Warren Calls on Congress and Antitrust Enforcers to Take on Corporate Power at Open Markets Conference

June 24, 2026

Warren Calls on Congress and Antitrust Enforcers to Take on Corporate Power at Open Markets Conference

Warren calls out both Democrats and Republicans for nominating judges that don't follow antitrust laws

Warren pushes antitrust tools to tackle new challenges, including AI

Video of Remarks (YouTube)

Washington, D.C. - At the Open Markets Institute's 2026 conference on "The New American Revolution," U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) spoke on the growing momentum for antitrust enforcement, ten years after her first speech at OMI.

"10 years ago, I warned that competition in America was dying. Today, meaningful competition barely registers a heartbeat," said Senator Warren.

But Senator Warren pointed out that in the last few years, Jonathan Kanter at the Department of Justice and Lina Khan at the Federal Trade Commission brought "hope and a counter-attack against monopolies."

"Those two were making the billionaire class and Wall Street deal makers nervous. It's no wonder giant corporations donated handily to Trump's 2024 campaign. And as soon as Trump took office, corporations came knocking at the White House door to get their pro-monopoly deals approved," said Senator Warren.

She highlighted how companies like Paramount-Skydance donated millions of dollars to Trump's ballroom and his presidential library in what appear to be pay-to-play schemes in exchange for favorable treatment like merger approvals.

Senator Warren also argued that in addition to rising prices, corporate consolidation adds a dark layer of control to our economy.

"With a handful of CEOs in charge, a handful of people dictate what you watch on TV, which doctor you're allowed to see, what you eat, what predators get online access to your kids, what apartment you can rent, and, as AI sweeps in, maybe what your future job looks like," Senator Warren continued.

"It looks like we're careening towards oligarchy. But I'm smiling because the antitrust cat is out of the bag…Khan and Kantor reminded America about the power of antitrust laws and demonstrated how to use those tools. Today, people in and out of government are picking up those tools-and the giants can't stop them," said Senator Warren.

She underscored how Congress, state attorneys general, and state legislators are taking on powerful defense contractors, health care giants, and corporations like Live Nation-Ticketmaster and Nexstar and Tegna.

"The world is changing, and I don't care how many lobbyists the would-be monopolists hire and how many campaign contributions they make, they cannot stuff this genie back in the bottle," she continued.

Senator Warren called for Congress to pass laws that sharpen antitrust enforcers' tools and confirm judges who actually understand antitrust law.

"We need strong people at DOJ, but if judges ignore the law, then Americans aren't going to see the benefit of the antitrust laws…We should build a diverse federal bench that will uphold the letter of the law and not be wow'd by a small army of $2,000/hour lawyers whose main job is to make sure that nothing upsets the plans of the world's biggest corporations," she said.

Senator Warren called out both Republicans and Democrats for appointing judges that have let through bad antitrust deals.

Additionally, Senator Warren called for antitrust enforcers to be ready to use the tool of antitrust enforcement while approaching new challenges, including around artificial intelligence.

"Corporations don't get a free pass from antitrust just because they're using an algorithm," said Senator Warren. "We need to remind Big Tech that vertical integration can be a violation of antitrust law when it is used to lock out competition."

"When I look around the country, I see more appetite than ever to take on corporate monopolies that rip off consumers," Senator Warren continued, mentioning candidates like Jon Ossoff, Julianna Stratton, Peggy Flanagan, Chris Pappas, Graham Platner, Mary Peltola, and Roy Cooper, who've all come out in favor of stronger antitrust enforcement.

"Yes, it's tough out there. Dominant corporations are in a merger frenzy, and the Trump administration is corrupt. The giants won't give up power easily. But the fight is on, and we're not giving up," concluded Senator Warren.

Transcript: Senator Warren's Speech at the 2026 Open Markets Institute
June 24, 2026

As Prepared for Delivery

Senator Elizabeth Warren: The first time I spoke at the Open Markets Institute was 10 years ago. 10 years ago, I warned that competition in America was dying. Today, meaningful competition barely registers a heartbeat.

Five defense companies dominate military contracting.

Four beef packers control up to 85% of beef sales.

Three chains sell half of all the prescription drugs in the United States.

And two companies control almost half of all U.S. e-commerce.

Across our economy, a handful of giant companies dominate entire industries.

So let's talk winners and losers.

The winners are enjoying their day in the sun. Corporate profits are at an all-time high. CEOs are richer than ever. In 1965, CEOs were paid 21 times as much as a typical worker. Today, that number has spiked to 281.

And before a Fortune 500 CEO grabs the mic to talk about how super-duper the stock market has been to build wealth, note that it's the richest 10% of American households that own almost 90% of that stock market wealth.

It's pretty clear who is dancing on the corpse of American competition-the richest Americans who just keep getting richer.

