Among the 161 Executive Orders that President Trump has issued during his second term through June 12, 2025,  at least nine relate to federal regulation.  These are identified in paragraph 6 below.  (The designation “at least nine” is to recognize that the definitional boundaries of which executive orders relate to federal regulation are somewhat subjective at the margin.)  The purpose of this post is to unravel the current state of the executive branch’s Presidential directives for promulgating, implementing, and enforcing agency regulations, separate and apart from statutory or judicially-imposed requirements, and provide relevant lists for those who are interested.

1.     The role that executive orders play in setting the executive branch’s ground rules for federal regulation is longstanding.  Central to the entire coordinating effort—and still in effect–is EO 12866, first issued in 1993 by President Clinton (as a successor to EOs 12291 and 12498 issued by President Reagan in 1981 and 1985).  That was supplemented by EO 13422 (2007) by President Bush, mostly focused on review of agency guidance documents, and by EOs 13563 (2011) and 13610 (2012) by President Obama, which were largely focused on retrospective review of existing regulations.  These two Obama executive orders remain in effect as well.

2.     However, President Bush’s EO 13422 (2007) was revoked by President Obama in EO 13497 (2009).  Despite that revocation, one month later OMB issued a memo that continued to require clearance of significance guidance documents, in OMB memo M-09-13 (March 4, 2009).

3.      In President Trump’s first term,  he did not revoke either of the two Obama executive orders about regulation, but he issued at least ten new executive orders supplementing the requirements for the regulatory process (not including those that addressed the permitting process).  These were:

EO 13771        Reducing Regulation and Controlling Regulatory Costs (2017)

EO 13777        Enforcing the Regulatory Reform Agenda (2017)

EO 13891        Promoting the Rule of Law Through Improved Agency Guidance Documents (2019)

EO 13892        Promoting the Rule of Law Through Transparency and Fairness in Civil Administrative Enforcement and Adjudication (2019)

EO 13893        Increasing Government Accountability for Administrative Actions by Reinvigorating Administrative PAYGO (2019)

EO 13924        Regulatory Relief To Support Economic Recovery (2020)

EO 13979        Ensuring Democratic Accountability in Agency Rulemaking (2021)

EO 13980        Protecting Americans From Overcriminalization Through Regulatory Reform (2021)

EO 13789        Identifying and Reducing Tax Regulatory Burdens (2017)

EO 13772        Core Principles for Regulating the United States Financial System (2017)

(Another more narrowly focused executive order, EO 13843 Excepting Administrative Law Judges From the Competitive Service (2018), addressed administrative law judges, and it remains in effect.)

4.       Almost immediately after taking office in 2021,  President Biden took the unusual step of revoking all ten of the Trump executive orders concerning federal regulation listed in paragraph 3 above, by President Biden’s own executive orders 13992 (2021),  14018 (2021), and 14029 (2021).

5.       President Biden later issued at least two more executive orders of his own regarding federal regulation:

EO  14094       Modernizing Regulatory Review (2023)

EO 14116        Amending Regulations Relating to the Safeguarding of Vessels, Harbors, Ports, and Waterfront Facilities of the United States (2024)

It appears that EO 14116 (2024) is still in effect, but EO 14094 (2023) was revoked by President Trump in EO 14148 (2025). 

6.       In President Trump’s second term,  he has issued the following nine executive orders regarding federal regulation:

EO 14192        Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation (2025)

EO 14215        Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies (2025)

EO 14219        Ensuring Lawful Governance and Implementing the President’s “Department of Government Efficiency” Deregulatory Initiative (2025)

                        —-With Presidential Memorandum “Directing the Repeal of Unlawful Regulations” (April 9, 2025)

EO 14267        Reducing Anti-Competitive Regulatory Barriers (2025)

EO 14270        Zero-Based Regulatory Budgeting To Unleash American Energy (2025)

EO 14293        Regulatory Relief To Promote Domestic Production of Critical Medicines (2025)

EO 14294        Fighting Overcriminalization in Federal Regulations (2025)

EO 14295        Increasing Efficiency at the Office of the Federal Register (2025)

EO 14148        Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions (2025)

(In addition,  there have been several executive orders that address more narrowly focused regulatory actions, such as:  EO 14264 Maintaining Acceptable Water Pressure in Showerheads (2025)  EO 14286  Enforcing Commonsense Rules of the Road for America’s Truck Drivers (2025);  EO 14304 Leading the World in Supersonic Flight; and  EO 14307 Unleashing American Drone Dominance.)

7.       President Trump’s EO 14148 (2025) revoking the Biden executive orders 13992 (2021), 14018 (2021), and 14029 (2021), which had themselves previously revoked the Trump first term executive orders listed in paragraph 3 above, presumably revived those ten executive orders from President Trump’s first term.  However, at least two of the “revived” Trump first term executive orders overlap with new Trump second term executive orders.  One pair are the executive orders establishing a regulatory budget with cost caps:

EO 13771        Reducing Regulation and Controlling Regulatory Costs (2017)

EO 14192        Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation (2025)

The other pair are the executive orders addressing overcriminalization in regulations:

EO 13980        Protecting Americans From Overcriminalization Through Regulatory Reform (2021)

EO 14294        Fighting Overcriminalization in Federal Regulations (2025)

Neither of these second term executive orders expressly references the earlier iteration from the first term, but it seems reasonable to assume that the two more recent 2025 executive orders supersede their predecessors from 2017 and 2021.

8.        At present, then, the nine new Trump executive orders from 2025 are plainly in effect for the executive branch, and it would seem that at least eight of the Trump executive orders from 2017-2021 have been revived by virtue of the revocation of the Biden executive orders that had repealed them.

Cumulatively then, these seventeen Trump executive orders—nine in 2025 and eight revived from the first term—would join the existing executive branch ground rules from EO 12866 (1993), EO 13563 (2011), and EO 13610 (2012) as a set of twenty executive orders that set the executive branch parameters for federal regulation at present.