Trump Personally Intervened to Kill the Live Nation Antitrust Trial — Then a Jury Found the Company Guilty Anyway

President Trump directly instructed a senior Justice Department official to settle the federal antitrust case against Live Nation just days before trial was set to begin on March 2, telling the official simply to 'settle it.' The intervention capped months of behind-the-scenes maneuvering by Live Nation that included hiring Trump's personal law firm, enlisting his closest political allies as lobbyists, and exploiting the president's interest in revamping the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

The path to settlement was paved with connections. Live Nation retained Sullivan & Cromwell — the firm representing Trump in his personal New York legal appeals — to lead settlement talks in December 2024, a move that surprised DOJ trial attorneys who noted the lead attorney, James McDonald, had little antitrust experience. Boris Epshteyn, Trump's private legal coordinator and one of the most influential behind-the-scenes figures in the administration, took a keen interest in resolving the case. DOJ officials couldn't determine whether Epshteyn was working for Trump, Live Nation, or both. The company had also added Richard Grenell — Trump's Kennedy Center executive director and longtime ally — to its board in May 2025, and brought in Kellyanne Conway to accompany Live Nation executives to a September 2025 meeting with DOJ antitrust chief Gail Slater.

The deal crystallized in a frenzied 72-hour stretch. On February 27, Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino met Trump in the Oval Office, ostensibly to discuss Kennedy Center bookings, but Trump also pressed him on why the lawsuit hadn't been resolved. Trump's call to settle followed. On March 5, Rapino returned to the White House and met with White House Counsel David Warrington and then-Attorney General Pam Bondi, with McDonald alongside him. Trump himself stopped by the room and demanded to know why no deal had been reached yet. By the end of the meeting, it had — a settlement that allowed Live Nation to keep Ticketmaster, which generates over $3 billion in annual revenue, and retain control of many of its best amphitheaters. That outcome was a dramatic retreat from what DOJ trial lawyers had been pushing: a forced divestiture of Ticketmaster and surrender of roughly three-quarters of Live Nation's amphitheaters.

The settlement immediately unraveled at the courthouse. Live Nation's own top in-house lawyer told a federal judge on March 6 that he didn't know the deal had been signed. The DOJ's co-lead trial attorney said in open court on March 9 that he had received the settlement only that morning and hadn't yet read it. The chaos reflected deep internal divisions: DOJ political appointees, including the department's No. 3 official Stanley Woodward and aide Trent McCotter, had been quietly steering negotiations toward leniency for months, at one point ordering trial attorneys to strip Ticketmaster divestiture language from a draft counterproposal and relaying talking points that echoed Live Nation's own court arguments.

The states refused to follow the federal government's lead. Thirty-four state attorneys general — including those from Republican-led states — viewed the settlement as too favorable to Live Nation and proceeded to trial independently. In April, a jury found Live Nation had illegally monopolized the U.S. ticketing market for major concerts. The plaintiff states are now asking the judge to order a breakup of the company. The outcome is a striking rebuke: the federal government abandoned a case that a jury ultimately vindicated, after direct presidential pressure shaped by a web of lobbyists, Trump-connected lawyers, and White House political operatives.