Trump’s Antitrust Policy Is Fascist Too

But I digress.

At Justice’s antitrust division under Trump, the deputy attorney general proposed closing some field offices and, according to Jonathan B. Baker, law professor emeritus at American University, “many experienced staff, concerned about their work environment, have left the agencies or are planning to do so.” Roger Alford was one of two deputies to antitrust chief Gail Slater fired recently for alleging cronyism in an antitrust settlement with Hewlett Packard. Alford said Monday (per Dave Michaels of The Wall Street Journal) that Attorney General Pam Bondi’s chief of staff, Chad Mizelle, is meddling with antitrust enforcement and “makes key decisions depending on whether the request or information comes from a MAGA friend.” The Journal’s Michaels and Annie Linskey previously reported that, working through Trump ally Mike Davis, Hewlett Packard settled by promising—off the books—to create new jobs at a facility in the United States. The pledge was not disclosed in court documents, and the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel is currently trying to figure out how to make this look like it’s in accordance with the law.

Overall, antitrust actions are both fewer under Trump and more tailored to his preferences. A recent report from the Nader-founded nonprofit Public Citizen found that Trump’s second administration has thus far either halted or withdrawn one-third of all ongoing investigations and enforcement actions against tech companies. Those same tech companies collectively spent, during and after the 2024 election cycle, $222 million on Trump businesses, $25 million on Trump’s inauguration, and $610 million to elect Republicans (more than half of this last from Musk). Nearly half the dropped enforcement actions were against crypto, a business sector the president recently joined. As I’ve noted previously, Trump’s crypto interests are entirely kleptocratic; it’s not clear the man’s invested so much as a penny, yet they’ve earned him about $1 billion.