So what's happened to the losers-the other 90% of Americans?

As competition dies, you pay more. They pay when a corporate giant hikes the cost of health insurance; when they purchase airline tickets from one of only four major airlines, then pay extra to bring a bag; when they buy groceries from Kroger or Fred Meyer or Ralphs or Food for Less, or Mariano's or Smith's or Harris Teeter. Oh, that sounds like a lot of competition, except that every one of them is owned by Kroger.

When choices are limited to a few giant companies, customers are forced to shell out whatever they charge, so the giants keep right on raising prices.

That's just Econ 101.

But there's another, darker layer to what happens when giants dominate an industry.

With a handful of CEOs in charge, a handful of people dictate what you watch on TV, which doctor you're allowed to see, what you eat, what predators get online access to your kids, what apartment you can rent, and, as AI sweeps in, maybe what your future job looks like.

Today, a majority of Americans now think that "when it comes to politics and society, nothing really matters because powerful people will always do whatever they want." No wonder much of America believes that Jeffrey Epstein and JPMorgan Chase get to play by one set of rules while everyone else faces hard accountability if they break the law.

This shift didn't happen overnight. It's the result of decades of both parties' failure to enforce our country's antitrust laws, of politicians and presidents of both parties favoring corporations over workers, and of both parties confirming judges who skew legal interpretation to benefit corporate giants.

This shift is also what happens when America's toothless campaign finance laws allow corporations and billionaires to funnel endless money into elections and lobbying so that giants can buy government favors.

So yeah, the past ten years have been tough. But the past few years have also brought hope and a counter-attack against monopolies. When Biden was elected, we fought for-and got-the most pro-competition DOJ and FTC in decades. I'm talking about antitrust enforcers Lina Khan and Jonathan Kanter.

They launched some big cases and, at first, they lost. But they didn't give up. Instead, they leaned in harder, and began notching real wins. In 2024, DOJ won its first anti-monopolization case in decades, and, for the first time EVER, successfully blocked a merger based on negative effects on workers.

With Khan at the helm, the FTC blocked a merger between Kroger and Albertsons, which would have raised grocery prices for millions of Americans. And if you still don't see the connection between antitrust and rising costs, just take it from the CEO of Albertsons: she described how the company is now planning to keep prices low to attract more shoppers and compete with rivals. Darn it.

And if Khan and Kanter had kept going, we would have seen even more wins.

Those two were making the billionaire class and Wall Street deal makers nervous.

It's no wonder giant corporations donated handily to Trump's 2024 campaign.

And as soon as Trump took office, corporations came knocking at the White House door to get their pro-monopoly deals approved.

Have you wondered why companies keep donating millions of dollars to Trump's gold-encrusted ballroom, his arch, or his library?

It looks a lot like a pay-to-play scheme.

Take the Paramount-Skydance deal. Skydance desperately wanted to take over Paramount, and it was up to the Trump administration to stop it.

So what did the executives do? Step one: Paramount's CBS "settled" a really stupid lawsuit with Trump, handing him over $16 million.

Step two: When Stephen Colbert called that a "big fat bribe," CBS cancelled his show.

Step three: the Trump administration approved the merger.

The result? Trump's buddy David Ellison, the owner of Skydance, now also owns Paramount, which means he owns Paramount Pictures, CBS, Nickelodeon, BET, Comedy Central, MTV, and a massive movie and television library with everything from Top Gun to Spongebob Squarepants. And Ellison has more plans. He wants to buy up Warner Brothers too, taking over CNN, HBO, the Food Network, another film studio, Discovery Channel, Cartoon Network, TNT, TBS and more. One guy in charge of it all.

Everyone from TV watchers to production assistants to make-up artists to A-list celebrities called to block this merger.

Donald Trump's DOJ ignored them all and rubber-stamped it. A few days later, David Ellison showed up to celebrate at Trump's UFC birthday party.

But make no mistake: this isn't over. The state AGs have the power to block this merger-and that's exactly what they should do.

That doesn't mean we let our guard down, because these guys aren't giving us a break.

Now, Fox is trying to buy Roku to create another media behemoth, combining the two largest free, ad-supported streaming services into one. And remember: Fox is owned by the Murdochs, another Trump-friendly family.

We're seeing the consolidation of media by a few oligarchs happen right before our eyes - and that's just in one industry.

Let's do one more: The Trump administration rubber-stamped a merger between the two largest residential real estate brokerages in the United States, Anywhere Real Estate and Compass. Even though it means one company now controls 70% of real estate listings in some areas, and it could drive high housing prices even higher.

How did this happen? Well, two clues. One, Compass hired a Trump-friendly lobbyist. And two, Todd Blanche, Trump's former personal lawyer and wannabe Attorney General, reportedly ran an end-run around experts at the DOJ.

