A bad world is coming for the IT giants, Vice President Trump wants stronger regulation

JD Vance, former US President Donald Trump’s vice presidential pick, has openly praised the work of Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Lina Khan, a sign that the agency’s broad approach to antitrust enforcement may find some support in the second Trump administration.

At the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Trump officially became the party’s presidential nominee, and Ohio Republican Senator JD Vance joined the team as vice president at the event. Vance is one of a group of Republican lawmakers, including Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, who are known as “conservatives” because they agree with the FTC chairman that US antitrust laws have a broader purpose than keeping prices low for consumers. “He recognized the need for a broader understanding of how we think about market competition,” Vance said at an event in Washington in February.

The comments reflect a tension in the conservative movement between a push to shrink regulators and a willingness to use antitrust laws to confront powerful companies — especially in Big Tech, where some hope to push back against conservatives’ online censorship. According to Joseph Coniglio, director of antitrust policy at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, Vance is one of the latter. “I think the selection of Senator Vance as vice president definitely points in one direction,” Coniglio said. His think tank receives support from several large technology companies.

Investigating IT giants would not be special for Trump. Under Trump, the FTC and Justice Department have launched investigations into Meta, Amazon, Apple and Google for alleged antitrust violations, and all four companies have been sued. Vance is a Yale-educated lawyer who helped Trump raise money in Silicon Valley and called for breaking up one of the biggest companies. “It’s long overdue, but it’s time to break up Google,” Vance tweeted in February, lamenting that “a decidedly progressive tech company has monopolistic control of information in our society.”

It is not yet known what a possible second Trump administration would focus on. Business groups have criticized President Joe Biden’s competition authority interventions because, in addition to the traditional aspects of how competition affects prices, they also deal with issues such as the situation of workers. The American Chamber of Commerce has challenged in court the FTC’s recent ban on employers from requiring employees to join rival companies or start competing businesses.

Speaking at an event in February hosted by Silicon Valley startup incubator Y Combinator, Vance said his view of antitrust is not just about helping small businesses compete, but also about workers and the quality of consumer goods. He disagreed with the view promoted by some conservatives that corporate behavior should not be “tyrannical”. “I want people to live well in our country,” he said. “I don’t really care if the organization that threatens that vision the most is a private organization or a public organization.”