Why the Trump administration’s auto antitrust probe is sure to flop
The use of law-enforcement agencies for blatantly political purposes should be anathema in a healthy democracy. But President Donald Trump doesn’t agree, as evidenced by the announcement that the Justice Department has begun a baseless antitrust investigation of Ford, Honda, Volkswagen and BMW of North America.
Under federal law, an antitrust violation exists when companies work together in restraint of trade; a company attempts to monopolize an industry; or companies engage in unfair methods of competition, including using deceptive ads. Ford, Honda, Volkswagen and BMW have done nothing of this sort. Their alleged misdeed: agreeing in July to follow California’s standards on gas mileage targets — instead of the weaker rules sought by the Trump administration — because they want a clearer business climate and a cleaner environment.
Their voluntary, publicly disclosed agreement is hardly an illegally collusive act. Two months ago, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said automakers were free to pursue stronger mileage standards than those set by the feds. Margo Oge, a senior EPA official for 18 years under Republican and Democratic presidents alike, told The Washington Post that the Justice Department’s insinuation of illegality “doesn’t pass the laugh test.”
The good news is it seems unlikely the courts will accept the definition of antitrust as anything the president doesn’t like. The bad news is even their rejection won’t likely stop the 45th president from further attempts to deform and deface democracy.
— The San Diego Union-Tribune
Mixing private gain and public funds
Who could have predicted that electing an obnoxiously self-promoting president who refuses to separate himself from his family business and demands loyalty from his staff would cause unacceptable entanglements between public interest and private profit? Just about everyone.
Which is why it comes as no surprise that, in the wake of reports that there’s been a marked increase in the number of U.S. military flights stopping to refuel at an airport near the Trump Organization’s troubled Turnberry resort in Scotland, the Air Force has ordered a review.
“NOTHING TO DO WITH ME,” tweets the president. Mmm hmm.
And why it comes as no surprise that Vice President Mike Pence stayed at an out-of-the-way Trump property on a recent trip to Ireland. Pence’s top staffer said Trump suggested it; the president says he had “nothing to do” with that one either. Yep.
And why it comes as no surprise that Attorney General Bill Barr — you know, the nation’s chief law enforcement official — booked a Trump hotel for a $30,000 holiday party.
Good government groups are trying to get the courts to focus on whether all this self-dealing violates seemingly unenforceable clauses in the Constitution barring emoluments, or side payments, foreign and domestic. Ordinary Americans should ask themselves a less technical question: Isn’t it all just disgustingly unseemly?
— New York Daily News