Trump told DOJ to settle Live Nation-Ticketmaster case after Oval Office meeting

White House involvement in law-enforcement matters, once taboo, is a regular feature of Trump’s second term.

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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.

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

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The March 5 agreement created confusion in the ongoing trial.

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He told allies he wanted to see Live Nation involved in the arts center’s operations.

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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.

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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.

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Antitrust authorities had scrutinized Live Nation’s conduct for years following the 2010 merger that created the company.

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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.

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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.

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In September, Conway and Grenell accompanied Live Nation executives to a meeting with Slater at the DOJ, where they outlined a settlement proposal.

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Officials at the Kennedy Center had been discussing moving its ticketing system to Ticketmaster since 2024.

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Ticketmaster said talks about taking over the center’s ticketing are on hold while the center is renovated.

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Under Trump’s second term, the DOJ has moved sharply away from corporate enforcement.

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Trump allies and clients of his personal lawyers have received pardons or seen their cases dropped by the DOJ.

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Some senior DOJ officials in part owe their jobs, or terminations, to Epshteyn’s influence.

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They include Blanche, whom Epshteyn boosted to replace Bondi as attorney general.

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The two pushed for a programming overhaul, sending ticket sales plummeting. Some artists pulled out.

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In February, the DOJ’s antitrust chief, Slater, left the agency.

She had fallen out of favor with senior leaders who at times favored more lenient oversight of mergers, and she had lost Bondi’s confidence, the Journal previously reported.

She was replaced by Omeed Assefi, one of Slater’s deputies and a Trump administration veteran.

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Settlement talks with Live Nation moved above the heads of the trial team, as Woodward, the DOJ’s No. 3 official, took over, working with Assefi.

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The ticketing business accounted for more than $3 billion in revenue in 2025.

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The six-page term sheet, signed by Rapino and Assefi, said Live Nation would end 13 exclusive booking agreements at venues.

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On March 5, another White House meeting took place, this time in the Roosevelt Room.

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The states weren’t represented.

Typically, settlement talks take place at the DOJ with the agency’s antitrust officials, not at the White House with the attorney general and the White House lawyer.

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

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Live Nation asked Assefi to delay the trial to allow the two sides to focus on negotiating. Assefi said no.

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The Live Nation team sidelined Davis after he became a controversial figure, according to people familiar with the matter.

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It also required Ticketmaster provide venues that used its back-end services the option of selling tickets through a competitor, and it included a 15% cap on ancillary ticketing fees Live Nation can charge at its venues.

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It also required Ticketmaster provide venues that used its back-end services the option of selling tickets through a competitor, and it included a 15% cap on ancillary ticketing fees Live Nation can charge at its venues.

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Trump vowed to attract top-tier talent.

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The working theory among DOJ staff was that Live Nation wanted a law firm with strong ties to Trump.

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In the late afternoon on the day of the Roosevelt Room meeting, the DOJ notified the plaintiff states of near-final terms and gave them a day to decide whether to join the deal.

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The response was icy; no state met the deadline.

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The other 34 attorneys general continued the trial without the federal government.

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Bondi warned some GOP state officials that the deal was personal to Trump.

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Bondi called state officials to pressure them to sign on.

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Still, Kline, the DOJ lawyer, announced the signed term sheet in court on March 9.

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Afterward, the parties met in the Manhattan chambers of U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian, who was overseeing the trial.

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The change surprised DOJ trial lawyers, former agency officials said.

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Settlement talks began soon afterward.

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Over the next several days, DOJ and Live Nation attorneys in court made their opening statements and began to question witnesses, while Sullivan & Cromwell’s McDonald hosted settlement talks at the firm’s Manhattan office.

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Two DOJ lawyers, Nicole Sarrine and Andrew Kline, neither of whom had negotiated an antitrust case of this size, represented the government in the talks.

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The Kennedy Center and Grenell didn’t respond to requests for comment.

