WASHINGTON (November 13, 2024) – U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has tapped Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead a new commission on cutting government spending and regulation, The Washington Post reports.

As Trump continues to build out the team of his next administration, experts are wondering what his second term in office might exactly look like. There are growing questions around the regulatory actions Trump may or may not take when he returns to the White House.

Faculty experts at the George Washington University are available to offer academic insight, analysis and commentary. To speak with an expert, please contact GW Media Relations at [email protected].


Roger Nober is the Director of the GW Regulatory Studies Center and a Professor of Practice at the GW Trachtenberg School. His career includes service as Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer at BNSF Railway, Chairman of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board and Chief Counsel of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure of the U.S. House of Representatives. Nober retired from BNSF Railway Co. in December 2022, after 16 years as an Executive Vice President responsible for overseeing legal and regulatory matters, environmental claims, compliance, communications as well as state government and community affairs.

Susan Dudley is a distinguished professor of practice in the GW Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration and former director of the GW Regulatory Studies Center. Dudley served as the Presidentially-appointed Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, directed the Regulatory Studies Program at the Mercatus Center, served as a staff economist at OIRA, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and as a consultant to government and private clients at Economists Incorporated. Her expertise includes regulatory policy, federal regulatory procedure, benefit-cost analysis, risk assessment, environmental policy, health & safety regulation, and financial market regulation.

Dudley published the piece, “What To Expect On The Regulatory Front In A Second Trump Term,” in Forbes today about the regulatory actions she expects Trump and his administration to make in his second term as president.

Christopher Carrigan is an associate professor and co-director of the GW Regulatory Studies Center. His research focuses on regulatory and bureaucratic policymaking, exploring the effects of organizational design on agency rulemaking and enforcement practices, political responses to disasters in regulated industries, factors that influence rule timing and durability, and the role supporting analysis plays in regulatory outcomes. Carrigan’s expertise includes regulation, bureaucratic politics, public administration and policy, and political economy.

Steven Balla, associate professor and co-director of the GW Regulatory Studies Center, studies government transparency and public participation in policymaking in China and the United States. Balla is currently working on projects on congressional oversight of regulatory policymaking, polarization in public commenting on proposed rules, transparency and participation in state rulemaking, commenting on midnight regulations, policymaking innovation in China, transparency and participation in policymaking in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and the responsiveness of Chinese government officials to public feedback on draft laws and regulations.

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