Former Trump administration White House Chief of Staff and Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney released an op-ed last Thursday, skewering the Biden-Harris administration for its “extralegal” regulatory overreach, offering specific examples of how the White House forced illegal regulations on Americans.
Mulvaney cited regulatory overreach as a key contrast between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, offering examples from the Biden-Harris administration that indicate the types of regulation Harris would seek to impose on Americans if elected in November.
According to Mulvaney, the Biden-Harris administration will not only seek to impose regulations without legal backing but will also continue to enforce regulations in violation of court orders.
Mulvaney noted that in June, a U.S. appeals court ruled that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) did not have the authority to impose a regulation requiring private funds to produce quarterly performance and reports and cease providing preferential options or special access to certain clients.
After the ruling, the SEC notified the court it would not appeal the decision. According to Mulvaney, “Instead, it started to act as if the rules still exist anyway, and has started bringing enforcement actions against some private funds.”
The former Trump administration official wrote, “You read that right: The courts said the SEC didn’t have the legal authority to do something, but it is acting as if it does anyway.”
While Mulvaney (pictured above) wrote the Biden-Harris administration enforced regulations tossed by court orders in some cases, the Trump-era official compared its other actions to “a mafia protection racket.”
Mulvaney wrote, “It works like this: A regulator sends a letter (or makes a post on its official website) that essentially says, ‘We want you to do better…We aren’t going to tell you exactly what that means, but you had best get on it. If you don’t, we will start taking a much closer look at you. You wouldn’t want that, would you?'”
He wrote that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is guilty of such practices under the Biden-Harris administration, noting that it recently approved a “Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. ” Then, he immediately contacted asset managers to demand they comply with rules that have yet to be approved.
Should a company affected by the regulations decide to sue, Mulvaney wrote that even if they should prove successful, they could face intense scrutiny as a reprisal.
Mulvaney suggested this is the case with PayPal, which won a lawsuit over federal regulations in 2024 but saw two new federal investigations opened into services unrelated to the litigation in 2023.
According to Mulvaney, Americans will notice the effects of these extralegal regulations through higher costs.
“Your bank fees may go up; your ‘free checking’ account might get a lot more expensive (or disappear entirely); your mortgage costs could go up; your small business may not be able to get a loan,” wrote Mulvaney.
Mulvaney more recently argued Democrats “think Trump is going to win” and said his greatest evidence is that “Democrats are talking like they are going to lose.”
– – –
Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
