Donald Trump has nominated Gail Slater to become the Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division at the Department of Justice, according to a tweet Wednesday from the president-elect on Truth Social. The announcement comes as Trump made a slew of nominations, including crypto evangelist Paul Atkins as head of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
“Big Tech has run wild for years,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Stifling competition in our most innovative sector and, as we all know, using its market power to crack down on the rights of so many Americans, as well as those of Little Tech! I was proud to fight these abuses in my First Term, and our Department of Justice’s antitrust team will continue that work under Gail’s leadership.”
It’s unclear if Trump considers his social media platform Truth Social to be “Little Tech,” but he has personal incentives to harm Big Tech in any way he can. And Slater could be just the person to do that, whatever her motives.
Slater served in the first Trump administration working on tech policy for the National Economic Council and worked at Fox before advising Vice President-elect JD Vance as a senator from Ohio. Trump emphasized that Gail would treat companies “fairly,” which remains to be seen.
“In her new role, Gail will help ensure that our competition laws are enforced, both vigorously and FAIRLY, with clear rules that facilitate, rather than stifle, the ingenuity of our greatest companies. Congratulations Gail—Together, we will Make America Competitive Again!” Trump concluded.
Trump has vowed to go after Big Tech companies and has even threatened to throw Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in jail this past summer. But that was before Zuckerberg, who really wants Republicans to like him, praised the fascist incoming president and traveled down to Mar-a-Lago to kiss the ring. Most of the Big Tech companies, including the top brass at Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft, were all quick to congratulate Trump after his election victory on Nov. 5. And it seems obvious they’ll continue to placate the commander in chief, even though he remains a clear and present threat to liberal democracy in this country.
As the New York Times notes, Republicans are generally opposed to government agencies stopping gigantic companies from merging and have been generally opposed to the Biden administration’s attempts to break up monopolies in the pharmaceutical industry as well as the airlines. And while Slater will likely go after Big Tech, the methods and degree of “fairness” are still very much up in the air.
The Department of Justice currently has active cases against Big Tech companies like Apple and Google, over their alleged monopolistic practices. And it seems likely those cases won’t be dropped if Slater gets confirmed to her role handling antitrust at the agency.
Everyone broadly understands that Trump is running the show, no matter who he appoints to positions of authority in his administration. And if he’s not going to divest himself of his companies like Trump Media, which owns Truth Social, he has a lot to gain by going after competitors with the full force of the government. In normal times, divesting of your companies is a pretty standard move for presidents of the United States. We don’t live in normal times, of course.
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