As a longtime attorney, I am truly astounded at the work of President Donald Trump's Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission.
I truly feel that, for the first time in my life, the federal government is approaching antitrust policy in the manner that it was intended.
Most Republican White Houses of years past were overly pro-business and did not even bother to raise an eyebrow at many of the monopolies the American people faced.
In contrast, antitrust enforcement under President Joe Biden became all show and no substance. The DOJ and FTC brought case after case that flopped in court.
President Trump's antitrust team is turning that around.
Since Trump took over, deals are being approved at greater speed because his DOJ and FTC understand the difference between ordinary business deals and real threats to competition.
But don't mistake Trump's approach for weakness.
The Trump administration is aggressively pursuing cases against tech giants like Google, Amazon, Meta, and Apple. Investigations into Nvidia, Microsoft, and OpenAI continue in full force.
And market cornerers like Live Nation and many others are still shaking in their boots.
The difference between Biden antitrust and Trump antitrust is strategy.
The Biden administration wasted time and resources on cases that lacked merit, causing the government to lose credibility.
In sharp contrast, Trump's antitrust leaders, Gail Slater at DOJ and Andrew Ferguson at the FTC, are restoring trust by choosing battles wisely.
They quickly approve mergers that don't threaten competition and save challenges for those that do. This focused approach protects the agencies' power to take on real monopolists.
The recent handling of the HPE–Juniper Networks merger shows this smart enforcement in action.
An interim antitrust chief initially challenged the deal. But the Trump DOJ then negotiated a settlement that preserved the competitive marketplace, all while allowing the merger to proceed.
This decision was both legally sound and strategically important.
When combined, HPE and Juniper would be far from dominating the U.S. market. Plus, U.S. intelligence officials urged DOJ to approve the merger, saying it would help America compete with China's Huawei.
DOJ listened and acted accordingly, despite predictable criticism from Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker.
This is how antitrust enforcement should work.
The Republican founders and early popularizers of modern antitrust policy like John Sherman, William Howard Taft, and Theodore Roosevelt knew the government's role wasn't to smother business growth but to target real monopolies and keep markets competitive.
Biden's approach broke that balance. Trump's team is restoring it.
They aren't letting big business off the hook like nearly every Republican administration before them was guilty of. They are pursuing rogue problem corporations aggressively while letting everyone else thrive.
Thanks to their efforts, DOJ and FTC are no longer acting as de facto political agencies, creating what FTC Chair Ferguson described as "just one more press release to add to the pile." It is focused on challenging genuine monopolistic threats, not on getting political pats on the back or salacious headlines in mainstream media outlets.
In other words, Trump's antitrust team is showing that smart, focused enforcement can protect consumers, innovation, and jobs all at the same time.
That's exactly what Teddy Roosevelt meant when he said we should "speak softly and carry a big stick," and Slater and Ferguson following his sage advice is making America strong again.
Horace Cooper is a senior fellow with the National Center for Public Policy Research, chairman of the Project 21 National Advisory Board and a legal commentator. He is a frequent Fox News contributor and the author of "How Trump is Making Black America Great Again: The Untold Story of Black Advancement in the Era of Trump." Read Horace Cooper's Reports — More Here.