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In April, a group of senior DOJ trial attorneys resigned from the department over what they saw as political interference in the antitrust division’s affairs, according to people familiar with the matter.

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Judge Subramanian berated both sides for their failure to swiftly disclose the deal.

“It shows absolute disrespect for the court, for the jury, for this entire process,” he said.

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As their final act, the DOJ trial attorneys introduced into the record dozens of pages of internal Live Nation messages that showed a ticketing manager calling fans “so stupid” and declaring that the company was “robbing them blind baby.” The attorneys intended for the messages to become public even if the trial ended, a person familiar with the matter said.

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Subramanian ordered the negotiators to New York to bring him up to speed.

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Nebraska and South Dakota joined, and eventually Arkansas, Iowa, Mississippi and Oklahoma also agreed to the terms.

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Negotiations suddenly picked up speed.

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He had been told that Live Nation offered a robust proposal, the people said.

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Woodward leaned on members of the Republican Attorneys General Association during his scheduled appearance at one of the group’s conferences.

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Senior DOJ officials, meanwhile, continued to seek state support for the settlement.

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In May, Trump said he would distance himself from the Kennedy Center after a federal judge ruled that his name must be removed from the building, although he has continued to try to influence the naming and other aspects of the center through its board.

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Rebecca Ballhaus: So the Justice Department didn't acknowledge the reporting in our story regarding the president's intervention in this case and his call to the DOJ.

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They certainly were able to get on the president's radar, but it's not our reporting that they arranged this meeting for this express purpose.

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Per the report, weeks before Rapino and Trump got on the horn and squashed the beef, Live Nation hired a new team of lawyers from Sullivan & Cromwell, a New York-based firm that has represented Trump on numerous occasions—including his failed attempt at overturning the verdict E. Jean Carroll secured against him for sexual abuse and defamation.

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Sullivan & Cromwell has notably become a pipeline to jobs in the Department of Justice and throughout the administration during Trump’s second term, according to Politico.

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Sullivan & Cromwell partner Jay Clayton was Trump’s nominee to be director of national intelligence and assumed the position earlier this month.

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Matthew Schwartz, a lawyer who has represented Trump, was nominated to be a judge on the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals.

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By March 5, mere days after Trump had his call with Live Nation’s top executive, the Ts were being crossed, and the Is were being crossed on a settlement that would see Live Nation pony up $280 million and agree to divest control of a couple of venues, but otherwise continue with business as usual.

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Whether more meetings occurred between Rapino and Trump is unclear at this stage.

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Trump’s personal push to aides to see the case resolved was reported in March, while a subsequent Live Nation court filing confirmed that Rapino discussed the status of the lawsuit with Trump in February.

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Live Nation has maintained that Rapino and Trump did not discuss substantive settlement terms during that conversation.

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Live Nation itself later disclosed much of the institutional framework surrounding those negotiations in a court filing, confirming communications involving the company, DOJ leadership, the Antitrust Division and the White House Counsel’s office.

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He assumed that office July 29 after being appointed by the federal district court following the resignation of Jay Clayton.

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The Journal does not report evidence that McDonald’s subsequent appointment was connected to his representation of Live Nation, and the timing alone does not establish such a connection.

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The Journal’s reporting does not establish that the settlement involved a quid pro quo or other unlawful arrangement.

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Subramanian is reviewing it under the Tunney Act, which requires the court to determine whether a federal antitrust settlement serves the public interest.

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That settlement has not yet received final judicial approval.

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Earlier this month, the judge denied a broad request by non-settling states for discovery into how the agreement was reached but did so without prejudice, directing the states to develop narrower and more targeted requests that could be brought back to the court.

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It does, however, add substantially more detail to the central question already raised by state attorneys general, former DOJ officials and lawmakers: whether the federal government’s assessment of an antitrust case against one of the most powerful companies in live entertainment was altered by political considerations outside the ordinary Antitrust Division process.

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