Trump’s Taming of the Shrew (Inflation)

Trump’s EO killed DEI mania so merit not identity is the new watchword for federal agencies. But DOGE had urged the move to also net billions in cost savings with 1 stroke of the pen; shrewd DOGE stroke No. 2 was Trump’s EO slashing even costlier regulations.

Did someone say Trump needs to do something about inflation? True, it was the WSJ’s editors who coined Trump’s “shrewd” idea of placing federal DEI employees on paid administrative leave since all they’ve accomplished in 4 years of Biden’s own DEI directive was to advance “illegal discrimination or preferences.” But, it also came at an astronomical cost to businesses & society. No one has really put a price tag on DEI’s total cost nationally, although various reports suggest it’s in the tens of billions. Still, it was columnist Karl Rove who marveled that the Trump-DOGE team’s “most positive actions so far have been quieter … including efforts to reduce the regulatory burden the Biden administration had put on the economy.” How big was THAT inflationary burden? Says Rove: “His administration issued 1,213 new regulations,” triggering an estimated “$1.9 trillion in compliance costs over the first 10 yrs each new rule is in effect.”

Importantly, those added costs are passed on to consumers. Of course, Rome wasn’t built in a day & Trump’s two early anti-inflation moves will have to be adapted to by the plethora of federal agencies involved & thousands of businesses affected by the government’s ill-fated DEI initiative & regulations. That’ll take months if not a year or two. But, it’s a start.

Davd Soul