Trump revoked a Biden economic ‘competition’ order that hampered U.S. companies

President Donald Trump has been steadily working since taking office in January to undo the damage done by his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, and he just scored another win in that regard this week.

On Wednesday, Trump revoked a 2021 executive order from Biden that was ostensibly aimed at “promoting competition” in the U.S. economy, according to The Guardian.

What Biden’s order actually did, per the Justice Department, was enable federal regulators to hinder the nation’s free markets and American companies with an “overly prescriptive and burdensome approach.”

Biden’s “promoting competition” order revoked

In a Wednesday executive order, President Trump declared, “Executive Order 14036 of July 9, 2021 (Promoting Competition in the American Economy), is hereby revoked.”

Trump’s order offered no further details or explanation of why he felt it necessary to take such action, as is typically included.

The Guardian reported that the Biden order was a “signature initiative” of the former president that was purportedly intended to crack down on alleged “anti-competitive practices” and “corporate abuses” in various sectors of the U.S. economy.

When that order was first issued, Biden claimed it’s purpose was to “enforce the antitrust laws to combat the excessive concentration of industry, the abuses of market power, and the harmful effects of monopoly and monopsony” in an assortment of economic sectors, such as agriculture, healthcare, labor, and pharmaceuticals, to name just a few.

It was further noted that the initiative had been “championed” by several of Biden’s top economic officials who’d previously either worked for or with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), who is notorious for obsessively seeking to impose federal regulatory control over virtually all aspects of American economic activity.

Focused on “empowering” free markets, not “enabling regulators and bureaucrats”

Though President Trump declined to offer any explanation for the revocation of former President Biden’s 2021 executive order, the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division hailed the decision as an “opportunity to continue its work to recalibrate and modernize the Federal approach to competition policy to suit the needs of our dynamic and innovative economy.”

The Antitrust Division’s Assistant Attorney General Abigail Slater said in a statement, “America First Antitrust focuses on empowering the American people in the free markets, not 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,” she added.

Ditching Biden’s “overly prescriptive and burdensome approach”

The DOJ release noted that rather than continue to rely upon the “overly prescriptive and burdensome approach” of the prior administration, the Antitrust Division would instead make use of “tailored executive orders” and “opening regulatory barriers” to help promote economic competition.

Simultaneously, the Division was working on “streamlining” the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act (HSR) corporate merger review process, including by reinstating the practices of “early termination” of reviews for uncontroversial mergers and settling other reviews with “targeted and well-crafted consent decrees,” both of which were “eschewed” by the prior administration.

The release added that, “Moving forward, the Division will continue adapting towards focused law enforcement that matches the complexity and pace of the modern economy.”

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