I’m not defending Republicans but as someone else said American anti trust law has always been about protecting consumers and not businesses.

Unfortunately, everything I could site about the difference comes from Ben Thompson’s (of stratechery fame) Exponent Podcast.

The current interpretation of antitrust law in the United States is fairly new (it's only been around for 50 years or so, and as I understand it, largely driven by The Antitrust Paradox by Robert Bork [yes, that Bork]). Before that, there was broader enforcement in the antitrust sphere.

Of course there is a Planet Money episode about that....

https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?stor...