Meet the Trump Administration’s new antitrust enforcers

With the new Trump Administration, antitrust enforcers at the US Department of Justice's (DOJ) Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) are transferring leadership to the incoming appointees.

FTC leadership has already been shifted to Andrew Ferguson, previously a Commissioner, and the DOJ’s Antitrust Division will be led by Gail Slater (subject to her confirmation). Both appointees have a strong background in antitrust enforcement and are expected to be tough on Big Tech.

FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson

The FTC is led by five Commissioners who are nominated by the President and confirmed by the US Senate. The President selects one Commissioner to lead the agency. President Donald Trump nominated Commissioner Andrew Ferguson to serve as the Chairman of the FTC for his Administration. As such, no Senate confirmation is needed since Ferguson is already a sitting Commissioner. He assumed the role of Chairman immediately upon President Trump’s inauguration on January 20, 2025.

Chairman Ferguson has been an FTC Commissioner since April 2, 2024. Before joining the FTC, he most recently served as Solicitor General of Virginia. He previously served as Chief Counsel to Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and as a Republican counsel on the US Senate Judiciary Committee. Chairman Ferguson also practiced at several law firms and clerked on both the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit and the US Supreme Court for Justice Clarence Thomas.

Chairman Ferguson’s dissents as a Commissioner at the FTC have been critical of agency rulemaking and expanding authority. Based on his comments and record, Chairman Ferguson is expected to have a narrower view of the FTC’s authority than his predecessor, Lina Khan. In a recent letter to President Trump, Chairman Ferguson summarized his agenda, vowing, among other things, to:

• “Reverse Lina Khan’s anti-business agenda” by repealing burdensome regulations and providing more certainty to businesses
  
  
• “Stop Lina Khan’s war on mergers” by permitting mergers that benefit consumers and fuel innovation
  
  
• “Stop abusing FTC enforcement authorities as a substitute for comprehensive federal privacy legislation”
  
  
• Stop bringing “novel and legally dubious consumer protection cases”
  
  
• “End Lina Khan’s politically motivated investigations”
  
  
• Focus antitrust enforcement efforts on Big Tech monopolies, “especially those companies engaged in unlawful censorship”

Since taking the helm of the FTC, Chairman Ferguson has indicated support for substantial revisions to the merger control filing rules pursuant to the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act, which were proposed under the Biden Administration and went into effect in early February 2025. He also indicated his intent to retain significant Biden-era changes to the Merger Guidelines. Both of these acts signal a willingness of Chairman Ferguson to continue vigorous antitrust enforcement with respect to mergers and acquisitions.

Assistant Attorney General-Nominee Gail Slater

The DOJ Antitrust Division is led by an Assistant Attorney General (AAG), who is nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate. President Trump nominated Gail Slater to serve as the AAG at the DOJ.

AAG-Nominee Slater is an experienced antitrust practitioner who spent ten years as an antitrust attorney at the FTC, where she worked on merger enforcement cases, and later as an adviser to former Democrat Commissioner Julie Brill.

After leaving the FTC, AAG-Nominee Slater worked as General Counsel at the Internet Association trade group, where she represented tech companies. She later served in the Trump Administration as an aide on the National Economic Council, and worked in the private sector at Fox Corp. and Roku Inc. Before her nomination as AAG, Slater’s most recent position was an economic advisor to Vice President JD Vance. As AAG, Nominee Slater is expected to continue to focus antitrust enforcement efforts on Big Tech.

AAG-Nominee Slater’s Senate confirmation hearing was held on February 12, 2025. During the hearing, she discussed the ongoing Big Tech cases – which began during President Trump’s first term and continued under the Biden Administration – and said that resources will be a factor in determining whether to pursue them. If confirmed, she pledged to advocate for adequate resources for the division. She also expressed her commitment to working with both Republican and Democrat state attorneys general on enforcement efforts.

To date, neither AAG-Nominee Slater nor the Trump Administration have named possible deputy assistant attorneys general (“deputies” oversee entire program areas and report directly to the AAG, but do not require Senate confirmation). While Slater’s nomination is pending, the temporary “acting” role to oversee the Antitrust Division is being held by Omeed Assefi, a prosecutor who joined the Antitrust Division in October 2024.

As AAG, Nominee Slater will have the ability to restructure Antitrust Division functions around Trump Administration enforcement priorities, such as her predecessor Jonathan Kanter did early in the Biden Administration by creating a litigation unit overseen by a dedicated senior deputy position. With the new Administration inheriting at least nine significant ongoing civil litigation matters, the litigation focus – of necessity – will likely remain in place to handle these matters.

The Biden Administration significantly changed or fully withdrew several Antitrust Division policy documents on which in-house and outside counsel relied for years. These include overhauls of the Merger Guidelines (changed in 2023) and Hart-Scott-Rodino rules (new versions of which went into effect in early February 2025), withdrawal from guidelines for competitor collaborations (late 2024), and safe harbors for certain information sharing between competitors (early 2023). The Division also removed its own internal operating manual from the public website early in the Biden Administration.

Whether AAG-Nominee Slater and her deputies prioritize reinstating some or all of these policies, or rolling back changes to changed policies like the Merger Guidelines, will provide a helpful view into antitrust enforcement in the second Trump Administration.

Takeaways

Both AAG-Nominee Slater and Chairman Ferguson are seasoned antitrust experts. Based on publicly available information, both are expected to remain active enforcers, especially against Big Tech. Whether or not – and how – they restructure agency functions may be an early sign of Trump Administration priorities, as will whether (and, if so, how) they reinstate or change the numerous longstanding policies withdrawn or drastically changed in the Biden Administration. And regardless of these changes and stylistic differences, both agencies are expected to remain active in their core missions of merger and cartel enforcement.

Although there may be some adjustment in policies at both the FTC and DOJ, overall, changes due to the new Administration are not expected to result in significant differences for the majority of investigations and/or enforcement actions. As history has shown, most Administration changes impact cases on the margins. But we have learned over the past several years that changes to process matter almost as much, if not more, than changes to substance. We are carefully watching and advising our clients as these changes come to fruition.

If you have any questions, please contact any of the authors.