Washington, D.C., Aug. 13, 2025 — The U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division on Wednesday welcomed President Donald Trump’s decision to revoke Executive Order 14036, a 2021 directive from the Biden-Harris administration that sought to strengthen competition policy through expanded federal oversight.
Assistant Attorney General Abigail Slater said the move reflects a return to what she called “America First Antitrust,” focused on empowering consumers through market-driven competition rather than “enabling regulators and bureaucrats to prescribe outcomes.”
“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,” Slater said in a statement.
The Biden-era order had urged federal agencies to take a more active role in promoting competition, including tighter merger scrutiny and new rules across industries ranging from agriculture to technology. The Trump administration says it will instead use more narrowly targeted executive actions, such as lowering prescription drug prices and easing regulatory barriers to entry.
The Antitrust Division also announced it has restored several practices abandoned during the Biden years, including granting early termination for uncontroversial merger reviews under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act and resolving some mergers through “targeted and well-crafted” consent decrees rather than extended litigation.
According to the DOJ, the changes are intended to “match the complexity and pace of the modern economy” while avoiding what it views as overly prescriptive regulation.
The repeal of Executive Order 14036 marks a major reversal in federal competition policy, shifting from broad regulatory initiatives to a more selective enforcement strategy.
Source: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/statement-revocation-biden-harris-executive-order-competition
