Donald Trump chose Senator JD Vance as his pick for vice president on Monday.
Washington:
JD Vance, former US President Donald Trump’s vice presidential pick, openly praised the work of Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan, a sign that the agency’s broad approach to antitrust enforcement could enjoy some level of support from a second Trump administration.
Vance, a Republican U.S. senator from Ohio, joined the presidential ticket on Monday at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where Trump officially became the party’s nominee.
Vance is one of several Republican lawmakers, including U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, called “Khanservatives” for their agreement with the FTC chairman that U.S. antitrust law has a more broader than keeping prices low for consumers.
“She recognized that there needs to be a broader understanding of how we think about competition in the marketplace,” Vance said at an event in Washington in February.
The comments reflect a tension in the conservative movement, between a drive to shrink regulatory agencies and a willingness to use antitrust laws to challenge powerful corporations — especially in Big Tech, where some hope to combat conservatives’ perceived censorship online.
Joseph Coniglio, director of antitrust policy at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, said Vance is among the latter.
“I think choosing Senator Vance as vice president certainly sends a signal in one direction,” Coniglio said. His think tank receives funding from several large technology companies.
Scrutiny from Big Tech would not be a game changer for Trump. The FTC and Trump’s Justice Department have launched investigations into Meta, Amazon, Apple and Google for alleged antitrust violations. All four companies were sued and denied any wrongdoing.
Vance is a Yale-educated lawyer and venture capitalist who worked at the corporate law firm Sidley Austin and helped Trump raise funds in Silicon Valley. He also called for the dissolution of one of his largest companies.
“Long overdue, but it’s time to break up Google,” Vance tweeted in February, lamenting that “monopoly control of information in our society resides with an explicitly progressive technology company.”
It remains to be seen what a potential second Trump administration would focus on. The conservative Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 policy platform discusses ways in which conservative causes can be championed by antitrust enforcers, but also questions whether the FTC should continue to exist.
Business groups have criticized President Joe Biden’s antitrust enforcers for going beyond traditional considerations of how competition affects prices to focus on issues including labor.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has sued to block the FTC’s recent ban on employers requiring workers to sign agreements not to join rivals or launch competing businesses.
Vance said at the February event, hosted by Silicon Valley startup incubator Y Combinator, that his antitrust vision encompasses not just helping small businesses compete, but also workers and the quality of consumer goods.
He disagreed with what he described as the view of some conservatives that corporate behavior cannot be “tyrannical.”
“I want people to live well in our country,” he said. “I really don’t care whether the entity that most threatens that vision is a private entity or a public entity.”
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