US President Donald Trump is once again calling on regulators to ease reporting rules for publicly traded companies, reviving an idea he floated during his first term in the White House.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump urged the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to stop requiring companies to report earnings every three months and instead shift to a twice-yearly schedule. He argued that less frequent reporting would “save money and allow managers to focus on running their companies properly.”
Supporters of the move say it could encourage more companies to go public in the U.S., reversing a steady decline in recent years. But critics warn that investors rely on quarterly reports for transparency and that rolling them back could increase market risks.
Since the 1970s, U.S. regulators have required public companies to disclose earnings every quarter. Previous attempts to reduce that frequency have met pushback from shareholders and other watchdogs concerned about losing visibility into corporate performance.
Trump had previously pressed the SEC to adopt semiannual reporting during his presidency, but the proposal never gained traction. Current SEC leaders, including Chair Paul Atkins, have also criticised some disclosure requirements as burdensome for companies. The agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Signs of momentum behind Trump’s idea surfaced last week when the Long-Term Stock Exchange said it plans to ask the SEC to let companies file results only twice a year instead of quarterly, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Prominent investors Warren Buffett and JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon have also questioned the benefits of quarterly financial guidance, warning it encourages short-term thinking at the expense of long-term strategy.
In his post, Trump claimed China’s reporting rules are more business-friendly than those in the U.S. “Have you ever heard the statement, ‘China runs companies with a 50- to 100-year outlook while we run ours quarter to quarter’? Not good!!” he wrote.
Switching to semiannual reports would also bring the U.S. closer to practices in the United Kingdom and several European Union countries.
