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President Donald Trump says he can cut regulations by 75 percent

Kai Ryssdal and Sabri Ben-Achour Jan 23, 2017
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U.S. President Donald Trump leads a meeting with invited business leaders, members of his staff and Vice President Mike Pence in the Roosevelt Room at the White House January 23, 2017 in Washington, DC. Business leaders included Elon Musk of SpaceX, Wendell Weeks of Corning, Mark Sutton of International Paper, Andrew Liveris of Dow Chemical, Alex Gorsky of Johnston & Johnson and others.    Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

President Donald Trump says he can cut regulations by 75 percent

Kai Ryssdal and Sabri Ben-Achour Jan 23, 2017
U.S. President Donald Trump leads a meeting with invited business leaders, members of his staff and Vice President Mike Pence in the Roosevelt Room at the White House January 23, 2017 in Washington, DC. Business leaders included Elon Musk of SpaceX, Wendell Weeks of Corning, Mark Sutton of International Paper, Andrew Liveris of Dow Chemical, Alex Gorsky of Johnston & Johnson and others.    Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
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Every new presidential administration starts with a flurry of activity and the Trump White House is proving no different in that regard.

President Donald Trump met with business leaders in the White House Monday morning – many of whom are from the manufacturing sector. Among them were Mark Fields of Ford Motor Company, Elon Musk of SpaceX, Michael Dell of Dell Technologies and representatives from Whirlpool, Lockheed Martin, Dow Chemical, and U.S. Steel, to name a few.

Trump told the business leaders at his meeting that he would focus on trade and the economy. “It’s what the people wanted. It’s one the reasons I’m sitting here instead of someone else sitting here. I think it’s something I’m good at,” Trump said.

He also told them that he would like to reduce regulation, make it easier for companies to do big projects, things that are “monstrous and special,” Trump said. “We think we can cut regulations by 75 percent. Maybe more.”

How does a president cut regulations by 75 percent?

Marketplace’s Sabri Ben-Achour says it depends on how you measure regulation.

“If you are talking about like reducing the entire body of federal regulations by 75 percent that would be a herculean feat, but he could be well talking about reducing the flow of regulations, like how many a month come through. That’s do-able.”

How did business leaders take this meeting?

Positive reviews. For instance, Dow Chemical’s CEO Andrew N. Liveris said:

“We did talk about the border tax quite a bit and we did talk about the sort of industries that might be helped or hurt by that,” Liveris said. “Look, I would take the president at his word here, he’s not going to do anything to harm competitiveness, he’s actually going to make us all more competitive.”

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