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Griffin called it “constant friction at Citadel, with the government across umpteen different aspects of our business.”
He summed it up in one word.
“It was exhausting.”
Then came Election Day.
Griffin told the Davos audience that the shift was immediate and dramatic. The regulatory pressure that had dominated daily life under Biden abruptly disappeared. The relief among business leaders was palpable.
“To have that literally end on one day – Election Day – just gives you so much energy as an entrepreneur to go back and build your damn business,” Griffin said.
To illustrate the real world cost of Biden era regulation, Griffin pointed to a major airline collapse that Washington elites still refuse to acknowledge.
Citadel was a creditor of Spirit Airlines, the budget airline that attempted to merge with JetBlue in a bid to survive mounting financial pressure.
That merger would have saved jobs and stabilized the company.
Instead, Biden’s Justice Department blocked the deal on antitrust grounds, arguing that it might reduce competition among low cost carriers. The theoretical harm never materialized. The real world damage did.
Spirit Airlines is now bankrupt.
The jobs are gone.
The company is broken.
“There were so many decisions that were so poorly thought out in terms of economic consequences; it cost the U.S. economy dearly, I cannot emphasize that enough,” Griffin said.
Following the 2024 election, Griffin said executives across America shared the same reaction. Relief.
“The biggest sea change I’ve seen, across American executives, has been just the giant sigh of relief – ‘I can now go and focus on building my business.'”
Griffin noted that the Trump administration did not even need to immediately dismantle every Biden regulation to restore confidence. Simply halting the daily flood of new rules was enough to reignite growth.
“The Trump administration is making slow progress on deregulation thus far, but the end of the regulatory onslaught just has been an extraordinary boom for American business,” he explained.
Data released by the Trump White House backs up Griffin’s experience. Over four years, the Biden administration imposed an estimated $1.7 trillion in regulatory costs on American families and businesses.
President Donald Trump responded by signing an executive order requiring federal agencies to eliminate at least ten existing regulations for every new one proposed. For fiscal year 2025, the total regulatory cost must be significantly less than zero, meaning the burden is finally shrinking.
While Griffin runs a multibillion dollar firm with teams of lawyers and compliance officers, small business owners were hit even harder. Restaurant owners, contractors, and entrepreneurs lacked the resources to navigate Biden’s expanding administrative maze.
Every new rule meant more paperwork, higher costs, delayed hiring, and stalled growth. Money that should have gone into wages, equipment, and innovation was instead funneled into compliance.
Griffin’s warning was clear. When government stops suffocating businesses, America thrives. When it does not, jobs disappear, companies collapse, and economic momentum dies.
After four years of regulatory punishment, American business is finally breathing again.
