1 week Ago By Thomas Barrabi
President-elect Donald Trump has assembled a shortlist of candidates to replace Lina Khan as chair of the Federal Trade Commission – including top JD Vance aide Gail Slater and current FTC commissioner Andrew Ferguson, sources familiar with the matter told The Post. Khan — whose aggressive enforcement tactics on antitrust have roiled the business community, despite drawing occasional praise from some Republicans including Vance — is expected to leave the powerful agency after Trump’s inauguration in January. Her term formally expired in September.
Slater, who has been advising the Trump transition team on tech and antitrust policy and who has advised Vance on economic policy, is herself a leading candidate for FTC chair, sources said. The Oxford-educated lawyer served as a special assistant to Trump during his first White House term and did stints at Fox Corp. and Roku.
“My gut is that it’s Gail,” one source familiar with the situation said. “She’s at the center of this. She’s a Vance person but acceptable to the business community.
” Others are pointing to Ferguson. The former chief counsel to Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.
), who is already a sitting commissioner, could be appointed as acting chair following Khan’s exit – and some DC insiders believe that gives him a leg up on Slater. “Ferguson is someone who has served in a big role at FTC, he clerked for Clarence Thomas, he confirmed a bunch of judges for Donald Trump when he worked in the Senate,” one Republican insider said. However, Ferguson’s ties to McConnell — who has famously butted heads with Trump during his years as Senate majority leader — could hurt his chances.
The GOP is currently divided into two camps – one that prefers a more traditional business-friendly approach to enforcement and the other that wants a crackdown on Big Tech and other monopolistic corporations. Vance is one of a handful of conservatives who praised Khan’s aggressive enforcement stance at the FTC. He has also publicly called for Google to be broken up.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk, a Trump megadonor who played a critical role in boosting his campaign and is slated to head up a “department of government efficiency” for his administration, was among the business leaders who has criticized Khan. Other possible contenders to lead the FTC Melissa Holyoak, the other current siting Republican FTC commissioner. Like Ferguson, she could serve as acting boss until a permanent pick is confirmed.
Mark Meador, a highly-regarded lawyer who previously held gigs with the FTC and the DOJ’s antitrust unit, is also a possibility, according to sources. Currently in private practice, Meador also served as an antitrust policy adviser for Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah).
“Meador is good and in the mix,” another source with knowledge of the situation said. Alex Okuliar, a former senior DOJ antitrust attorney who was involved in the investigation into Google during Trump’s first term in office, is also on the short list. He’s currently a partner at the white-shoe law firm Morrison Foerster.
Khan’s eventual replacement will helm in agency with several major pending lawsuits, including cases against Amazon and Meta. Earlier this week, a judge ruled that the FTC’s case seeking a breakup of Meta over its acquisitions of WhatsApp and Instagram can proceed to trial. The Trump administration is expected to remain tough toward Big Tech firms, which Vance and others have repeatedly called to be broken up.
However, Trump appointees are likely to take a softer approach toward mergers and acquisitions than Khan — who fought to block deals including Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision-Blizzard. Any of the above candidates also could be tapped to serve as DOJ antitrust chief – the position currently held by Biden appointee Jonathan Kanter — as the Trump administration works out its antitrust policy, according to sources. “President-Elect Trump is making decisions on who will serve in his second Administration,” Trump transition team spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
“Those decisions will be announced when they are made.” Requests for comment to each of the candidates went unreturned or declined..
