How Trump Can Unleash the Tech Sector

Originally posted to X.

America’s tech sector should be a powerhouse of innovation, growth, and opportunity. Instead, years of government overreach under the Biden administration stalled progress, prioritized bureaucratic control over consumer benefits, and handed competitive advantages to China and the European Union.

With President Trump back in the White House and a Republican-led Congress, there is an opportunity to reverse the damage, restore the consumer welfare standard, and unleash American innovation.

The Biden administration’s tech regulatory agenda wasn’t about fostering competition but punishing success. By weaponizing antitrust laws and pushing intrusive regulations, Biden’s Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice often went after companies because they were big. This abandoned the anchor of antitrust law known as the consumer welfare standard, which evaluates competition based on the benefits to consumers rather than the size of a company.

A glaring example was the FTC’s push to unwind Meta’s decade-old acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp, despite these platforms delivering clear benefits to consumers and small businesses. The DOJ’s demand for Google to divest its Chrome browser and Android operating system was another case of overreach, ignoring the competitive and rapidly evolving tech landscape.

These lawsuits didn’t promote competition; they created regulatory uncertainty, discouraged investment, and weakened America’s position in global tech markets.

The costs of these policies have been significant. Regulatory compliance in the tech sector costs companies billions of dollars, diverting resources from research and development to legal battles.

While Washington bureaucrats were busy trying to dismantle successful American firms, China was pouring state subsidies into its tech sector, gaining ground in AI, semiconductors, and 5G infrastructure. Meanwhile, the European Union advanced its Digital Markets Act, a regulatory scheme that disproportionately targets American companies while leaving European firms untouched.

The Trump administration can reverse this costly course and help America lead.

That starts with restoring the consumer welfare standard, ensuring that antitrust enforcement is based on facts, not ideology. It also means the Senate should confirm regulators who use this standard as an anchor and understand the importance of competition in free-market capitalism to drive innovation.

Tech is more than an industry; it’s a major part of the next economic revolution. It employs 9.4 million workers in high-paying jobs and supports millions more across sectors like healthcare, manufacturing, and logistics. For every tech job created, an estimated four additional jobs emerge in related industries.

The Magnificent Seven tech firms make up one-third of the S&P 500 valuation, meaning millions of retirees, pensioners, and 401(k) holders rely on strong tech markets for financial security.

Yet under Biden, misguided regulatory efforts created instability in financial markets, scaring off investors, hindering mergers and acquisitions, and reducing long-term growth. The Trump administration should restore confidence by ensuring tech companies can grow and innovate without fear of politically-motivated crackdowns.

Another critical challenge is stopping foreign regulatory creep. While Biden’s administration targeted U.S. tech leaders, it did little to push back against the European Union’s heavy-handed approach, which puts American companies at a disadvantage.

Meanwhile, China has continued its march toward tech advancement, using destructive subsidies and protectionist policies to temporarily boost its tech giants while restricting access to foreign competitors. Instead of weakening U.S. firms by following that flawed industrial policy, the Trump administration should focus on unleashing the tech sector with less government intervention.

Many regulators fail to understand that tech is not a monolith. Companies like Amazon, Nvidia, Apple, and Tesla operate in vastly different markets, from e-commerce to AI to semiconductor manufacturing. Lumping them together under blanket regulations creates distortions that stifle competition rather than enhance it.

The reality is that markets evolve. If overregulation had crushed Microsoft in the 1990s, the rise of Google, Facebook, and the iPhone may never have happened. Bad regulation assumes that today’s dominant companies will remain so forever, but history has shown that private-sector innovation drives prosperity.

The Trump administration and Congress have a historic opportunity to undo the mistakes of the last four years and set the stage for America’s next great wave of technological innovation. Rolling back Biden’s antitrust overreach, confirming regulators who understand the consumer welfare standard, pushing back against foreign regulatory aggression, and creating a stable environment for growth will ensure the U.S. remains the global leader in technology.
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The choice is clear: America should lead the world in tech innovation by getting the government out of the way.