Survey: Compliance faces ‘epistemic risk’ of Trump administration

During the weeks between President Donald Trump’s election win last fall and Inauguration Day in January, Compliance Week’s 2024 “Inside the Mind of the CCO” survey launched online, gathering real-time insights from cross-industry compliance professionals about what the new administration would do. At a time when the Republicans’ victory was fresh, cultural sentiment was raw. It seemed indelicate to ask colleagues how they felt about the election results.  

The survey, however, did ask those questions. Conducted between November and December 2024, it sought to tease out the political sentiments of the 227 compliance professionals who responded, among other matters. More than a third of them (35 percent) identified as chief compliance officers (CCOs) and chief ethics and compliance officers (CECOs). The survey asked participants how they felt about the survey results in several ways.  

Compliance officers were coping with uncertainty following President Trump’s election win, with fewer choosing to disclose their political affiliations in this year’s pulse survey. They did not want to be targets for their political views, perhaps for good reason. Since Inauguration Day, the President’s rescissions of the Biden administration’s actions have signaled a capricious era of compliance, one where respect for dissent might be in question.