The Justice Department was preparing to wage a legal battle more than a decade in the making against the world's largest concert promoter. Then President Trump called.

Settle it, the president told a senior DOJ official, the official later told associates.

The intervention was bizarre. The antitrust trial against Live Nation-which also owns Ticketmaster, a combination that draws relentless consumer criticism-was set to begin March 2, just days away. Trump had vowed to crack down on the industry just a year earlier when he signed an executive order targeting ticket-scalping and exploitative pricing in live entertainment. DOJ officials and the company had spent months exchanging settlement proposals but had little to show for it, and some in the government had been pushing to break up the giant.

White House involvement in law-enforcement matters, once taboo, is a regular feature of Trump's second term. But many DOJ officials regarded the political interference in the Live Nation case as extreme even for an administration in which the president has openly pressured law-enforcement officials to pursue perceived enemies and pardoned allies.

Weeks before Trump's call, Live Nation told DOJ officials that the company had brought in a fresh set of lawyers for settlement talks. They were from Sullivan & Cromwell, the New York-based firm that represents Trump in his personal legal troubles.

DOJ officials also learned that Boris Epshteyn, Trump's private legal coordinator, had taken a keen interest in resolving the case, according to people familiar with the matter. The officials didn't know whether he was working for Trump or Live Nation, or both.

After months of unproductive negotiations, Live Nation saw its fortunes change in roughly the span of a week.

On Friday, Feb. 27, Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino met with Trump in the Oval Office. Trump had called the meeting to discuss how to improve bookings at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, according to people familiar with the conversation. He also wanted to know why the company hadn't reached a deal over its lawsuit, the people said.

The president's directive to settle the case would follow the meeting.

On March 5, Rapino was back at the White House, meeting White House Counsel David Warrington and then-Attorney General Pam Bondi to put the finishing touches on a deal. He was accompanied by Sullivan & Cromwell's James McDonald, who had little antitrust experience but had been representing Trump in two New York appeals. Within months, Trump would nominate McDonald to be Manhattan's top federal prosecutor.

The president stopped by to check on the negotiations. How is this not settled yet? asked Trump, according to people familiar with the matter.

By the end of the meeting, it was. The two sides reached a deal that would allow the company to continue to control many of the best amphitheaters and keep Ticketmaster-its key subsidiary that the DOJ had vowed to force the company to sell less than two years earlier.

When asked about the role of the White House in the Live Nation settlement at his July confirmation hearing for attorney general, Todd Blanche replied: "I wasn't directly part of discussions, so I can't speak to that. But I'm most certainly not saying they were not part of it."

The March 5 agreement created confusion in the ongoing trial. Live Nation's top in-house lawyer later said he didn't know the deal had been signed when he met with the federal judge on the case on March 6. When the deal was announced on March 9, the DOJ's co-lead lawyer in the trial said in court that he had only received the settlement that morning and hadn't reviewed it yet.

Most of the states involved, including those controlled by Republicans, viewed the settlement as so favorable to the company that they refused to join it and continued to trial. In April, a jury found Live Nation illegally monopolized the ticketing market for major concerts in the U.S. The plaintiff states have asked the judge to break up the company.

White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis said the president "has not weaponized the Department of Justice against his political foes or used it to help his friends. The Department is focused on restoring law and order and keeping Americans safe." The White House referred questions about the Live Nation litigation and settlement to the Justice Department and said there is no confusion about Epshteyn's role as Trump's personal attorney.

A DOJ spokeswoman said the agency's settlement with Live Nation prioritized quick benefits to consumers over a yearslong legal battle that the department risked losing, and that the terms enable competition and lower prices.

"Artists are now allowed to use other promoters at Live Nation venues. Fans benefit from service fee caps for concerts at amphitheaters and have new ways to obtain tickets on a variety of platforms," the spokeswoman said.

McDonald declined to comment, as did a spokesman for Sullivan & Cromwell.

Dan Wall, Live Nation's executive vice president of corporate and regulatory affairs and its top in-house lawyer, said, "Our critics are comparing this settlement to the irrational hope of breaking up Live Nation and Ticketmaster. For the actual claims in this case, the DOJ and settling states got as much or more as they could have expected to win in court."

He added: "The only reason we went above the Antitrust Division to senior DOJ leadership is because no one there would speak to us. When you've been unable to get a meeting for six months, you have every right to try something else."

MAGA antitrust push

In 2024, the DOJ launched its lawsuit against Live Nation, saying the company dominated all aspects of the concert business-including promotions, ticketing, venues, artist management and sponsorships-and used its power to stifle competition, driving prices and fees higher. "It is time to break up Live Nation-Ticketmaster," then-Attorney General Merrick Garland said when the lawsuit was filed. Antitrust authorities had scrutinized Live Nation's conduct for years following the 2010 merger that created the company.

Public frustration with it had boiled over in 2022, when Ticketmaster botched ticket sales for Taylor Swift's Eras Tour. Glitches in the system kept fans waiting for hours in virtual queues only to have tickets disappear from their carts or the site crash. Thirty-nine states and the District of Columbia would ultimately join the DOJ's lawsuit.

When Trump re-entered the White House in 2025, he appeared eager to take on the concert industry. In March 2025, he signed an executive order aimed at ending ticket-price gouging and called for stronger consumer protections. The move fit into MAGA's support for aggressive antitrust enforcement as a means of curbing corporate power.

Vice President JD Vance had in his Senate days been a fervent antitrust advocate, particularly against Big Tech, and Trump tapped Gail Slater, a former Vance aide and vocal opponent of monopolies in tech, to lead the DOJ's antitrust division.

But cracks quickly began to emerge, with Trump himself torn between his dealmaking and populist impulses, and advisers offering conflicting counsel.

Under Trump's second term, the DOJ has moved sharply away from corporate enforcement. Trump allies and clients of his personal lawyers have received pardons or seen their cases dropped by the DOJ.

This month, the DOJ released a legal opinion saying that Trump wouldn't have to turn over to lawmakers or the courts his communications about any official business with private advisers such as Epshteyn.

In addition to coordinating his private legal matters, Epshteyn advises the president, including on personnel, according to people familiar with the matter. Some senior DOJ officials in part owe their jobs, or terminations, to Epshteyn's influence. They include Blanche, whom Epshteyn boosted to replace Bondi as attorney general.

When Slater interviewed for her job to lead the antitrust division during the transition, Epshteyn joined the group of advisers who talked to her, according to people familiar with the meeting. At one point, Trump turned to his lawyer and said of Slater, "I don't know what you're worried about, Boris. She seems great." A White House official said Trump didn't make the statement.

Connected lobbyists

Trump was also taking a special interest in the Kennedy Center, installing himself as chairman and naming Richard Grenell, a longtime ally, to be executive director. The two pushed for a programming overhaul, sending ticket sales plummeting. Some artists pulled out.

Trump vowed to attract top-tier talent. He told allies he wanted to see Live Nation involved in the arts center's operations. Officials at the Kennedy Center had been discussing moving its ticketing system to Ticketmaster since 2024.

The Kennedy Center and Grenell didn't respond to requests for comment. A spokeswoman told The Wall Street Journal early this year that the center had seen enthusiasm for its programs, and Grenell said at the time that the Kennedy Center's financial footing was stronger than the previous year.

Ticketmaster said no ticketing discussions with the Kennedy Center have involved Trump personally.

Live Nation, meanwhile, was spending months trying to get a meeting at the DOJ to discuss its case but couldn't get in the door, according to people familiar with the matter. The company was told that DOJ officials were wary of taking a meeting because of Trump's executive order on the concert industry, which they viewed as targeting Live Nation, one of the people said.