Op-Ed: Terry Campo: Competition is America’s strategic edge
For generations, the engine of American greatness has been its unrivaled capacity to innovate. We’ve led the world not because we protected monopolies — but because we empowered startups, risk-takers, and inventors to challenge the status quo.
That edge is under threat.
Today, a handful of mega-corporations, especially in Big Tech, are consolidating power at the expense of competition. They dominate markets, dictate access to essential infrastructure, and stifle the very dynamism that built our economy. Their success, once celebrated, now comes at a cost: suppressed innovation, rising dependency, and growing national vulnerability.
That must change.
Antitrust enforcement isn’t just about consumer prices or corporate structure. It’s about protecting the future of American innovation. It’s about ensuring that the next generation of builders can rise — not be blocked, bought out, or buried.
Encouragingly, the incoming Trump administration appears to understand this. Both the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission are signaling a return to serious antitrust enforcement. They’ve committed to upholding stricter merger guidelines and holding even the most powerful firms accountable when they cross the line. It’s a shift that couldn’t come soon enough.
This fight isn’t just about fair markets: it’s about geopolitical advantage.
China is racing to dominate the next era of technology, investing billions in artificial intelligence, semiconductors, and quantum computing. If America is to stay ahead, we need to harness every ounce of talent, from every corner of our innovation economy. That won’t happen if just a few entrenched players control the market.
We’ve already seen the warning signs. Google, accused of illegal monopoly behavior, now shapes the global flow of information. Nvidia has cornered the AI chip market and, critics argue, flirted with export control limits to gain access to China. Meta, in pursuit of dominance, has reportedly entertained concessions to the Chinese Communist Party just to stay competitive overseas.
This isn’t just anti-competitive behavior — it’s strategic malpractice.
True innovation depends on open markets, not gated platforms. We need to build a system where new ideas can thrive, not one where they are shut out by entrenched incumbents.
That means giving antitrust enforcers the tools — and the backing — they need to do their job. It means restoring the principle that no company, no matter how large, is above the law.
And it means understanding that competition isn’t a threat to American power — it’s the source of it.
To lead the 21st century, we must double down on the values that got us here: openness, fairness, and the courage to challenge concentrated power. That’s how we preserve our economic edge, protect our national security, and ensure that American ingenuity — not monopoly control — shapes the future.
The message is simple: Let innovators build. And make even the biggest corporations play by the rules.
Terry Campo is a former counsel at the Senate Judiciary Committee and Department of Energy. Mr. Campo also advised Senator Grassley on issues concerning national security