In fact, the efforts by the White House, Office of Management and Budget, and several agencies to cut and reduce the flow of regulations this year have only ever been topped once: by the same Trump team last year.

"At year-end 2018, how is President Donald Trump's regulatory reform project going? Better than Obama, Bush II, and Clinton in terms of fewer regulations; but not as good as Trump's own first year," said the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

CEI regulations guru Clyde Wayne Crews Jr. said in a year-end report provided in advance to Secrets that Trump ended the year with 3,367 new regulations. That is the lowest since records were first kept in the 1970s.

But Crews noted that Trump's number of new regulations is lower. The reason: the government requires a "regulation" to kill a regulation, and Trump is continuing on his promise to kill two regulations for every new one he proposes.