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Trump VP pick supports Big Tech antitrust crackdown

[July 16, 2024] By Jody Godoy

(Reuters) - Former U.S. President Donald Trump's vice presidential pick J.D. Vance has 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. Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri and Florida U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz, called "Khanservatives" for their agreement with the FTC chair that U.S. antitrust law has a broader purpose than keeping prices down for consumers.

"She recognized there has 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 an impulse to shrink regulatory agencies and a willingness to use antitrust laws to challenge powerful corporations — especially in Big Tech, where some hope to tackle perceived censorship of conservatives online.

Joseph Coniglio, director of antitrust policy at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, said Vance is among the latter.

"I do think that picking Senator Vance as vice president certainly sends a signal in one direction," said Coniglio. His think tank receives funding from several major technology companies.

Scrutiny of Big Tech would not be a departure for Trump. The FTC and Department of Justice under Trump initiated investigations into Meta, Amazon, Apple and Google over alleged antitrust violations. All four companies were eventually sued, and have denied wrongdoing.

Vance is a Yale-educated lawyer and venture capitalist who worked at corporate law firm Sidley Austin and has helped Trump fundraise in Silicon Valley. He has also called for the breakup of one of its biggest companies.

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Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance arrives for Day 1 of the Republican National Convention (RNC), at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S., July 15, 2024. REUTERS/Callaghan O'hare/

"Long overdue, but it's time to break Google up," Vance tweeted in February, lamenting that "monopolistic 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 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 view of antitrust encompasses not only helping small firms compete, but also on workers and the quality of consumer goods.

He disagreed with what he described as some conservatives' view that corporations' behavior cannot be "tyrannical."

"I want people to live good lives in our country," he said. "I don't really care if the entity that is most threatening to that vision is a private entity or a public entity."

(Reporting by Jody Godoy in New York; Editing by Richard Chang)

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