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Trump's Government Haunted by the Ghosts of Bad Antitrust
The belief that there was some continuity between the Biden and Trump administrations on antitrust early this year was not wishful thinking or based in fantasy. There were real indications that this could be real: the continuation of the 2023 merger guidelines, the similar proposed remedy for Google’s monopolization of search, and even recently, the finalization of a junk fee rule requiring all-in pricing for ticketing and hotels. This spurred hopes that Trump appointees Andrew Ferguson and Gail Slater would not represent too much of a drop-off from Lina Khan and Jonathan Kanter in their respective positions of antitrust enforcement.
But conclusions must be led by the facts, and the facts that have piled up over the past couple months show that Trump’s team has alternated between a return to damaging laissez-faire attitudes around corporate consolidation and a weaponization of antitrust for their own ideological ends. The latest development, the greenlighting of an advertising merger on the condition that it almost literally steer money to Elon Musk, represents the apotheosis of this decline.
Backsliding was always likely to happen in a White House blessed by Big Tech, populated by billionaires, and lacking in firm policy beliefs. The authoritarian mindset wasn’t going to skip over a couple agencies on the road to Trumpian control. Those who do see the threat of corporate power in our society have a responsibility to call out this disturbing trend, rather than taking solace in the points of agreement. It’s good that there will be a bit less to rebuild in antitrust than the rest of the government in the aftermath of Trumpian destruction, but it’ll still be one hell of a reclamation project.
Perhaps the most chilling action taken of late was the Federal Trade Commission’s approval of a $13.5 billion merger between Omnicom Group and Interpublic Group, which will create the largest advertising holding company in the world. The FTC could have examined the impact on pricing by advertisers, or on workers at imminent risk of layoffs through the creation of “efficiencies,” or on innovation, or on the possibility for exclusive dealing, as we’ve already seen in the Google adtech case (which is being adjudicated just down the street by the Justice Department’s antitrust division).
But conclusions must be led by the facts, and the facts that have piled up over the past couple months show that Trump’s team has alternated between a return to damaging laissez-faire attitudes around corporate consolidation and a weaponization of antitrust for their own ideological ends. The latest development, the greenlighting of an advertising merger on the condition that it almost literally steer money to Elon Musk, represents the apotheosis of this decline.
Backsliding was always likely to happen in a White House blessed by Big Tech, populated by billionaires, and lacking in firm policy beliefs. The authoritarian mindset wasn’t going to skip over a couple agencies on the road to Trumpian control. Those who do see the threat of corporate power in our society have a responsibility to call out this disturbing trend, rather than taking solace in the points of agreement. It’s good that there will be a bit less to rebuild in antitrust than the rest of the government in the aftermath of Trumpian destruction, but it’ll still be one hell of a reclamation project.
Perhaps the most chilling action taken of late was the Federal Trade Commission’s approval of a $13.5 billion merger between Omnicom Group and Interpublic Group, which will create the largest advertising holding company in the world. The FTC could have examined the impact on pricing by advertisers, or on workers at imminent risk of layoffs through the creation of “efficiencies,” or on innovation, or on the possibility for exclusive dealing, as we’ve already seen in the Google adtech case (which is being adjudicated just down the street by the Justice Department’s antitrust division).
https://prospect.org/2025-06-24-trump-ftc-antitrust-mergers-elon-musk/