Trump picks Andrew Ferguson as FTC chair, vows to end big tech censorship
(CNN) — President-elect Donald Trump has selected Andrew Ferguson as his choice for Federal Trade Commission chair.
“Andrew has a proven record of standing up to Big Tech censorship, and protecting Freedom of Speech in our Great Country,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social on Tuesday.
Ferguson serves as a commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission, and according to his biography, he once clerked for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
In a statement following 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.
Trump also said Tuesday he is selecting Mark Meador as his pick 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 reelection has 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.
Ferguson last week on X applauded Trump’s choice to lead the Justice Department’s antitrust division, Gail Slater, who Trump highlighted is expected to continue to prosecute large tech platforms for alleged competition abuses.
Lina Khan, the current head of the FTC, has overseen billions of dollars’ worth of scuttled corporate tie-ups, drawing the ire of Wall Street.
In conjunction with the Justice Department’s antitrust division, the FTC under Khan has blocked dozens of deals over concerns that greater consolidation undermines competition and makes it easier 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 in the name of keeping competition robust.
While Trump was expected to replace Khan, some Republicans – including some tapped to join the Trump administration – have been described as “Khanservatives” because they’ve called for tougher, not weaker, antitrust scrutiny.
In February, Vice President-elect JD Vance said Khan is “one of the few people in the Biden administration that I think is doing a pretty good job.”
This story has been updated with additional details.
CNN’s Brian Fung, Matt Egan, Luciana Lopez and Jack Forrest contributed to this report.