Trump Destroys Whatever Was Left Of U.S. Corporate Oversight, Calls It “America First Antitrust”
from the up-is-down,-black-is-white,-freedom-is-slavery dept
While there was a lot to criticize the Biden administration about, it did at least try to shift the balance back toward antitrust reform (see: Lina Khan), boosting competition, and occasionally trying to help labor (see: the noncompete ban). This desperately upset America’s richest assholes, which is why so many of them have rushed to throw their support behind dim authoritarian zealots.
As America’s richest assholes hoped, Trumpism has taken an absolute hatchet to environmental law, consumer protection, regulatory independence, and the last vestiges of U.S. corporate oversight, all while lying to gullible rubes about how this is actually looking out for the little guy.
This is, corporate media and a huge swath of the electorate will be surprised to learn, going to result in years of terrible things, including mass fatalities, institutional failures, and all sorts of avoidable chaos.
But our idiot king is only getting started. After his Supreme Court butchered all regulatory independence and corporate oversight, he’s been using executive orders to destroy whatever functional federal governance hasn’t already been gutted by his corrupt courts or the couch-locked tween nerds at DOGE. And he’s unwinding any of the Biden executive orders that actually did any good.
Like this week, when Trump issued an executive order revoking Biden’s EO attempting to restore some semblance of competitive balance to the U.S. economy. That order spawned some useful and popular things, like Lina Khan’s crackdowns on right to repair abuses, the investigations into big tech monopolization of ad markets, the ban on noncompetes, efforts to make cancelling services easier, attempts to avoid coordinated corporate suppression of wages, and more.
These initiatives had their warts but it was the closest the U.S. — with a Congress literally too corrupt to pass meaningful reform — had gotten to actual antitrust, labor, and competition reform in a generation.
Trump’s latest executive order takes a hatchet to all of that. The EO itself doesn’t bother to explain itself, but Trump’s DOJ lied to media outlets, insisting that destroying corporate oversight, popular consumer protections, and labor rights was an embrace of “America first antitrust”:
“The justice department welcomed Trump’s revocation of the order, saying it was pursuing an “America first antitrust” approach focused on free markets instead of what it called the “overly prescriptive and burdensome approach” of the Biden administration.”
That is absolute, incoherent gibberish. This idea that Trumpism cares about “antitrust reform” was a big lie pushed by the Trump camp during the last administration and during this latest election season, often propped up by a lazy press, and a smattering of useful idiots like Matt Stoller. This stuff was always pseudo-populist performance, designed to dress up fascism as somehow good for the everyman.
In reality Trumpism takes coddling industry to entirely new levels of extremism. Add in Trump’s desire to see companies punished if they’re not appropriately feckless or racist enough, and you’ve got a giant authoritarian mess that’s only getting worse.
Many major corporate executives still love this stuff. They view the rubber stamped mergers, tax cuts, and devastation of regulatory oversight as a net win. Most of them don’t really think that all the other stuff, like the destruction of democracy, the corruption of the legal system, or the racial profiling of minorities will impact them in their Soho town homes or oversized Palo Alto compounds.
This blind complicity, ignorant of the fact you can’t strike a bargain with authoritarianism, is precisely how Russia fell into its authoritarian hellscape, resulting in many prominent executives having their assets stolen by the state — or suffering accidental falls out of twenty-story windows. We’re not there yet, but we’re absolutely headed that direction and it’s not remotely subtle.
Before that, however, we have to live through a concussive series of systemic failures to government systems most of the public takes for granted. You’d like to hope that these shocks to the system wake up a heavily propagandized and befuddled electorate who don’t quite yet grasp the extremism at hand, or the mass suffering, fatalities, and widespread consumer and labor harms waiting just over the horizon.
Filed Under: antitrust reform, biden, competition, consumers, corporate oversight, donald trump, executive order
Comments on “Trump Destroys Whatever Was Left Of U.S. Corporate Oversight, Calls It “America First Antitrust””
Extremism, mass suffering, fatalities, and widespread consumer and labor harms are what conservatives have always voted for in this country. They’ve been cooked since even before they called themselves “Confederates.”
When someone tells you who they are, believe them.
So what about the “White House Competition Council”?
Silly question, they’ve certainly already have been asked to quit their 50 sq ft office in the WH basement.
But what about the children?
I’ll be 67 this year and have been watching and reading about what this orange turd has done and is doing to this country. I have no idea when I’ll pass but suffice it to say I won’t be around to witness the entire shit-show he’s brought upon, not just the US, but the world. May they rot in hell.
1 Timothy 6:10 – KJV
For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
At this point, only “God” can fix what’s wrong… if only there were one. The country needs a new slogan; the old one ain’t working.
Re:
Considering the size of Trump’s ego, I have no doubt that he would change “God bless America” to “God bless me” if he could.
Re: Re:
As with every other thing he doesn’t have the power to do: “…but what’s actually stopping him?”
antitrust
So this article complains that an executive order was just issued gutting antitrust, but then fails to explain what the EO actually said, what antitrust issues it raised, and what/how existing policies were changed. All or any of those would have been helpful.
Re:
“Like this week, when Trump issued an executive order revoking Biden’s EO attempting to restore some semblance of competitive balance to the U.S. economy. That order spawned some useful and popular things, like Lina Khan’s crackdowns on right to repair abuses, the investigations into big tech monopolization of ad markets, the ban on noncompetes, efforts to make cancelling services easier, attempts to avoid coordinated corporate suppression of wages, and more.
These initiatives had their warts but it was the closest the U.S. — with a Congress literally too corrupt to pass meaningful reform — had gotten to actual antitrust, labor, and competition reform in a generation.”
Reading comprehension is a wonderful thing.
Never!
Wow Karl, you never miss an opportunity to bash Matt S over the head for his optimism. Don’t ever let anyone ever forget! Don’t ever quit beatin that dead horse! Never!!
Re:
You should be smiling while you’re on the train! You got a window seat!
Who believes?
The Corrupt concepts of CURRENT economics?
Want free trade? OPEN the USA to Direct sale and Companies COING to the USA to sell Foreign Goods. The USA is a restricted Closed market. YOU want CHEAP? Let Asia Run in the Direct sales in the USA.
THAT is competition.
If you look at the China markets on the NET. They Learned from the Time they were created. That USA and others would LOVE to have access, And the Prices went up. and UP. The Companies doing the Selling are the middlemen and they are Rich now. They make Amazon and Walmart look like Wimps.
And if you dont Watch the USA corps, they FRONT for other smaller companies(As sold by) Which generally means you WONT have much of a warranty or trying to Talk to them is a real hassle.