Why Trump Might Have a Hard Time Reforming the System

President-elect Trump wants to overhaul the administrative state, but to do that he’ll have to enact his own rules and regulations. (WSJ)

A study by NYU School of Law’s Institute for Policy Integrity: Compared to other recent administrations, Trump-era federal agencies had much less success in getting their major rules past the courts.

Also: Trump agencies’ rules were challenged at higher rates.

Zoom in: 28% of major rules written by federal agencies under Trump were challenged in court, higher than any of his recent predecessors.

• And 57% of challenged regulations lost in court, the highest failure rate since Bill Clinton's second term.

• Meanwhile, 7 out of 11 judges on the D.C. Court of Appeals, where many federal rules are contested, were appointed by Democrats.

Related: As Axios’ Emily Peck has pointed out, there’s a lot to undo, as the Biden administration “put through more rules than any other White House over the same time period.”

Bubba’s Two Cents

If Trump wants to make good on his promise to “shatter the deep state” and dismantle Biden administration regulations on energy, manufacturing and more, he’ll have to carefully navigate the bureaucracy and the courts — his track record here is mixed.