Trump Era Merger Tracker

Wall Street and corporate executives are “rubbing their hands” at the prospect of relaxed antitrust enforcement under the Trump administration. Will they be proved right?

Starting in the 1970s, America’s antitrust authorities adopted a hands-off approach to merger enforcement. Under the sway of novel economic theories, the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice Antitrust Division turned a blind eye to the letter of antitrust law, allowing corporate power to consolidate across the economy. Illegal mega-mergers pushed by chief executives and Wall Street financiers were waved through in nearly every industry. We are living with the results of this policy today: hyper-concentrated markets characterized by high prices, few choices, and slowing innovation.

Under the Biden Administration, FTC Chair Lina Khan and DOJ Antitrust Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter began to turn the tide—vigorously enforcing antitrust laws as intended by Congress.

This return to by-the-book enforcement protected consumers, workers, and small businesses from new monopoly abuses. But it enraged corporate executives and Wall Street dealmakers accustomed to friendly treatment from antitrust authorities. Powerful corporations and industry trade rained down lawsuits on Biden’s FTC and DOJ, while leading media voices of the investor class—including the Wall Street Journal opinion section and CNBC’s Jim Cramer—regularly railed against Chair Khan.

So when Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election, big money interests breathed a sigh of relief. As The Economist wrote: “it was as if the sun had come up on Wall Street.”

Now, dominant corporations are interpreting Trump’s victory—and the coming change of the guard at the FTC and DOJ—as license to monopolize once again.

This tracker of post-election dealmaking activity — which comes from information gathered from public reporting — will document corporate elites’ presumption that the Trump antitrust regime will serve its own narrow interests, rather than those of American consumers, small businesses, and workers.

Whether the incoming administration will prove them right remains to be seen, but the stakes are high for our economic liberties.

Have you heard of proposed or rumored deal that should be on this list? send us a note at press@economicliberties.us to get in touch.

This data was last updated December 23, 2024.