Des Moines, Iowa, November 19, 2025 — Assistant Attorney General Gail Slater used a speech at Drake University Law School to frame antitrust enforcement as a conservative tool to defend the American Dream in rural America, pledging tougher action against concentrated corporate power in agriculture while warning against undue interference by government as well as digital platforms.
Speaking at an event hosted by the Federalist Society, Slater cast the Antitrust Division as the “free market cop on the beat,” arguing that robust enforcement is essential to preserving a third way between state control and unrestrained corporate dominance. She rooted her approach in the “Chesterton’s Fence” principle, saying enforcers should respect the original purposes of century-old antitrust statutes while applying modern economic learning with “humility” rather than treating past enforcement traditions as disposable.
Focus on Agriculture
Turning to agriculture, Slater said farmers were “there at the dawn of the antitrust movement” and remain central to today’s enforcement priorities. She warned that both centrally planned agricultural policy and highly concentrated private markets can undermine family farms’ ability to survive. The Division, she said, intends to be “on the side of ranchers and farmers” as both buyers of key inputs and sellers into concentrated processing and retail markets.
Slater highlighted a recent memorandum of understanding between the DOJ and the US Department of Agriculture to coordinate scrutiny of markets for feed, fertilizer, fuel, seed, equipment, and other essential inputs. Citing USDA data showing sharp cost increases since 2020, she said the MOU is “a positive start” but promised further steps to “operationalize” the partnership through concrete cases.
As part of that push, Slater announced thatthe DOJ will anchor much of its agriculture enforcement in the Chicago field office, naming Zachary Trotter as the new career head, with dedicated assistant chiefs for criminal and civil matters. She said new leadership, combined with whistleblower reward tools and closer agency cooperation, positions the Division to bring “important cases consistent with overall administration policy,” including in beef packing following a recent presidential directive to investigate the sector.
Slater signaled the Division will pursue both civil and criminal theories, including bid rigging and price-fixing, and will no longer assume that entry is easy or that buyer power is benign. At the same time, she stressed that cases will remain grounded in evidence, existing precedent, and rigorous economic analysis, with DOJ’s team of PhD economists “ignored at our own peril.”
Concerns Over Tyranny.com
Slater said conservatives must remain vigilant against government overreach, but also against dominant firms that can debank, deplatform, or squeeze workers, consumers, and small businesses. She described those twin threats as “Tyranny.gov” and “Tyranny.com,” and urged conservatives not to shy away from tackling private power where lack of competition threatens individual economic freedom.
Slater also pointed to the Google search case as a watershed that exposed the limits of assumptions that markets always self-correct and that concentration is rarely a problem. She said that experience should inform enforcement beyond Big Tech, including in agriculture and other sectors where buyer power and exclusionary conduct may harm small market participants.
Outlining what she called an “America First antitrust” agenda, Slater tied her philosophy to three pillars: confronting undue public and private power, and re-anchoring antitrust in textualism and originalism. She criticised past reliance on “soft law” and selective reading of precedent, insisting that binding case law and statutory text must guide enforcement, with economics playing a crucial but not overriding role.
Closing on an optimistic note, Slater pointed to strong bipartisan support for antitrust in agriculture, citing recent Senate hearings where lawmakers from both parties urged tougher enforcement to help farmers.
