On August 13, 2025, President Donald Trump revoked President Biden’s 2021 Executive Order (2021 Executive Order) on competition policy, which marks a significant shift in federal antitrust policy and the U.S. government’s approach to market regulation. The Biden-era 2021 Executive Order directed federal agencies, particularly the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ), to take a more aggressive stance against corporate consolidation, to promote competition across various sectors, and to scrutinize mergers more closely. The 2021 Executive Order also encouraged federal agencies like the FTC and DOJ to adopt a broader view of antitrust enforcement, considering not just the impact on consumer prices but also the effects of market concentration on workers, small businesses, and innovation. Further, the 2021 Executive Order specifically directed the agencies to target consolidation in agriculture, technology, telecommunications, internet platform, and health care markets. The 2021 Executive Order also called for inter-agency cooperation on competition matters with other regulatory agencies, including the Department of the Treasury, Department of Agriculture, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and Securities and Exchange Commission, among others. This included 72 specific initiatives that directed these agencies to examine areas of competition within their respective industries and to collaborate with the FTC and DOJ on regulations. 

Following President Trump’s decision, the DOJ issued a press release in support, stating that “[we] are unleashing the new American Golden Age through antitrust enforcement that removes barriers to innovation and opportunity and limits regulatory burdens on free competition.” The press release applauded Trump for promoting competition via “tailored executive orders that call for lowering drug prices and opening regulatory barriers to competition.” The DOJ noted how they have made progress on “freeing up deal flow” by streamlining the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act (HSR) review process by reinstating early termination grants and settling merger reviews with “targeted and well-crated consent decrees.” The FTC issued a similar press release stating that Trump’s action focuses on protecting Americans from “anticompetitive practices through tailored action, promoting economic growth, and ensuring that American workers benefit from competition for their labor,” noting the Biden Administration’s “hostility towards mergers and acquisitions.”

With President Trump’s revocation of the 2021 Executive Order, the FTC and DOJ are poised to return to a more traditional, less interventionist approach to competition review and enforcement. This change will likely impact how mergers and acquisitions are evaluated under the HSR Act. During the Biden Administration, proposed transactions faced heightened scrutiny, with agencies more frequently requesting additional information and conducting in-depth investigations as part of the HSR review process. Trump’s revocation of Biden’s 2021 Executive Order signals a rollback of these aggressive enforcement measures. As a result, companies seeking to merge or acquire may encounter a more business-friendly regulatory environment, with antitrust reviews focusing on price effects and consumer harm rather than broader, less tangible theories of antitrust harm. Where the FTC and DOJ are likely to continue issuing “second requests” to conduct more thorough reviews of high-risk mergers, this move suggests that regulators will be more open to resolving concerns through focused consent decrees rather than extended investigations and litigation.

Further, the revocation likely signals an end to the “whole-of-government approach” to American competition taken by the Biden Administration, stripping back the framework for regulating industry-specific competition set forth in the 2021 Executive Order for agencies like the Department of Transportation, Department of Health and Human Services, and Department of Defense. It remains to be seen whether the FTC and DOJ will walk back any industry-specific competition policy guidance, but businesses in such markets may see changes to the intensity and form of competition enforcement in the coming years. While this shift in approach is meaningful, it does not undo the need for companies to evaluate the antitrust risks associated with potential transactions. While the posture is less aggressive, antitrust enforcement remains alive and well in the Trump Administration. As companies look forward to 2026, this change may have a significant impact on M&A strategy. 

Reed Smith’s Antitrust and Competition team is here to help navigate these changes and assess the impacts on your business. Should you have any questions or wish to discuss the implications of these developments in greater detail, please feel free to reach out to a member of our team. 

Other authors: Will Sheridan

Additional U.S. antitrust team members: Daniel Booker, Christopher Brennan, Edward Schwartz, Rafael Szmid, Greg Vose, Caitlyn Holsopple, Jay Simmons