Trump Sends Clear Mes­sage To Big Tech With His Pick For Top DOJ Spot

Pres­i­dent-elect Don­ald Trump announced Wednes­day that he will tap eco­nom­ic pol­i­cy advis­er to Vice Pres­i­dent-elect J.D. Vance, Gail Slater, as assis­tant attor­ney gen­er­al for the Antitrust Divi­sion at the Depart­ment of Jus­tice (DOJ).

Before his sec­ond vic­to­ry, Trump repeat­ed­ly called out Big Tech’s involve­ment in manip­u­lat­ing infor­ma­tion behind the scenes, alleg­ing that the com­pa­nies have “sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly” col­lud­ed to advance a “cen­sor­ship regime.” In an announce­ment on Truth Social, Trump stat­ed the cor­po­ra­tions have used their “mar­ket pow­er to crack down on the rights of so many Amer­i­cans” and “those of Lit­tle Tech.” (RELATED: ‘Oner­ous Bur­den’: Big Tech Com­pa­nies ‘Con­cerned’ After Aus­tralia Bans Social Media For Kids)

“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,” Trump wrote.

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“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 con­tin­ued.

Slater, who was pre­vi­ous­ly a tech pol­i­cy advis­er on the Nation­al Eco­nom­ic Coun­cil dur­ing Trump’s first term, spent 10 years at the U.S. Fed­er­al Trade Com­mis­sion (FTC) as well as advis­ing for­mer Demo­c­ra­t­ic FTC Com­mis­sion­er Julie Brill dur­ing the Oba­ma admin­is­tra­tion.

Fol­low­ing Trump’s win, Sil­i­con Val­ley CEOs pub­licly con­grat­u­lat­ed the for­mer pres­i­dent despite fac­ing back­lash from Trump and oth­er Repub­li­cans over the years. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, who also owns The Wash­ing­ton Post, post­ed to X stat­ing Trump had made an “extra­or­di­nary polit­i­cal come­back and deci­sive vic­to­ry.”

Slater is expect­ed to take over a num­ber of high-pro­file cas­es involv­ing mas­sive com­pa­nies accused of ille­gal­ly build­ing and pro­tect­ing monop­o­lies. In August, Google took a large hit after a fed­er­al judge ruled the com­pa­ny vio­lat­ed U.S. antitrust law through its search busi­ness. U.S. Dis­trict Judge Amit P. Mehta wrote in his fil­ing that the tech com­pa­ny abused a “monop­oly” through its search busi­ness to be the auto­mat­ic search engine for browsers such as Apple’s Safari and Mozilla’s Fire­fox.

Pres­i­dent Joe Biden had placed antitrust lawyer and advo­cate Jonathan Kan­ter to head the divi­sion in 2021.

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