Amid an antitrust battle with the Justice Department, global entertainment company Live Nation is adding one of President Trump’s closest advisors to its board of directors.
Richard Grenell, who is both Trump’s presidential envoy for special missions and the newly installed president of the Kennedy Center, was named to the Live Nation board on Tuesday.
Live Nation, the parent company of Ticketmaster, has been trying to fend off a massive lawsuit filed last year by the US government and 30 state and district attorneys general. The prosecutors say Live Nation has abused its concert industry dominance and should be broken up.
Antitrust advocates immediately connected the Grenell appointment to Live Nation’s ongoing efforts to defeat the suit.
“Ticketmaster just put Trump advisor Richard Grenell on its board of directors to get out from under the Antitrust Division’s lawsuit against the company,” Matt Stoller wrote on X. Stoller is the research director for the American Economic Liberties Project, a nonprofit group that has urged the Trump administration to continue the lawsuit.
Trump’s transactional nature and track record of