Kimberly guilfoyle::Trump selects Andrew Ferguson as his pick for Federal Trade Commission chair President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Andrew Ferguson as his choice to become the chair of the Federal Trade Commission.
"Andrew has a proven record of standing up to Big Tech censorship and protecting Freedom of Speech in our Great Country," Trump posted on Truth Social on Tuesday.
READ MORE: Will the FTC continue to scrutinize big tech firms for anticompetitive behavior?
Ferguson is a commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission, and according to his biography, he once clerked for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
In a statement after the announcement, Ferguson said he was honored to be chosen to lead the agency.
"At the FTC, we will end Big Tech's vendetta against competition and free speech. We will make sure that America is the world's technological leader and the best place for innovators to bring new ideas to life," he said in a post on X.
On Tuesday, Trump said he is nominating Mark Meador to be an FTC commissioner.
"Mark has also worked as an antitrust enforcer at both the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice Antitrust Division, and in private practice at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP," Trump said in the post.
Trump's re-election is raising questions about the policies his administration will continue from the Obama administration, specifically, how it will continue or modify the ongoing antitrust cases against tech giants Apple and Amazon. Google will finally hear a decision on whether it should be forced to break up its Chrome division by selling it off after the Federal Court ruled its search business a monopoly.
The new government could also toss out any active FTC investigations. "Mark has also worked as an antitrust enforcer at both the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice Antitrust Division, and in private practice at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP," Trump said in the post.
Trump's re-election has also raised questions about how his administration will handle ongoing antitrust cases against tech giants, including Apple and Amazon. Google also awaits a decision on whether a federal judge will accept the US government's recommendation that it should be forced to sell off Chrome after its search business was ruled a monopoly.
The new administration could also toss out any current FTC investigations.
Last week, Ferguson, on X, hailed Trump's move to head the Justice Department's antitrust division, Gail Slater, whom Trump pointed out is likely to continue to bring cases against big tech companies for supposed competition abuses.
READ MORE Who is FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson?
Lina Khan, the current head of the FTC, has presided over billions of dollars in scuttled corporate tie-ups, which has brought her criticism from Wall Street.
The FTC also, under Khan, gutted dozens of deals that the Justice Department's antitrust division agreed to, which it argued would lead to further consolidation; this would make it simpler for companies to jack up prices and exploit their workers. That was the logic behind the FTC's lawsuit to halt the $25 billion megamerger of grocery chains Kroger and Albertsons earlier this year – which a federal judge just blocked on Tuesday. Similarly, the FTC has gone after Big Tech, Big Pharma and even Big Mattress to keep competition robust.
While Trump was expected to replace Khan, some Republicans--some of whom are to join the Trump administration--have been dubbed "Khanservatives" because they've been advocating for more aggressive, rather than less aggressive, antitrust oversight.
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