Weekly Rewind: 6/27/25
FTC merger settlement aligns with Musk priority, Trump tariffs will remain… maybe into 2026, and more.
By Kainoa Lowman
Welcome back to the The Economic Populist’s Weekly Rewind. Every Friday, we’ll briefly recap the week’s biggest news, updates, and developments the in fight against corporate power.
Here’s what to know this week.
FTC Merger Settlement Aligns with Musk Priority
On Monday, the Trump-Vance Federal Trade Commission announced a settlement that would clear the path for ad agency giant Omnicom Group’s $13.5 billion acquisition of rival Interpublic Group (IPG).
Any settlement on this deal would have been outrageous. It combines thousands of ad agencies into a single holding company; even CNBC’s Jim Cramer, a reliable cheerleader of corporate consolidation, called the deal “so monopolistic and anti-competitive I can’t even believe it.” But the particular terms of this settlement have raised some eyebrows.
The FTC’s core requirement of the merged enterprise is that it cannot steer ad dollars away from particular platforms or publishers based on “political or ideological viewpoints.” This requirement is less about antitrust concerns, and instead appears designed to address concerns raised by Elon Musk, whose X platform has alleged that advertisers have engaged in an “illegal boycott” against it. According to the Wall Street Journal, X already pressured IPG into spending money on the platform late last year, under the threat of political retaliation from Musk. Going forward, this settlement gives the company another potential form of leverage.
This consent decree is part of an alarming shift in direction for the FTC under the leadership of Chair Andrew Ferguson. While Ferguson has continued several cases and initiatives started under his predecessor, Lina Khan, in recent weeks the agency has waived through some blatantly harmful mergers. Just this week, it greenlit a $36 billion merger between snack giants Mars and Kellanova, at a time when grocery prices remain devastatingly high.
In rhetoric, Ferguson has continued to affirm the importance of reinvigorated antitrust enforcement to protect workers and consumers. But increasingly, the signal to Wall Street appears to be that the FTC is open to facilitate dealmaking.
TRADE UPDATE: Trump Tariffs Will Remain… Maybe Into 2026
On Friday, June 20, the Supreme Court rejected a request for expedited review of Trump’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose wide-reaching tariffs.
A DC district court previously ruled that IEEPA doesn’t give Trump any tariff authority and enjoined Trump’s IEEPA-based tariffs for two toy firms bringing the suit. But the court then paused the termination of the near-universal 10% tariffs, the higher bespoke tariffs on 67 countries and the “fentanyl” tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and China pending appeal. The toy firms asked for an expedited Supreme Court review.
The legality of all of the tariffs based on IEEPA will almost certainly be resolved in the Supreme Court. In addition to the toy companies’ challenge, a larger case was brought by 12 Democratic state attorneys general and four companies. In that case, the U.S. Court of International Trade (ruled that IEEPA may provide tariff authority… but not unlimited tariffs imposed on a number of countries (revisit Lori’s Substack unpacking that case). That ruling enjoined the April 2 tariffs universally but was also stayed. The appeal will be heard in the Federal Circuit next month.
Both cases are likely to ultimately be appealed to the Supreme Court, which ends its current term this week. The next term begins on October 6. Even assuming a writ of certiorari is granted quickly and the Court decides to hear the case, it would not be briefed, argued, and decided for some months after October 6. If, alternatively, the DC Circuit and Federal Circuit rule the same way on appeal and the Supreme Court denies cert, that final outcome won’t come about until late fall at the earliest.
Ultimately, the Supreme Court not hearing the toy companies’ case on an expedited timeline means the tariffs instated on February 1 and April 2 remain in place for now. And the 90-day suspension of higher tariff rates on numerous countries ends July 9, while it remains to be seen what, if any, trade deals will come to light by then that will avoid higher tariffs returning or if there will be further extensions for some or all countries.
-Katie Hettinga, Rethink Trade
Quick hits
Shell is reportedly in talks to acquire British Petroleum, in a massive deal that would likely transact at over $80 billion.
Zohran Mamdani, an economic populist, has defeated embattled centrist Andrew in the New York Democratic mayoral primary. Research Director Matt Stoller wrote about what it means for the antimonopoly movement over on his BIG Newsletter.
Doha Mekki, a former senior DOJ Antitrust Division official and architect of landmark Big Tech antitrust cases under the Biden Administration, testified before the Senate on how consolidation allows for private systems of regulation and red tape to influence our lives. Check out a clip here.
Director of Policy and Advocacy Morgan Harper testified in another Senate hearing on the Trump Administration’s dismantling of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Visa’s bid to toss out a DOJ antitrust suit against the company, filed last summer under the Biden administration, was denied by a federal judge.
A new investigative report reveals extensive construction defects in homes build by DR Horton and Lennar, America’s two largest homebuilders, saddling homebuyers with costly repairs. The BIG Newsletter has published multiple pieces on how these consolidated companies drive up housing costs.
Catch Rethink Trade Director Lori Wallach on Rep. Mark Pocan’s (D-WI-02) podcast talking all things tariffs and trade.
Rethink Trade filed a USMCA Rapid Response Mechanism labor complaint alongside SITRABICS, a Mexican truck drivers’ union. The complaint alleges that, since May 2021, truck drivers transporting Hyundai products from Mexican factories to U.S. states have been unlawfully fired and intimidated for engaging in protected union organizing activity.
Rethink Trade also joined nearly 700 labor, environmental, faith, consumer, family farm, and other organizations in sending a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on our priorities for improvements to the deal during the upcoming United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) six-year review. Statutorily, the review process is to start with a public comment period starting October 4, 2025, and a USTR report to Congress on review recommendations by January 2, 2026.