The Coup at the Antitrust Division
Welcome to the podcast Organized Money. You can listen to today’s episode on Apple on Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Last week, journalist Sohrab Ahmari broke a story titled The Antitrust War Inside MAGA: Powerful Lobbyists Are Battling Populist Reformers. In it, he reported that the recent $14 billion deal in which Hewlett-Packard acquired its competitor, Juniper Networks, was quietly shepherded along with help from the Justice Department, complete with martini-sipping backroom deals. Two attorneys within the department who objected to the shady procedural maneuvers were reportedly fired.
Today on the show, Matt and David bring Ahmari on to unpack the situation, what it could mean for antitrust policy under the second Trump administration, and whether this signals the end of populist influence within the MAGA movement.
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Roger Alford framing his firing letter and hanging it in his office is so funny. Someone needs to do a coffee table book of all the people fired by Trump and the letters or tweets that document them!
When I hear “National Security” my red flag goes up and I can’t hear anything else. I automatically go against anything being sold as national security.
Unless there is a nuke in the air on its way to hit the USA, national security is a dog whistle for this corporate entity needs a favor, bailout or protection from competition.
I sure wish we had Matt Gaetz as AG instead of Pam Bondi. This would have been something he would have been against, not that he wouldn’t cave to Trump, but he would have at least pushed back.
Trump, the ‘law and order’ president!