For the last 25 years, America — and particularly Silicon Valley — has been the beating heart of global technology innovation. It’s been a key source of our economic power, military strength, and cultural leadership. That’s something every American should be proud of.
But today, the future of American innovation is in danger.
Control over the mobile digital platforms that power our economy — and increasingly, our free speech — has been seized by two massive corporations: Apple and Google. These tech giants are no longer humble innovators, but unaccountable monopolies, rigging the system to stamp out independent businesses, extract monopoly rents, and control what Americans can see, say, and do online.
This isn’t just bad business, it’s un-American. And it’s time for conservatives to remember: strong antitrust enforcement is not anti-business. It is fundamental to free markets and conservative values.
As Vice-President JD Vance has said, “You can’t have a truly free market when a handful of corporations decide who gets to compete.” That sentiment was echoed in a powerful recent speech by AAG Gail Slater who said:
“Aggressive antitrust enforcement supports a competitive process that enables markets to regulate themselves, providing a bulwark against market power that often leads to regulatory intervention.”
They’re absolutely right.
While other countries are moving quickly to rein in unchecked corporate power, America — the very country that made the internet boom possible — risks falling behind. If we don’t act, we won't just lose the next generation of entrepreneurs; we’ll lose control of our economy, our culture, and our future to a handful of unaccountable Silicon Valley billionaires.
It appears that this administration understands this. His first administration dared to take on Big Tech. Those efforts were continued and ramped up under the Biden administration. Now, with a second Trump term underway, we have a critical opportunity — and a patriotic duty — to finish the job.
In the late 1990s, Americans faced a similar crisis. One company, Microsoft, had an iron grip over access to the internet. Entrepreneurs were forced to either sell out to Microsoft or get crushed by it.
However, Silicon Valley fought back and asked the government to intervene. Thanks to strong leadership, the U.S. sued Microsoft, broke its stranglehold, and unleashed a wave of innovation that gave birth to or allowed to flourish Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and thousands of other companies. It sparked one of the greatest economic booms in history — all because we stood up for competition, freedom, and American ingenuity.
Today, Apple and Google are doing exactly what Microsoft did in the 1990s, but on a much larger scale. Even a recent court ruling found common remedies against the two behemoths in completely different cases. And just like it was back then, we’re seeing the early stages of a broad and necessary pushback. When the rules are clear and open, innovation thrives, small businesses succeed, and consumers win.
If Microsoft had been able to demand 30% of all internet business or made it nearly impossible to access competitors' services, Silicon Valley might have died in its cradle. Indeed, it’s unclear that Google Search and Apple’s iPod/iTunes/iPhone would have had any significant market at all without the ability to serve Windows computer users. Yet today, Apple and Google are doing exactly that on mobile devices, the modern gateway to the internet.
They dictate who can innovate, who can speak, and who can succeed. And they do it while waving the American flag and shipping American jobs overseas.
The United States is at a crossroads.
We can either unleash the next generation of American tech entrepreneurs or become a vassal state, dependent on the whims of two unaccountable corporations that put profits, politics, and control ahead of American workers and families.
To be clear: this isn’t just a partisan talking point. Ongoing antitrust actions in the United States launched under the Biden administration and continuing under President Trump show that this is now bipartisan American policy. The Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission have both made clear that the days of Big Tech impunity are coming to an end.
In Congress, the bipartisan Open App Markets Act passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee with strong support, led by Senators Blumenthal and Blackburn. Though stalled in the last Congress, the logic behind it remains more urgent than ever: without open digital markets, there is no fair shot for America’s next great tech company. Just last month, a similar bill, the App Store Freedom Act was introduced by Representative Cammack of Florida.
Now, with a second Trump Administration and bold leadership appointments in antitrust enforcement, America has a second chance.
Meanwhile, the rest of the world is charging ahead. Europe has passed the Digital Markets Act. The UK has passed the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act in. Japan has passed their Smartphone Act, the SSCPA. Australia, India, Brazil and other jurisdictions are all moving faster than we are to protect competition and innovation on mobile devices. In many instances, those regulations seek to implement the exact same reforms and remedies endorsed by the Trumps’ DOJ.
And these actions abroad aren’t just about foreign competitors — they will directly benefit American developers, job creators, and startups. Thousands of U.S. companies stand to gain from a more open digital world.
The idea that these laws are somehow “attacks” on American companies is nonsense. If Apple and Google want to avoid penalties, all they have to do is comply — open their platforms to small businesses, let innovators compete, and obey the law.
Americans never back down from a fair fight. It's only the globalist elites that run the largest corporations in the world who believe in rigging the game.
America has always led the world because we trusted the American people and protected them from the overreach of big corporations.
We must finish the work. Break Big Tech's chokehold on innovation, unleash the creativity of the American people, and ensure that the future is made in America, not controlled by Silicon Valley elites who think they are above the law.
This is not just an economic fight. It’s a fight for American freedom, American jobs, and American exceptionalism.
It’s time to finish the job and pass legislation that will unleash the innovative engine.
Gene Burrus is founder of Burrus Competition Strategies and is a long-time advocate for fair and open competition on digital platforms.