by Hailey Gomez
President-elect Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he will nominate Gail Slater, an economic policy adviser to Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, as deputy attorney general in the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Before his second victory, Trump repeatedly he cried Big Tech’s involvement in behind-the-scenes manipulation of information, claiming the companies “systematically” collaborated to support a “censorship regime.” In a statement to Truth Social, Trump said corporations have used their “market power to crack down on the rights of so many Americans” and “those in Little Tech.”
“I was proud to fight these abuses during my first term, and our Justice Department’s antitrust team will continue that work under Gail’s leadership,” Trump wrote.
“In her new role, Gail will help ensure that our competition laws are enforced both vigorously and CORRECTLY, under clear rules that facilitate rather than stifle the ingenuity of our largest companies. Congratulations, Gail – together we will make America competitive again!” Trump continued.
Slater (pictured above), who was previously a technology policy adviser on the National Economic Council during Trump’s first term, spent 10 years at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and also advised former Democratic FTC Commissioner Julie Brill during the Obama administration.
After Trump’s victory, Silicon Valley CEOs went public I congratulated former president despite the harsh reaction from Trump and other Republicans for years. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, owner of The Washington Post, posted on X saying that Trump has made a “remarkable political comeback and decisive victory.”
Slater is expected to take over a number of high-profile cases involving huge companies accused of illegally building and protecting monopolies. In August, Google he took it a major success after a federal judge ruled that the company violated U.S. antitrust law through its search activities. U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta wrote in his lawsuit that the technology company abused a “monopoly” through its search engine business to become the automatic search engine for browsers such as Apple’s Safari and Mozilla’s Firefox.
Internet Accountability Project (IAP) founder and president Mike Davis, who has notably supported Trump and his calls for Big Tech, reiterated his public support for Slater’s nomination: writing in
“President Trump is committed to fighting Big Tech monopolists who are crushing competition, closing small businesses, censoring conservatives, and undermining American leadership and national security interests,” Davis wrote. “Gail will be his top law enforcement official at the Department of Justice in this critical battle.”
In 2022, IAP fired campaign ad supporting Republican senators in pushing for a bill targeting Apple and Google called the Open Marketplaces for Apps Act. Finally the bill passed Senate by allowing app stores like Google Play and Apple’s App Store to require developers to apply Big Tech in-app payment systems as a distribution method.
President Joe Biden had placed antitrust lawyer and attorney Jonathan Kanter, who will head the division in 2021.
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Hailey Gomez is a reporter for the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Gail Slater” by Network status. CC BY 3.0.
