Why Trump's antitrust agenda could spell trouble for Big Tech

The Trump administration is moving forward with several Biden-era antitrust lawsuits, policies and positions, signaling a continued focus on aggressive antitrust enforcement that could spell trouble for Big Tech.

Despite President Trump’s seemingly close relationship with tech leaders in his second term, his administration doesn’t appear keen to let up on antitrust enforcement, which has increasingly taken aim at the industry’s biggest players in recent years.

“Overall, what we're seeing is largely continuity between the Biden and Trump antitrust regimes,” said Nidhi Hegde, executive director at the American Economic Liberties Project, a non-profit that advocates for strong antitrust enforcement.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) indicated earlier this month that it is still seeking a breakup of Google, even after Trump hinted that he might oppose such a move last fall.

While the then-presidential candidate suggested in October that a breakup was
“dangerous” and could stand to benefit China, his DOJ largely maintained the Biden administration’s proposal, which would require Google to divest from its Chrome browser.

“The Trump DOJ affirming its commitment to the structural breakup of Google, structural remedies, it was a big signal that we are going to see in continuity from one administration to another,” Hegde told The Hill.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which leads the administration’s antitrust policy alongside the DOJ, also said in February that it would continue to use the merger guidelines established in 2023 under former President Biden.

While FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson noted in a letter to agency staff last month that the guidelines are not “perfect,” he said they are largely a “restatement of prior iterations,” emphasizing the importance of stability.

“Stability across administrations of both parties has thus been the name of the game,” Ferguson said, adding, “I have been asked a number of times about the fate of the 2023 Guidelines now that I am Chairman. I think the clear lesson of history is that we should prize stability and disfavor wholesale.”

The DOJ also sued to block a merger between Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Juniper Networks shortly after Trump took office. The Biden administration had been preparing a challenge and met with top company officials in November, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Jon Dubrow, U.S. antitrust lead at law firm McDermott Will & Emery, said in a statement to The Hill that he expected to see “some greater change on the merger review front,” including the administration pulling back from the Biden-era guidelines.

However, he noted that FTC commissioner Melissa Holyoak and Gail Slater, the newly confirmed head of the DOJ’s antitrust division, have indicated the administration “will be less hostile” to mergers and acquisitions.

Ferguson also reportedly told major CEOs at a closed-door meeting last week that the FTC does not aim to stand in the way of mergers, seemingly trying to separate himself from former FTC Chair Lina Khan’s hardline stance.

"If we think conduct or merger is going to hurt Americans economically, I'm taking you to court," Ferguson said, according to Axios. "But if we don't, we'll get the hell out of the way.”

The antitrust push isn’t entirely unexpected for Trump, whose administration brought several major antitrust cases in his first term.

The Google case was initially filed during Trump’s first term. The DOJ sued the tech giant in 2020, accusing it of maintaining an illegal monopoly over online search. A federal judge sided with the government last August.

Trump’s FTC also brought an antitrust case against Meta, Facebook and Instagram’s parent company, that is set to go to trial in April.

Big Tech firms have been a key target of antitrust enforcement under both Trump and Biden, another area of “continuity,” Dubrow noted.

The Biden administration followed up on the Trump-era lawsuits with a second Google antitrust case in 2023, in addition to cases against Amazon and Apple.

However, Dubrow emphasized that there is more of a “focus on content moderation potentially limiting competition for ideas and free speech” under the current administration.

Ferguson announced last month that the FTC was launching a probe into large tech firms’ content policies and users bans, suggesting their actions could amount to illegal censorship.

The heavy scrutiny of the tech industry stands in contrast to Trump’s apparent alignment with Silicon Valley. Tech executives have taken on key roles in his administration, although none are as prominent and controversial as Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.

Musk is leading Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), as it seeks to cut large swaths of government spending. So far, this has included major cuts to the federal workforce and federal funding and grants.

Outside of government, the tech industry has also cozied up to Trump. Numerous tech leaders met with the president at Mar-a-Lago before he took office and gave million-dollar donations to his inauguration.

Several tech titans, including Musk, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, joined Trump at his inauguration, receiving prime seats for the swearing-in ceremony.

Since taking office, Trump and Vice President Vance have both signaled an interest in scaling back regulation in favor of innovation, especially on artificial intelligence (AI), in a key win for tech firms.

Just under two months into office, it remains to be seen where antitrust enforcement will end up under Trump. The White House on Tuesday fired the two Democratic commissioners on the FTC, sparking immediate backlash.

“We have seen this administration take big swings at changing all kinds of policies throughout the government,” Dubrow said.

“Perhaps their decision not to carve back on the guidelines indicates that the Trump antitrust team will continue more closely to the Biden progressive antitrust agenda than I would have predicted a few months ago,” he continued. “But the proof will be when we see the types of cases this administration brings, or does not bring, over the next year or two.”

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