On Tuesday, March 11, 2025, the Senate confirmed Gail Slater to be assistant attorney general for the Antitrust Division at the U.S. Department of Justice by a vote of 78-19. Slater has held positions at the Federal Trade Commission and as an economic adviser to the President during the first Trump Administration.
Slater has indicated that the Antitrust Division will be committed to enforcing the antitrust laws. In responding to follow-up questions after her February 12 nomination hearing, Slater stated, “I think any Antitrust Division would agree that appropriate and warranted enforcement against anticompetitive practices is necessary to ensure our economy delivers liberty, opportunity, and prosperity to the American people.”
Antitrust enforcement is expected to remain an important priority in the new administration – this is supported by President Trump’s antitrust actions in his first term. For example, criminal antitrust enforcement remained largely consistent between President Trump’s first term and President Biden’s term. Given this, we do not expect a departure from the current state of aggressive antitrust enforcement. We expect that the interest in advancing price-fixing, bid-rigging, market allocation and monopolization cases will likely continue. In addition, we anticipate that certain industries will be a top priority for the administration, including healthcare, consumer products, technology, labor markets and government procurement. Slater has also indicated that she will work with Congress to implement the Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act, which President Biden signed in 2023. Some differences could include, as was done in the first Trump Administration, a closer look at settlements in merger cases where structural remedies can fix anticompetitive effects, as opposed to litigation intended to block the mergers.
Slater has received bipartisan praise from lawmakers and antitrust experts since President Trump announced her nomination in December. That support includes the backing of nine former Antitrust Division heads who wrote to the Senate Judiciary Committee in support of her.
