Deregulation Nation: Rigging the System
A deep dive into how Trump’s second term is dismantling public oversight, voting rights, and legal protections to entrench power and shield corruption.
This Deep Dive is part 5 (the final installment) of our ongoing series: Deregulation Nation.
The United States was never a perfect democracy, but it had rules. Rules that said no one, not even the most powerful, was above the law, public officials could be held accountable, elections would be fair, and power had limits.
Under Trump’s second term, those limits are being erased.
This isn’t just deregulation of industries. It’s deregulation of democracy itself.
Agencies once tasked with protecting voters have been defanged. Watchdogs that used to investigate corruption have been fired. Courts that once offered recourse now look the other way. And the same president who gutted these protections is pardoning the people who broke them.
The plan isn’t to bend the rules. It’s to remove them entirely.
This final installment in our Deregulation Nation series tracks how Trump is hollowing out the very institutions that make democratic governance possible, creating a system where oversight is optional, accountability is erased, and law is only enforced when it benefits the powerful.
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Voting Rights Suppression & DOJ Inaction
In Trump’s second term, the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division—the federal body charged with protecting voting rights—has been rendered almost unrecognizable. Key enforcement positions remain unfilled, high-impact lawsuits have been shelved, and the administration has quietly deprioritized cases targeting discriminatory voting laws.
While state legislatures pass increasingly aggressive restrictions on ballot access, the DOJ watches from the sidelines.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the push for the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act. This bill requires documentary proof of citizenship—like a passport or birth certificate—to register to vote. Framed as a measure against non-citizen voting (a statistically nonexistent problem), the law disproportionately burdens low-income voters, women who have changed their names, rural residents, and naturalized citizens.
We detailed the deceptive logic and devastating consequences of the SAVE Act in:
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While the SAVE Act moves through Congress, Trump has already taken unilateral action: an executive order now requires documentary proof of citizenship for federal registration and blocks mail-in ballots received after Election Day, even if they were postmarked on time.
Civil rights groups have filed lawsuits, and Democratic officials have called it unconstitutional. However, the DOJ has yet to file a meaningful challenge.
We explored how these tactics feed a national voter suppression strategy in:
Meanwhile, red states continue to purge voter rolls, close polling locations in urban and minority communities, and expand voter ID requirements. The federal government—the entity designed to safeguard all Americans' voting rights— has abdicated its role.
This is not voter fraud prevention. It’s voter suppression by design.
Election Oversight Frozen: CISA, Fraud Claims, and Narrative Control
In the first Trump term, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) played a key role in protecting U.S. elections, monitoring digital threats, combating disinformation, and securing voting infrastructure. But now, the agency is gutted. Key cybersecurity teams have been defunded or disbanded, and their leadership replaced with partisan loyalists.
With CISA effectively neutralized, no federal agency actively monitors election interference in real time. Foreign adversaries know it. Domestic actors are exploiting it. And voters are left in the dark.
But this isn’t an oversight; it’s a strategy.
Trump’s electoral playbook hasn’t changed: discredit the outcome before the first vote is cast. The narrative of voter fraud is a feature, not a flaw. And it’s used to justify everything from restrictive voting laws to post-election legal challenges.
We broke down this manufactured fraud strategy in:
Meanwhile, the administration has launched investigations into past elections, revived efforts to seize voting machines, and pushed for “election integrity task forces” stacked with partisan appointees. These moves don’t secure elections; they cast doubt on them, by design.
Without independent oversight and the DOJ refusing to intervene, the election system becomes what Trump always wanted: a battleground he controls, not a process that controls him.
Watchdog Elimination: The Inspector General Massacre
On January 24, 2025, just days into his second term, President Trump fired 17 inspectors general, a sweeping purge that eliminated oversight officials across key agencies, including Defense, State, Veterans Affairs, and Interior. The administration provided no advance notice to Congress, violating the Inspector General Act and its 2022 amendment requiring 30-day notification.
We examined how the firing of 17 inspectors general fits into a broader plan to eliminate government accountability in:
Eight of the ousted IGs filed suit. In March, a federal judge ruled the firings likely violated federal law, but declined to reinstate them, noting Trump could remove them again.
Meanwhile, DOGE slashed oversight budgets and weakened whistleblower protections. Federal employees now fear retaliation, and there are no longer any watchdogs to report to.
This isn’t streamlining. It’s erasure. Accountability is no longer part of the job description.
The Supreme Court: Deregulation by Disinterest
While Congress and the executive branch rewrite the rules, the Supreme Court is quietly unwriting accountability— not with sweeping decisions, but with calculated inaction.
In recent months, the Court has declined to hear multiple cases challenging new laws impacting labor, the environment, and voting rights— many of which hinge on the authority of federal agencies. These include key challenges involving the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which oversees collective bargaining and workplace rights, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The message? Don’t expect the courts to step in if you're harmed by deregulation.
