Theodore Roosevelt broke up monopolies that had developed during the Gilded Age.
Posted by The Charlie Kirk Show, Checked
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- 4 support2 context
- Said
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- 90%
The Charlie Kirk ShowAug 5, 2026
Multiple reliable sources, including Snopes (tier1) and the Inquirer and encyclopedia entries, establish that Theodore Roosevelt was known as a trust buster who broke up or prosecuted large monopolies, such as Standard Oil, Northern Securities, and the meat trust, that developed during the Gilded Age.
What was said
… Capitalism means greed or whatever. Yeah, and David, I have a perfect example of this, that, you know, pure, unfettered capitalism, it can lead to excesses, it can lead to bubbles, it can lead to monopolies. This is why conservatives are reexamining the legacy of somebody like Teddy Roosevelt, right? The famous trust buster. He believed that the monopolies that had developed during the Gilded Age had basically resulted in, you know, I guess, excessive prices for consumers, excessive influence among a very elite oligarchy that had developed, whether that be economic influence or political influence, and so he broke up some of those companies. And there, you know, there are benefits that could be had from those types of things. Now, another limit that we put on capital is immigration, right? …
The Charlie Kirk Show · · from the transcriptPost →What we found
Supports. Snopes describes Roosevelt as a 'trust buster,' fighting large corporate monopolies.[1]
Supports. Roosevelt took on Rockefeller's Standard Oil and Morgan's railroad conglomerate to restore fair competition, and his Justice Department revived the 1890 Sherman Act to break apart industrial combinations.[2][3]
Supports. Encyclopedia.com notes Roosevelt's prosecution of Northern Securities under the Sherman Antitrust Act and his attacks on Standard Oil and the meat trust.[4]
Context. The Gilded Age monopolies (trusts) were the target, as described by the Penguin Random House and americanhistorycentral sources.[5][6]
Sources
6 sources: 1 fact-checker, 5 not rated
- 1Are There No Democrats on Mount Rushmore?snopes.com · fact-checker · cited for: supports
- 2President Donald Trump admires Theodore Roosevelt — but he ...inquirer.com · not rated · cited for: supports
- 3The Progressive Era: Reformers, Trust-Busters, and the ...briefhistory.us · not rated · cited for: supports
- 4Roosevelt, Theodore - Encyclopedia.comencyclopedia.com · not rated · cited for: supports
- 5Antitrust | Penguin Random House Higher Educationpenguinrandomhousehighereducation.com · not rated · cited for: context
- 6Theodore Roosevelt and Progressivismamericanhistorycentral.com · not rated · cited for: context
Where this claim was made
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