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Slater’s departure at DOJ signals new era for antitrust under Trump   Technology | 11 minutes ago

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Slater’s departure at DOJ signals new era for antitrust under Trump  

The abrupt departure of the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) top antitrust enforcer is raising questions about the Trump administration’s approach to major anti-monopoly cases and controversial mergers.

Gail Slater announced her plans to resign earlier this month after less than a year leading the DOJ’s antitrust division, marking an abrupt end to a tenure that was repeatedly plagued by tensions with top Trump officials.  

Slater’s nomination spurred alarm among tech companies and other corporate giants, who faced aggressive antitrust enforcement during the first Trump administration.

Now, with Slater on her way out, attention is turning to several high-profile deals awaiting Trump administration approval  — and the president’s own influence over antitrust policy.

“It feels like the support for populist antitrust enforcement is kind of gone from the Trump administration. Slater was kind of seen as the leader of that philosophy and clearly that’s been pushed aside,” said Owen Tedford, a senior research analyst at Beacon Policy Advisors.  

Previously a top adviser to Vice President Vance, Slater was confirmed as assistant attorney general for the antitrust division last spring.  

Her nomination was one of several moves by the Trump administration that initially signaled a continuation of aggressive antitrust enforcement, particularly against major tech firms.

Trump and his allies have repeatedly attacked major tech platforms and have warned that companies like Google and Meta have used their power to influence voters against conservatives, as Trump has warned with mainstream media companies.  

In nominating Slater, Trump argued on social media that “Big Tech has run wild for years,” noting he was “proud to fight these abuses in my First Term, and our Department of Justice’s antitrust team will continue that work under Gail’s leadership.” 

Her unexpected exit came against a backdrop of increased consolidation of major American businesses and immediate tensions between Slater and top DOJ officials.  

A $14 billion merger between Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Juniper Networks proved to be an early point of contention when two top antitrust officials were fired in July amid an internal dispute over the handling of that merger. 

While the DOJ initially sued to block the acquisition, it later settled the case, with Slater reportedly being overruled in the decision. 

One of the ex-officials, Roger Alford, later slammed senior DOJ leadership for allegedly allowing politically connected lobbyists to influence decisionmaking. 

“It felt like it was just reaching a boiling point where either Slater was going to have to perhaps relent on some of her personal political philosophies or go this route of deciding to leave the administration instead,” Tedford added. 

The DOJ’s antitrust division has several high-profile legal battles ahead.  

The department is pursuing a case against Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation, accusing the firms of blocking competition in the live entertainment industry, and that case is set to go to trial next week.  

The department is also expected to consider several key deals that executives at some of the world’s largest media companies have been angling for in the coming months. 

Warner Bros. Discovery struck a deal late last year to sell its sprawling movie and television studios to Netflix, an agreement valued at more than $70 billion that has raised questions about the streamer’s growing market share and content production priorities.  

President Trump has criticized the deal, and this week urged Netflix to fire Susan Rice, a longtime Democratic political operative who sits on the company’s board, over comments she made that were critical of his administration or the company would “face the consequences.”  

Some observers say Trump meddling in such deals complicates the work of the DOJ’s antitrust division in a way not seen during previous administrations.  

“Netflix leadership is saying this is a business deal not a political deal, but we’re entering uncharted territory here,” said Corey Martin, a corporate lawyer specializing in media deals. “It seems like everything [in the media sector] is becoming political whether we want it to or not.” 

The increased pressure on the Netflix-Warner Bros. Discovery deal comes as Paramount Skydance, the Hollywood behemoth owned by Trump ally David Ellison, mounts a hostile bid for the company’s entire portfolio, including its linear television assets like CNN.  

Trump has said he would like to see CNN operate under new leadership and spoken glowingly about changes the Ellison family has implemented at Paramount.  

The DOJ could also consider a massive merger in the local news business, where broadcaster Nexstar Media Group, which owns The Hill, is eyeing a $7 billion acquisition of fellow television group Tegna.  

Reilly Steel, a professor of law at Columbia University, argued media mergers are the most consequential of any that Trump’s DOJ will consider soon.  

“This is the way information is conveyed to the public. If you control the media, you control the informational environment and the narrative,” Steel said. “It has enormous implications for our democracy [more] than your standard consumer product markets.”   

Several Democratic lawmakers have raised concerns about improper political influence at the DOJ on a range of issues.  

In a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi earlier this month, Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) suggested Slater’s departure “reinforces a troubling pattern in which senior Antitrust Division officials appear to be sidelined when their enforcement decisions conflict with the interests of President Trump or his allies.” 

Without the former antitrust head, they warned that the case against Ticketmaster is at “extreme risk of political interference” and the agency’s review of the Warner Bros. deal is “vulnerable to undue influence at a critical moment.” 

Slater was replaced by Omeed Assefi, a former Trump White House official who served as Slater’s deputy during her time in the position and has taken over as acting assistant attorney general for antitrust. 

“She was seen as somebody who was going to uphold the rule of law and push back against the kind of favor courting model that has been prevailing at the DOJ with companies trying to grease their deals through with lobbying and appealing to Trump’s agenda,” noted Rebecca Haw Allensworth, a law professor at Vanderbilt University focused on antitrust issues. 

Now, Tedford suggested there may be “increasing acceptance of outside lobbying by Trump-connected ex-officials.” 

“I don’t know that any hire is a golden ticket, but there’s clearly some who are starting to build a track record of successfully working these agencies and getting deals through,” he said. 

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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