{"id":127163,"date":"2025-07-18T09:02:57","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T17:02:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/07\/18\/what-will-antitrust-look-like-under-trump-2-0\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T09:02:57","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T17:02:57","slug":"what-will-antitrust-look-like-under-trump-2-0","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/07\/18\/what-will-antitrust-look-like-under-trump-2-0\/","title":{"rendered":"What Will Antitrust Look Like Under Trump 2.0?"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you step back far enough, you might be able to see some compatibility between a Trump presidency and strong antitrust policy. Gotta lower those egg prices somehow, right? But as you get closer, his affinity for deregulation and putting big business at the front row of his inauguration<\/a> makes it a little harder to square the theories that usually go behind using antitrust law as a tool to fight for the average consumer. While Making Antitrust Great Again isn\u2019t an impossible road to travel, the terrain is looking pretty rough. CBS News<\/a> has coverage:<\/p>\n

\n

Internal friction with the Justice Department team that fights monopolies has led to private conversations in the Trump administration about whether to push out some staff in the antitrust division or to work to smooth out the issues, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation.<\/p>\n

Gail Slater, who in March took charge of lawsuits against Capital One, Apple, Google and other major companies as head of the Justice Department\u2019s antitrust division, still has support from some top officials in the administration, but she and some on her team have been a target of criticism from colleagues and business leaders, sources inside and outside the administration told CBS News.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In a related article, Politico<\/a> managed to get some imput that puts some of the tension in focus: <\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThe Republican Party has two forces within it,\u201d Fiona Scott Morton, a former deputy assistant attorney general in the Obama DOJ\u2019s antitrust division, told DFD. \u201cThe money people, corporations who want to be allowed to merge anytime \u2026 and then there\u2019s the populists who are more against large corporations.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The really interesting bit is that Trump could be the final decision maker at the end of the day. It\u2019s a little attenuated, but let\u2019s assume for the sake of argument that Elon\u2019s plan of having the FTC and DOJ antitrust departments collapse in on each other <\/a>and the DOJ becoming the primary antitrust agency goes through. Trustbustin\u2019 would be weakened generally, but the DOJ would still retain the authority to carry out criminal antitrust cases. Say there\u2019s some egregious anti-competitive business practicing afoot and Zuckerberg or Bezos or their companies are hit hard with a Sherman Act violation and fined millions of dollars. Couldn\u2019t Trump just\u2026 pardon them after the fact? And even if he has some bad blood with a billionaire that could get hit with an antitrust violation *cough Elon cough*, surely it\u2019s nothing an anonymous investment in Trump\u2019s memecoin couldn\u2019t fix<\/a>. He already extended the pardon power to corporations back when he pardoned BitMEX after it violated the Bank Secrecy Act<\/a>. The presidential pardon could act as a strong check and balance that cuts in the favor of big business.<\/p>\n

Tension Over Antitrust Division Crops Up Inside Trump Administration, Sources Say <\/a>[CBS News]<\/p>\n

What \u2018America First Antitrust\u2019 means for Big Tech<\/a> [Politico]<\/p>\n

Earlier<\/strong>: DOJ And FTC Antitrust Enforcement May Get Merged Together<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord\u2122 in the Facebook group\u00a0Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . \u00a0He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim,\u00a0is interested in critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at\u00a0cwilliams@abovethelaw.com<\/a> and by tweet at\u00a0@WritesForRent<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The post What Will Antitrust Look Like Under Trump 2.0?<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you step back far enough, you might be able to see some compatibility between a Trump presidency and strong antitrust policy. Gotta lower those egg prices somehow, right? But as you get closer, his affinity for deregulation and putting big business at the front row of his inauguration<\/a> makes it a little harder to square the theories that usually go behind using antitrust law as a tool to fight for the average consumer. While Making Antitrust Great Again isn\u2019t an impossible road to travel, the terrain is looking pretty rough. CBS News<\/a> has coverage:<\/p>\n

\n

Internal friction with the Justice Department team that fights monopolies has led to private conversations in the Trump administration about whether to push out some staff in the antitrust division or to work to smooth out the issues, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation.<\/p>\n

Gail Slater, who in March took charge of lawsuits against Capital One, Apple, Google and other major companies as head of the Justice Department\u2019s antitrust division, still has support from some top officials in the administration, but she and some on her team have been a target of criticism from colleagues and business leaders, sources inside and outside the administration told CBS News.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In a related article, Politico<\/a> managed to get some imput that puts some of the tension in focus: <\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThe Republican Party has two forces within it,\u201d Fiona Scott Morton, a former deputy assistant attorney general in the Obama DOJ\u2019s antitrust division, told DFD. \u201cThe money people, corporations who want to be allowed to merge anytime \u2026 and then there\u2019s the populists who are more against large corporations.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The really interesting bit is that Trump could be the final decision maker at the end of the day. It\u2019s a little attenuated, but let\u2019s assume for the sake of argument that Elon\u2019s plan of having the FTC and DOJ antitrust departments collapse in on each other <\/a>and the DOJ becoming the primary antitrust agency goes through. Trustbustin\u2019 would be weakened generally, but the DOJ would still retain the authority to carry out criminal antitrust cases. Say there\u2019s some egregious anti-competitive business practicing afoot and Zuckerberg or Bezos or their companies are hit hard with a Sherman Act violation and fined millions of dollars. Couldn\u2019t Trump just\u2026 pardon them after the fact? And even if he has some bad blood with a billionaire that could get hit with an antitrust violation *cough Elon cough*, surely it\u2019s nothing an anonymous investment in Trump\u2019s memecoin couldn\u2019t fix<\/a>. He already extended the pardon power to corporations back when he pardoned BitMEX after it violated the Bank Secrecy Act<\/a>. The presidential pardon could act as a strong check and balance that cuts in the favor of big business.<\/p>\n

Tension Over Antitrust Division Crops Up Inside Trump Administration, Sources Say <\/a>[CBS News]<\/p>\n

What \u2018America First Antitrust\u2019 means for Big Tech<\/a> [Politico]<\/p>\n

Earlier<\/strong>: DOJ And FTC Antitrust Enforcement May Get Merged Together<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord\u2122 in the Facebook group\u00a0Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . \u00a0He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim,\u00a0is interested in critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at\u00a0cwilliams@abovethelaw.com<\/a> and by tweet at\u00a0@WritesForRent<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The post What Will Antitrust Look Like Under Trump 2.0?<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you step back far enough, you might be able to see some compatibility between a Trump presidency and strong antitrust policy. Gotta lower those egg prices somehow, right? But as you get closer, his affinity for deregulation and putting big business at the front row of his inauguration makes it a little harder to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":127057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-127163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Chris-Williams-2025-4WPSAX.jpeg?fit=512%2C288&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}