This passivity follows one of the most consequential legal shifts in decades: the rollback of Chevron deference. For nearly 40 years, courts deferred to federal agencies when interpreting ambiguous laws, recognizing that experts at the EPA, NLRB, and others were best suited to apply complex regulations. However, under the new conservative majority, the Court has reversed that principle, stripping agencies of this deference and making it easier for courts to strike down rules they once respected.
Legal scholars warn that the Court’s increasing reliance on the “shadow docket”—issuing major decisions without full hearings—has created a fractured legal landscape in which vital protections depend not on law but geography and ideology.
In short, the laws may still be on the books, but without someone to enforce them and no court willing to intervene, they’re meaningless.
Pardons as Deregulation: Crime Without Consequence
Trump has always understood power as performance. So when he wants to dismantle a law, he doesn’t just rewrite it. He pardons the person who broke it.
In the final and most flagrant form of deregulation, Trump has begun issuing presidential pardons as policy statements, not for remorseful citizens or miscarriages of justice, but for the poster children of white-collar impunity.
Among those granted clemency in recent months:
Trevor Milton, the disgraced founder of Nikola, was convicted of defrauding investors with fake tech demos and bogus hydrogen hype. His pardon tells the world that you can lie to investors and fake innovation if you bankroll the right people.
The BitMEX founders violated anti-money laundering laws and let billions in crypto flow unchecked through their exchange. Their pardon signals to regulators like the SEC and Treasury: Back off. Crypto cowboys have friends in high places.
Carlos Watson, of Ozy Media, whose fraudulent data and fabricated viewership figures duped investors and advertisers alike. Pardoning him amounts to saying: media manipulation is fine, if it boosts the correct narratives.
Devon Archer, Hunter Biden’s former business associate, was convicted of defrauding a Native American tribe in a securities scheme. His pardon wasn’t about justice but about scoring political points in the Biden family saga.
Jason Galanis, a central figure in the same fraud scheme, had his 14-year sentence commuted. Together with Archer, the message is clear: fraud is forgivable if your crime feeds the narrative.
And in a move that electrified the far-right base, Trump granted clemency to Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, a libertarian icon who embodied the dream of an unregulated, stateless marketplace. For Trump’s followers, Ulbricht isn’t a felon. He’s a martyr.
These pardons don’t just wipe criminal records. They send a message to regulators, judges, prosecutors, and the public:
“If you’re wealthy, loyal, and useful, you can break the law. And I’ll protect you.”
This is what deregulation looks like at its logical extreme: Not fewer rules. No rules for the powerful.
And for everyone else? More fines, more surveillance, more crackdowns, because in Trump’s America, accountability is a punishment reserved for the powerless.
Conclusion: Deregulating Democracy
The story of Trump’s second term isn’t just one of deregulation; it’s one of deconstruction—not just of environmental protections, worker safety, or consumer rights, but of the systems that protect democracy itself.
The institutions meant to safeguard the public—voting rights enforcers, government watchdogs, independent courts—are being hollowed out. The referees have been fired. The rules rewritten. And those who broke them? They’re walking free, pardoned by the man who tore the playbook in half.
This is no longer about streamlining government. It’s about removing every obstacle to unchecked power.
We’ve tracked how deregulation has gutted protections for the environment, the economy, public health, labor, and now, democracy itself. This final chapter makes clear that when the system is rigged from the top down, there is no safety net, accountability, or justice. Just a government remade in the image of the people who profit most from its failure.
Deregulation was never about freedom. It was about control.
And now, the game isn’t just rigged. The rulebook is gone.
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Bibliography:
Trump fires inspectors general across multiple agencies, prompting legal backlash. ABC News. March 27, 2025.
Trump signs executive order requiring proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections. The Guardian. April 1, 2025.
Democrats sue Trump over citizenship order for voter registration. Axios. April 1, 2025.
Trump’s SAVE Act would disenfranchise millions. Center for American Progress. March 2025.
Supreme Court strikes down Chevron, curtailing power of federal agencies. SCOTUSblog. June 28, 2024.
Justices turn away NLRB review cases after Chevron rollback. Law360. March 11, 2025.
Trump grants clemency to 2 Hunter Biden associates convicted of tribal fraud. ABC News. March 31, 2025.
Trump pardons felon who defrauded Oglala Sioux Tribe enterprise out of $60 million. Native News Online. March 31, 2025.
Trump pardons Jason Galanis in tribal bond fraud case. Politico. March 31, 2025.
Trump is Putin’s wrecking Ball
If the DOJ is corrupted, what recourse is there? How can trump and his corrupt regime be challenged?