The emerging MAGA antitrust model

• That could shape how the government approaches other cases — including in AI and emerging tech.

What they're saying: "The big thing is: We're not the Biden administration," a senior DOJ official told Axios. "We're willing to bring cases. But we're also not afraid to settle. I don't think it's a secret to say this administration wants deals."

• The official called the proposed settlement with Ticketmaster "very meaningful," and said those describing it as weak would have only accepted a breakup, which a federal judge has not ordered in decades.

Driving the news: Just days into the trial, the Justice Department reached a surprise settlement with Ticketmaster. The terms have not yet been finalized, but some experts say the proposal to cap fees and open up Ticketmaster's platform to rivals is weak and disappointing.

• That's notable in a case with massive bipartisan interest fueled by public anger over "bots," ticket scalpers and the struggle to secure affordable tickets to concerts, sports and other live events.
• The settlement comes just weeks after former DOJ antitrust chief Gail Slater left the department. The senior DOJ official said Slater supported a settlement that did not include a breakup of Ticketmaster prior to her departure.
• Dozens of state attorneys general are still pursuing their own case against Ticketmaster.

One former DOJ official told Axios that breaking up Ticketmaster would have been a "political layup."

• "It wasn't a controversial case, and it had widespread public support across the political continuum," the former official said.
• "It's very surprising that they felt the need to settle, it says everything about the views of this administration."

Flashback: When LiveNation first bought Ticketmaster in 2010, the Obama DOJ made the two companies agree to certain restrictions instead of blocking the merger.

• In 2019, under the first Trump administration, the DOJ accused Ticketmaster of violating the terms of its original consent decree and amended the agreement.

The senior DOJ official said this settlement embodies the administration's enforcement philosophy: Bring cases, but strike deals whenever possible.

• Biden-era antitrust staffers were quick to call this the end of the left-right antitrust coalition.
• "The Trump-Vance antitrust agenda should be obvious to everyone now: Monopolies pay cash to corrupt lobbyists to get out of lawsuits and keep padding their profits by gouging American consumers," Douglas Farrar, who served as former FTC chair Lina Khan's director of public affairs, told Axios.

What we're watching: Other companies looking to consolidate, buy up rivals or merge — including in AI — may be seeing a green light from Washington.

• "A little bit of modest enforcement could have gone a long way to preventing the kind of concentration that we see today," the former DOJ official said.
• "The same is true in AI where a little bit of enforcement up front could save a lot of difficult litigation later on."