The Trump administration has canceled enforcement actions inherited from the Biden administration against 205 corporations, according to a report Public Citizen released Wednesday.
The canceled actions include federal investigations, enforcement lawsuits, prior settlements, and other accountability measures for alleged lawbreaking. Sectors that have benefited most are banks and finance, 51; tech, 28; and cryptocurrency and fintech, 26.
The 212 canceled enforcement actions include:
- 80 closed investigations, including 10 criminal investigations.
- 67 dismissed enforcement lawsuits the federal agencies were actively litigating, including 10 criminal cases.
- 54 canceled consequences in which the Trump administration terminated or reversed enforcement actions that were resolved before his second term, including 14 pardons of corporations and executives and five canceled corporate leniency deals.
“Trump’s retreat from law enforcement against corporate crime is a signal to Big Business that if you’re big enough, rich enough, and connected enough with Trump’s inner circle, there are no consequences for breaking the law,” Rick Claypool, author of the report and research director for Public Citizen, a public interest research group, said in a statement.
Claypool said the reckless experiments of AI corporations, the proliferation of scammy financial fraudsters, and the outbreaks of tainted food show that the message has clearly been received.
Top beneficiaries of the cancellation of corporate enforcement actions include:
- Corporations where Elon Musk is CEO, which benefited from at least eight canceled enforcement actions. Tesla received four– three canceled investigations by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and one planned inspection by the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs. SpaceX also received four – a dismissed lawsuit from the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, a dismissed National Labor Relations Board lawsuit, a presumably closed investigation into data center pollution by the Environmental Protection Agency, and a settled and dismissed lawsuit brought against Musk by the Securities and Exchange Commission alleging misconduct related to the acquisition of Twitter, now X, a SpaceX subsidiary. Musk is the top corporate gift-giver, having spent or pledged about $400 million, including spending to elect Trump and Republicans in 2024, pledged election spending in 2026, a $5 million gift to the Trump-aligned MAGA Inc. super PAC, and a corporate gift of $1 million from X to Trump’s inaugural fund.
- Wells Fargo, a financial giant with repeated consumer protection violations, benefited from the cancellation of five enforcement actions, including the dismissal of a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB, case brought under the Biden administration, the termination of two CFPB consent orders, and the termination of two consent orders with the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
- Pfizer, the pharmaceutical giant and previous employer of Attorney General Pam Bondi, with three enforcement actions led by the U.S. Department of Justice canceled since Trump took office. Pfizer contributed $1 million toward Trump’s inaugural fund, employed Trump ally Jeff Miller to lobby on its behalf, and is a former employer of former Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Corporations that benefited from two canceled enforcement actions each include Amazon, Bank of America, Binance, Biogen, Capital One, Charles River Laboratories International, Clarus Corporation, GE Healthcare, Globe Life, Meta, Morgan Stanley, National Collegiate Student Loan Trusts, Patriot Bank, Peloton, Polymarket, Toyota, and Washington Federal Bank.
Public Citizen used a Corporate Enforcement Tracker, an online resource for watchdogging the Trump administration’s cancellation of federal enforcement actions brought against corporations prior to President Trump’s second term. These enforcement actions include investigations, enforcement lawsuits, and other accountability measures for alleged lawbreaking by many of the largest and most powerful corporations.
