The key to building Trump’s new American Golden Age

President Trump’s landslide victory last November was made possible in no small part by his vision of a new economic Golden Age. For far too long, Americans have been getting ripped off — and Trump is just the man to make it stop.

But he will need the entire federal government to bring about this result. Every agency must do its part to repair the damage from four years of the Biden-Harris administration — as well as decades of swamp politicians who got rich while many Americans were left behind.

The Federal Trade Commission is leading the way. In the last few weeks, my agency has taken critical steps to deregulate our economy and to protect Americans from fraud and anticompetitive practices.

This month the president directed me to uncover federal regulations for deletion that harm Americans by stifling competition, entrepreneurship and innovation.

In response, the FTC has launched a public inquiry to identify these harmful rules so that we can hear from all Americans — not just the elites and the rich — about how the federal government hurts small businesses and everyday consumers.

For decades, Washington has been focused on picking winners and losers. Regulators captured by powerful private interests may exclude new market entrants, stifle competition and create monopolies.

No longer. Getting rid of these barriers will unlock the incredible innovation of the American people and allow markets to work on the revitalization of our economy.

Unlocking the full potential of our economy requires an energy revolution. That’s why I’m asking my colleagues to undo the onerous and illegal consent decrees put in place by my FTC predecessor against oil and gas companies.

The Biden administration abused our antitrust laws to satisfy Democratic interest groups and advance their catastrophic climate agenda. The FTC should not take orders from Greta Thunberg.

Instead of doing the bidding of radicals, the FTC ought to be looking out for average Americans who are tired of liberal elites dictating what they can say or think.

That’s exactly why we’ve filed a lawsuit against Meta, which we allege engaged in anticompetitive and monopolistic behavior when it acquired Instagram and WhatsApp.

The consequences of those acquisitions were glaringly obvious in 2020. Ordinary Americans saw how a single company can exercise tremendous power over every aspect of our lives.

In the blink of an eye, our ability to socialize and communicate with friends and family, our ability to participate freely in political debate and our ability to earn a living online came under threat.

The goal of our nation’s antitrust laws is to make sure that one company doesn’t have so much power that it can harm Americans without consequence.

The Meta lawsuit and others to come are how we ensure that the conduct our nation saw from Big Tech in 2020 never happens again.

Our nation’s workers are the backbone of the economy, and one of the first things I did after becoming chairman was create an agency-wide task force to root out and prosecute deceptive and anticompetitive labor-market practices that harm the Americans who put the president in office.

Our workers have suffered enough over the years. Deceptive employment opportunities, oppressive non-compete agreements or unlawful collusion on DEI metrics are the last thing they need, and the FTC will use its law-enforcement authority to halt such mistreatment.  

Every American has suffered the consequences of illegal concentrations of market power and anticompetitive behavior — lower product quality, higher prices, misleading job postings and poor customer service.

This is the type of bad behavior that antitrust laws are designed to stop, and why enforcing antitrust laws is key to the president’s economic vision.

There’s a common theme running through the FTC’s deregulatory mission and antitrust enforcement: Powerful interests both in and out of government can use their influence to harm Americans and distort markets.

Under my leadership, they will find no quarter.

An American Golden Age will be built on an economy where new businesses can enter the market with ease, not be mired in red tape.

It will be built through the innovation of companies free to act without government interference on behalf of left-wing nonprofits.

And it will be built by American workers protected against anticompetitive requirements, wage-fixing conspiracies and DEI collusion.

An American Golden Age is possible only when companies can compete for customers based on their high-quality products and services. When unlawful monopolies suppress competition, everyone is left worse off.

I see my job as that of a cop on the beat — and unlike my predecessor, I harbor no animosity against American businesses.

Their ability to innovate and make deals is critical for a new American Golden Age.

The FTC is honored to be on the front lines with them.

Andrew Ferguson is chairman of the Federal Trade Commission.