Donald Trump Second Administration

ProMarket Managing Editor Andy Shi interviews Virginia Tech Professor Chad Levinson about his forthcoming book, The President's Echo System: How Foreign Policy Is Sold to Americans, out June 2 at Harvard University Press.

In new research, Cree Jones, Tyler B. Lindley, and Thomas Smith investigate how restrictions on the president to remove independent agency officials affect agency behavior. Such restrictions have historically had surprisingly little effect. However, recent political polarization has drastically increased the importance of removal restrictions in blocking political influence.

The Trump administration’s blacklist of Anthropic represents its greatest attack on free markets yet. America’s businesses must push back, writes Luigi Zingales.

Eleanor M. Fox and Harry First warn that global strategies and political pressures are undercutting the neutral, rule-of-law competition system.

Diana L. Moss reviews the increasing politicization of antitrust and regulation in the United States and what avenues are available to resist the corruption of due process and usurpation of the rule of law.

The policies of conservative antitrust laid out by the new antitrust enforcers suggest a continued focus on the welfare of consumers and workers. This suggests a continued role for economics in shaping and advancing antitrust policy. However, Aviv Nevo writes, it is not clear from the actual actions taken by the antitrust agencies that economics, rather than political considerations, will be guiding antitrust policy.

President Donald Trump has, across two administrations, sought to lower drug prices for Americans, most recently with executive order “Delivering Most-Favored-Nation Prescription Drug Pricing to American Patients.” Margherita Colangelo explains why his order is unlikely to accomplish its goal.

Former Federal Trade Commissioner and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra writes that as the federal government circumvents the rule of law by pardoning corporate infractions and crimes in exchange for political favors, individual states, citizens, and businesses will need to pursue private actions against corporate wrongdoing.

Luke Herrine evaluates the Federal Trade Commission’s transformation into a political tool to advance a conservative social agenda. He argues that no FTC initiative better exemplifies the agency’s politicization than its investigation into gender-affirming care that threatens transgender rights and autonomy.

Diana Moss reviews four recent examples of the Trump administration weaponizing antitrust and regulation to stifle opposing ideological and political viewpoints.