President Donald Trump’s administration has embarked on a bold path of deregulation, ostensibly championing free-market capitalism to reinvigorate the nation’s economy. Yet, beneath this veneer of economic liberation lies a critical challenge: ensuring that corporate titans like Microsoft don’t exploit this environment to entrench monopolistic dominance. Should they succeed, they would stifle the very competition Trump seeks to fuel a healthy market in the U.S.

Nowhere is this threat more pronounced than in the rapidly evolving AI sector, where Microsoft’s expanding influence raises red flags about its intentions and tactics.

Elon Musk, a vocal critic of concentrated corporate power, has rightly targeted Microsoft in his antitrust lawsuit against OpenAI, the creators of ChatGPT. Microsoft’s staggering $13 billion investment in OpenAI – a move that transformed the once-idealistic nonprofit into a profit-chasing juggernaut – underscores its strategy to control the AI frontier.

Musk’s allegations paint a damning picture: Microsoft isn’t just a passive investor but a puppeteer pulling strings to suppress competition and consolidate power. This isn’t mere speculation; it’s a wake-up call harkening back to the era of robber barons about the perils of unchecked corporate giants in an industry poised to shape the future.

The Trump administration’s Stargate initiative, aimed at bolstering U.S.-grown AI technology with OpenAI as a key player, only heightens the stakes. Microsoft’s deep entanglement with OpenAI demands rigorous scrutiny, not blind endorsement. Evidence suggests Microsoft has weaponized its stake to choke out rivals, reportedly barring OpenAI investors from backing competitors like Musk’s xAI.

Worse, the cozy relationship – complete with sharing board members in its formative stages – threatened to facilitate the flow of “competitively sensitive information,” a euphemism for backroom deals that undermine fair play. Even without outright ownership, Microsoft’s outsized influence over OpenAI, arguably the crown jewel of AI innovation, reeks of monopolistic overreach.

This isn’t Microsoft’s first dance with anticompetitive behavior – it’s a well-worn playbook. The company’s history is littered with examples of strong-arming customers and rivals alike.

Its Azure cloud service traps users with restrictive licensing that blocks data exports to competitors, while threatened exit fees and deliberate incompatibilities with Office 365 cement a digital prison. The European Union has already flagged Microsoft’s bundling of Teams with its business suite as a classic monopolist tactic – force-feeding customers a single ecosystem while squeezing out alternatives. These practices don’t just inconvenience users; they erode the free market’s core promise of choice and innovation.

Microsoft’s global ambitions amplify these concerns. Its capitulation to China’s National Cybersecurity Law – handing over source code, encryption keys, and backdoor access – raises chilling questions about security, privacy, and sovereignty. For a company with its tentacles wrapped around AI, a technology with profound implications for national and global power, this compliance isn’t pragmatic; it’s opportunistic, reckless, and uniquely anti-free-market-capitalism. The specter of a Microsoft-dominated AI landscape, beholden to communist-Chinese-born authoritarian demands, should alarm anyone who values free markets, democratic principles, privacy, and freedom itself.

With the Trump administration returning to the Oval Office, the Federal Trade Commission’s role becomes pivotal. Under Lina Khan, the FTC took a hard line against monopolies, but her successor, Andrew Ferguson, inherits a Trump-era mandate that could easily fall prey to corporate coddling. Microsoft’s track record demands that the FTC double down, not ease up. The Stargate initiative, while a bold vision for American innovation, risks becoming a hollow gesture if Microsoft is allowed to bulldoze competitors and dictate terms. A free market thrives on rivalry and free-market competition, not on the whims of a single behemoth.

The broader lesson is clear: Deregulation without vigilance invites monopolies to feast on opportunity. Microsoft’s AI dominance isn’t a triumph of ingenuity but a warning of what happens when power concentrates unchecked. Free-market advocates should cheer competition, not coronation.

Musk’s xAI and other upstarts deserve a fighting chance, not a rigged game where Microsoft holds all the cards. If Trump’s economic vision is to succeed, it must prioritize dismantling these monopolistic chokeholds, not enabling them.

In an era where AI could redefine society, letting Microsoft run roughshod over the market isn’t just bad business – it’s a betrayal of the principles Trump claims to champion. The administration must act decisively to curb Microsoft’s predatory practices, fostering a landscape where innovation flourishes through competition, not coercion.

Anything less risks turning deregulation into a corporate free-for-all, where the only winners are the giants already at the top.

Frank Salvato is the vice president of news and information operations for Global Emergent Media Communications. He is the host of the Underground USA podcast. Salvato’s writing has been recognized by the U.S. House Foreign Relations Committee and the Japan Center for Conflict Prevention, and has been published by the American Enterprise Institute, the Washington Times, Accuracy in Media, and Human Events. He can be heard twice weekly on the America’s “Third Watch” radio program syndicated on the Salem Broadcasting Network.