Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Lina Khan is the face of the “hipster competitive” movements, but she’s also got companions in the MAGA activity.
Khan, 35, is the youngest man ever to guide the FTC. Although her aggressive stance on trade rules and battles with Major Tech may not be entirely abandoned under the Trump administration, she is unlikely to remain in the post as a Biden appointee when Donald Trump becomes president.
After Trump unintentionally nominated him to guide the Department of Justice, past representative Matt Gaetz is the subject of conversation in Washington. Gaetz is undoubtedly a contentious MAGA flame, but he also supports financial populism and supports Kahn, who has urged Trump to retain her at the FTC.
” I hope her labor continues in the Trump management”, Gaetz told NOTUS.
Gaetz is not the only man to praise Khan in Trump’s inside group. Vice President-elect J. D. Vance stated that Khan is performing “pretty well” in her position while avoiding” the insane woke stuff” in particular.
A third MAGA man, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO ) also backs Khan, saying in 2021 that he appreciates her emphasis on competition and fights against anticompetitive behaviour.
By writing the 2017 legitimate paper” Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox,” Khan entered the antitrust image while still a Yale law student. After serving as guidance for a court committee, President Joe Biden appointed her to the FTC in 2021, with 21 Republican senators confirming her.
Democrats have largely applauded Khan’s efforts to combat big tech, but she has also vehemently criticized some of her other initiatives, including repeated attempts to stop merger. In July, GOP supporters largely attacked her while Democrats defended her during a three-hour frying before the House Judiciary Committee.
Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA ) brought up , Khan’s 0-4 record in merger trials during the hearing, asking,” Why are you losing so much”? Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA ) called , Khan , a bully who has lurched her agency to the left.
Khan was charged by Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) with harassing Twitter ( now X ) because she sent the company 12 demand letters in ten weeks. ” That seems like more than abuse, that almost seems like an obsession”, he said.
Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO ), who lamented the enormous lobbying influence of big tech, and Gaetz ( R ) had a relatively friendly conversation with Khan over the privacy of Ring cameras.
The Washington Examiner asked issues, but the FTC did not respond.
How many Trump will continue to support the Republican Party’s nationalist aircraft, particularly with Vance as his new friend?
Douglas Holtz-Eakin, the general economic policy director to John McCain’s 2008 national plan, said he hopes Trump goes on from Khan.
” I may not rehire her”, he said. ” I believe that her case report on situations is not very good, and the plan foundation of giving up on the consumer welfare standard is a huge error,” she said. But on goals and implementation, she is below line”.
Gary Shapiro, CEO of the Consumer Technology Association, even hopes Khan is replaced.
” She’s been the single most damaging person in government to the U. S. economy”, he said. ” She’s just deadly for business in the United States”.
Khan has gone after the largest software companies during her career, launching complaints against Google, Meta, and Amazon. She has also tried unsuccessfully to outlaw noncompete agreements, which has been hampered by studies that the company she leads has a low morale among its employees.
But Khan’s approach does n’t fit neatly into ideological lines. Some of Vice President Kamala Harris’s most high-profile followers, of businessman Mark Cuban and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, urged her to chuck Khan if elected, and Harris remained tight-lipped about the subject on the campaign trail.
In this way, Khan appears to be a good fit for the horseshoe theory of politics, with supporters of MAGA like Gaetz and Hawley joining progressives like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT ) in supporting her.
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Even if she is replaced, that probably wo n’t be enough to save Khan, who ran for office with Democrats this cycle and was accused by Jordan of breaking the Hatch Act. She acknowledged as much herself during Thursday’s available appointment of FTC commission.
” I’ve been so grateful and appreciative of the bipartisan support for]our ] work, including from Vice President-elect Vance and former congressman Gaetz, who I understand was just announced as a future attorney general”, Khan said. ” The bipartisanship around this job will continue to be fantastic.”