I'm not the only one who noticed it looks like corruption is greasing the skids for mega-deals: giant companies are spending more money on lobbying than ever before. These companies understand that the antitrust laws as written could stop their consolidation in its tracks, and they seem quite willing to spend millions to persuade enforcers to ignore the law.

OK, that sounds grim. It looks like we're careening towards oligarchy. But I'm smiling because the antitrust cat is out of the bag. What Lina Khan and Jonathan Kanter did - which Wall Street Journal-types said couldn't be done - has changed things in a way Trump and corporate CEOs can't undo. Khan and Kantor reminded America about the power of antitrust laws and demonstrated how to use those tools. Today, people in and out of government are picking up those tools-and the giants can't stop them.

That is why 10 years after my first speech here, even as corporate giants do everything they can to eliminate competition, and even as the Trump administration seems willing to sell get-out-of-jail-free cards to the highest bidders, I have hope.

More people in Congress are starting to see the impact of consolidation. Republican Senator Tim Sheehy and I are advancing right to repair for the military-and we have it in both the House and Senate defense bills right now. Republican Senator Josh Hawley and I teamed up on a bill to break up big medicine to drive down health care prices-not law yet, but we're getting more interest.

State attorneys general are making change.

They're pushing to break up Live Nation-Ticketmaster. They sued to halt the $6 billion merger between Nexstar and Tegna. And they may be getting ready to challenge Paramount's takeover of Warner Bros.

State legislators are writing new laws to tackle consolidation.

Working people and small businesses are beginning to band together to sue the companies that are hurting competition, and spreading the word about Robinson-Patman.

The world is changing, and I don't care how many lobbyists the would-be monopolists hire and how many campaign contributions they make, they cannot stuff this genie back in the bottle.

Could we do more? Sure. Should we do more? Absolutely. For example, Congress should sharpen the antitrust enforcers' tools.

Mandate structural separation to prevent conflicts of interest in vertically integrated companies.

Close merger review loopholes that speed up consolidation of the housing market.

Ban private-equity "roll up" strategies.

Introduce reforms to crack down on antitrust corruption, like public notices of HSR deadlines, beefed-up Tunney Act settlement review, and a streamlined process to unwind giant illegal mergers.

And confirm judges who actually understand antitrust law.

Let me pause on that point about judges. We need strong people at DOJ, but if judges ignore the law, then Americans aren't going to see the benefit of the antitrust laws.

And I'm not just talking about Republican-appointed judges. A Clinton judge allowed T-Mobile to merge with Sprint, shrinking the cell phone market from four major competitors to three. An Obama judge dismissed a lawsuit alleging Facebook illegally acquired competitors, reducing protections and services for consumers. And a Biden judge cleared the way for Microsoft to take over Activision - which, by the way, led to Microsoft firing almost 2,000 Activision workers. Over and over again, judges have succumbed to the siren song of pro-corporate Chicago school economics and ignored the actual antitrust laws passed by Congress.

We should build a diverse federal bench that will uphold the letter of the law and not be wow'd by a small army of $2,000/hour lawyers whose main job is to make sure that nothing upsets the plans of the world's biggest corporations. It's time to change the temperature of the water. We need to stack the bench with consumer protection lawyers, tenants rights lawyers, and labor lawyers.

We also need to be ready to use the tool of antitrust enforcement even more decisively to meet new challenges.

Consider artificial intelligence: Corporations don't get a free pass from antitrust just because they're using an algorithm. If a company is using AI to illegally inflate rent prices in the middle of a national housing affordability crisis, we need to push back. We need to remind Big Tech that vertical integration can be a violation of antitrust law when it is used to lock out competition.

And yes, Big Tech will try to wave off antitrust enforcement by arguing that beating China in AI is important for our national security. But we know competition is essential for innovation, and antitrust is essential to promote that competition.

When I look around the country, I see more appetite than ever to take on corporate monopolies that rip off consumers.

Jon Ossoff has called for cracking down on giant corporations that are buying up single-family housing.

So have Julianna Stratton in Illinois and Peggy Flanagan in Minnesota.

But it doesn't stop there.

Chris Pappas in New Hampshire is running on an agenda to "stop corporate greed," and Graham Platner calls out corporations that have consolidated power, not by competing better, but by cheating.

Mary Peltola in Alaska aggressively supported the FTC in its suit against the Kroger-Albertson merger and took credit when the merger was blocked.

And in North Carolina, Roy Cooper's highlighting his record of fighting unfair business practices that let shady corporations make millions by ripping you off.

That's half a dozen candidates for the Senate alone.

Yes, it's tough out there. Dominant corporations are in a merger frenzy, and the Trump administration is corrupt. The giants won't give up power easily. But the fight is on, and we're not giving up. With all of us in this fight, I like our odds. And I'm honored to be in this fight with all you. Thank you.

###