Over the first two years of Trump's presidency, enforcement activity at the nation's top three consumer protection agencies that resulted in fines of at least $5,000 plummeted 37 percent from the last two years under former President Barack Obama, according to Consumer Carnage (pdf), the watchdog group's new report.
"Trump, who once asserted that he was 'not going to let Wall Street get away with murder,' now is allowing industry after industry to get away with just about anything," said Alan Zibel, the report's lead author and research director for Public Citizen's Corporate Presidency Project.
"Trump's appointees' apparent belief that enforcement of consumer protection laws should be a last resort," Zibel noted, "represents a dramatic about-face from Trump's claim of populism during his campaign."