Washington worries Trump could bail out Zuckerberg ahead of landmark antitrust trial against Meta

Less than two weeks before the start of a landmark antitrust trial against tech giant Meta, the growing relationship between President Donald Trump and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is stoking fears in Washington (D.C.) that the White House could pull the plug on the whole case. The trial, scheduled for April 14, is the culmination of a nearly six-year investigation and legal battle. Launched by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) during President Trump’s first term and advanced by former President Joe Biden’s antitrust enforcers, it could ultimately force Meta to sell off Instagram and WhatsApp — a colossally expensive and complex maneuver that would effectively dismantle the $1.3 trillion company. The FTC rarely abandons an ongoing antitrust case, regardless of who’s in the White House. But a series of events over the past week has the Washington antitrust world buzzing about the fate of the case — worried that the tech industry’s new closeness with Trump, and specifically Meta’s rapid-fire concessions to Republicans over the past few months, could pay dividends by eliminating Washington’s threat to break up the social media giant.