WASHINGTON _ President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday designed to fulfill his campaign pledge to reduce red tape for businesses.
The two-page order requires that when a federal agency proposes new regulations, "it shall identify at least two existing regulations to be repealed."
"We want to make the life easier for small businesses" and big business, Trump said Monday from the Roosevelt Room of the White House, where he met with nine representatives of the small-business sector.
Trump said he hoped to see "up to 75 percent" of federal regulations eliminated during his presidency.
"Regulation has been horrible for big business, but it's been worse for small business," Trump said.
He also reiterated his promise to gut the Dodd-Frank Act, the financial regulatory overhaul that was passed after the financial crisis.
"Dodd-Frank is a disaster," he said. "We're going to be doing a big number on Dodd-Frank."
Consumer advocates who backed the law say that eliminating it would help Wall Street and other players in the financial sector at the expense of consumers.
