The Trump administration has dropped federal scrutiny of several corporate mergers in recent months, according to an analysis by Public Citizen—waving through multibillion-dollar deals for companies, including many that made large donations to the Trump-Vance inauguration.
The watchdog Public Citizen examines the Trump administration’s blessing of the mergers in its updated tracker of 165 corporate enforcement actions that have been halted, dropped, or withdrawn as of July 25. The tally includes cases that were dismissed by federal agencies instead of being brought to trial, as well as investigations that were closed favorably for corporations.
Since the start of April, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) have advanced the mergers of T-Mobile and UScellular, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and rival Juniper Networks, and others that faced charges of being anti-competitive. Under President Trump, the agencies have also intervened in antitrust cases on the completed mergers of Microsoft and Activision Blizzard, Capital One and Discover, and others.
“Trump’s unshackling of a rogues gallery of corporate villains and lawbreakers shows how little this president cares about the victims of corporate crime,” said Rick Claypool, research director for Public Citizen. “This is no ‘law and order’ administration—this is an administration that views cheated consumers with contempt, and workers’ hard-earned wages as fair game for corporate con artists.”
Earlier this month, the DOJ’s Antitrust Division shuttered an investigation into T-Mobile’s $4.4 billion acquisition of UScellular, which when announced last year sparked concerns over industry concentration. The deal was green-lit even though the division’s Assistant Attorney General Gail Slater, who was nominated by President Trump, warned that its closing “will consolidate yet more spectrum in the Big 3’s oligopoly.” Just the day before, T-Mobile announced it would jettison programs for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) as pressured by the Trump administration.
Late last month, Hewlett Packard reached a settlement with the DOJ, allowing it to proceed with a $14 billion acquisition of Juniper Networks. The DOJ sued last year to block the takeover, warning of higher prices and hindered innovation. Hewlett Packard Enterprise donated $250,000 toward Trump’s inaugural festivities. Two of the DOJ’s senior attorneys were recently dismissed in the wake of the HP-Juniper merger’s advancement. Reports of the Antitrust Division’s internal battles say that Slater disapproved of the merger’s approval, but that corporate-linked supporters won the day.
