Trump Administration Backs Away From White-Collar Criminal Enforcement

WSJ What’s News

The Wall Street Journal

News, Daily News

4 • 4K Ratings

🗓️ 14 April 2025

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

P.M. Edition for April 14. The U.S. administration is backing away from cases involving foreign bribery, public corruption, money laundering and crypto markets. WSJ reporter Dave Michaels says the administration is effectively redefining what business conduct constitutes a crime. And WSJ reporter Peter Grant says Trump’s appetite for tariffs is threatening a post-Covid bounce for the U.S. office space market. Plus, what’s at stake for Meta Platforms—which owns Instagram and WhatsApp—in its antitrust trial brought by the Federal Trade Commission. Pierre Bienaimé hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	The new five-pound meal deal from McDonald's. Get a cheeseburger or mayo chicken, medium fries,
0:05.6	four McNuggets and a medium soft drink for guess what? That's right, five pounds.
0:11.4	It's not called the five-pound meal deal for nothing.
0:14.8	From 11 a.m. Not available on delivery. Carbulated soft drink upgrade fees apply. Participating
0:18.7	restaurants subject subjects availability.
0:28.8	The Trump administration is backing away from prosecuting certain cases of white-collar crime.
0:37.6	White-collar crime or cases against executives where there are not clear victims from the misconduct, those don't appear to be popular.
0:41.9	Plus, the president's trade war threatens the office space market recovery.
0:47.5	And META fights to keep Instagram and WhatsApp as its antitrust trial begins.
0:49.7	It's Monday, April 14th.
0:52.9	I'm Pierre Bienname for the Wall Street Journal, filling in for Alex Oslo.
0:58.4	This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that moved the world today.
1:03.8	US investors welcomed a tariff rollback for the tech industry.
1:11.7	The exemption for smartphones, computers, and memory chips amounts to a big reprieve for Apple and others that make many items in China.
1:16.9	President Trump said this afternoon that he's looking at some tariff pauses to help automakers as well. Shares of companies like Ford and General Motors perked up on the news.
1:22.8	In U.S. markets today, the S&P 500 and the Dow rose about 0.8%, while the NASDA composite rose about 0.6%.
1:32.7	Facebook owner meta platforms squared off with the Federal Trade Commission today in the start of a trial that could shape the future of antitrust enforcement and force the company to break itself up by selling Instagram and WhatsApp.
1:45.9	The FTC wants to compel META to undo its acquisitions of those two platforms,
1:50.5	alleging it wields an illegal monopoly in social media, something META denies.
1:55.2	WSHA reporter Megan Burbrowski covers META and social media and says the company has a lot to lose.
2:00.7	A big chunk of META's ad revenue is at stake.
2:05.6	Instagram is projected to bring in 50% of meta's ad revenue this year, and so they could lose half of their ad revenue potentially.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 18 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Wall Street Journal, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Wall Street Journal and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.