Donald Trump’s potential antitrust enforcers may keep Big Tech in their sights

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Donald Trump is considering appointing antitrust officials who may press on with the Biden administration’s crackdown on Big Tech’s market power, in what would represent a break with the Republican party’s traditionally business-friendly stance.

Gail Slater, a top aide to vice president-elect JD Vance, and Mark Meador, who previously worked as an enforcer at the Department of Justice’s antitrust division and the Federal Trade Commission, are the frontrunners to lead the FTC, according to people briefed on the matter.

Some on Wall Street have expressed worries that Slater and Meador may be partial to the tough enforcement stance spearheaded by progressive officials appointed by US President Joe Biden — FTC chair Lina Khan and Jonathan Kanter, head of the DoJ’s antitrust division — which has been embraced by a new generation of Maga populists with Vance at its vanguard.

Either Slater or Meador are likely to disappoint dealmakers hoping for a radical change from the Biden administration, which has cracked down on anti-competitive conduct across the economy and taken on Big Tech giants such as Google, Apple and Amazon in a bid to reverse what it says have been years of lax enforcement. 

Vance, who has pledged to prioritise the working man over Wall Street, could seek to preserve parts of Khan’s legacy despite criticism from dealmakers who have labelled her anti-business, said people following the selection process. The vice president-elect has praised Khan for “doing a pretty good job” and said Google should be broken up.

For the DoJ, Trump’s transition team might opt for a more traditional antitrust approach that predated Khan and Kanter, these people said, in an effort to balance opposing wings of the Republican party over dealmaking.  

The leading contenders to head the DoJ’s antitrust division are Alex Okuliar, William Rinner and Barry Nigro, three antitrust lawyers who previously worked with Makan Delrahim when he headed the unit during Trump’s first administration. 

Under Delrahim, the DoJ brought high-profile cases against Google, AT&T and T-Mobile and was seen as operating within the more establishment antitrust view that companies’ growth can be tolerated so long as consumers are not harmed — a paradigm rejected by Khan and Kanter.

Trump’s transition team is consulting Delrahim to choose contenders for top antitrust jobs, according to a person close to the transition team. Slater and Vance are also playing crucial roles in the decision-making. 

Slater, who previously worked at the FTC for a decade, was “well-positioned to get whatever she wants”, said someone familiar with the matter. An Oxford-educated lawyer, she was an adviser to Julie Brill, a former FTC commissioner appointed by Barack Obama, the former Democratic president.

The pick to head the DoJ’s antitrust division may in part depend on who Trump chooses as US attorney-general. Meador was formerly antitrust counsel for Mike Lee, the Republican US senator from Utah who is reportedly among the contenders to head the DoJ. 

The selection process is at an early stage and all contenders remain interchangeable between the FTC and DoJ.

Several people close to the selection process said the Trump administration was expected to be tough on tech and media companies seeking to do deals but was likely to be more lenient with major oil, natural resource and healthcare companies. 

One person close to the Trump camp said, “Trump has no problem with Exxon and Chevron merging, but he won’t let Big Tech do anything.”

Meador, Nigro and Delrahim declined to comment. Trump’s campaign, Slater, Rinner and Okuliar did not immediately respond to requests for comment.