Let Tech Compete — Don’t Let Politics Pick Winners

Originally published on Substack. 

Dozens of business groups have just called on President Trump to stay the course on antitrust enforcement, urging the administration not to cave to insider pressure or cut deals with “Big Tech.” Their plea comes as Washington’s partial shutdown freezes federal antitrust cases in their tracks—an irony that exposes how politicized the process has become.

For years, the federal government has confused size with power and success with monopoly. Instead of targeting actual harm to consumers, bureaucrats have treated growth, profits, and innovation as signs of wrongdoing. The Biden administration’s expansive interpretation of antitrust law left investors, innovators, and entrepreneurs uncertain about what success even meant.

Now, amid stalled enforcement and swelling internal debate, the question is clear: will the Trump administration fix what’s broken—or repeat the same mistakes under a different label?

​What Went Wrong

Under President Biden, agencies like the FTC and DOJ abandoned the long-standing consumer welfare standard—the idea that antitrust should focus on harm to consumers, not to competitors. They launched broad lawsuits against companies such as Google, Amazon, and Apple, arguing that dominance itself was proof of danger.

But that’s not how markets—or economics—work. Consumers don’t suffer because a company is big; they suffer when government blocks competition and distorts markets.

The impact was immediate: venture capital for early-stage tech startups fell by nearly half between 2021 and 2023 as innovators hesitated to grow in a regulatory minefield. Companies like Microsoft and Meta faced drawn-out challenges to mergers that could have accelerated innovation, while foreign competitors—especially in China—raced ahead.

The Shutdown Effect

Today, Washington’s antitrust machine has stalled. The federal shutdown has paused high-profile cases, delayed discovery, and frozen enforcement budgets. Even ongoing litigation, like the Google Search monopoly case, faces uncertainty as staff and resources are stretched thin.

This makes it more critical than ever that the Trump administration set clear priorities and restore confidence that competition policy is about economics—not politics.

Trump’s Opportunity to Lead

President Trump has already shown a willingness to challenge bureaucratic inertia and rethink Washington’s approach to regulation. The antitrust fight is another chance to do just that.

Here’s what must happen next:

1. Reaffirm the Consumer Welfare Standard
   Return antitrust law to its original purpose: protecting consumers from higher prices and fewer choices, not punishing firms for success.
   
   
2. Reject Political Settlements
   The administration should not settle ongoing cases to appease interest groups or bureaucrats. Backing down now would signal weakness and confusion at the worst possible time.
   
   
3. Clarify Remedies and Enforcement Priorities
   The Google case shows why vague “breakups” or forced divestitures can do more harm than good. Remedies must address real violations—not serve as punishment for scale.
   
   
4. End Corporate Favoritism and Regulatory Capture
   The same Washington that rails against “monopolies” also doles out subsidies, tax breaks, and bailouts to politically connected firms. Real competition can’t thrive in a rigged market.
   
   
5. Encourage Permissionless Innovation
   From AI to biotechnology to cloud infrastructure, America’s lead depends on freedom to innovate. Washington’s role is to remove barriers—not build them.
   
   
6. Keep Enforcement Alive During Shutdowns
   Core antitrust functions must be shielded from political shutdowns. Otherwise, every fiscal standoff becomes a get-out-of-jail-free card for the biggest cases.

What’s at Stake

This isn’t just about “Big Tech.” It’s about whether America remains the world’s most dynamic economy—or drifts into managed decline. If regulators continue treating growth as a threat and markets as a problem to fix, the result will be fewer entrepreneurs, higher prices, and slower innovation.

Antitrust should never become a tool for political punishment. The market—not Washington—should determine which companies succeed or fail.

Trump’s challenge is to balance fairness with freedom: to enforce laws narrowly, clearly, and consistently, without smothering competition under bureaucracy.

The best way to restore competition is not through more lawsuits, but through less government distortion—no more regulatory capture, no more subsidies, no more industrial policy masquerading as fairness.

When government steps aside, entrepreneurs step up. That’s how we let people prosper.