Roosevelt “Trust Buster”
Roosevelt believed we were built by big business. Big business made us rich and powerful. Something small business could never do. To Roosevelt there were good trusts and bad trusts. Good Trusts benefit everyone. Bad trusts hurt workers, consumers and shareholders.
While he may have been the first president to actively go after trusts, Roosevelt was less a “Trust Buster” than a trust Regulator. TR told Congress he opposed banning monopolies. He preferred the federal government "assume power of supervision and regulation over all corporations doing interstate business."
Roosevelt broke up 44 trusts in 7 years 171 days. Taft, who nobody sees as a trust buster, broke up 99 trusts in one term: more than doubling Roosevelt. During the 1912 Campaign TR criticized Taft for “not knowing what trusts to break up and what trusts to leave alone.”
TR’s “Trust Buster” reputation primarily comes from the press who reported on nearly everything he did. He was a master at getting the most out of every situation. He knew you could create a popular public image by being politically colorful.