order 14219, which directs agencies to review existing rules for legality and necessity, explicitly mandating the “deconstruction” of the administrative state.

This regulatory pause is a sharp contrast to the Biden administration’s “whole-of-government” approach on issues like ESG, DEI, and net-zero mandates. The early signs from Trump’s second term suggest not a return to a minimal-regulation model, but the very first-ever creation of such a thing. Countering the good news, though, are Trump’s separate tendencies toward economic intervention (antitrust, tariffs, price controls) that warrant close scrutiny and opposition.

Whether “The Great Unrule of 2025” holds remains to be seen. But as of mid-year, 2025 is on track for some of the lowest—if not the lowest—regulatory output in recorded history.

For a more detailed look at the numbers and historical context, see my full Forbes column: “Trump’s Deregulation Score: Mid-Year Federal Rules Tally Is The Lowest Ever Recorded.”